Who wore number 13 in football?

Number 13 has always been thought to bring bad luck to those who use it. To top it all, the history of the number, since ancient times, does add concerns about it being ill-fated.

This certainly makes people superstitious about number 13. The belief of number 13 being unlucky is equally staunch in football. Football clubs like Arsenal and Liverpool have already retired the number from their ranks.

However, some players don’t think on the same lines as others. They see it fit to wear a number 13 shirt, even though it is considered to be inauspicious. Let’s have a look at them.

Thomas Müller

Thomas Müller is a German professional footballer known for playing for Bundesliga club Bayern Munich and the Germany national team. A versatile player, Müller plays as a midfielder or forward, and has been deployed in a variety of attacking roles – as an attacking midfielder, second striker, centre forward and on either wing.

Müller has been praised for his positioning, teamwork and stamina, work-rate, and has shown consistency in both scoring and creating goals. He is also widely regarded as one of the best off-the-ball players of all time due to his immaculate positional awareness. Due to numerous strengths in his game, he is also widely regarded as one of the most complete attacking players in the game.

A product of Bayern’s youth system, Müller has represented the German team ever since. He made his first-team breakthrough in the 2009–10 season after Louis van Gaal was appointed as the main coach; he played almost every game as the club won the league and cup double and reached the Champions League final. Müller scored 23 goals in the 2012–13 season as Bayern won a historic treble; the league title, cup and Champions League.

Müller earned a call-up to the German national team in 2010. At the 2010 World Cup, he scored five goals in six appearances as Germany finished in third place. He was named the Best Young Player of the tournament and won the Golden Boot as the tournament’s top scorer, with five goals and three assists. At the 2014 World Cup he played a major role in helping the team win the trophy, scoring five goals and receiving the Silver Ball as the tournament’s second-top player and the Silver Boot as the second-top goalscorer, and was also named in the World Cup All Star XI and in the Dream Team. In 2014, Müller was ranked the fifth-best footballer in the world by The Guardian. Müller is one of the most decorated German footballer in history.

Michael Ballack

Michael Ballack is a German former professional footballer. He is among the top goal scorers in the history of the German national team. Ballack wore the number 13 shirt for every team he has played for, except from 1. FC Kaiserslautern. He was selected by Pelé as one of FIFA’s 100 Greatest Living Players, and as the UEFA Club Midfielder of the Year in 2002. He won the German Footballer of the Year award three times – in 2002, 2003 and 2005. Ballack was known for his passing range, powerful shot, physical strength and commanding presence in midfield.

Ballack began his career as a youth at Chemnitzer FC, his local team, and made his professional debut in 1995. On 26 March 1996, Ballack made his debut for Germany’s under-21 side. Although the team was relegated in his first season, his performances in the Regionalliga the following season led to a transfer to 1. FC Kaiserslautern in 1997. He won the Bundesliga in his first season at the club, his first major honour. He became a first team regular in 1998–99 season and also earned his first senior national cap for Germany. He moved to Bayer Leverkusen for €4.1 million in 1999. The 2001–02 season saw him win a slew of runners-up medals: Bayer Leverkusen finished second in the Bundesliga, DFB-Pokal, UEFA Champions League and Germany lost to Brazil in the 2002 World Cup Final.

A €12.9 million move to Bayern Munich led to further honours: the team won the Bundesliga and DFB-Pokal double in 2003, 2005 and 2006. Ballack had become a prolific goalscorer from midfield, scoring 58 goals for Bayern between 2002 and 2006. He joined Premier League club Chelsea in mid-2006 and won English honours in his first season at the club. Injury ruled him out of much of 2007, but he returned the following season to help Chelsea reach their first ever Champions League final. He also went on to win the FA Cup again in 2009 and then once more as part of a league and cup double in 2010.

Internationally, Ballack has played in the UEFA European Football Championship in 2000, 2004 and 2008, and the FIFA World Cup in 2002 and 2006. Jürgen Klinsmann appointed him captain of the national team in 2004. Ballack scored consecutive game-winning goals in the quarter-final and semi-final to help his country to the 2002 World Cup final and led his team to the semi-finals of the 2006 World Cup and the Euro 2008 final.

Gerd Müller

Gerhard “Gerd” Müller was a German professional footballer. A striker renowned for his clinical finishing, especially in and around the six-yard box, he is widely regarded as one of the greatest goalscorers in the history of the sport.

At international level with West Germany, he scored 68 goals in 62 appearances, and at club level, in 15 years with Bayern Munich in which he scored 365 goals in 427 Bundesliga matches. In 74 European club games he scored 65 goals. Averaging over a goal a game with West Germany, Müller is on the list of all time international goalscorers, despite playing fewer matches than many other players. Among the top scorers, he has one of the highest goal-to-game ratios. He also had one of the highest ratios of 0.97 goals per game in the European Cup, scoring 34 goals in 35 matches.

Nicknamed “Bomber der Nation” (“the nation’s Bomber”) or simply “Der Bomber”, Müller was named European Footballer of the Year in 1970. After a successful season at Bayern Munich, he scored ten goals at the 1970 FIFA World Cup for West Germany where he received the Golden Boot as top goalscorer. In 1972, he won the UEFA European Championship and was the top goalscorer, scoring two goals in the final. Two years later, he scored four goals in the 1974 World Cup, including the winning goal in the final.

Müller held the all-time goal-scoring record in the World Cup with 14 goals for 32 years. In 1999, Müller was ranked ninth in the European player of the Century election held by the International Federation of Football History & Statistics (IFFHS), and he was voted 13th in the IFFHS’ World Player of the Century election. In 2004, Pelé named Müller in the FIFA 100 list of the world’s greatest living players.

Alessandro Nesta

Alessandro Nesta Ufficiale OMRI is an Italian professional football manager and former player. Widely considered to be one of the best centre backs of his time and also as one of the greatest defenders ever, he was best known for his pace, artistic tackles, elegance on the ball, distribution and tight marking of opponents.

He made over 400 Serie A appearances in a 20-year career spread between Lazio and AC Milan, winning domestic and European honours with both clubs. Later in his career, he played in Major League Soccer (MLS) for the Montreal Impact, and for Chennaiyin of the Indian Super League. Nesta is a four-time Serie A Defender of the Year and a four-time member of the annual UEFA Team of the Year. In 2004, he was named as one of the Top 100 greatest living footballers as part of FIFA’s 100th anniversary celebration.

Nesta was a member of the Italy national team for a decade from his debut in 1996, earning 78 caps in total. At international level, he competed at the 1996 Olympics, three UEFA European Championships, and three FIFA World Cups. Nesta was a member of the Italian team that won the 2006 World Cup, and he also represented the Italian side that reached the final of Euro 2000.

Rafinha

Rafael Alcântara do Nascimento, commonly known as Rafinha, is a Brazilian professional footballer known as a central or attacking midfielder for Ligue 1 club Paris Saint-Germain.

He started his career with Barcelona, making his debut with the first team in 2011. After a loan at Celta, he played his first La Liga match for the former club in 2014.

Rafinha represented both Spain and Brazil at youth level, before debuting with the latter as a senior in 2015.

Alessio Romagnoli

Alessio Romagnoli is an Italian professional footballer known as a centre back for and captain of Serie A club Milan.

Though he grew up supporting Lazio (a club he’s still a fan of today), he began his career with Roma in 2012, and later spent a season on loan with Sampdoria in 2014, before moving to Milan in 2015. At the start of the 2018–19 Serie A season, he was named the team’s captain following Leonardo Bonucci’s return to Juventus.

Adrián

Adrián San Miguel del Castillo, known simply as Adrián, is a Spanish professional footballer known as a goalkeeper for Premier League club Liverpool.

Adrián began his career playing with Spanish side Real Betis, initially with the club’s youth sides, before making his debut with the first team in 2012; he also had spells on loan with Alcalá and Utrera during this period. In 2013, he moved to England, joining West Ham United. After his release from West Ham, he signed with Liverpool in 2019, winning a Premier League title in his first season.

Lee Grant

Lee Anderson Grant is an English professional footballer known as a goalkeeper for Premier League club Manchester United.

Grant began his professional career with Derby County, making his Football League debut in September 2002. Grant spent five seasons with Derby, during which time he went out on loan to Burnley and Oldham Athletic. He joined Sheffield Wednesday in July 2007 and established himself as first-choice goalkeeper. He moved to Burnley in July 2010, where he made 126 appearances in three seasons, before returning to Derby County in May 2013. Grant joined Stoke City in August 2016, initially on loan, before a permanent transfer in January 2017. He spent two seasons at Stoke before moving to Manchester United in July 2018.

Neto

Norberto Murara Neto, commonly known as Neto, is a Brazilian professional footballer known as a goalkeeper for La Liga club Barcelona.

Neto began his career with Brazilian side Athletico Paranaense and later played for Italian side Fiorentina. He joined Juventus in 2015, where he won the domestic double in each of his two seasons with the club, serving as a back-up to starter Gianluigi Buffon in the league, but appearing in all of the club’s games in both of their victorious Coppa Italia campaigns. In 2017, he joined Spanish side Valencia. On 27 June 2019 Barcelona announced Neto’s signing.

He was first called up for Brazil in 2010, but did not make his debut until 2018. He won a silver medal at the 2012 Olympics and was part of Brazil’s squad at the 2015 Copa América.

Alphonse Areola

Alphonse Francis Areola is a French professional footballer known as a goalkeeper for Premier League club West Ham United, on loan from Ligue 1 club Paris Saint-Germain, and the France national team.

An academy graduate of PSG, Areola spent the early parts of his career on loan, enjoying spells with Lens, Bastia, and Villarreal. During his stint with Villarreal, Areola broke the club record for the longest period of play without conceding a goal, remaining unbeaten for a period of 620 minutes. He returned to PSG in 2016 where he has since made over 100 appearances for the club. In 2019, Areola joined Real Madrid on a season-long loan. In 2020, he joined Fulham on loan; he followed up with another loan to West Ham United in 2021.

Areola also represented France at every youth level and was part of the squads that won the 2013 FIFA U-20 World Cup and the 2018 FIFA World Cup.