Of all the ways to tempt a player to a club during transfer season, offering out shirt numbers has always felt like the strangest negotiating factor. Including "x player will get to wear the famous No. 9 shirt" in a professional contract, or even with the fact acting as a gentleman's agreement, seems trivial.
Yet, it is something that seemingly still happens. Shirt numbers are important to players and so, every summer, there is a debate regarding which one a new signing will take.
At Chelsea, many fans will be desperate for the incoming Raheem Sterling to avoid the club's No. 9 top. Worn in recent years by by Alvaro Morata, Steve Sidwell, Khalid Boulahrouz, Fernando Torres, Radamel Falcao, and Romelu Lukaku, the most successful of the Blues players to wear the shirt since Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, nearly 20 years ago, is Tammy Abraham.
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This shouldn't be an issue for Sterling though, as in his club career he has never worn the No. 9 shirt, first being given No. 31 at Liverpool, before later taking the No. 11. Neither of those are currently available at Chelsea, with Malang Sarr occupying the former, and Timo Werner the latter.
However, football.london understands that the German forward could be on his way out of Stamford Bridge this summer, not only freeing up room for Sterling, but also the No. 11 shirt, previously donned by Didier Drogba, Pedro, and Oscar. Meanwhile, Sarr could also be on the way out, but Sterling is likely to be after a more glamorous shirt number.
The other big number of note is Sterling's favoured No. 7. He wore it for all of his seven years in Manchester, and although that is currently taken by N'Golo Kante, he may be prepared to give it up. Kante isn't one to cause issues within the club, and in a surprise move, football.london believes that conversations have taken place within Chelsea, hinting the France international might relinquish his number to Sterling.
Kante is now entering his final year with the club and there is known interest from Paris Saint-Germain. Whether Sterling taking over the No. 7 shirt would require Kante to leave the club is unknown and there are other available numbers within the squad, including 4, following the departure of Andreas Christensen. Midfield partner Jorginho, who football.london also understands could leave SW6 this summer, would leave behind the No. 5 top if he were to exit the club.
As of right now, the only numbers accessible to Sterling, 35 and below, without a transfer or number change, are: 2, 4, 15, 25, 26, 27, 30, 32, 33, and 34.
For England, Sterling has worn an array of numbers, including 10, 20, 18, 21, 19, 22 and 16 shirts, although none of these are currently vacant at Chelsea.
With movement in and out of Chelsea's front line expected to draw on long into the window, there is the chance that Sterling could have his number changed several times in pre-season, but for now, the most likely ones are: No. 7 (in place of Kante), No. 11 (in place of Werner) or maybe even No. 10, in place of Christian Pulisic, if he were to leave Stamford Bridge this summer.
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