5 famous footballers with weird jersey numbers
Footballers have had a long history of wearing shirt numbers that stand out from the crowd. Even renowned stars from the past and present have donned some of the strangest shirt numbers over the years, such as William Gallas wearing the number ten shirt while at Arsenal, or UEFA Euro 2016 winner Rui Patricio who currently wears the number 11 shirt for Wolves.
Vitor Baia, who won the 2004 UEFA Champions League with FC Porto, was one of the first footballers to don the number 99. It is the highest number that players are allowed to wear under the current rules established by FIFA.
On the other end of the spectrum, Hicham Zerouali, the Moroccan sensation who played in Scotland, opted for the number zero on his shirt signifying the first four letters of his last name. Zerouali's number went on to be banned from English and Scottish football after his unfortunate demise in 2004.
Ivan Zamorano also made a rather strange choice as he opted for the number 18 shirt and added a + symbol between the 1 and 8 after losing out on his number nine shirt at Inter.
Famous footballers do tend to opt for special numbers such as Cristiano Ronaldo's iconic number seven or Leo Messi's number ten, but other high-profile names chose to go a different way. On that note, here is a look at some famous footballers who have strange shirt numbers.
#5 Robinho | #70, AC Milan
Robinho was one of the first big-money signings made by Manchester City after their takeover in 2008. The Brazilian, who had the honour of donning the number ten shirt won previously by Luis Figo at Real Madrid, wore the same number at City but his career came to a standstill at the Etihad. Upon his move to AC Milan, his preferred number was occupied by club legend Clarence Seedorf at the time, with Alexander Pato donning the number seven.
With both iconic numbers being occupied, Robinho rather strangely opted for the shirt number 70. It was one among a host of weird shirt numbers in the side including Antonio Cassano's 99, Stephan El Shaarawy's 92, and so on. After two years, 85 games, and 25 goals with 70 on his shirt, Robinho ultimately switched to Pato's old number seven after he moved to number nine.
#4 Bixente Lizarazu | #69, Bayern Munich
French full-back Bixente Lizarazu is undoubtedly one of the greatest defenders to ever play for Bayern Munich and the French national side. The left-back, who appeared over 200 times for French side Bordeaux, he moved to Bavaria and predominantly wore the number three shirt after wearing #11 in his first season back in 1997/98.
During his second spell with the club after returning from Olympique Marseille in 2005, Lizarazu raised eyebrows when he opted for the shirt number 69 as his number three shirt was occupied by Brazilian legend Lucio. Lizarazu revealed that the reason for his strange choice is that he was born in 1969, his height was 1.69m and he weighed 69kg. The World Cup winner wore this shirt number for 46 of his 273 appearances for Bayern Munich.
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