January 31, 2023 • 32 mins
Soccer players didn't always wear numbers, you know. A history of how the number 10 became the most iconic number in the sport, won by Pele and Maradona and more.
How did the No. 10 become the most iconic number in the sport? Let’s trace the tactical history that turned the number into a position, as well as the fluke that gave an unknown 17-year-old the jersey when he scored in the first televised World Cup final. You may know him as Pele.
The Best Soccer Podcast In The World is a bilingual podcast that tells your soon-to-be favorite soccer stories. The host, Nando Vila, will crack open some of the most iconic World Cup moments, putting them in cultural and geopolitical contexts. From legendary players to silly hairdos, to heart-wrenching losses.
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
In the nineteen seventy World Cup, Brazil played England in
the group stages. After the match, Bill swapped shirts with
the legendary defender Bobby Moore, who players, but a few
(00:26):
hours later he almost had to go ask Bobby Moore
for his jersey back. You see, during the game, thieves
had broken into the locker room and stolen all his jerseys.
Back then, in seventy it wasn't that easy to get
official World Cup jerseys mailed to you in a timely fashion.
But perhaps one of the reasons why the thieves wanted
(00:47):
those jerseys was because Bill wore the number ten, a
number that he made iconic. I think it's probably the
only number now, not probably, it is the only number
now that's still written haines the weight and still gets
the oo and awe and and still when you say it,
(01:08):
people that are watching the game and people that have
followed the game know exactly what you're talking about. And
more importantly, there is a collective and accepted type of
expectation that comes with that. The number ten has a
special place in soccer. It's an archetype, if you will,
(01:29):
an emblem. What I'm saying is it's the most famous
number in soccer. That's what life is about. Change is constant,
but the ten has endured. It's a legendary number. It's
venerated as being the soul of the team. Really, this
is the savior, this is the hope in Italy. It's
even got a fantasista. I think there's something so irresistible
(01:50):
about the center of gravity and a team. Then there's
the the aura of the number ten. He stepped out
of another dimension, that beautiful arrogance. He was flowing the
ultimate number ten. He was fragile, the most dominant playmaker.
He was phenomenal, of course, just a phenomenal player. Why
(02:11):
wouldn't you want the ball at the feet of your
best player. There's nobody who epitomized the romance of the
ten the way he did. And so I guess he
wasn't God. He was human. If that's what makes number
tend the most iconic shirt in football? How did ten
become the most coveted number, so much so that it
was worth stealing? And if you're listening, you're a perfect
(02:35):
ten to me, because today is all about the number ten.
I'm Nando Vila and you're listening to the best soccer
podcast in the World goes with the Christiano Ronaldo, Yes, wonderful,
(03:10):
Never to soccer. Players didn't always wear numbers, you know.
The Derby Daily Telegraph called the ninety three f A
(03:30):
Cup Final the most novel cup final in the history
of football. Quote every player for the first time, we'll
have a huge distinguishing number on his back. One team
war one through eleven and the other twelve through twenty two.
So you know they actually we didn't have short you know,
short numbers for the first sort of sixty years of
the game, right, But shirt numbers help you identify the player.
(03:54):
And as a kid, you watch television and you generally
want to be the most skillful player, and it's generally
the guy with number ten on the back. This is
senior writer for ESPN. But how did the most skillful
player end up with number ten in the first place? Well, okay,
so the a brief history of numbers and soccer. Right
(04:17):
when numbers were first created, teams played a two three
five formation. You had two defenders, you had three midfielders,
and you had five forwards. The English Football Association started
mandating shirt numbers during the nineteen thirties, one through eleven
on each side back. Then, instead of the players keeping
(04:37):
one number that followed them, the position kept the number
number one as a goalkeeper. Two and three are the
two defenders. Four or five and six are your midfielders.
Seven through eleven are your forwards. At this time, tactics
are evolving, a midfielder or two drops into defense, and
they started to drag their numbers along with them. So
(05:00):
once two of those three moved back and one became
the defender, you had the two inside forwards moving back.
And because the forwards were seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven,
eight and ten moved into midfield. The number ten is
the guy who facilitated play. This varied by country. For instance,
in England, the ten was a striker. Ten has always signified,
(05:23):
though regardless of where you were, a player who operated
centrally and was an outstanding and was usually your your
most gifted player. Could be a forward, could be an
attacking midfielder, but always central. And then, of course, the
rest of the mythologists to do with the players who
wore from Belle to Maldonna. That's what makes number ten
the most iconic shirt in football. The story of how
(05:46):
ten became the dude dates back three quarters of a century,
and it was kind of a fluke. It's June. Picture
yourself as you're about to tune in. You're at the
rich kid's house where they have a new fangled television set.
(06:06):
You're using air assault deodorant and fluoride toothpaste fresh on
the market for the first time that year. The polio
vaccine courses through your veins and spot Nick circles the
skies above you. Minimum wages one dollar. Everyone agrees they
wanted to spend it on a hula hoop or barbie.
This Christmas. You turn off Elvis now in stereo long
(06:28):
enough to watch the Big Game. There's a lot of
really big changes happening really quickly in technology and science
around this time, but none of it has prepared you
for this seventeen and a half year old, thick, thied
kid on the TV who does things with his leather
paneled pick bladder that you didn't know were even possible
within the laws of physics. It feels like your brain
(06:49):
is being pulled apart, segment by segment, like orange slices,
rearranged and put back into your skull prope That kid
is called Bile real name Edson Arantis Donacimento. He's wearing
the number ten. He scores one more in a five
(07:11):
to win over host Sweden in the World Cup final.
Remember this is the first internationally televised World Cup. In
the grainy black and white footage, you can't see that
Brazil lost the coin toss and had to wear blue
jerseys with improvised yellow numbering. Just how did the youngest
(07:33):
player ever to appear in a World Cup final nab
the number ten jersey? Pure dumb luck. When Brazil sent
in their roster paperwork, they hadn't included the numbers. And
when I say sent in paperwork, I mean just that
this was eight years before fax machines were invented. There's
(07:54):
this FIFA stooge, Lorenzo Vilitio. He's from Uruguay and he's
sitting in the FIFA offices checking all the rosters. There
isn't enough time to mail something to the Brazilian federation
and have the mail back squad numbers, which had been
mandatory since the previous World Cup in ninety four. So
what does Lorenzo Elio do? He assigns numbers arbitrarily. Gilma,
(08:15):
the starting goalkeeper, gets the number three very weird for
a goalkeeper, and oh sure, why not? He gets the
number ten at the insistence of the players themselves. Manager
of Vigenti Fiola has quoted a bandy leg right winger
named Grincha and a seventeen year old inside left named Pillow.
The number ten was what Bile was wearing when he
(08:36):
fainted as Brazil won their first World Cup trophy. It's
the jersey he wore while all his teammates lifted him ugly,
crying onto their shoulders, but I started. That's the same
number he wore on the jersey he used to wipe
(08:58):
his tears after scoring his thousandth career goal for Santos.
That's the number burned into our memories of the first
World Cup, televised in color, the number ten standing out
against bright yellow at Briszil take the lead and all
(09:25):
mighty leap by the famous Brazil number. It's at the
Italian defense appeared to have any danger covered, but Pelle
just seemed to hang in the air. A majestic kenna
for Waldo. That's the jersey the Cosmos retired at halftime
of his farewell match. When he took it off, waved
it to the crowd and handed it to his father,
(09:46):
father and son. Here is the moment. Number ten of
the Cosmos just appears forever. That's the jersey the Cosmos
retired again for some reason when the club reformed three
decades later. And that's the jersey number he wore for
the Allied prisoners against the Nazis. In the movie Victory,
starring Slice Alone and Michael Caine, Slice Alone played goalkeeper cool.
(10:08):
I have to give me ball here. I do these
these these easy watch billet fer Santos or early black
and white Brazil. And what stands out is the only
thing on his crisp white jersey is the number ten.
No name, no sponsors, no logos, just ten chased all
(10:33):
out of the field. There are players on the box,
respectators on the box. He's on the box about wanted
is being mobbed. He's fund of the whole lot of that.
By the time pill joined the Cosmos, he himself was
the emblem. Henry Kissinger of all people, convinced Bills to
(10:55):
move to the United States in order to further American interests.
He was voted the most famous person in the world.
And get this, the athlete of the century. The Brazilian
government passed a bill naming him a national treasure. The
Biafrian war plaguing Nigeria, paused for two days to see
him play. The Pope was nervous to meet him. The
(11:18):
New York Times called him the Beatles, Babe Ruth and
Billy Graham all rolled into one. His nickname is are
the King or Are de Fucibo, the King of football.
This was all before Jersey has had names on the back.
Footage was rudimentary, sometimes too grainy to even make out
(11:40):
facial features. It makes sense that fans might instead develop
an affinity for a position, for a thing they could
see a number, So the number ten Jersey and soccer.
I think traditionally it means that this is your and
the word that we we love to use in soccer.
It's probably overused, but this is your talisman. This is
(12:02):
the person that leads you on and off the field.
This is the person that personifies the way that you
want to play. This is the savior, This is the hope.
This is your creative force on the field. This is
the person that if you need that moment of magic
(12:22):
and greatness. This is the person that you believe is
going to provide it for This is Alexei Lawless. He
marked many a number ten as a defender for the
USA and in Italy. He's now a commentator for Fox Sports.
So when you're dealing with the number ten of any
ability or talent, you first have to come to grips
(12:43):
with the fact that he or she is going to
do damage. So you can't stop it, but you're going
to have to limit that damage. And so how are
you gonna go about doing that? Are you gonna have
somebody that follows the number ten everywhere they go, including
to the bathroom and back. Maybe you're not going to
do that. Maybe you're gonna buy committee try to shut
them down. Are you gonna do it in a less
(13:05):
than honorable way? Which is certainly an effective way? So
hack a shack or whatever the best players want to
wear number ten. More about what happened next. After the
break in the First World Cup, post pl Argentina came
(13:31):
up with a new numbering system to prevent arguments. They
assigned numbers alphabetically. This led to a weird situation in
a later Copa Medica where the goalkeeper war number ten.
It's just wrong. Argentina kept this system for over a decade,
except there was one permitted exchange numbers. Ten and twelve
(13:53):
swap numbers before the tournament. That's because a skinny twenty
one year old boy with a poufy fro was already
the dude. Madonna Marivona was captain and maintained the number ten,
and Argentina won the World Cup and the man who
(14:14):
received it is Diego Maradonna of Argentina. The world's greatest
player receives the world most important or bride who wore
it best? I mean for me, it's Diego. I mean
Diego Maradona for me, is still the greatest player ever
to play the game. I mean, there's no there's no
(14:34):
argum like I'm too young for pet, but there's only
one Marigona. I'm not saying he's the greatest ever, but
I'm saying there's nobody who epitomized the romance of the
ten the way he did. Both Alexi and gab are
sophisticated gentleman of a certain age, which means they were
young and impressionable when Maddona was making an impression. You're
(14:56):
always going to have the baggage of when you grew
up been time, and there will be someone that didn't
grow up with the Maradona era that will look at
messy and won't be able to be persuaded other than
it's it's him. I think that you know what, diego
Maradona for me, much more so than Paley or anybody. Well.
(15:17):
First off, the first World Cup I ever saw and again,
I was sixteen years old and I was in the
lobby of the of the Holiday Inn. They set up
a TV. And it was the summer of six and
I was on I was in Colorado, in Colorado Springs
at the Pike's Peak Invitational tournament with my travel team
(15:39):
from Michigan, and we set up a television in the
lobby of the Holiday in there in Colorado Springs and
we would watch the World Cup. What did teenager Alexey
c well against England in the quarterfinals, he saw two
of the most famous goals of all times. Gonna has
(16:00):
scored first blood to Argentina. England far from happy. I
think they've seen an infringement. That is why England is
so furious. It's Maradonna has punched it in with his
left hand. Famously said that the goal was scored quote
a little with the head of Maddona and a little
with the hand of God. And just a few minutes later,
(16:24):
Maradonna brilliantly just gets away from Read and now motors
up through the gears and he's beating Butcher, and he's
beating Fedic. It's Diego Maradonna, and it is quite magnificent.
If there was an element of dad about the first goal,
there's no controversy about that moment of genius from Diego Maradonna.
(16:46):
Touches eleven seconds sixty eight ms. FIFA voted it the
goal of the century. He's a man, but he was
doing things that I had never seen be done, and
and I loved that well. I looked at him as
a god. Even in that tournament, he became human, and
he wore his passion on his sleeve, and he was
(17:10):
equal parts saint and sinner. The jersey Manvona was wearing
that day sold at an auction for nine point three
million dollars. Napoli. Maravona's team in Italy retired his number ten.
Argentina tried to. They submitted a World Cup roster in
(17:30):
two thousand two without anyone listed at number ten. FIFA refused.
FIFA president, stept Bladder suggested giving the number to the
third string goalie. That way, Argentina's number ten would be
legally permitted to use his hands. Oh that's stept Bladder,
always with the singers. In two thousand and five, Maravana
hosted a weekly TV show called Ten's Night. It started
(17:53):
at ten pm. He is the ultimate, the ultimate number
ten that makes of anarchy, of creativity, of of leadership,
as well the fact that he could be as one
sort of individual and represent the team. All the ingredients
of the perfect time are there. You know, don't one
upset the Messy fans or the Ronaldo fans, but MESSI
you know, yeah, maybe they're better players. Fine, but the
(18:15):
number ten is Diego. Did he wear it with the
most honor? I guess if you want to say, what
depends you know what you think of it. I just
think that he was the most interesting and the most
human of the ten gods out there, and so I
guess he wasn't a god. He was human. By now,
(18:36):
it was sealed, not one, but two of the greatest
to ever pull out a soccer jersey had the number
ten stitched on the back. The number ten was an
icon everyone had to have one. It's our old paleln
Salez called better than Bill or himself Fast, the team
he always played for, retired Machico's number ten jersey after
(18:58):
he finally quit. France has produced two great number ten's.
My personal favorite number ten is welcome Michael Jakin, the
number ten of Contrarians. Well, he was just one of
the most elegant and dominant playmakers ever, made them most
(19:23):
dominant playmaker ever. Between three six Latini won the Ballonda
or three times, the City Are, twice, the European Cup,
the Cup Winners Cup, the Euros and got third in
the World Cup. He was just a phenomenal player and
I enjoy watching his highlights more than I enjoy watching Maradonna.
(19:47):
For example, go back, what let we go? Number ten
tend to be associated with the big moments in the
big tournaments where they provide the difference. There are stories
about tournaments being dominated by players at times just run perception,
(20:13):
you know, because for example, Didan was poor, he was
outright paw during the ninety eight World cuple yourself breath
to badger. You had a poor tournament and four Italy
(20:38):
throughound this tournament. But in Europe eighty four when France
won and Michelle Platiny scored in every game and was
the top score of the tournament. From mid field, he
scored two hatricks. It's probably the best tournament by any player, really,
(21:00):
by any player ever. The guy scored nine goals in
five matches from midfield and led his team to their
frost ever gold medals. That was for me, the greatest
performance by a single player in a single tournament. Of course,
(21:25):
Zidan went and did what Platini couldn't, winning France's first
World Cup wearing the number ten. Saddan was the quiet
or silent assassin, and it was almost as if he
played with a belief that it was almost beneath him
to even be there with you. And you know that
beautiful arrogance all the world traffias on the brush lights,
(21:48):
around the stud brows. There were times where his fury
and his anger on the field was because it was
so easy for him and that he was operating on
a different plane, and so that you know, that's that's
how good he was. More about what happened next after
(22:09):
the break. Besides, when you grew up the number ten,
you most venerate depends on where you grow up. Well,
it's blue and it's fluttering in the wind, and fluttering
on top of it is a crinkly ponytail. Oh, what
(22:32):
do you mean? What does it mean? I think, men,
what does it mean to me? Of having raptures about
Davino Cordinot. But you're saying, what does the number ten
jersey mean? In Italy? And I think everywhere, but particularly
in Italy, it's venerated as being the soul of the team. Really,
James Richardson hosted the Totally Football show Everybody the Divine Ponytail.
(22:54):
That's his nickname. That's what his Netflix biopick is called
for all of us who had our regretted rat tail phase.
Baggio made it cool. He won two city our titles,
the Blunder and finished second and third in the World Cup.
Bricia retired the number ten jersey after he left. I
(23:19):
was blessed to be living in Italy, not just a lie,
but living in Italy at the time when you had
three of the greatest number ten's ever soon to be
followed by another Francisco Totti, because you had Zola and
Badjo and Robetto Mancini, all doing their thing in number
ten jerseys and city at the same time, and that
was extraordinary. But there was something about bad Joe, and
I can't put my finger on it. There was just
(23:41):
something about him that he'd stepped out of another dimension. Okay, well,
so Banco, how did he play? I mean, first of all,
he kind of defied description because he was so good.
And nowadays we have players with incredible armories of skills
(24:02):
and flicks and tricks and their names for a lot
of them. But Badger didn't really do those things. Sure,
he famously scored a Rabona goal, and he would do
stupid stuff like that, but generally speaking, he was a
lot more essential than that. He was flowing, he was fragile.
He was phenomenal, of course, but he seemed the way
that he moved on the field for me was a
(24:22):
little bit like a leaf skipping along on an autumn breeze.
He would just seem to glide along, and there wasn't
any much as a leaf. There wasn't any great kind
of directness necessarily to the movement. But there wasn't anything
that you could put your finger on. You couldn't pin
him down. And yes, he was gone, and there's just
(24:45):
something about him and the way that he the dignity
that he always had, and the grace he had. And yeah,
for me, he's the greatest number ten we got. FIFA
(25:07):
made changes to uniforms. They added squad numbers to the
front and put player names on the back. Commercial sponsors
threatened to crowd out any blank space, but cluttered as
uniforms have become. That number ten is still special when
you see it. So maybe it's all for the best
(25:28):
that Argentina couldn't retire in Maritona's jersey. I don't think
you can talk about the ten without talking about Argentina.
And there you have, of course Madelona, of course Messi
and one Romano Gillman as someone who's seen Messy play
in person and sees the highlights of Madonna. For me, Messi,
(25:50):
we'll go down in history as the best ever time.
And um, John, where should we forward our hate mail?
I'll take you this fine. I'm John Arnold, journalist who's
been covering US soccer for more than a decade. You know,
little Leo Messi, he just won his first World Cup
and has won every single other trophy and award multiple times,
setting all sorts of scoring and assisting records, crowd standing
(26:13):
as one. It is Bess searching for with real menace
here for Messy. Oh what a go? This is a
gorgeous one and Messi will not be denied this time.
I think he'll be looked at as the best tent
and the best player we've ever seen. I hope he
(26:34):
gets surpassed, because that's what sports is about, that's what
life is about. Change is constant. We want to see
our greats surpassed. And I think people who always stumped
for the guy that they watched, right, because it's always
going to feel like the best when you were watching
and you saw it, and that's your guy. But to me,
I think Messi will go down as the best ten
(26:56):
and I'd make the case. It's a tired debate in
the low out of ways, I think. But the number
ten isn't any particular guy. It's an idea. It's an archetype,
(27:17):
and there's unwritten rules about who is allowed to wear
the number ten jersey. When the number ten goes to
someone less talented, it's funds don't like, it's the press doesn't.
It's considered a big problem. For example, Italy at the
Sultan stage gave thember ten shots to Thiago Mota, who
(27:38):
actually is a very good player. He's a very intelligent player,
but he's a defensive midfield and given him the number
ten shots was considered a cry by the tenants. William Gallas,
a French defender war number ten at Arsenal, people still
talk about how dumb that was. Goalkeeper Castello got the jersey,
(27:58):
yet give An. He did it to win a bet
with his friends. There's this Latani Bradaimovich quote that I
think about a lot. This big Norwegian striker named John
Carew that one day made fun of latan S excessive flicks.
So Latan says, what John Carew can do with a football,
(28:20):
I can do with an orange. The old man I thought,
I used to juggle with an orange while doing errands
as a boy, A barefoot at bill dribbled grape fruits
through the streets of Baudou. These are guys who seem
to be playing a different sport with a different set
of Newtonian laws. Then there's the the aura of the
number ten, and you know that ah factor, whether it's
(28:41):
out loud or whether it's whispered, you know it's it's
like kaiser so say, or something like that. You know
you're you feel that you are in the presence of
something special, and even that can make you do things
that you didn't normally do. So, you know, stepping on
the field with with the greats, you have to be
aware of them, but you can't drown in your awe
(29:05):
of them, otherwise they've already won. The ten is the
player who does things that no one else saw coming.
Typically a player who is able to find the past
that creates the goal and often has to be extremely
creative to find that. There's something so irresistible about the
center of gravity and a team a guy who always
(29:28):
wants the ball at his feet, and you know when
you get the ball to him, something is going to happen.
You know, there is a Spanish phrase, the ball always
goes to the ten. And when you have that type
of player, that sort of son that everything else orbits around,
it's so special when it happens and it comes together
and it it actually works. I think the number ten
(29:49):
shirt is venerated in Italy because more often than not,
all the other work that the team does can really
only come to its ultimate fluation if the number ten
does his job. It's essentially all going through him and
the strikers. What they achieve will be because of what
the number ten has done. He he is the mind
(30:11):
of the team. He is also and I think this
is possibly also a particularly Italian perspective, because at times
their football wasn't as imaginative as, say, as some other
Latin nations. He was also the one player you would
rely on to have esther to bring some kind of fantasy.
In fact, in Italy it's even called a fantasist at
that position, to bring some creativity to the team, to
(30:31):
do the unexpected, to achieve the impossible at a time
when it seemed that there were no options. The fantasist
that the number ten will be able to magic something up,
the ultimate creative player, the player who's I guess sole
responsibility was to be creative. Different sports revere different numbers.
Everybody knows Michael Jordan war twenty three right. Jordan played
(30:53):
in the eighties and nineties, But before we had names
on jerseys or substitutions, or cards, or color TVs or
fax machines, soccer had number ten. The best soccer podcast
in the world is a production of exiled content Studios
in partnership with I Hearts Michael podcast Network and is
(31:13):
hosted by Me Nando Villa, produced by An and Zach
Lee Rigg, Written by Zach Lee Rigg. Production assistants by
Stella Emmett. Our executive producers are Isaac Lee Rose Reed
and myself Nando Villa. Our executive producers at I Heart
are Gisel Dances and Arlene Santana. Sound designed by Ula
Mendoza Are Awesome. Theme song is by lu j Special
(31:36):
Thanks to all the voices who participated in this episode,
John Arnold, Alexei Lallas, Michael Yoke and James Richardson and
Gabriele Marcoti. For more podcasts, listen to the I Heart
Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
favorite shows,
In the nineteen seventy World Cup, Brazil played England in
the group stages. After the match, Bill swapped shirts with
the legendary defender Bobby Moore, who players, but a few
(00:26):
hours later he almost had to go ask Bobby Moore
for his jersey back. You see, during the game, thieves
had broken into the locker room and stolen all his jerseys.
Back then, in seventy it wasn't that easy to get
official World Cup jerseys mailed to you in a timely fashion.
But perhaps one of the reasons why the thieves wanted
(00:47):
those jerseys was because Bill wore the number ten, a
number that he made iconic. I think it's probably the
only number now, not probably, it is the only number
now that's still written haines the weight and still gets
the oo and awe and and still when you say it,
(01:08):
people that are watching the game and people that have
followed the game know exactly what you're talking about. And
more importantly, there is a collective and accepted type of
expectation that comes with that. The number ten has a
special place in soccer. It's an archetype, if you will,
(01:29):
an emblem. What I'm saying is it's the most famous
number in soccer. That's what life is about. Change is constant,
but the ten has endured. It's a legendary number. It's
venerated as being the soul of the team. Really, this
is the savior, this is the hope in Italy. It's
even got a fantasista. I think there's something so irresistible
(01:50):
about the center of gravity and a team. Then there's
the the aura of the number ten. He stepped out
of another dimension, that beautiful arrogance. He was flowing the
ultimate number ten. He was fragile, the most dominant playmaker.
He was phenomenal, of course, just a phenomenal player. Why
(02:11):
wouldn't you want the ball at the feet of your
best player. There's nobody who epitomized the romance of the
ten the way he did. And so I guess he
wasn't God. He was human. If that's what makes number
tend the most iconic shirt in football? How did ten
become the most coveted number, so much so that it
was worth stealing? And if you're listening, you're a perfect
(02:35):
ten to me, because today is all about the number ten.
I'm Nando Vila and you're listening to the best soccer
podcast in the World goes with the Christiano Ronaldo, Yes, wonderful,
(03:10):
Never to soccer. Players didn't always wear numbers, you know.
The Derby Daily Telegraph called the ninety three f A
(03:30):
Cup Final the most novel cup final in the history
of football. Quote every player for the first time, we'll
have a huge distinguishing number on his back. One team
war one through eleven and the other twelve through twenty two.
So you know they actually we didn't have short you know,
short numbers for the first sort of sixty years of
the game, right, But shirt numbers help you identify the player.
(03:54):
And as a kid, you watch television and you generally
want to be the most skillful player, and it's generally
the guy with number ten on the back. This is
senior writer for ESPN. But how did the most skillful
player end up with number ten in the first place? Well, okay,
so the a brief history of numbers and soccer. Right
(04:17):
when numbers were first created, teams played a two three
five formation. You had two defenders, you had three midfielders,
and you had five forwards. The English Football Association started
mandating shirt numbers during the nineteen thirties, one through eleven
on each side back. Then, instead of the players keeping
(04:37):
one number that followed them, the position kept the number
number one as a goalkeeper. Two and three are the
two defenders. Four or five and six are your midfielders.
Seven through eleven are your forwards. At this time, tactics
are evolving, a midfielder or two drops into defense, and
they started to drag their numbers along with them. So
(05:00):
once two of those three moved back and one became
the defender, you had the two inside forwards moving back.
And because the forwards were seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven,
eight and ten moved into midfield. The number ten is
the guy who facilitated play. This varied by country. For instance,
in England, the ten was a striker. Ten has always signified,
(05:23):
though regardless of where you were, a player who operated
centrally and was an outstanding and was usually your your
most gifted player. Could be a forward, could be an
attacking midfielder, but always central. And then, of course, the
rest of the mythologists to do with the players who
wore from Belle to Maldonna. That's what makes number ten
the most iconic shirt in football. The story of how
(05:46):
ten became the dude dates back three quarters of a century,
and it was kind of a fluke. It's June. Picture
yourself as you're about to tune in. You're at the
rich kid's house where they have a new fangled television set.
(06:06):
You're using air assault deodorant and fluoride toothpaste fresh on
the market for the first time that year. The polio
vaccine courses through your veins and spot Nick circles the
skies above you. Minimum wages one dollar. Everyone agrees they
wanted to spend it on a hula hoop or barbie.
This Christmas. You turn off Elvis now in stereo long
(06:28):
enough to watch the Big Game. There's a lot of
really big changes happening really quickly in technology and science
around this time, but none of it has prepared you
for this seventeen and a half year old, thick, thied
kid on the TV who does things with his leather
paneled pick bladder that you didn't know were even possible
within the laws of physics. It feels like your brain
(06:49):
is being pulled apart, segment by segment, like orange slices,
rearranged and put back into your skull prope That kid
is called Bile real name Edson Arantis Donacimento. He's wearing
the number ten. He scores one more in a five
(07:11):
to win over host Sweden in the World Cup final.
Remember this is the first internationally televised World Cup. In
the grainy black and white footage, you can't see that
Brazil lost the coin toss and had to wear blue
jerseys with improvised yellow numbering. Just how did the youngest
(07:33):
player ever to appear in a World Cup final nab
the number ten jersey? Pure dumb luck. When Brazil sent
in their roster paperwork, they hadn't included the numbers. And
when I say sent in paperwork, I mean just that
this was eight years before fax machines were invented. There's
(07:54):
this FIFA stooge, Lorenzo Vilitio. He's from Uruguay and he's
sitting in the FIFA offices checking all the rosters. There
isn't enough time to mail something to the Brazilian federation
and have the mail back squad numbers, which had been
mandatory since the previous World Cup in ninety four. So
what does Lorenzo Elio do? He assigns numbers arbitrarily. Gilma,
(08:15):
the starting goalkeeper, gets the number three very weird for
a goalkeeper, and oh sure, why not? He gets the
number ten at the insistence of the players themselves. Manager
of Vigenti Fiola has quoted a bandy leg right winger
named Grincha and a seventeen year old inside left named Pillow.
The number ten was what Bile was wearing when he
(08:36):
fainted as Brazil won their first World Cup trophy. It's
the jersey he wore while all his teammates lifted him ugly,
crying onto their shoulders, but I started. That's the same
number he wore on the jersey he used to wipe
(08:58):
his tears after scoring his thousandth career goal for Santos.
That's the number burned into our memories of the first
World Cup, televised in color, the number ten standing out
against bright yellow at Briszil take the lead and all
(09:25):
mighty leap by the famous Brazil number. It's at the
Italian defense appeared to have any danger covered, but Pelle
just seemed to hang in the air. A majestic kenna
for Waldo. That's the jersey the Cosmos retired at halftime
of his farewell match. When he took it off, waved
it to the crowd and handed it to his father,
(09:46):
father and son. Here is the moment. Number ten of
the Cosmos just appears forever. That's the jersey the Cosmos
retired again for some reason when the club reformed three
decades later. And that's the jersey number he wore for
the Allied prisoners against the Nazis. In the movie Victory,
starring Slice Alone and Michael Caine, Slice Alone played goalkeeper cool.
(10:08):
I have to give me ball here. I do these
these these easy watch billet fer Santos or early black
and white Brazil. And what stands out is the only
thing on his crisp white jersey is the number ten.
No name, no sponsors, no logos, just ten chased all
(10:33):
out of the field. There are players on the box,
respectators on the box. He's on the box about wanted
is being mobbed. He's fund of the whole lot of that.
By the time pill joined the Cosmos, he himself was
the emblem. Henry Kissinger of all people, convinced Bills to
(10:55):
move to the United States in order to further American interests.
He was voted the most famous person in the world.
And get this, the athlete of the century. The Brazilian
government passed a bill naming him a national treasure. The
Biafrian war plaguing Nigeria, paused for two days to see
him play. The Pope was nervous to meet him. The
(11:18):
New York Times called him the Beatles, Babe Ruth and
Billy Graham all rolled into one. His nickname is are
the King or Are de Fucibo, the King of football.
This was all before Jersey has had names on the back.
Footage was rudimentary, sometimes too grainy to even make out
(11:40):
facial features. It makes sense that fans might instead develop
an affinity for a position, for a thing they could
see a number, So the number ten Jersey and soccer.
I think traditionally it means that this is your and
the word that we we love to use in soccer.
It's probably overused, but this is your talisman. This is
(12:02):
the person that leads you on and off the field.
This is the person that personifies the way that you
want to play. This is the savior, This is the hope.
This is your creative force on the field. This is
the person that if you need that moment of magic
(12:22):
and greatness. This is the person that you believe is
going to provide it for This is Alexei Lawless. He
marked many a number ten as a defender for the
USA and in Italy. He's now a commentator for Fox Sports.
So when you're dealing with the number ten of any
ability or talent, you first have to come to grips
(12:43):
with the fact that he or she is going to
do damage. So you can't stop it, but you're going
to have to limit that damage. And so how are
you gonna go about doing that? Are you gonna have
somebody that follows the number ten everywhere they go, including
to the bathroom and back. Maybe you're not going to
do that. Maybe you're gonna buy committee try to shut
them down. Are you gonna do it in a less
(13:05):
than honorable way? Which is certainly an effective way? So
hack a shack or whatever the best players want to
wear number ten. More about what happened next. After the
break in the First World Cup, post pl Argentina came
(13:31):
up with a new numbering system to prevent arguments. They
assigned numbers alphabetically. This led to a weird situation in
a later Copa Medica where the goalkeeper war number ten.
It's just wrong. Argentina kept this system for over a decade,
except there was one permitted exchange numbers. Ten and twelve
(13:53):
swap numbers before the tournament. That's because a skinny twenty
one year old boy with a poufy fro was already
the dude. Madonna Marivona was captain and maintained the number ten,
and Argentina won the World Cup and the man who
(14:14):
received it is Diego Maradonna of Argentina. The world's greatest
player receives the world most important or bride who wore
it best? I mean for me, it's Diego. I mean
Diego Maradona for me, is still the greatest player ever
to play the game. I mean, there's no there's no
(14:34):
argum like I'm too young for pet, but there's only
one Marigona. I'm not saying he's the greatest ever, but
I'm saying there's nobody who epitomized the romance of the
ten the way he did. Both Alexi and gab are
sophisticated gentleman of a certain age, which means they were
young and impressionable when Maddona was making an impression. You're
(14:56):
always going to have the baggage of when you grew
up been time, and there will be someone that didn't
grow up with the Maradona era that will look at
messy and won't be able to be persuaded other than
it's it's him. I think that you know what, diego
Maradona for me, much more so than Paley or anybody. Well.
(15:17):
First off, the first World Cup I ever saw and again,
I was sixteen years old and I was in the
lobby of the of the Holiday Inn. They set up
a TV. And it was the summer of six and
I was on I was in Colorado, in Colorado Springs
at the Pike's Peak Invitational tournament with my travel team
(15:39):
from Michigan, and we set up a television in the
lobby of the Holiday in there in Colorado Springs and
we would watch the World Cup. What did teenager Alexey
c well against England in the quarterfinals, he saw two
of the most famous goals of all times. Gonna has
(16:00):
scored first blood to Argentina. England far from happy. I
think they've seen an infringement. That is why England is
so furious. It's Maradonna has punched it in with his
left hand. Famously said that the goal was scored quote
a little with the head of Maddona and a little
with the hand of God. And just a few minutes later,
(16:24):
Maradonna brilliantly just gets away from Read and now motors
up through the gears and he's beating Butcher, and he's
beating Fedic. It's Diego Maradonna, and it is quite magnificent.
If there was an element of dad about the first goal,
there's no controversy about that moment of genius from Diego Maradonna.
(16:46):
Touches eleven seconds sixty eight ms. FIFA voted it the
goal of the century. He's a man, but he was
doing things that I had never seen be done, and
and I loved that well. I looked at him as
a god. Even in that tournament, he became human, and
he wore his passion on his sleeve, and he was
(17:10):
equal parts saint and sinner. The jersey Manvona was wearing
that day sold at an auction for nine point three
million dollars. Napoli. Maravona's team in Italy retired his number ten.
Argentina tried to. They submitted a World Cup roster in
(17:30):
two thousand two without anyone listed at number ten. FIFA refused.
FIFA president, stept Bladder suggested giving the number to the
third string goalie. That way, Argentina's number ten would be
legally permitted to use his hands. Oh that's stept Bladder,
always with the singers. In two thousand and five, Maravana
hosted a weekly TV show called Ten's Night. It started
(17:53):
at ten pm. He is the ultimate, the ultimate number
ten that makes of anarchy, of creativity, of of leadership,
as well the fact that he could be as one
sort of individual and represent the team. All the ingredients
of the perfect time are there. You know, don't one
upset the Messy fans or the Ronaldo fans, but MESSI
you know, yeah, maybe they're better players. Fine, but the
(18:15):
number ten is Diego. Did he wear it with the
most honor? I guess if you want to say, what
depends you know what you think of it. I just
think that he was the most interesting and the most
human of the ten gods out there, and so I
guess he wasn't a god. He was human. By now,
(18:36):
it was sealed, not one, but two of the greatest
to ever pull out a soccer jersey had the number
ten stitched on the back. The number ten was an
icon everyone had to have one. It's our old paleln
Salez called better than Bill or himself Fast, the team
he always played for, retired Machico's number ten jersey after
(18:58):
he finally quit. France has produced two great number ten's.
My personal favorite number ten is welcome Michael Jakin, the
number ten of Contrarians. Well, he was just one of
the most elegant and dominant playmakers ever, made them most
(19:23):
dominant playmaker ever. Between three six Latini won the Ballonda
or three times, the City Are, twice, the European Cup,
the Cup Winners Cup, the Euros and got third in
the World Cup. He was just a phenomenal player and
I enjoy watching his highlights more than I enjoy watching Maradonna.
(19:47):
For example, go back, what let we go? Number ten
tend to be associated with the big moments in the
big tournaments where they provide the difference. There are stories
about tournaments being dominated by players at times just run perception,
(20:13):
you know, because for example, Didan was poor, he was
outright paw during the ninety eight World cuple yourself breath
to badger. You had a poor tournament and four Italy
(20:38):
throughound this tournament. But in Europe eighty four when France
won and Michelle Platiny scored in every game and was
the top score of the tournament. From mid field, he
scored two hatricks. It's probably the best tournament by any player, really,
(21:00):
by any player ever. The guy scored nine goals in
five matches from midfield and led his team to their
frost ever gold medals. That was for me, the greatest
performance by a single player in a single tournament. Of course,
(21:25):
Zidan went and did what Platini couldn't, winning France's first
World Cup wearing the number ten. Saddan was the quiet
or silent assassin, and it was almost as if he
played with a belief that it was almost beneath him
to even be there with you. And you know that
beautiful arrogance all the world traffias on the brush lights,
(21:48):
around the stud brows. There were times where his fury
and his anger on the field was because it was
so easy for him and that he was operating on
a different plane, and so that you know, that's that's
how good he was. More about what happened next after
(22:09):
the break. Besides, when you grew up the number ten,
you most venerate depends on where you grow up. Well,
it's blue and it's fluttering in the wind, and fluttering
on top of it is a crinkly ponytail. Oh, what
(22:32):
do you mean? What does it mean? I think, men,
what does it mean to me? Of having raptures about
Davino Cordinot. But you're saying, what does the number ten
jersey mean? In Italy? And I think everywhere, but particularly
in Italy, it's venerated as being the soul of the team. Really,
James Richardson hosted the Totally Football show Everybody the Divine Ponytail.
(22:54):
That's his nickname. That's what his Netflix biopick is called
for all of us who had our regretted rat tail phase.
Baggio made it cool. He won two city our titles,
the Blunder and finished second and third in the World Cup.
Bricia retired the number ten jersey after he left. I
(23:19):
was blessed to be living in Italy, not just a lie,
but living in Italy at the time when you had
three of the greatest number ten's ever soon to be
followed by another Francisco Totti, because you had Zola and
Badjo and Robetto Mancini, all doing their thing in number
ten jerseys and city at the same time, and that
was extraordinary. But there was something about bad Joe, and
I can't put my finger on it. There was just
(23:41):
something about him that he'd stepped out of another dimension. Okay, well,
so Banco, how did he play? I mean, first of all,
he kind of defied description because he was so good.
And nowadays we have players with incredible armories of skills
(24:02):
and flicks and tricks and their names for a lot
of them. But Badger didn't really do those things. Sure,
he famously scored a Rabona goal, and he would do
stupid stuff like that, but generally speaking, he was a
lot more essential than that. He was flowing, he was fragile.
He was phenomenal, of course, but he seemed the way
that he moved on the field for me was a
(24:22):
little bit like a leaf skipping along on an autumn breeze.
He would just seem to glide along, and there wasn't
any much as a leaf. There wasn't any great kind
of directness necessarily to the movement. But there wasn't anything
that you could put your finger on. You couldn't pin
him down. And yes, he was gone, and there's just
(24:45):
something about him and the way that he the dignity
that he always had, and the grace he had. And yeah,
for me, he's the greatest number ten we got. FIFA
(25:07):
made changes to uniforms. They added squad numbers to the
front and put player names on the back. Commercial sponsors
threatened to crowd out any blank space, but cluttered as
uniforms have become. That number ten is still special when
you see it. So maybe it's all for the best
(25:28):
that Argentina couldn't retire in Maritona's jersey. I don't think
you can talk about the ten without talking about Argentina.
And there you have, of course Madelona, of course Messi
and one Romano Gillman as someone who's seen Messy play
in person and sees the highlights of Madonna. For me, Messi,
(25:50):
we'll go down in history as the best ever time.
And um, John, where should we forward our hate mail?
I'll take you this fine. I'm John Arnold, journalist who's
been covering US soccer for more than a decade. You know,
little Leo Messi, he just won his first World Cup
and has won every single other trophy and award multiple times,
setting all sorts of scoring and assisting records, crowd standing
(26:13):
as one. It is Bess searching for with real menace
here for Messy. Oh what a go? This is a
gorgeous one and Messi will not be denied this time.
I think he'll be looked at as the best tent
and the best player we've ever seen. I hope he
(26:34):
gets surpassed, because that's what sports is about, that's what
life is about. Change is constant. We want to see
our greats surpassed. And I think people who always stumped
for the guy that they watched, right, because it's always
going to feel like the best when you were watching
and you saw it, and that's your guy. But to me,
I think Messi will go down as the best ten
(26:56):
and I'd make the case. It's a tired debate in
the low out of ways, I think. But the number
ten isn't any particular guy. It's an idea. It's an archetype,
(27:17):
and there's unwritten rules about who is allowed to wear
the number ten jersey. When the number ten goes to
someone less talented, it's funds don't like, it's the press doesn't.
It's considered a big problem. For example, Italy at the
Sultan stage gave thember ten shots to Thiago Mota, who
(27:38):
actually is a very good player. He's a very intelligent player,
but he's a defensive midfield and given him the number
ten shots was considered a cry by the tenants. William Gallas,
a French defender war number ten at Arsenal, people still
talk about how dumb that was. Goalkeeper Castello got the jersey,
(27:58):
yet give An. He did it to win a bet
with his friends. There's this Latani Bradaimovich quote that I
think about a lot. This big Norwegian striker named John
Carew that one day made fun of latan S excessive flicks.
So Latan says, what John Carew can do with a football,
(28:20):
I can do with an orange. The old man I thought,
I used to juggle with an orange while doing errands
as a boy, A barefoot at bill dribbled grape fruits
through the streets of Baudou. These are guys who seem
to be playing a different sport with a different set
of Newtonian laws. Then there's the the aura of the
number ten, and you know that ah factor, whether it's
(28:41):
out loud or whether it's whispered, you know it's it's
like kaiser so say, or something like that. You know
you're you feel that you are in the presence of
something special, and even that can make you do things
that you didn't normally do. So, you know, stepping on
the field with with the greats, you have to be
aware of them, but you can't drown in your awe
(29:05):
of them, otherwise they've already won. The ten is the
player who does things that no one else saw coming.
Typically a player who is able to find the past
that creates the goal and often has to be extremely
creative to find that. There's something so irresistible about the
center of gravity and a team a guy who always
(29:28):
wants the ball at his feet, and you know when
you get the ball to him, something is going to happen.
You know, there is a Spanish phrase, the ball always
goes to the ten. And when you have that type
of player, that sort of son that everything else orbits around,
it's so special when it happens and it comes together
and it it actually works. I think the number ten
(29:49):
shirt is venerated in Italy because more often than not,
all the other work that the team does can really
only come to its ultimate fluation if the number ten
does his job. It's essentially all going through him and
the strikers. What they achieve will be because of what
the number ten has done. He he is the mind
(30:11):
of the team. He is also and I think this
is possibly also a particularly Italian perspective, because at times
their football wasn't as imaginative as, say, as some other
Latin nations. He was also the one player you would
rely on to have esther to bring some kind of fantasy.
In fact, in Italy it's even called a fantasist at
that position, to bring some creativity to the team, to
(30:31):
do the unexpected, to achieve the impossible at a time
when it seemed that there were no options. The fantasist
that the number ten will be able to magic something up,
the ultimate creative player, the player who's I guess sole
responsibility was to be creative. Different sports revere different numbers.
Everybody knows Michael Jordan war twenty three right. Jordan played
(30:53):
in the eighties and nineties, But before we had names
on jerseys or substitutions, or cards, or color TVs or
fax machines, soccer had number ten. The best soccer podcast
in the world is a production of exiled content Studios
in partnership with I Hearts Michael podcast Network and is
(31:13):
hosted by Me Nando Villa, produced by An and Zach
Lee Rigg, Written by Zach Lee Rigg. Production assistants by
Stella Emmett. Our executive producers are Isaac Lee Rose Reed
and myself Nando Villa. Our executive producers at I Heart
are Gisel Dances and Arlene Santana. Sound designed by Ula
Mendoza Are Awesome. Theme song is by lu j Special
(31:36):
Thanks to all the voices who participated in this episode,
John Arnold, Alexei Lallas, Michael Yoke and James Richardson and
Gabriele Marcoti. For more podcasts, listen to the I Heart
Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
favorite shows,
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