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Shirt numbers available to Willian at Liverpool

Amid speculation linking Chelsea winger Willian with a shock move to Liverpool, Sports Mole looks at which numbers could be available to the Brazilian at Anfield.

Willian looks increasingly likely to leave Chelsea this summer as his contract ticks down, with the club and player still apart in discussions over the length of any extension.

Should the long-serving Brazilian depart Stamford Bridge then there is expected to be plenty of suitors - Barcelona, Tottenham Hotspur, Arsenal and Paris Saint-Germain are just some of the clubs to have been credited with an interest.

Another more surprising potential destination emerged this week, though, with reports suggesting that European champions and Premier League leaders Liverpool have entered the race for his signature.

With that in mind, here Sports Mole has taken a look at which shirt number the 31-year-old could take if he makes the move to Anfield.



Willian celebrates scoring for Chelsea against Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League on December 22, 2019.© Reuters

Willian's first-choice shirt number appears to be the iconic '10' - worn by the likes of John Barnes, Michael Owen and John Toshack at Anfield in the past.

The Brazilian would not dislodge the incumbent Sadio Mane from that shirt, though, while he has only worn that number for Chelsea since Eden Hazard left the club last summer.

A more likely option would be to revert to the number 22 shirt he held for the first six years of his Chelsea career and for the first two seasons of his professional career at Shakhtar Donetsk.

That number is currently taken at Liverpool and is usually reserved for a third-choice goalkeeper, but if Willian really pushed for it he would likely be granted it ahead of current occupant Andy Lonergan.

Numbers seven and 11 are traditionally associated with wingers but those are taken by James Milner and Mohamed Salah respectively, while Willian has not worn either of those numbers before anyway.

Indeed, the only number other than 10 and 22 he has worn at club level is the 88 shirt for one season at Anzhi Makhachkala, and that is unsurprisingly vacant for Liverpool at the moment.

Another option could be the number 19 he has regularly worn for Brazil, with that shirt also currently vacant after Mane switched to number 10 in 2018-19.

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13Manchester UnitedMan Utd114341212015
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15Leicester CityLeicester112451421-710
16Everton112451017-710
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19Wolverhampton WanderersWolves111371627-116
20Southampton11119721-144


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