Eleven players who made a mockery of
tradtional XI with their crazy, mind-bending shirt numbers. At
least it proves some footballers can count about 11!
99 Vitor Baia
The Portuguese keeper donned the number 99 shirt for the first time
for Porto's European Cup victory in 2004.
88 Gianluigi Buffon
Buffon was accused of being a fascist after requesting the number
88 while at Parma. His critics claimed this was number code for HH
or Heil Hitler. The keeper himself claimed the gesture was his
numeric tribute to an Italian saying about strong men having four
balls.
55 Dominik Werling
There are 17 vacant squad numbers between Barnsley defender Werling
and the highest numbered reserve player at Oakwell. And he was
wearing a different number on his shorts against West Brom at the
weekend.
69 Bixente Lizarazu
Although most people assumed the French full-back was a cheeky
chappy, he always maintained that he picked his squad number
because he was born in 1969, he is 169cm tall and weighs
69kg.
66 Alain Sutter
The Swiss international allegedly let US culture go to his head
when he signed for Dallas Burn and picked his shirt number in
honour of Route 66.
1 Ossie Ardiles
The Argentine midfielder wore the number 1 shirt at the 1982 World
Cup after the squad numbers were allocated by alphabetical
order.
1+8 Ivan Zamorano
The Chilean international was forced to give up his number 9 shirt
when Ronaldo joined Inter Milan as part of the bouncing Brazilian's
sponsorship deal with Nike. Zamorano took the number 18 shirt and
insisted on having a plus sign inserted between the two
digits.
111 Luisão
The Flamengo player celebrated the club's 111th anniversary in true
South American style - by sticking another digit on his
shirt!
0 Hicham Zerouali
The Moroccan striker was given permission to wear the number 0 in
honour of his nickname (Zero, in case you need that spelling
out!).
100 Adolfo Bautista
The Mexican striker became the first player to take to the field
wearing triple figures while playing for Chivas de
Guadalajara.
500 Romario
The crazy Brazilian wore the number 500 shirt while making his
500th appearance for Vasco da Gama.
