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On a Sunday afternoon on November 23rd, 1947, Real Madrid played at the Estadio Metropolitano, the then home stadium of their arch city rivals Atlético Madrid. It was a fixture they would then go on to lose 5-0, and until this day that has been their biggest ever league defeat to Atlético. But that day Real Madrid did something no one in Spanish football had ever done before: all their eleven players on the pitch wore numbers on their backs.
It’s been more than 68 years since, and shirt numbers have come to take on an important role in the dressing rooms of both of the Madrid sides. Each number has a history of its own of historic players who’ve worn it before.
These are the numbers that had the biggest impact on Real Madrid and Atlético Madrid:
Atlético Madrid number 7
Today at Atlético, the great number seven is worn by the team’s top goal scorer Antoine Griezmann and goals are something that players wearing the number seven shirt at Atlético have always produced. Diego Forlan and Manolo Sánchez have both won the famous ‘Pichichi’ award, as the league’s top scorers, wearing that number. Before them there was Marcos Alonso, José Ufarte and José Juncosa who all helped in winning trophies for the club.
Real Madrid number 7
Just like Atlético, the big star at Los Blancos, Cristiano Ronaldo, also wears the number seven. But the man most symbolised with the seven of Real Madrid is perhaps Raúl Gonzalez, who spent 16 years with the shirt. Before Raúl there was El Buitre, Emilio Butragueño, who in the early 1980s transformed a struggling Real Madrid side into a winning machine. There are others not to be forgotten, like the dribbler with a fierce character, Juanito, or Joseíto who played a key role when Real Madrid won the European Cup four times from 1955 – 1959.
Atlético Madrid number 8
At Atlético, it’s the number eight shirt, worn today by Saúl Niguez that has the most impressive history. Larbi Ben Barek, nicknamed “the Black Pearl” in Spain, was the first ever to wear the number eight shirt at Atlético Madrid. After him several great players have followed, such as Leivinha, Bernd Schuster, Juan Vizcaino and Raúl Garcia. Even the team’s current captain Gabi wore the number eight during his first spell with the club. But no one is as great as Luis Aragonés, who to this day remains the club’s all-time top goal scorer with 173 goals.
Real Madrid number 9
For Real Madrid, it’s in the number nine shirt worn today by Karim Benzema, where perhaps the most glory lies. Nine was the number that Alfredo Di Stéfano, one of the best players ever to play the game, wore. So did other historic players such as Santillana, one of the highest scorer of all time in the Spanish First Division, and Hugo Sánchez, who is the only player to have won the “Pichichi” award for four consecutive seasons. Ronaldo de Lima, the Brazilian, wore the nine during the majority of his time with Real Madrid and for one season, so did Cristiano Ronaldo.
Atlético Madrid number 9
At Atlético the nine has a special importance as well. The number is worn today by Fernando Torres, who’s been living and breathing Atlético his entire life; and there is a reason why he likes the nine. It was the number worn by José Eulogio Gárate, one of the best strikers in the history of the club. Gárate was a prominent member of the successful Atlético side in the late 1960s and early 1970s that won the league on three occasions. The number nine shirt that had first been worn by Adrián Escudero, one of the best strikers in the early 1950s, has in later years also been seen on players like Radamel Falcao and David Villa.
Real Madrid number 10
The number ten shirt at Real Madrid has seen its fair share of glory and also fiascos. But there is no one who wore it better than the Hungarian Ferenc Puskás. Despite not joining the club until he was 31, he is considered one of the best players ever to have dressed in the all-white of Real Madrid. Later on, Michael Laudrup would triumph in the ten shirt before making the forbidden move to Madrid. When Luis Figo made the controversial move as well, joining Real Madrid from Barcelona, the Real Madrid ten shirt took the spotlight of the entire football world.
These numbers have created the most history for Atlético and Real Madrid, but there are numbers that will never be forgotten due to one single player. At Atlético Madrid, number 14 is such a number – the number that Diego Simeone wore when the club won the historic double in 1996. It’s a number that still bears importance in the Atlético dressing room today, as it’s the number of club captain Gabi Fernández.
