There are general conventions that teams follow in terms of the numbers that are assigned to members of any given squad. However, sometimes players go against the grain and take on some really odd numbers…
It is general convention for strikers to wear the number nine, for attacking midfielders to wear the number 10 and for wingers to wear the number 11, while defenders normally wear numbers like two, three, four and five. Naturally, the goalkeeper will always wear the number one, but here are a few players that wore shirt numbers that applied in no way to their natural positions…
Zinedine Zidane
Real Madrid signed Zinedine Zidane for a world record transfer fee of €75 million in 2001, and the Frenchman surprised everybody when he abandoned the number 10 shirt that he wore at Juventus for the number five jersey at Real Madrid. He took on the number because Luis Figo already held the number 10 shirt at the club, and legendary defender, Manolo Sanchis, left the number five vacant for him.
Ivan Zamorano
Inter Milan's Chilean striker, Ivan Zamorano, wore the number nine shirt at Inter Milan until the arrival of Brazilian signing, Ronaldo, in 1997. Zamorano then found a clever way of working around the issue of handing his number over to the legendary forward by donning the jersey number 18 jersey and putting a plus sign between the digits.
Hicham Zerouali
Aberdeen striker, Hicham Zerouali famously wore the number zero jersey at the club while playing as a striker for the club. It seemed appropriate, given the first four letters of his surname. In 2004, he passed away in a car crash and it prompted the club to retire his shirt number.
Lassana Diarra
French midfielder, Lassana Diarra, spent three years at Real Madrid between 2009 and 2012 and initially took over the number six jersey from his namesake, Mahamadou Diarra, who was forced out of the team with a long term injury. However, the Malian midfielder returned to the team in the summer of 2009, and after Wesley Sneijder's departure, "Lass" took over the number 10 jersey, breaking with convention and becoming probably the least creative number 10 Real Madrid has ever had.
William Gallas
Former French international, William Gallas arrived at Arsenal in 2006 as part of an exchange deal which the gunners made with Chelsea for Ashley Cole. The centre-back was assigned the number 10 shirt in an absurd move that irked Arsenal fans for years, until he moved to Tottenham Hotspur in 2010.
These numbers were crazy, weren't they? Can you believe that these players actually took on these numbers?
Which squad number do you think was the weirdest?
