And suddenly we're 18 days away from the World Cup kick-off. Squad numbering
has been adopted by FIFA since the 1954 tournament, so I thought it could be
interesting to start a daily countdown by listing players associated with that
jersey number, ie, 18 days to go I start the thread about famous #18's in the
WC's, 17 to go and it's #17's turn, and so on and so forth.

I suspect this will be harder to do as the numbers go lower and the amount
of interesting or notorious players wearing them rise, but let's give it a
shot anyway.

Should've started it last Thursday, but I wasn't sure if I should indeed do
this thing and life got in the way too :-). I'll try to briefly "cover" the
previous numbers (19-23) in another post.

So, let's start with 18. The most famous bearer of that number has to be
Germany's Jurgen Klinsmann, who adopted it not only in the three World Cups
he featured as a player, but for three Euros as well. With it he accrued 11
World Cup goals from 17 games, one title and two quarterfinal exits.

For a time, Tony Kroos was a noteworthy successor, wearing #18 in 2010 and
2014, reaching the semifinals in the former and winning the latter. After
Euro 2016 he switched to #8, which he now wears also in his club.

For trivia: the players who wore #18 for most World Cups were Mexico's Andrés
Guardado (2006 to 2018), USA's Kasey Keller (1990, then 1998 to 2006) and
South Korea's Hwang Sung-hong (1990 to 2002).

As honourable mentions, there's Raymond Kopa, France's #18 in 1954 and 1958;
Alessandro Altobelli, scorer of the coup-de-grâce against West Germany in the
1982 final, also played in 1986; Nery Pumpido, World Cup winner with Argentina
in 1986; Socrates, who wore it for Brasil in that same WC; Alf-Inge Haaland,
father of Man City's current goalscoring machine (Norway, 1994); and Roberto
Baggio, in his last World Cup (1998).

So there it is, #18 ladies and gentlemen. Tomorrow we do #17.

Best regards,

Lléo

On 2022-11-02 20:23, Lléo wrote:
> And suddenly we're 18 days away from the World Cup kick-off. Squad numbering
> has been adopted by FIFA since the 1954 tournament, so I thought it could be
> interesting to start a daily countdown by listing players associated with that
> jersey number, ie, 18 days to go I start the thread about famous #18's in the
> WC's, 17 to go and it's #17's turn, and so on and so forth.
>
> I suspect this will be harder to do as the numbers go lower and the amount
> of interesting or notorious players wearing them rise, but let's give it a
> shot anyway.
>
> Should've started it last Thursday, but I wasn't sure if I should indeed do
> this thing and life got in the way too :-). I'll try to briefly "cover" the
> previous numbers (19-23) in another post.
>
> So, let's start with 18. The most famous bearer of that number has to be
> Germany's Jurgen Klinsmann, who adopted it not only in the three World Cups
> he featured as a player, but for three Euros as well. With it he accrued 11
> World Cup goals from 17 games, one title and two quarterfinal exits.
>
> For a time, Tony Kroos was a noteworthy successor, wearing #18 in 2010 and
> 2014, reaching the semifinals in the former and winning the latter. After
> Euro 2016 he switched to #8, which he now wears also in his club.
>
> For trivia: the players who wore #18 for most World Cups were Mexico's Andrés
> Guardado (2006 to 2018), USA's Kasey Keller (1990, then 1998 to 2006) and
> South Korea's Hwang Sung-hong (1990 to 2002).
>
> As honourable mentions, there's Raymond Kopa, France's #18 in 1954 and 1958;
> Alessandro Altobelli, scorer of the coup-de-grâce against West Germany in the
> 1982 final, also played in 1986; Nery Pumpido, World Cup winner with Argentina
> in 1986; Socrates, who wore it for Brasil in that same WC; Alf-Inge Haaland,
> father of Man City's current goalscoring machine (Norway, 1994); and Roberto
> Baggio, in his last World Cup (1998).
>
> So there it is, #18 ladies and gentlemen. Tomorrow we do #17.

Lothar Matthäus wore number 18 in 1982. Made the bench for a few games,
and did come on as a sub twice in the group games. He was 21 at the time.

He wore 8 in 1986, 10 in 1990 and 1994, and 8 again in 1998. Has anyone
worn more than three different numbers at WC tournaments ?

>
> Best regards,
>
> Lléo

MH escreveu:
> On 2022-11-02 20:23, Lléo wrote:
> >
> > So there it is, #18 ladies and gentlemen. Tomorrow we do #17.
>
> Lothar Matthäus wore number 18 in 1982. Made the bench for a few games,
> and did come on as a sub twice in the group games. He was 21 at the time.
>
> He wore 8 in 1986, 10 in 1990 and 1994, and 8 again in 1998. Has anyone
> worn more than three different numbers at WC tournaments ?

Well, to wear more than three different numbers you have to be called up
to at least more than three World Cups. This is where this list comes in
handy:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_players_who_have_appeared_in_multiple_FIFA_World_Cups

I found two players that fit this bill: Belgium's Franky van der Elst (3 in
1986, 8 in 1990, 7 in 1994, 6 in 1998) and Bulgaria's Dobromir Zhechev (12
in 1962, 10 in 1966, 14 in 1970, 3 in 1974).

I couldn't find anyone who could match that in 2022.

Best regards,

Lléo