Manchester United have a new number 11 after handing the vacant jersey to summer signing Rasmus Hojlund, a player fans hope will be the club's answer to Erling Haaland.
Although number seven is arguably a more significant number in the club's history with greater legendary status, 11 also has a storied past and is beloved by fans.
Back through history when shirts numbers were always 1-11 and there were no fixed squad numbers like today, the shirt has been worn at United by the likes of Sir Bobby Charlton, Busby babe David Pegg, occasionally Denis Law and regularly George Best when he wasn't dressed in seven.
Hojlund was made to wait for his United debut after a £72m transfer from Atalanta was completed in early August, owing to an existing pre-season injury he suffered prior to the move. The Dane was widely expected to be assigned the number 17 shirt this season after it become available due to Fred's departure to Fenerbahce. But the club's eventual decision for Mason Greenwood to continue his career elsewhere freed up 11 when the English forward joined Getafe on loan.
Hojlund, who has made 11 his own at international level with Denmark since 2022, has the potential to be a home-run swing for United in the transfer market, but with such a price tag on his shoulders and no real other options up front, the pressure will be enormous.
Rasmus Hojlund shirt number history
In just his fourth season in senior football, this will already be Hojlund's fifth different shirt number - such has been his rapid rise since breaking through at Copenhagen in 2020.
United didn't initially announce a shirt number when the young Dane was unveiled, seemingly delaying the decision until the end of the summer transfer window to determine which jerseys might be available to him.
Every player to wear number 11 for Man Utd in the Premier League
Fixed squad numbers were first introduced to the Premier League for the 1993/94 campaign, at which point 11 was assigned to a 19-year-old Ryan Giggs who wore it in three different decades.
When Giggs finally retired in 2014, the shirt went to Adnan Januzaj, who struggled to live up to his early hype after breaking into the first-team the year before. Anthony Martial then took it after he was shunted out of the number nine shirt by Zlatan Ibrahimovic in 2016, but the Frenchman never looked comfortable and reclaimed the nine in 2019 when Romelu Lukaku was sold.
Mason Greenwood was billed as the future of the club after whirlwind performances as a teenager, but his career has taken a very different path after being arrested in January 2022 and charged with attempted rape and assault, controlling and coercive behaviour and assault occasioning actual bodily harm. Charges were eventually dropped by the Crown Prosecution Service after the withdrawal of key witnesses and new evidence coming to light resulted in there no longer being a "realistic prospect of conviction". Although he was never tried or convicted in a court of law, Greenwood was equally never cleared of the allegations against him and the decision was eventually made for him to move on after a lengthy internal investigation. That being said, the club still claimed they were satisfied Greenwood did not commit the offences he was accused of.
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What did Ryan Giggs do with Man Utd?
Ryan Giggs stood trial in 2022 for charges of assault causing actual bodily harm, common assault and coercive and controlling behaviour towards ex-girlfriend Kate Greville and her sister. The case was due to be re-trialled in 2023 after the original jury was unable to reach a verdict on any of the three charges, but the judge declared Giggs not guilty on all three when Greville, citing the "toll" of the first trial on her and her sister, was unwilling to give evidence a second time.
Even so, Giggs' football legacy has been tarnished by several messy years of legal trouble and doubt has been expressed whether he will be able to find work in the sport again, having stepped down as Wales manager ahead of his first trial.
On the pitch, Giggs had been one of the greatest players in British football history. His 13 Premier League titles is a record that is unlikely to ever be broken, while incredible longevity saw him played a club record 963 games for United over a 23-year period from 1991 until 2014.
The Welshman was later United caretaker manager in 2014 and assistant manager until 2016.
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This article was originally published on 90min as The history of Rasmus Hojlund's new Man Utd shirt number.
