Real Madrid forward Vinicius Junior will wear Real Madrid’s iconic shirt number 7 next season the club has revealed.
The Brazilian was electric from season while wearing number 20 and managed to score 20 goals and provided 10 assists in 49 matches in all competitions.
His goals helped Real Madrid finish second in La Liga, win the Copa del Rey and Club World Cup, as well as reach the Champions League semifinals.
Vinicius inherits the shirt number from Eden Hazard, who agreed to terminate his contract with Real Madrid after a disappointing four years in the Spanish capital.
Hazard joined Real Madrid after lighting up the Premier League with Chelsea, Hazard was believed to carry on with the same performance, but a string of injuries and a run of poor form limited his appearances and never lived up to the expectations of the club, let alone the expectations of such an iconic shirt number.
Hazard inherited the shirt number from the legendary Cristiano Ronaldo who did wonders during his nine-year stay at Real Madrid, as he broke records and set new ones, becoming the club’s all-time top scorer with 450 goals. Ronaldo himself inherited the number from former club captain Raul Gonzalez.
With such iconic legendary players donning the number seven at Real Madrid, much will be expected from Vinicius.
Another player that has changed a shirt number is Rodrygo Goes, who will wear the number 11 shirt that was most recently worn by Marco Asensio. Prior to that, it was Gareth Bale’s number.
The number 9 shirt is still vacant after Karim Benzema moved to Saudi Arabian club Al Ittihad over a week ago.
