In an ideal world, Martin Braithwaite would presumably prefer if September 19 was used to celebrate his numerical moves at Barcelona.
Having joined the club in February 2020 from Leganés – Barcelona were given special permission to make a signing outside the transfer window due to an injury to Ousmane Dembélé, but Leganés were not allowed to sign a replacement – the Danish international initially wore number 19.
At the beginning of 2020-21, when Luis Suárez’s transfer to Atlético Madrid was completed, Braithwaite was given the now-vacant 9 shirt but there was never a sense that he was the elite striker that a club like Barça demanded.
That said, the man who displaced him in the summer of 2021 wasn’t a classic ‘number 9’ either – the versatile Memphis Depay had worn 9 in his first season at Lyon before switching to 11 and then finally 10, so wearing low numbers was seemingly more important than positional appropriateness.
It meant that Braithwaite was shunted to 12 for what proved to be his final season at Camp Nou.
He moved across the city to Espanyol, wearing 17 in his first season and then 22 – that is what he now has on his back for Grêmio, too.
Unfortunately for Memphis Depay, he lasted just a season in 9 too before having to move upwards in favour of a new signing.
With Robert Lewandowski joining from Bayern Munich for 2022-23, he sought to wear his favoured digit and so Memphis decamped to 14.
The Dutch attacker would later get to wear 9 again in Spain as he moved to Atlético and took the shirt that Suárez had recently vacated. Like Braithwaite, he now too plies his trade in Brazil, with Corinthians – when he joined in September of 2024, he opted for 94, the year of his birth, but has since switched to 10.
