While other shirt numbers have become iconic because of their associations with a certain role, No 7 has become iconic because of its associations with certain players.
The right winger isn’t the most glamorous position in the side — it’s probably not even as glamorous as the left winger — and yet No 7 has become, behind the No 9 and the No 10, probably the third-most revered shirt number in world football.
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No 7, of course, marks the start of the attacking numbers. Since shirt numbering was introduced when sides — on paper, at least — were playing in the 2-3-5 system, the forward line was depicted as 7-8-9-10-11. And while there are significant regional differences in terms of defensive numbers, there’s less debate about proper attacking numbers. The No 7, whether wide in a three-man attack or brought back into a four-man midfield, remains at home on the right.
At two clubs in particular, the No 7 shirt has become particularly famous. The most obvious is at Manchester United, where the lineage of the famous shirt is generally traced back to George Best.
This is, however, something of a myth.
Best played in the days before permanent squad numbers, when it wasn’t uncommon for player to wear multiple numbers in the same season, particularly when they were versatile enough to play in different roles. Best certainly did wear the No 7 on occasion, most famously during the 1968 European Cup final victory over Benfica, but he didn’t actually wear it particularly often — only in 30 per cent of his Manchester United games.
For 52 per cent of the time, he wore the other winger’s shirt, No 11, and in 18 per cent of matches he was No 8, No 9 or No 10. The idea that Best started United’s grand history of the No 7 shirt isn’t entirely unfair but Best himself evidently didn’t care. Even in his latter days at the club, he generally wore No 11.
Another United legend, Bryan Robson, did care — he’d grown accustomed to the No 7 shirt at West Bromwich Albion and took it from Steve Coppell at Manchester United, despite being a central midfielder. Then he was succeeded by forward Eric Cantona, who played in a variety of shirt numbers during his days in France but became associated with No 7 at Manchester United because he effectively replaced Robson in the starting XI, with No 9 Brian McClair dropping from up front to play in midfield.
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And it was Cantona, rather than Best or Robson, who really made the No 7 iconic at the club. It was unusual to see that number being worn by a forward, rather than a midfielder, but that somehow fitted into the aura of Cantona: a player who interpreted his role in an unusual way.
Now, the Manchester United No 7 shirt became a big deal.
When Cantona left, Alex Ferguson elected to honour David Beckham with that shirt number, which conveniently allowed Teddy Sheringham — effectively Cantona’s replacement — to take his favoured number, Beckham’s old No 10. As a right-sided midfielder, Beckham fitted the No 7 perfectly. He combined with Gary Neville, the No 2, down the right flank while Ryan Giggs and Dennis Irwin, No 11 and No 3 respectively, worked together on the other flank, in keeping with the traditional British numbering format.
David Beckham wore No 7 and had lovely hair (Photo: Manchester United via Getty Images)Beckham wore No 7 for England, too, and became so associated with that number that he incorporated into his brand — his childrens’ fashion label in association with Marks & Spencer was branded as DB07. Beckham enjoyed six years with the No 7 shirt until his move to Real Madrid. More on that later.
Upon Beckham’s departure in 2003, United signed the perfect replacement as No 7. No, not David Bellion — although his initials would have worked nicely for the fashion range — but Cristiano Ronaldo. Ronaldo initially played on the right of midfield, so the shirt number made sense, although Ronaldo had initially requested No 28, which had been his number at Sporting Lisbon. Ferguson insisted on him taking No 7, however, making a point to both Ronaldo and the club’s supporters that he was expected to become the side’s star, like Cantona and Beckham before him. It proved a fine decision. Not only did Ronaldo live up to the hype; he also replicated Beckham by incorporating the number into a fashion range: CR7.
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After Ronaldo, like Beckham, left for Real Madrid — more on that later, honestly — it became clear that United, a club increasingly obsessed with branding, wanted to further the legacy and history of the No 7. Striker Michael Owen made for a slightly awkward No 7, although neither Cantona nor Robson had been right wingers and he was another Ballon d’Or winner, like Best and Ronaldo.
After Owen’s departure, Antonio Valencia was handed the No 7 after a fine 2011-12, when he was named the club’s player of the season, although he then endured a terrible 2012-13 and decided to revert to No 25. This was an unusual move but came as something of a relief considering his subsequent move to right-back, which would have stretched the boundaries of where the No 7 should play.
Next came Angel Di Maria, who was forced to take the number against his will. “When I arrived, I saw that the No 11 was available,” he explained recently. “It’s a shirt number I wore a lot when I was younger and I was keen to get once again. At Real Madrid, No 11 was already taken, so I took 22. At Manchester United, they gave me No 7. I didn’t get a choice. I would have liked 11 but there we are. Here [at his current club Paris Saint-Germain], I had a choice, so I chose 11!”
And while United are clearly trying to push the importance of the No 7 shirt, nobody can quite settle in it.
Di Maria proved underwhelming and Memphis Depay was also a huge disappointment. So was Alexis Sanchez — who at least genuinely wanted the number, having worn it whenever possible throughout his career, for Colo-Colo, Udinese, Arsenal and Chile. At United, the shirt number is currently vacant and now considered something of a poisoned chalice. There was seemingly little desire for Bruno Fernandes to take the number — he prefers No 8, although with Juan Mata currently in that number, he settled for No 18 based upon his wife’s birthday and, perhaps hinting at a new obsession at United, as a nod to Paul Scholes.
On to Real Madrid, then.
Having signed both Beckham and Ronaldo from Manchester United in 2003 and 2009 respectively, neither was able to take their favoured No 7 at the Bernabeu. In fact, the same went for Luis Figo when he completed his astonishing world-record move from Barcelona in 2000. All had worn No 7 at their previous club but all were all denied that number by the same player.
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Raul Gonzalez wore that number at Real for an incredible 14-year stretch from 1996 until 2010, and for Spain between 2000 and 2007, so he became the continent’s most iconic No 7. Others simply couldn’t compete: Figo took No 10, Beckham chose No 23 in tribute to US basketball star Michael Jordan, while Ronaldo was forced to spend a sole season wearing No 9, which was good news for fans who still owned Real Madrid shirts from 2003-2007 with “Ronaldo 9” on the back — the Brazilian striker of the same name had worn that number for the club in that period. The new Ronaldo finally took No 7 in 2010 and continued with that number for eight years until his move to Juventus. There, he was handed their No 7 shirt by its previous occupier Juan Cuadrado. “It is better to give than to receive,” the Colombian winger wrote on Instagram, holding Ronaldo’s new shirt aloft with a half-hearted smile.
On only one occasion since 2010 has Ronaldo worn another number. In 2013, when Real welcomed Al Sadd to the Bernabeu to pay tribute to Raul, by then with the Qatari side, the Spanish forward played half a game for both clubs. Ronaldo generously allowed Raul to wear his old No 7 shirt, which meant Ronaldo switching to a number he’d never previously worn — No 11.
In a way, that was fitting. By this stage, Ronaldo was exclusively playing from the left, rather than the right. But aside from this one-off, Ronaldo obviously continued to wear his favoured No 7 shirt and the era of inverted wingers has changed the nature of shirt numbers out wide.
Over the last 15 years, there’s been a shift towards using right-footed wingers on the left and left-footed wingers on the right, allowing them to cut inside and shoot, with the wingers’ traditional crossing-based roles largely fulfilled by full-backs. And therefore, there’s a generation of players who have grown up accustomed to the shirt number traditionally found on the opposite flank to their current position.
Real Madrid provide the perfect example. Ronaldo was a prodigious right winger who became world-class as a left winger, and continued to wear No 7. Gareth Bale was a prodigious left winger who became world-class as a right winger, and continued to wear No 11. Just as Beckham and Giggs correctly wore 7 and 11 either side of Manchester United’s midfield in the 1990s, it’s difficult to deny that Ronaldo and Bale were correctly wearing 7 and 11 on the ‘wrong’ sides of Real’s attack in the 2010s.
And now, whether a player wears 7 or 11 feels like it depends upon their preferred foot, rather than their preferred wing.
So the right-footed Frank Ribery, for example, has exclusively worn No 7 for the last 15 years, for Marseille, Bayern Munich and now Fiorentina, despite being established on the left flank, and nobody would complain.
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In fact, the reverse situation — where an inverted right winger wears the number of a traditional right winger — looks much stranger. West Ham United’s Andriy Yarmolenko always plays from the right but looks awkward as the No 7 because he is so left-footed. The likes of Richarlison, Raheem Sterling, Son Heung-min and Jadon Sancho can all play on either flank but, by being predominantly right-footed, are definitely No 7s.
And this development means the No 7 is the most versatile of the attacking numbers. While most fitting on the right flank, it’s perfectly acceptable for the aforementioned players to wear 7 on the left, while James Milner, John McGinn and N’Golo Kante happily wear it playing in the centre of midfield.
Meanwhile, forwards such as Cantona, Raul, Luis Suarez, Henrik Larsson, Andriy Shevchenko, David Villa and Antoine Griezmann have made it look natural up front.
All this adds weight to the sense that the history of this number is really about the player, rather than the role.
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