JAKARTA - Cristiano Ronaldo's return to Manchester United was officially confirmed on Friday last week. However, the Portuguese star will face problems regarding the number shirt at Old Trafford.
Ronaldo's iconic number 7 jersey is not available. Because the Uruguayan striker, Edinson Cavani is currently using that number.
Premier League regulations state that it is highly unlikely that Ronaldo will take over from Cavani for a league match.
The rules state that players must retain the same numbers they registered with, unless they leave the club or are granted a 'special dispensation'.
It should be underlined, the 'special dispensation' has never been given to any player before.
The good news is, the Champions League squad list and numbers have not been submitted. This means the 36-year-old could wear the number 7 shirt in Europe's premier club competition.
However, if we look back, this is not the first time the Portugal captain has not worn the number 7 jersey.
When Ronaldo arrived at Real Madrid in 2009 for a then world record fee of £80 million, the number 7 shirt was not available because it had been worn by Los Blancos mascot, Raul Gonzales.
Ronaldo then wore the number 9 during his debut season with Los Blancos, until legend Raul left the club one season later for Schalke.
It's also not the first time a Premier League player has worn two different numbers in one season. Henrikh Mkhitaryan wears number 7 in the Premier League for Arsenal and number 77 in the Europa League.
A similar situation has occurred at Old Trafford before when former United defender Wes Brown wore number 24 in the league during the 1998-99 season and number 30 in the Champions League.
Ronaldo can of course pick the same number for both competitions – as he did at Real Madrid. One of the options is the number 28 shirt, which he uses at Sporting CP.
19 year old Facundo Pellistri is the current owner of the number. However, the Uruguayan young player was loaned to Alaves for one season.
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