FCBARCELONA.CAT

03.08.2008 18:30

New shirt numbers

www.fcbarcelona.cat

The first team players now know what shirt numbers they will be wearing this season. Messi, Bojan and Milito have new numbers, while the new signings have also been allocated their shirts.

The shirt numbers for the 2008/09 season have been officially announced to UEFA ahead of Barça’s Champions League qualifying match. Most of the players have the same numbers they had last season, but some, like Messi, Bojan and Milito have changed – and of course the new players also had to be given their numbers.

The Barça players will wear their official numbers for the first time in tonight’s Game with Chivas.

Messi gets 10

From this season, Leo Messi will be the Barça number ten, which was the number Ronaldinho wore for the last five seasons.

Bojan Krkic will also have a new number, 11, as opposed to the 27 he wore last season.

Numbers for newcomers

The other interesting factor was what numbers would be given to the newly arrived players at FC Barcelona. Dani Alves will wear 20, Hleb gets 21, Keita gets 15, Martín Cáceres gets 2 and Gerard Piqué gets 3. Piqué has been given the number 3 shirt, which belonged to Milito last season, but the Argentinian specifically asked to be changed to 18.

Six reserve players

In the 16-strong list that Barça have communicated to UEFA, six former B team players also get numbers. Pedro will wear 27, Sergio Busquets wears 28. Víctor Sánchez gets 29, Víctor Vázquez gets 30, and Jeffren, 31.