In Switzerland, this special type of honor is particularly known in ice hockey. But there are also footballers who were so important at their club that their shirt numbers are never given out again – and they exist abroad anyway.
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It is a very special honor: when you have left such a deep mark on a football club that no player at the club will ever wear the jersey with your number again. Numerous icons of the game were happy about this award – and others too, as the first example shows:
1 Pope John Paul II.
🇵🇱 KS Cracovia
Bild: keystone
The Polish priest, whose real name is Karol Wojtyla, was an avowed fan of the club and played football himself as a goalkeeper when he was young. When the Pope invited the team of his favorite club to a private audience in the Vatican in 2005, KS Cracovia retaliated with the gesture of never awarding the number 1 again. This season, the goalies in the squad will therefore wear the numbers 13, 27, 33 and 99.
2 Massimo Ceccaroni
🇨🇭 FC Basel
Bild: KEYSTONE
The defender played his entire junior and professional career for FCB. Ceccaroni was not an artist, he worked football and, after around 400 professional appearances for red-blue, became a cult figure, not least because he did not score a single goal in the National League A. Ceccaroni perhaps missed his best chance when he was allowed to take a penalty against Peter Jehle – and failed against the very young GC goalie.
3 Paolo Maldini
🇮🇹 AC Milan
Bild: imago-images.de
902 competitive games make the defender the Rossoneri’s record player. Paolo Maldini became champion seven times with Milan and won the Champions League five times. His father Cesare Maldini, later the Italian national coach, was already a Milan legend. Paolo’s son Daniel ensured that the third generation of the Maldini family was able to win the Scudetto with AC Milan in 2022.
4 Javier Zanetti
🇮🇹 Inter Milan
The Argentine defender held out for Inter for almost two decades. With 858 games he is the club’s record holder, Zanetti won 16 titles, including five championships and the Champions League.
5 Franz Beckenbauer
🇩🇪 Bayern Munich
Image: imago sports photo service
The “Kaiser” was supposedly about to move to 1860 Munich, but because he got caught in a game against the Sechzger, he changed his mind. Beckenbauer went to Bayern Munich, where he shaped an era with Sepp Maier, Uli Hoeness and others. Beckenbauer later controlled the club’s fortunes as president for many years.
6 Bobby Moore
🏴 West Ham United
Image: imago sports photo service
The “Hammers” set the tone for England’s 1966 World Cup winning team. As in the club, Bobby Moore was the captain, his teammates Geoff Hurst (three goals, including the famous Wembley goal) and Martin Peters scored the goals in the 4-2 win against Germany in the final. With West Ham, Moore first won the FA Cup and then the Cup Winners’ Cup in two years.
7 Marius Lacatus
🇷🇴 Steaua Bukarest
Image: panini
Life can be so simple when you’re a child. Marius Lacatus was one of my favorites in the 1990 World Cup Panini album simply because his name sounds like that of a Roman legionnaire in Asterix – and he had a hairstyle that looks like a Roman legionnaire’s helmet. At Steaua, the ten championship titles and the triumph in the 1986 Master Cup may be more important.
8 Karel Poborsky
🇨🇿 Dynamo Budweis
There are goals that you never forget. Just like Karel Poborsky’s praise against Portugal at the 1996 European Championship, when the Czech Republic made it to the final. The midfielder then became champions with Manchester United and played for Benfica and Lazio. Karel “Steve” Poborsky played the beginning and end of his professional career in České Budějovice – where they never gave away his number 8 again.
9 Giorgio Chinaglia
🇺🇸 New York Cosmos
The Italian striker was considered flamboyant, open-hearted and extroverted – characteristics that fit New York perfectly. Chinaglia brought his many goals there for Lazio, and at Cosmos he played together with Pelé and Beckenbauer. He later owned the club and when the New York Cosmos were re-founded in 2014, the new owners retired Chinaglia’s number 9.
10 Diego Maradona
🇮🇹 SSC Napoli
Bild: www.imago-images.de
Maradona is possibly die Number 10 in football history. The divine Argentine turned the outsider Napoli into the Italian champions, for which they remain at his feet to this day and for all eternity. It’s not just his shirt number that will never be given out again in Naples: after his death, the Stadio San Paolo was renamed the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona.
11 Luigi Riva
🇮🇹 Cagliari
Bild: imago-images.de
When the former striker died at the beginning of 2024 at the age of 79, the whole of Sardinia mourned its “king”. In 1970, Riva achieved something almost impossible: he shot the blatant outsider US Cagliari to the only championship title in the club’s history. The fact that the national player with the incredible shot (42 games, 35 goals) always remained loyal to Cagliari despite lucrative offers from rich clubs from the north made the Tifosi’s love grow immeasurably. Especially since Riva didn’t come from the island at all, but from Lake Maggiore.
12 Recep Tayyip Erdogan
🇹🇷 Basaksehir Istanbul
Bild: www.imago-images.de
The Turkish champion of 2020 (with the Swiss Gökhan Inler) is closely linked to the president. Basaksehir therefore has the nickname “Erdogan Club” – and in terms of popularity it is far behind the major Istanbul clubs Fenerbahce, Galatasaray and Besiktas.
13 Davide Astori
🇬🇧 Fiorentina and Cagliari
Image: imago sports photo service
In March 2018 there is sadness in Italian football. On the morning of the away game in Udine, Fiorentina captain Davide Astori was found dead in his hotel room. He died of cardiac arrest at the age of 31. To commemorate him, Cagliari, for whom he played most of his games, and Fiorentina retired Astori’s number 13.
14 Johan Cruyff
🇳🇱 Ajax Amsterdam
Bild: www.imago-images.de
There are many legends with the 7, the 9 or the 10. But when it comes to the 14, most football fans probably first think of Johan Cruyff. The Dutchman is considered one of the best offensive players in history, he shaped Ajax, Barcelona and the national team with the “Voetbal total”. The story of how Cruyff got to the 14 goes like this: he actually stormed with the 9, but his teammate Gerrie Mühren couldn’t find his jersey with the 7. Cruyff offered him the 9, took the 14 himself and stuck with it. At the 1974 World Cup, the Oranje had the brilliant idea of numbering their players alphabetically, which is why goalie Jan Jongbloed wore the number 8. Cruyff was the only player to keep his usual number 14.
17 Marc Zellweger
🇨🇭 FC St.Gallen
Bild: KEYSTONE
At the age of 20, “Zelli” was still a striker at fourth-class FC Seuzach, then FC St.Gallen gave him a chance. He grabbed her – and how. As a storming full-back with a flowing mane, Zellweger became a fan favorite at Espenmoos, the 2000 Swiss champion and a national player. After a move to 1. FC Köln and a short stint in Wil, the Winterthur native returned to FCSG, for whom he played a total of over 500 games.
20 Diogo Jota
🏴 FC Liverpool
Bild: keystone
Diogo Jota had just become champions with Liverpool FC and won the Nations League with Portugal. But in the summer of 2025, at the age of 28, he died alongside his brother in a car accident. According to investigators, Jota was behind the wheel of the Lamborghini that left the road while overtaking at night and caught fire.
22 Jude Bellingham
🏴 Birmingham City
Bild: www.imago-images.de
With the “Blues” they recognized Bellingham’s extraordinary talent early on. He made his debut for the English second division club at the age of 16 and later became Birmingham City’s youngest goalscorer. When Bellingham moved to Borussia Dortmund at the age of 17, his training club decided never to give away the number 22 shirt again.
27 Sanel Kuljic
🇦🇹 SV Ried
Bild: imago-images.de
The striker shot SV Ried into the Bundesliga and became top scorer with an outstanding 34 goals. For this reason, Kuljic’s number 27 was “canonized”. However, he was not pious. A few years after his time in Sion (22 games, 12 goals), he moved from the pitch to prison: Kuljic was at the center of a betting scandal and received a five-year prison sentence. Once released, he was arrested again, this time for cocaine trafficking.
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