Over the years we have seen players been assigned awkward jersey number that has kept us wondering how they arrived at such number. Here are some of the jersey numbers and the reason behind that.
1) Hicham Zerouali – 0
Zerouali is a Moroccan football nicknamed ‘zero'. He joined Aberdeen in 1999 and wore jersey number 0. He was the first player in Scotland to wear such a number.
2) Jorge Ocampos – 9
Ocampos started as a striker before switching to become a goalkeeper. He wore the number 9 jersey as been a striker and retained the number when he switched to become a goalkeeper.
3) Ivan Zamorano – 1+8
One of the craziest jersey numbers the world has ever seen. He was Inter Milan's number 9 but upon the arrival of Roberto Baggio his shirt number was changed
4) Khalid Boulahrouz – 9
The defender signed for Chelsea after matchday 1 on a free transfer. He was allocated the number 9 jersey which is unconventional for a defender to wear because his transfer was rushed and jersey number 9 wasn't allocated yet.
5) Arouna Kone – 2
The Ivorian striker switched from jersey number 9 to 2
6) Victor Baia – 99
The prolific goalkeeper returned to Porto to find out his jersey number 1 was unavailable and decided to pick number 99. His Jersey sale gave Porto more revenue
7) Milan Baros – 5
He signed for Liverpool in 2002, his preferred jersey number is been worn by someone else so he opted for jersey number 5
8) Edger Davids- 1
Coming out of retirement to join league 2 side, Barnet, in 2002, he was given a manager-player role so he allocated himself jersey number 1 which is usually a goalkeeper's number
9) Bixente Lizarazu – 69
The World Cup winner decided to switch to jersey number 69 in his second season with Bayern Munich. He said he chose 69 because he was born in 1969, weighs 69kg, height of 1.69m.
This article was most recently revised and updated 3 years ago
