Who wore number 52 in football?

As squads around the world are bigger, and as players move more frequently, such higher numbers are being used more and more. Here are the few players who’ve used the number.

Nikola Maksimovic

Nikola Maksimović is a Serbian professional footballer who is known as a centre-back for Serie A club Genoa and the Serbia national team.

Able to play as a defensive midfielder, he grew up playing mainly as a central defender. He is agile for his considerable height (193 cm), combined with a predisposition for the air and marking opponents. At home he has been repeatedly compared to Nemanja Vidić.

Edoardo Bove

Edoardo Bove is an Italian professional footballer who is known as a midfielder for Serie A club Roma.

Danny Ward

Daniel Ward is a Welsh professional footballer who is known as a goalkeeper for Premier League club Leicester City and the Wales national team. Ward has also previously played for Liverpool and Wrexham as well as having loan spells at Tamworth, Morecambe, Aberdeen and Huddersfield Town. He was first called up to the Welsh national team in 2013 and made his debut in 2016. He was part of their squad that reached the semi-finals of UEFA Euro 2016, and the last 16 of UEFA Euro 2020.

Nicklas Bendtner

Nicklas Bendtner is a Danish former professional footballer who played as a forward. His preferred position was centre-forward, but he has also played on the right side of attack, and occasionally on the left. A large, tall, and physically strong player, he was known for his ability in the air and possessed a powerful header.

Having progressed through the youth ranks at Tårnby Boldklub, Kjøbenhavns Boldklub and Arsenal, Bendtner signed his first professional contract with Arsenal in 2005. He made his debut in October 2005 in the League Cup against Sunderland. For the 2006–07 season, Bendtner was loaned out to Championship club Birmingham City, where he made 48 appearances. Following his return to Arsenal, he became a regular first team player, but began to slip out of favour during the 2010–11 season. As a result, he moved on loan to Premier League club Sunderland for the majority of the 2011–12 season, where he made 30 appearances. He then spent the entire 2012–13 season on loan to Serie A club Juventus, where he made 10 appearances but failed to score. Bendtner was released by Arsenal in 2014. He subsequently joined VfL Wolfsburg on a free transfer, for whom he scored the winning goal in the 2015 DFL-Supercup. Released in 2016, he returned to England, where he spent the first half of the 2016–17 season with Nottingham Forest of the Championship, and in March 2017 he signed for Rosenborg.

Bendtner has played internationally for Denmark at under-16, under-17, under-19, under-21 and senior levels. He made his senior international debut as an 18-year-old, on 16 August 2006 in a friendly match against Poland, and scored his first international goal in that match. Bendtner was a member of Denmark’s 2010 FIFA World Cup and UEFA Euro 2012 squads, and helped them qualify for the 2018 World Cup.

Bendtner was as versatile forward capable of playing in several attacking positions. Although his preferred role was as a centre-forward, he has also been used out wide on either flank. A large, tall, and physically strong player, he was known for his ability in the air and possessed a powerful header.

Considered a promising but undisciplined player in his youth, he was regarded as “a player blessed with a fabulous all-round talent”, and a quick, intelligent, and hard-working striker, with a good positional sense, first touch, tactical awareness, and an ability to score goals or hold up the ball and create chances.

His former Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger once labelled Bendtner as a potentially “unstoppable striker”, and also described him as a player who as a youngster was “good in the air”, and who had “good technique, good stature, good pace, … good link play”, also adding that “he had it all in the locker.” Despite his talent and confidence in his abilities, Bendtner often struggled with injuries, which limited his fitness; he was also criticised in the media for his perceived arrogance, mentality, and inconsistency, as well as his off-field antics, and as a result, he has been accused of failing to live up to his potential.

Tonny Vilhena

Tonny Emilio Trindade de Vilhena, more commonly known as simply Tonny Vilhena, is a Dutch professional footballer who is known as a central midfielder for Russian Premier League side FC Krasnodar.

Alexander Merkel

Alexander Merkel is a Kazakh-German professional footballer who is known as a midfielder for Süper Lig club Gaziantep and the Kazakhstan national team.

Erik Sabo

Erik Sabo is a Slovak professional footballer who is known as a midfielder for Turkish Süper Lig club Çaykur Rizespor.