Shirt numbers were first used in European football on August 25th, 1928 in matches between
Sheffield Wednesday and Arsenal, and Chelsea and Swansea Town. These fixtures began the
convention of numbering players right to left, back to front, based on pitch location.
While the goalkeeper was nominally 1, being the first named player on a team-sheet, the
four ‘keepers involved in those games did not bear a number on their shirts; ‘keepers
had been wearing different colour shirts since the practice was begun in Scotland in 1909
and it had become mandatory worldwide in 1921.
According to Michael Millar, shirt numbers had been used in Australia since 1911, while
an Argentinian side took on a Scottish touring team in 1923 with both sides wearing 1 to
11, and in the United States, St Louis Vesper Buick wore shirt numbers for a game in the
National Challenge Cup in 1924, although their opponents, Fall River Marksmen, did not. Numbering
conventions ceased to have the same amount of relevance after the early to mid 90s, when
leagues adopted squad numbering rather than assigning 1-11 to the starting players.
Numbering conventions are all largely based on the transition that countries made tactically
from the dominant 2-3-5 of the 30s to other systems. They can therefore tell a useful
story about how nations like England and Brazil changed in different ways to a back four,
because the half backs in the 2-3-5 fulfilled different functions during that transition
and therefore took different numbers country by country. Because of this, the most variable
shirt numbers country by country are those of defenders and central midfielders.
The change began when Herbert Chapman invented the W-M as a response to a change in the offside
law, which Chapman felt should be countered by dropping the central half back, or centre
half, into the space between the full backs. That meant that number 5 slotted in between
numbers 2 and 3 in the classic W-M, which is why in most countries where a back four
evolved from W-M, the right-sided central defender is a 5. This is partly also because
when the FA introduced shirt numbers as compulsory in 1939, they insisted in using the 2-3-5
numbering, so that the centre half was required to wear 5, despite being a defender in the
W-M.
Hungary’s team of the 50s, who famously beat England 3-6 in 1953, were numbered from
2 to 4 across the back three of their M-M, in which the W was inverted by Nandor Hidegkuti
playing a withdrawn role. Hungary were coached by Gusztav Sebes, but was following the innovations
of the influential MTK coach Marton Bukovi. Numbering actually caused a few issues for
the English, so accustomed were they to marking based on number – 7 taking 3, 5 taking 9,
and so on. Hungary’s odd numbering and system change meant England struggled to adapt. Indeed,
the English game was so used to marking by number that, as Jonathan Wilson notes in Inverting
the Pyramid, “the manager of Doncaster Rovers, Peter Doherty, enjoyed success in the fifties
with his ploy of occasionally having his players switch shirts, bewildering opponents…”
In Argentina, the shift defensively actually saw the right half back move into the right
back slot, a change noted by Wilson in Inverting the Pyramid as occurring in the 1940s at River
Plate, when Noberto Yacono slotted into the back line as a kind of right wing back from
the 2-3-5 from right half back; this is why, for example, legendary Argentinian right back
Javier Zanetti wore 4 as a preference. And because the right half moved back, the centre
back is 2, so an Argentinian back four reads 4-2-6-3.
It’s different again in Brazil. A Brazilian back four would read 2-4-3-6, because instead
of the right half moving back, it was the left one.
Uruguay’s move to the back four, which happened more directly from the 2-3-5, saw the outside
halves move backwards and out, which makes sense if the move is almost directly from
the 2-3-5. This means that a Uruguayan back four reads 4-2-3-6.
Of course, the shift of half backs to defence had a numbering knock-on effect further up
the pitch, where in England the ball-winning defensive midfielder is a 4 because the two
centre backs are 5 and 6; in Europe, that player is a 6, to the extent that in Germany
they are known as Sechsers. In South America, on the other hand, these are 5s, destroyers
but also deep-lying playmakers who can destroy too, like Fernando Redondo or Lucas Biglia.
It’s also worth noting that for more attacking positions, numbers have taken on a resonance
that is less about position and more about function or even symbolism. So 10, the number
of Pele, Maradona, Riquelme, Baggio, symbolises attacking ability, flair, creativity. Elevens
are tricky, pacey wingers as are 7s, although they can also be attacking midfielders or
deep-lying strikers – as Michael Cox wrote in his excellent series on The Athletic about
shirt numbers, “No 7, of course, marks the start of the attacking numbers” and the
shirt has become almost more associated with certain players – Best, Cantona, Beckham
– than an ideal of role. But 10s in Brazilian football will also play in a progressive midfield
role in a 4-3-3; there, the number carries a weight of expectation because of Zico and
Pele, but the role is different. And the 7 might be a right-sided central midfielder,
as it was in Carlos Bilardo’s 3-5-2.
But while there are differences in the numbering of attacking positions, they are less pronounced
than defensive ones. This is mostly because attacking players moved less in position on
the pitch from the 2-3-5 to the 4-4-2 that was dominant before squad numbering came about.
Ultimately, these numbers ceased to have much relevance after squad numbering came in, but
the idea of tactical shifts granting certain numbers a function has persisted and players
do choose squad numbers on this basis. The influence of the changes from 2-3-5 onwards
lives on.