Joshua Zirkzee shirt number: A history of Man Utd's No.11

Manchester United fans can take an educated guess at the shirt number that new £36.5m signing Joshua Zirkzee will wear for the club after a key change elsewhere.

Unlike Leny Yoro getting 15, Zirkzee was not quickly assigned a squad number following his arrival.

The Dutchman had worn No.9 on his back for Bologna in 2023/24. But he had also previously worn 11 in his debut season for the Serie A club. The 9 shirt was the one available at Old Trafford following the June departure of Anthony Martial, but there was a feeling that it could be gobbled up by Rasmus Hojlund, who was United's No.11 last season, instead.

For his part, Zirkzee admitted he wasn't bothered about which one he got and would defer to Hojlund. As it happened, Hojlund did trade down, leaving his briefly worn 11 jersey vacant. Without official confirmation from the club just yet, it seems obvious that Zirkzee now takes it over.

Like so many at United, it is a shirt steeped in history.

When United first started enjoying success under Sir Matt Busby in the wake of the Second World War, Charlie Mitten - great uncle of famed United writer Andy Mitten and infamously dubbed the 'Bogota Bandit' - wore 11 in the 1948 FA Cup final as the club won a first major trophy since 1911.

In the days before fixed squad numbers, it was later the common shirt worn by Busby Babe David Pegg, who was sadly a victim of the Munich air disaster in 1958, while it wasn't unusual to see Bobby Charlton with it during the first half of his career.

George Best, while most famously associated with No.7, was also a regular wearer of 11. In the 1968 European Cup final, it belonged to John Aston Jr., with Gordon Hill often having it in the late 1970s and Jesper Olsen in the 1980s. When Alex Ferguson won his first trophy as manager in 1990, Danny Wallace wore 11 in the FA Cup final and its replay. Lee Sharpe was also a regular occupant.

But when a home-grown left winger broke into the first-team aged 17 in 1991, the No.11 was tied to a single player for more than two decades. It made sense then, when fixed squad numbers were introduced to English football in 1993, that Ryan Giggs would get it. A fixture of Ferguson's three great United sides, he kept it through 13 Premier League titles until retiring aged 40 in 2014. But his off-field reputation has taken several hits over the years, from a long-term affair with his brother's wife, to standing trial in 2022 on charges of assault and coercive control of an ex-girlfriend. He denied the allegations and was formally found not guilty by a judge after an initial jury failed to deliver a verdict and the ex-girlfriend no longer wished to give evidence at a retrial over the toll taken.

Given that Giggs had played a club record 963 games for United, his were enormous shoes to fill on the pitch. Arguably too big for Adnan Januzaj, who found himself inheriting the No.11 shirt at the age of 19 and with just 35 first-team games under his belt. The Belgian struggled to make an impact in 2014/15, failing to score a single goal, and was loaned to Borussia Dortmund a few games into the following season. When he returned from Germany, his number was given away.

Anthony Martial didn't want 11. The Frenchman had made a whirlwind impact in his debut year wearing the No.9, but the 2016 arrival of Zlatan Ibrahimovic saw him pushed aside. A representative said a few months into a disappointing first campaign wearing 11 that losing his shirt number had "surprised" and "disappointed" the player, and was ultimately "disrespectful". Martial remained No.11 until 2019 when Romelu Lukaku, who had succeeded Ibrahimovic in the No.9, was sold.

After a season vacant, 11 went back to a promising youngster: Mason Greenwood. His time at United will ultimately be remembered with sourness following a 2022 arrest and charges of assault, attempted rape and coercive control. The charges were dropped in 2023 due to the withdrawal of key witnesses from the prosecution's case and he left the club permanently in 2024.

Rasmus Hojlund was handed the 11 shirt upon his £72m arrival from Atalanta. Few had heard of the young Dane at that point in his career, but his bulldozing frame earned early comparisons with fellow Scandinavian striker Erling Haaland. His 16 goals in a season that was initially delayed by a back injury, and during which he turned 21, showcased limitless potential for the future.

Man Utd number 11 shirt history - Premier League era

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