There's something about shirt numbers that make them a little sacred. Morgan Schneiderlin getting the number two shirt at Everton and Jordan Ayew wearing number three up front for Swansea didn't get too good a reaction recently. So lord knows what everyone thinks of this Brazilian team.
Once upon a time footballers wore the numbers 1-11 but that was before shirts had names on the back and fans forked out a fortune every year for the new shirt with their favourite player and number on the back.
The number one shirt should always be given to the goalkeeper, not the number two shirt that Sheffield Wednesday's Joe Wildsmith wears, the utter maniac. Nine, 10 and 11 should be left for your forwards and the lower digit numbers for your defenders, anything else messes us about.
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Joe Wildsmith is an enemy of football. Image: PA Images
Players will always need numbers higher than 11 in this world of the 'squad game' but number in the 40 plusses will equally have us questioning all the is right in life, like the 84 worn by Mathieu Flamini at Milan.
Former Inter Milan forward Ivan Zamorano had the best use of a number ever. When his favoured number nine was taken by Ronaldo he took the number 18 shirt and stuck a + sign between the 1 and 8.
However Brazilian club side Fluminense de Feira have taken the use of squad numbers to a whole new level and incorporated them into their chirt sponsorship deal.
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They have used the numbers on the back of their shirts to show the deals that one can pick up at the local supermarket. The number 10 advertising pizza for 10.98 whilst one defender makes sure you know Shampoo costs 5.98.
Images: Facebook
It's certainly a new use of shirt numbers. Not sure I see it catching on, although putting the price of paracetamol on the shirt of a player who is constantly getting injured could be fun.
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