Manchester United recently announced that terms with Jadon Sancho have been agreed on.
The Dortmund star is joining Manchester United in a transfer worth £73million, and this is expected to take place after the Euros.
In Germany, Sancho currently wears the number seven shirt.
And as is customary for footballers these days, the England international has started to build a JS7 brand around it.
There’s one little problem though, at Manchester United, the number seven shirt is worn by Edinson Cavani.
United were unsure whether they’d be able to tie Cavani down to another season at Old Trafford after his dad went on record to say he is unhappy living in the UK and plans to return to South America.
(Image: REUTERS)
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But the Red Devils managed to convince him to put pen to paper for at least one more campaign.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and co. were keen to keep the Uruguayan striker on their books for a number of reasons, not least because he chipped in with an excellent 17 goals in all competitions last season.
And they’ll want to keep him happy now that he’s an integral part of the club and its potential for success.
This is, of course, where things get tricky.
United will obviously want to accommodate new signing Sancho.
It’s not every day the club spends £73million on a marquee signing, and they’ll be keen to help build Sancho’s JS7 brand for their own commercial gain.
But in doing so, and stripping Cavani of the number seven, they may upset the apple cart in other ways.
The Red Devils have been in this position before after they signing Zlatan Ibrahimovich.
At the time, Anthony Martial wore the number nine shirt, but he had that taken off of him and it was handed to the Swede.
Martial was forced to wear the number 11 instead and it was only a few years later that Patrice Evra spoke out on his compatriot’s behalf to reveal he felt let down by the episode.
(Image: Pool via REUTERS)
“I think [Martial] had a brilliant start when he played under [Louis] van Gaal,” Evra told Sky Sports. “Then I remember one episode, unfortunately, I think they let him really down when they swapped the shirt with Zlatan.
“I remember we were in the national team and he received a call from the club and they say you have to give your No. 9 shirt, and he was like, ‘No, absolutely not’.
“But after, [Jose] Mourinho contacted him to say Zlatan is going to take the No. 9 and you’re going to take the No. 11. It’s not like I’m going to say Martial’s been not playing well because of that number shirt, but it started from there.”
Evra added: “I remember at the beginning of the season I went to Carrington and Martial was really upset and really frustrated because he was injured.
“And I was like, ‘Wow, Anto, that’s really impressive because last time I saw you, you weren’t that enthusiastic, and now when you’re injured you want to come back really fast to help the team’”.
As aforementioned, Man United’s intentions are not yet clear and Sancho may be required to wait before he inherits the legendary shirt number from Cavani, but history suggests it’s an issue the Red Devils can’t take lightly.
