Saturday night 5s

The 1996-97 season was the first where live action from La Liga was broadcast by Sky, hence the title of the article.

The games served to fill that void between the end of the afternoon’s English action (with Gillette Soccer Saturday another novelty) and the start of Match of The Day and, naturally, Real Madrid and Barcelona featured heavily.

Even during the success of the Johan Cruyff era, tight defending was never high on the list of priorities for Barcelona. Despite the presence of some excellent defenders, the goals-against column was always fairly high and that continued in 1996-97 under Bobby Robson.

It was busy summer on the transfer front for Barça – Ronaldo joined from PSV, Hristo Stoickov was re-signed after a season with Parma, Juan Antonio Pizzi came from Tenerife, attacking midfielder Giovanni was purchased from Santos and utility player Luis Enrique was a free transfer from Real Madrid – an early example of a player moving under the Bosman ruling.

That was just the attacking players; goalkeeper Vítor Baía followed Robson from Porto while Laurent Blanc was another Bosman signing – the Frenchman had agreed to join during 1995-96, persuaded by the opportunity to work with Cruyff before the Dutchman was sacked. Then, another top-quality centre-back was acquired – while Fernando Couto had gone from Porto before Robson took over, presumably the presence of Baía and Luis Figo pushed him to take the same journey as Stoichkov from Parma.

The arrival of Blanc and Couto, along with the fact that Abelardo Fernández was starting his third season with the club, meant that Barcelona now had three players who had worn number 5 for their respective countries at that summer’s European Championship in England. However, none of the centre-backs would get to wear that number at club level in 1996-97.

Instead, Barcelona’s number 5 – and soon-to-be club captain, following José Mari Bakero’s departure in the autumn – was Gheorghe Popescu, who could play in defence but was used most often in midfield. Popescu had worn 6 for Romania at Euro 96.

When squad numbers were introduced in Spain in 1995, Abelardo was assigned 3 at Barcelona (it would take until 2023 for it to be worn by a recognised left-back at the club) and he kept that. Blanc took 15 when he joined while 24 was the only option left for Couto.

Barcelona finished second to Real Madrid that season – conceding 48 league goals despite having so many good defenders – but they won the European Cup Winners’ Cup final, beating Paris Saint-Germain in the final, where they wore their change kit and Baía had a questionable choice of goalkeeper strip. Abelardo and Couto (who had to wear 26 in Europe) formed the central defensive partnership.

It was a winning farewell for Popescu, who played in a double-pivot with Josep Guardiola, who would succeed him as captain. He joined Galatasaray, and Blanc also left, joining Marseille – for 1997-98, Couto was able to claim the number 5.

Though Barça, with Louis van Gaal now in charge, won the double, Couto did not feature very often and left for Lazio in 1998 – incidentally, he would wear 24 throughout his time in Rome and again when he rejoined Parma after that.

His exit meant that Abelardo was finally able to align his international and club numbers for 1998-99. That season would see another of the Euro 96 number 5s join the club.

Well, someone who was allocated number 5 at the Euros but who didn’t wear it. While Frank de Boer was mainly operating at centre-back for Ajax by this stage, he was likely to be the first-choice left-back for the Netherlands before injury forced him to withdraw.

His Ajax team-mate Winston Bogarde played at left-back, wearing 15, while the number 5 was given to de Boer’s replacement, Jaap Stam. It was the only time in his career that he wore 5 – generally, 3 and 4 are the favoured centre-back numbers in the Netherlands – though he didn’t get any game-time.

A mid-season signing from Ajax during 1998-99, de Boer initially wore 25 (his brother Ronald, who also moved, was given 16) but, for 1999-2000, he switched to 22 as 25 had to be given to goalkeeper Francesc Arnau due to league rules mandating that custodians can only wear 1, 13 or 25. The following season, de Boer traded down to 3. He would later wear 5 for Galatasaray and Rangers.

The proliferation of Barcelona players wearing 5 for their countries continues – at the 2018 World Cup, 2020 European Championship and 2022 World Cup, both France and Spain had 5s who played for the club.

However, while Sergio Busquets wore it for Spain in all three instances, France had three different examples – Samuel Umtiti, Clément Lenglet and Jule Koundé.