List of retired numbers in association football

Association football clubs around the world sometimes retire squad numbers to recognise players' loyal service, sometimes as a memorial after their death.

Background

This practice, long established in the major North American sports, is a recent development in football since squad numbers for specific players were not widely used until the 1990s. Before then, it was typical for players in the starting lineup to be issued numbers 1 to 11 by formation/position on a match-by-match basis, and substitutes to be numbered from 12 upwards, meaning a player might wear different numbers during the season if they were to play in different positions for tactical reasons, or simply not be a regular in the starting lineup.

Retiring a player's number usually occurs after the player has left the team or retired. It honours a player who has meant so much to his club that they retire the shirt number that the player wore during their time there, meaning no other player is permitted to use that number in the future. In some cases, such as those of Jason Mayélé, Vittorio Mero, Marc-Vivien Foé, Miklós Fehér, Ray Jones, Dylan Tombides, François Sterchele, David di Tommaso, Antonio Puerta, Besian Idrizaj and Piermario Morosini, numbers have been retired to posthumously honour a player who died while still active. Also, Norwegian club Fredrikstad retired Dagfinn Enerly's number following an on-pitch accident that left him paralysed. In Britain, only Bobby Moore's shirt number has been retired due to great service to the club as opposed to a tragic incident. Although it has not been officially retired, Gianfranco Zola's No. 25 shirt has not been reissued by Chelsea since he left the club in 2003.

The Argentina, Ecuador and Cameroon national teams have been prevented from retiring the numbers of Diego Maradona (10), Christian Benítez (11)^[1] and Marc-Vivien Foé (17), respectively, by FIFA rules dealing with squad numbers for Finals tournaments; in other competitions or friendlies, national associations may assign numbers according to criteria of their choosing. Similarly, several clubs have been required to reissue retired numbers for continental club competitions due to squad numbering rules of continental confederations. For example, CAF and CONMEBOL have such rules in their club competitions, but CONCACAF does not.

Some South American teams (such as Universitario de Deportes or Flamengo, and even Mexican teams invited for the occasions) have occasionally had to re-issue their retired numbers for special cases due to CONMEBOL rules, which state that shirts must be numbered 1–25 in continental club competitions (such as Copa Libertadores and Copa Sudamericana, among others).

Retired numbers

Team	No.	Player	Pos.	Career	Notes
Spartak Trnava	9	Ladislav Kuna	Midfielder	1964–1980	posthumous
SK Rapid Vienna	5	Peter Schöttel	Defender	1986–2001
Radnički Niš	10	Ivan "Beli" Krstić	Midfielder	2000	posthumous
Orlando Pirates	22	Lesley Manyathela	Forward	2000–2003	posthumous
Orlando Pirates	1	Senzo Meyiwa	Goalkeeper	2005–2014	posthumous [2]
VB Addu FC	7	Ali Ashfaq	Forward	2008–2011
SK Sturm Graz	3	Günther Neukirchner	Defender	1989–2006
SK Sturm Graz	7	Mario Haas	Striker	1993–2012
SV Ried	27	Sanel Kuljic	Striker	2003–2006
Al Ahly	3	Mohamed Abdelwahab	Defender	2004–2006	posthumous
Anorthosis Famagusta	14	Temur Ketsbaia	Midfielder	1991–1994, 2002–2009
FC Basel	2	Massimo Ceccaroni	Defender	1987–2002
FC St. Gallen	17	Marc Zellweger	Defender	1994–2001, 2003–2010
Club Brugge	23	François Sterchele	Striker	2007–2008	posthumous [3]
UR Namur	3	Michel Soulier	Defender	1967–1977	posthumous
Montreal Impact	20	Mauro Biello	Forward	1993–1998, 2000–2009
Cobreloa	8	Fernando Cornejo	Midfielder	1992–1997, 2000–2004	posthumous
Chengdu Blades	18	Yao Xia	Striker	2005–2010
Chesterfield	14	Jack Lester	Striker	2007–2013
Raja Casablanca	23	Zakaria Zerouali	Defender	2011
Dalian Shide	26	Zhang Yalin	Midfielder	2000–2009	posthumous
Dalian Transcendence	17	Wang Renlong	Striker	2014	posthumous
Liga Deportiva Alajuelense	20	Mauricio Montero	Defender	1985–1997
Cartaginés	11	Leonel Hernández	Winger	1957–1977
Cartaginés	18	Claudio Ciccia	Forward	2002–2004, 2005
Dynamo České Budějovice	8	Karel Poborský	Midfielder	1991–1994, 2005–2007
Lokomotiv Plovdiv	8	Hristo Bonev	Midfielder	1963–1967, 1968–1979, 1982–1984
AaB	12	Torben Boye	Defender	1984–2002
FC Nordsjælland	26	Jonathan Richter	Midfielder	2005–2009
Næstved BK	7	Rasmus Green	Midfielder	2005–2006	posthumous
Viborg FF	22	Søren Frederiksen	Striker	1989–1994, 1998, 2001–2005
FAS	10	Mágico González	Forward	1977–1982, 1991–1999
Hartlepool United	25	Michael Maidens[4]	Midfielder	2004–2007	posthumous
Queens Park Rangers	31	Ray Jones[4]	Forward	2006–2007	posthumous
Rushden & Diamonds	1	Dale Roberts[5]	Goalkeeper	2008–2010	posthumous
West Ham United	6	Bobby Moore[4]	Centre back	1958–1974	posthumous
West Ham United	38	Dylan Tombides[6]	Striker	2010–2014	posthumous
Wycombe Wanderers	14	Mark Philo[4]	Midfielder	2004–2006	posthumous
Macclesfield Town	21	Richard Butcher[7]	Midfielder	2010–2011	posthumous
Manchester City	23	Marc-Vivien Foé[4]	Midfielder	2002–2003	posthumous
Reus Deportiu	7	Jordi Pitarque	Midfielder	2009–2010	posthumous
Lens	17	Marc-Vivien Foé	Midfielder	1995–1999	posthumous
Clermont	14	Clément Pinault	Defender	2008–2009	posthumous
Sedan	29	David di Tommaso	Centre back	2000–2004	posthumous
Wacker Burghausen	11	Marek Krejčí	Striker	2004–2007	posthumous
PAOK	17	Panagiotis Katsouris	Midfielder	1996–1998	posthumous
Olimpia	11	Wilmer Velásquez	Forward	1991–1995, 1996–1998, 1999–2001, 2002–2009
Motagua	16	Edy Vásquez	Midfielder	2003–2007	posthumous, retired from 2007–2009
Happy Valley	2	Leung Sui Wing	Sweeper	1976–1997
Hong Kong Rangers	15	Cheung Yiu Lun	Defender	1992–1995, 1996–1999, 2001–2002	posthumous
Tai Po FC	16	Mao Mengsuo	Midfielder	2008–2010	posthumous
Ferencváros	2	Tibor Simon	Right fullback	1985–1999	posthumous
Kispest AC/Honvéd	10	Ferenc Puskás	Deep-lying forward	1939–1956	retired in 2000, died 2006
Bethlehem Vengthlang	21	Peter Biaksangzuala	Midfielder	–2014	posthumous, after the player died celebrating a goal.[8]
Persebaya Surabaya	19	Eri Irianto	Midfielder	1998–2000	posthumous
Persis Solo	33	Diego Mendieta	Striker	2011–2012	posthumous
Esteghlal	7	Farhad Majidi[9]	Forward	1997–2013
Persepolis	24	Hadi Norouzi[10]	Midfielder	2008–2015	posthumous
Hapoel Be'er Sheva	6	Chaswe Nsofwa	Striker	2007	posthumous
Maccabi Tel Aviv	8	Avi Nimni	Forward	1990–1997, 1998–2003, 2005–2008
Maccabi Tel Aviv	12	Meni Levi	Right Back	2000–2002
Siena	4	Michele Mignani	Centre back	1996–1997, 1998–2006
Atalanta	14	Federico Pisani	Deep-lying forward	1991–1997	posthumous
Avellino	10	Adriano Lombardi	Midfielder	1975–1979	posthumous
Bologna	27	Niccolò Galli	Defender	2000–2001	posthumous
Brescia	10	Roberto Baggio	Deep-lying forward	2000–2004
Brescia	13	Vittorio Mero	Defender	1998–2001, 2002	posthumous
Cagliari	11	Gigi Riva	Striker	1963–1978
Chievo Verona	30	Jason Mayélé	Left/right winger	2001–2002	posthumous
Genoa	6	Gianluca Signorini	Sweeper	1988–1995	posthumous
Internazionale	3	Giacinto Facchetti	Left fullback	1961–1978	posthumous
Internazionale	4	Javier Zanetti [11][12]	Right fullback	1995–2014
Livorno	25	Piermario Morosini	Midfielder	2012	posthumous [13]
Messina	41	Salvatore Sullo	Midfielder	2001–2007
Milan	6	Franco Baresi[4]	Defender	1977–1997
Milan	3	Paolo Maldini	Defender	1984–2009
Napoli	10	Diego Maradona	Midfielder	1984–1991
Vicenza	25	Piermario Morosini	Midfielder	2007–2009, 2011	posthumous
Thespa Kusatsu	31	Ryosuke Okuno	Defender	2002–2003
Yokohama F. Marinos	3	Naoki Matsuda	Defender	1995–2010	posthumous
Fujieda MYFC	2	Toshihide Saito	Defender	2009–2013
Daewoo Royals, Busan I'cons	16	Kim Joo-Sung	Midfielder	1987–1992, 1994–1999
Nejmeh Sporting Club	3	Hussein Dokmak	Defender	1997–2007	posthumous (killed in a terrorist bombing)
Nejmeh Sporting Club	12	Hussein Naeem	Striker	2001–2007	posthumous (killed in a terrorist bombing)
Al Ahly Tripoli	14	Tarik El Taib	Midfielder	1995–2001
Atlante	3	Federico Vilar	Goalkeeper	2003–2010
Atlante	12	Félix Fernández	Goalkeeper	1989–1998, 1999–2001, 2002–2003
Guadalajara	8	Salvador Reyes	Striker	1953–1967, 2008	posthumous
Guadalajara	22	José Martínez González	Midfielder	1970–1981	posthumous
Monterrey	26	Humberto Suazo	Forward	2007–2014	Number Retired on December 12, 2014
Monterrey	28	Jesus Arellano	Right Winger	1992–1997, 2000–2011	The shirt is not fully retired. Arellano has given consent for his son to adopt the number 28.
Monterrey	51	Antonio de Nigris	Striker	1999–2002	posthumous
UANL Tigres	7	Gerónimo Barbadillo	Midfielder	1977–1982
Pachuca	1	Miguel Calero	Goalkeeper	2000–2011	His number had been retired on 23 October 2011 after Calero's retirement as a professional player. Later his number was retired again posthumous when he died on 4 December 2012.
Pachuca	8	Gabriel Caballero	Midfielder/Forward	1998–2002, 2003–2004, 2005–2009	His number was just temporaly retired for 5 years. After that period, it was reactivated and given to Hirving Lozano
Pachuca	17	Hernán Medford	Forward/Winger	1994–1997
Pachuca	20	Pablo Gómez	Forward/Winger	1999–2001	posthumous
Pachuca	110	Andrés Chitiva	Midfielder	2001–2008, 2011
Toros Neza	11	Antonio Mohamed	Midfielder/Forward	1993–1998
Pumas UNAM	12	Sergio Bernal	Goalkeeper	1989–1997, 1998–2001, 2003–2010
Necaxa	7	Álex Aguinaga	Midfielder/Forward	1989–2003
Estudiantes Tecos	13	Mirsha Serrano	Midfielder	2000–2005, 2007	posthumous
Ajax	14	Johan Cruijff	Striker	1964–1973, 1981–1983
Utrecht	4	David di Tommaso	Centre back	2004–2005	posthumous
NAC Breda	13	Ferry van Vliet	Midfielder	2001–2002	posthumous
Vitesse Arnhem	4	Theo Bos	Defender	1983–1998	posthumous
Linfield	11	Noel Bailie	Defender	1986–2011
Fredrikstad	8	Dagfinn Enerly	Winger	2004–2005
Chepo	77	Jonathan Rodríguez	Midfielder	2006–2009	posthumous
Universitario de Deportes	22	José Luis Carranza	Midfielder	1986–2004
Lech Poznań	9	Piotr Reiss	Forward	1994–1998, 2002–2008, 2012–2013
Legia Warsaw	10	Kazimierz Deyna	Midfielder	1966–1978	posthumous
Widzew Łódź	11	Włodzimierz Smolarek	Striker	1974–1978, 1980–1986	posthumous
Benfica	29	Miklós Fehér	Striker	2002–2004	posthumous
União Leiria	10	Hugo Cunha	Midfielder	2004–2005	posthumous; has been worn again since 2009
Dinamo Bucharest	11	Cătălin Hâldan	Midfielder	1994–2000	posthumous
Dinamo Bucharest	25	Ionel Danciulescu	Striker	1995–1997, 2002–2009, 2010–2013
CSKA Moscow	16	Serhiy Perkhun	Goalkeeper	2001	posthumous
Espanyol	21	Daniel Jarque	Defender	2002–2009	posthumous
Real Betis	26	Miki Roqué	Defender	2010–2012	posthumous
Assyriska FF	18	Eddie Moussa	Striker	2001–2010	posthumous
Helsingborgs IF	17	Henrik Larsson	Striker	1992–1993 2006–2009
Kalmar FF	15	Johny Erlandsson	Winger	1973–1988
Norrköping	18	Stefán Þórðarson	Striker	2004–2007	The shirt were worn by Þórðarson during his comeback in the club during the 2009 season.
Umeå IK	6	Malin Moström[14]	Midfielder	1995–2006, 2007	The shirt was worn by Moström during her comeback at the club during the 2007 season.
TOT-CAT	19	Chanont Wong-aree	Defender	2009–2010	posthumous
Los Angeles Galaxy	13	Cobi Jones	Midfielder	1996–2007
New York Cosmos	9	Giorgio Chinaglia	Striker	1976–1983	posthumous [15][16]
New York Cosmos	10	Pelé	Striker	1975–1977	Number retired on 1 October 1977, at halftime.[17]
Portland Timbers	3	Clive Charles	Defender	1978–1981	Number posthumously retired 23 August 2003.[18]
Real Salt Lake	9	Jason Kreis	Midfielder/Striker	2005–2007	Retirement ceremony held on 4 July 2011.[19][20]
Tampa Bay Rowdies	6	Mike Connell	Defender	1975–1984	Number retired 10 August 2013[21]
Tampa Bay Rowdies	12	Perry Van der Beck	Midfielder	1978–1982, 1984, 1991–1993	Number retired 1 October 2010[22]
Hoàng Anh Gia Lai	13	Kiatisuk Senamuang	Striker	2001–2006
Swansea City	40	Besian Idrizaj[23]	Striker	2009–2010	posthumous
CSD Municipal	15	Juan Carlos Plata	Forward	1990–2010
NK Maribor	19	Stipe Balajić	Defender/Midfielder	1998–2005
Skoda Xanthi	13	Olubayo Adefemi	Defender	2011	posthumous
Montego Bay	2	Stephen Malcolm	Defender	1989–2001	posthumous
Reno F.C.	7	Caple Donaldson	Midfielder		posthumous
Alianza	2	Roberto Rivas	Right Back	1960–1970	posthumous
Municipal Limeño	11	Oscar Armando Díaz	Striker	–1998	posthumous [24]
Ural	23	Pyotr Hrustovsky	Striker	1999, 2001–2003	posthumous
Palmeiras	12	Marcos	Goalkeeper	1993–2012
Najran SC	20	Al Hasan Al-Yami	Striker	1991–1996, 2005–2010	Number retired on 31 July 2012.[25]
Dempo SC	10	Christiano Junior	Striker	2004	posthumous [26]
Limerick FC	4	Joe O'Mahony	Centre back	1966–1986	posthumous[27][28]
Diósgyőri VTK	77	José Juan Luque	Winger	1996–2013	Number retired on 2 June 2013 on a full house match, for the respect because Luque was the most professional player in the DVTK history. His number retired for 10 years.
Olympique de Marseille	21	Souleymane Diawara	Defender	2009–2014	His number was retired on 17 May after he announced he would leave the club.
Exeter City	9	Adam Stansfield	Forward	2006–2010	posthumous[29]
Olympique de Marseille	28	Mathieu Valbuena	Striker	2006–2014	His number was retired on 5 August after he announced he would leave the club.[30]
VfL Wolfsburg	19	Junior Malanda	Midfielder	2012–2015	posthumous
São Paulo	01	Rogério Ceni	Goalkeeper	1990–2015	His number was retired on December 12, when he retired from football.[31]
Derry City	18	Mark Farren	Striker	2000–2014	Number was retired in dedication to the clubs all time record goal scorer after he died of cancer.
Roulado	7	Jean-Robert Menelas	Striker	1993–2007	Number was retired in recognition of his career in the club and for his all time record goal scoring in the league. He is the first in the history of Haitian football to have a number permanently removed from use.[32][33]

Special cases

Team	No.	Player	Pos.	Career	Notes
Milan	3	Paolo Maldini	Left back	1984–2009	The shirt was not fully retired. Maldini has given consent for his sons to adopt the number 3 shirt if either of them play professionally for the club.[4][34]
América	10	Cuauhtémoc Blanco	Striker	1992–1997, 1998–2000, 2002–2004, 2005–2007	The shirt number would be retired for a period of 5 years, starting in June 2007. However, jersey #10 has been occasionally re-issued for special cases, due to CONMEBOL rules, which state that shirts must be numbered 1–25 in continental club competitions (such as Copa Libertadores, Copa Sudamericana, amongst others).[35] More recently, this number was given to Salvador Cabañas and Daniel Montenegro and is currently being worn by Osvaldo Martínez.
Argentina	10	Diego Maradona	Midfielder	1979–1994	The number 10 had been retired by Argentine Football Association in October 2001 to honour Maradona. Before the 2002 World Cup, the AFA submitted a squad list of 23 players for the tournament, listed 1 through 24, with the number 10 omitted.[4] FIFA rejected Argentina's list, and the governing body's president, Sepp Blatter suggested the number 10 shirt be instead given to the team's third-choice goalkeeper, Roberto Bonano. AFA ultimately submitted a revised list with Ariel Ortega, originally listed as number 23, as the number 10.[36] The number 10 has been worn by other players since, most notably by Lionel Messi, whom Maradona considers his "successor."
Dunfermline Athletic	4	Norrie McCathie	Defender	1981–1996	The club retired the number after club captain McCathie was found dead in his home on 8 January 1996, as a result of Carbon Monoxide poisoning.[37] At that time, Scottish League clubs used shirt numbered from 1 to 11, so for the remainder of the 1995–96 season, 12 was used instead. However, the number was not retired permanently, and has been re-issued since.
Livorno	10	Igor Protti	Striker	1985–1988, 1999–2005	In December 2005, Livorno officially retired the #10 jersey. However, Protti, who led the forward line and captained his side in two promotions from Serie C1 to Serie A, quickly gaining a reputation as a fan favourite, announced his willingness to see the #10 number reissued to another player, in order to "give anybody back a dream to dress it one day." This was made effective starting from the 2007–08 season, in which Francesco Tavano played with the #10 number.[38]
Exeter City	9	Adam Stansfield	Forward	2006–2010	The club retired the number 9 for nine seasons after the striker died of cancer on 10 August 2010.[29]
Maccabi Tel-Aviv	12	Meni Levi	Defender	–2007	During a game between Maccabi Tel-Aviv and Beitar Jerusalem, Levi chest-controlled and kicked the ball, ran back to defend, then collapsed. He returned to his feet, and then collapsed a second time. He was subsequently on a life-support machine, and has since returned home. The club claims that the number 12 is unofficially reserved for the fans.[39]
Universitario	9	Lolo Fernández	Forward	1930–53	Number retired only for the 2013 season.[40]
Leeds United	17	Massimo Cellino	Chairman	2014	Leeds retired the number 17 shirt due to Italian chairman Massimo Cellino's superstitions, as 17 is considered an unlucky number in Italian culture.
Motherwell	10	Phil O'Donnell	Midfielder	1990–1994, 2004–2007	Phil O'Donnell collapsed while playing for Motherwell against Dundee United in 2007. He was later pronounced dead at Wishaw General Hospital. The number 10 shirt was worn by his nephew David Clarkson during the 2008-09 season. Since Clarkson left in June 2009, it has not been retired, but has not been issued to any subsequent player.
Orlando Pirates	22	Lesley Manyathela	Striker	2000−2003	The club retired the number 22, after Manyathela died in a car crash in August, 2003. However, Confederation of African Football rules state that shirts must be numbered 1–30 in continental club competitions, so Pirates has been re-issued it in those special cases.
Real Oviedo	10	Peter Dubovsky	Midfielder	1995–2000	The Spanish Football League allowed Oviedo to retire number 10 just for the 2000–2001 season, as an exception to its rules. At the end of the season, number 10 was re-issued.
Sevilla	16	Antonio Puerta	Left back, Left winger	2004–2007	The shirt has not been fully retired. It was temporarily retired after Puerta died of a cardiac arrest on the first matchday in La Liga 2007–2008 However, the Spanish Football Federation rules state that clubs must use number 1 to 25 for their regular squad, and as a result, David Prieto wore the number in 2008 in honour of his friend.[41]
Stabæk	7	Christer Basma	Central defender	1995–1998	The club had retired the number to honor his services for the club. However, the retirement was revoked after 2004 season and the number given to Henning Hauger.
Chelsea	25	Gianfranco Zola	Forward	1996–2003	Chelsea have not officially retired the number 25 shirt, but it has not been allocated to another player since Zola left the club in 2003.
Portsmouth	13	Aaron Flahavan	Goalkeeper	1994–2001	Following Flahavan's death in a car accident in August 2001, Portsmouth and his first club, Southampton, retired their number 1 shirts for the 2001-02 season as a mark of respect. From the 2003-04 season, Portsmouth retired the number 13 shirt, as this was the number Flahavan wore during the majority of his time at the club. Number 13 remained unused until 2011, when it was allocated to goalkeeper Stephen Henderson, and it has been reissued since.
FC Haka	14	Valeri Popovitch	Forward	1994–2008	First ever retired shirt number in the history of Finnish football is ex-Haka's Valeri Popovitch's number 14. Popovitch has stated that his sons, who are still playing for Haka's junior teams, can wear the legendary number if they want.[42]
Wycombe Wanderers	14	Mark Philo	Midfielder	2004–2006	Philo was killed in a car accident and the number 14 shirt retired. It was later revealed he was significantly over the drink-drive limit and his car veered on to the other side of the road, killing a 58-year-old mother of two.[43]
Lyon	16	Luc Borrelli	Goalkeeper	1998–1999	posthumous — returned to use in 2011
Lyon	17	Marc-Vivien Foé	Midfielder	2000–2003	posthumous — returned to use in 2008
1. FC Köln	10	Lukas Podolski	Winger	2002–06, 2009–12	The club had announced that the number would remain out of circulation as long as Podolski is playing football on a professional level. Nevertheless, the #10 was given to Patrick Helmes in July 2014.[44]
Galatasaray	3	Bülent Korkmaz	Central defender	1984–2005	Despite the club had announced the retirement of the number, it has been re-issued.
Independiente Santa Fe	23	Léider Preciado	Striker	1995–1998, 2000–2001, 2004–2005, 2006–2008, 2011	The number was out of circulation for a period of 23 months (starting May 2012) in honor of the second top scorer in the history of the club.[45]
C.D. Guadalajara	11	Ramón Morales	Midfielder	1998–2011, 2013– (as part of the coaching staff).	The shirt was never officially retired, but it was not issued out of American competitions for the time between Morales' exit and his return as a coach. All players intending to wear the jersey have to ask for Morales' consent. It is now being worn by Jesús Aldo De Nigris since he has received Morales' approval.[46]
Sagan Tosu	17	Sakata Michitaka	Non-player	2001–	The shirt was retired posthumously, to honour Michikata who played a key role in establishment of former Tosu Futures and their revival as Sagan Tosu, and who died due to kidney cancer on 7 January 2000. Number 17, derived from the day of his death, was selected to be retired. The number would later also be dedicated to the club's fans, thus they have not retired squad number 12 like most Japanese League teams.
FC Barcelona	21	Luis Enrique	Midfielder	1996–2004	Joined the club as a free agent from eternal rivals Real Madrid, and spent eight years at FC Barcelona. In his last years, he became the captain of the team. The shirt was retired for just two years (2004–06), since La Liga did not allow to retire numbers permanently. Current coach of the team. The number 21 shirt was awarded to Lilian Thuram in 2006.
Schalke 04	7	Raúl	Striker	2010–2012	At the time Raúl left the club, the team intended to retire the jersey indefinitely.[47] However, the retirement of this shirt only lasted one year; since 2013 it has been worn by Max Meyer.
Persepolis F.C.	24	Hadi Norouzi	Striker	2015–present	Died while sleeping. The cause of death was Heart Failure. A few days after the incident, Perspolis football club confirmed that the number 24 is retired at this club.

Dedication to fans

Some clubs dedicate a number to their fans, and do not issue it to any player. The most common number for this practice is 12, from descriptions of the fans as "the twelfth man".

In Japanese footballing tradition, almost all the professional teams retired the number 12 for their supporters. The only two teams not to retire 12 are Urawa Red Diamonds and Sagan Tosu (Sagan retired 17 for a similar reason).

Other clubs and teams include:

Melbourne City Melbourne Victory Perth Glory Club Brugge Racing Genk Atlético Mineiro ^1 Avaí ^1 Flamengo ^1 Botev Plovdiv Montreal Impact Beijing Guoan Tianjin Teda Zhejiang Yiteng Hajduk Split Omonia Sparta Prague AGF OB Bristol Rovers Exeter City ^2 Gillingham Oxford United Oldham Athletic Plymouth Argyle Portsmouth Reading[48] Flora Lens Mikkelin Palloilijat Arminia Bielefeld Werder Bremen Rot-Weiss Essen TuS Koblenz

Borussia Mönchengladbach Bayern Munich PAOK Ferencváros Újpest Persija Jakarta Foolad Cork City Shamrock Rovers Atalanta Cesena Genoa Lazio Lecce Parma Torino FC Seoul Incheon United Seoul United FK Ekranas Valletta Monterrey Tigres UANL Guadalajara Yagon United Yadanarbon Thanlyin Technological University FC Feyenoord PSV Eindhoven Vitesse Arnhem PEC Zwolle

IK Start Vålerenga Pogoń Szczecin Lech Poznań Polonia Warsaw Vitória de Guimarães Sporting Clube de Portugal Rapid București Zenit St. Petersburg CSKA Moscow Aberdeen Hibernian Rangers Red Star Belgrade AIK Hammarby IF Malmö FF Helsingborgs IF IFK Norrköping Basel Chonburi BEC Tero Sasana Muangthong United Port Buriram United Fenerbahçe Beşiktaş Sivasspor Dynamo Kiev

Notes: ¹ Despite of having their number "12" retired, Brazilian clubs have had to re-issue them for CONMEBOL competitions such as Copa Libertadores, where rosters must be numbered from 1 to 25 consecutively.^[49]

² Exeter City reserve the number 12 shirt for the 'Twelfth Man' sponsor of individual games. ^[50]

AIK and Djurgården IF reserve the number 1 for their supporters.

Indy Eleven reserve the number 11 for their supporters.

Reading, Notts County and Bryne reserve the number 13 for their supporters, Panathinaikos reserve this number in honour of Gate 13, the ultras based in the respective gate in home matches. Norwich City also reserve the number 13 shirt for "the fans" while Shrewsbury Town reserve the number 13 shirt for the fan who wins a pre-season competition.

After their 15 point deduction, Leeds United retired the number 15 shirt for the 2007–08 season only.^[51]

Bursaspor reserve the number 16 for their supporters.

AFC Bournemouth use squad number 27 for the Steve Fletcher Stand which houses the large majority of hardcore supporters, the number 50 for "12th man" and the number 99 shirt for their mascot, Cherry Bear.

Oldham Athletic reserve the number 40 for their fans.

Leicester City have reserved the number 50 for the mascot, Filbert Fox, which he wears on his shirt at every game.

APOEL have reserved the shirt number 79 in honour of PAN.SY.FI. (APOEL Ultras), to denote the year the group was founded, 1979.^[52]

References

1. "Soccer-Ecuador to reinstate Benitez's number 11 for World Cup". reuters.com. 6 March 2014.
2. http://www.sport24.co.za/Soccer/PSL/Pirates-retire-number-one-jersey-20141028
3. http://clubbrugge.be/nl/de-club/geschiedenis/oud-spelers-index/francois-sterchele
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