The history of Sofyan Amrabat's new Man Utd shirt number

In the final hours of the summer transfer window, Manchester United finally got Sofyan Amrabat.

It's a loan with an option to buy inserted, which means it can be made permanent next year.

The Moroccan international, whose prestige soared following his excellent 2022 World Cup campaign that saw the Atlas Lions reach the semi-finals and finish fourth, was courted by a number of teams but made it clear to Fiorentina that there was only club that he wanted to join.

Promising midfield reinforcement, fans will hope Amrabat is the stabilising force Erik ten Hag desires both in and out of possession to facilitate an improvement in the centre of the pitch.

Supporters will also plead that their new signing fares a little better than the most recent incumbent of United's number four shirt, with Amrabat's jersey at Old Trafford being confirmed on Tuesday.

Sofyan Amrabat shirt number history

The Morocco international has had his fair share of squad numbers since breaking through at Dutch side FC Utrecht, where he actually played for a couple of years under Ten Hag. He initially took the 44 shirt, but switched to 25 following his maiden senior campaign.

Amrabat then wore 21 during his sole season at Feyenoord, before finally earning a classic defensive midfielder shirt at Club Brugge - the midfielder donned the number six shirt in Belgium.

Upon moving to Hellas Verona, initially on loan, in 2019, Dutch-born Amrabat opted for the number 34 shirt. Like many others who have chosen that shirt at clubs all over Europe in recent years, he did so in tribute to former Ajax player Abdelhak Nouri, who suffered severe permanent brain damage when he collapsed following a cardiac arrhythmia during a game in 2017.

Amrabat kept that shirt once he had moved to Fiorentina and might have taken it at Manchester United had it not already been occupied by Donny van de Beek, who chose it for the same reason.

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Every player to wear number 4 for Man Utd in the Premier League

*one game only vs Manchester City, February 2008

Steve Bruce was the first wearer of the number four in the Premier League era when fixed squad numbers were introduced ahead of the 1993/94 campaign - the skipper had already worn it regularly in the days of 1-11 shirts since he first joined from Norwich in 1987 anyway.

David May was anointed as the successor to the three-time Premier League-winning captain in 1996, with the former Blackburn defender having joined the club two years prior.

The Englishman was more often than not a squad player throughout his nine years at Old Trafford, eventually seeing his shirt passed on to £28.1m British record arrival Juan Sebastian Veron in 2001.

The less spoken about the Argentine's stint in Manchester, though, the better. Veron set a rather frustrating tone for United's four shirt in the 21st century. Fellow countryman Gabriel Heinze was initially a cult hero but then tainted his legacy by trying to force a transfer to Liverpool

From 2007, Owen Hargreaves had the four shirt next, although Nemanja Vidic actually wore it for a very special one-off occasion in 2008 when the FA and Premier League allowed United to play in 1-11 shirts for a Manchester derby in commemeration of the 50th anniversary of the Munich air disaster. Phil Jones then had it for 12 years, although he rarely played after 2019 because of injury problems.

In the years prior to the Premier League era, number four had belonged to a host of club legends, from Eddie Colman, who aged 21 was the youngest player killed in the Munich crash, to Paddy Crerand, Sammy McIlroy, Ray Wilkins and Norman Whiteside. An 18-year-old Ryan Giggs even bizarrely wore it for a couple of First Division games in February 1992.

LISTEN NOW TO 90MIN's MAN UTD PODCAST: THE PROMISED LAND

On this edition of The Promised Land, part of the 90min podcast network, Scott Saunders and Rob Blanchette discuss discuss Man Utd's summer transfer business, including the signings of Sergio Reguilon and Sofyan Amrabat on deadline day.

If you can't see this embed, click here to listen to the podcast!