The No 10 shirt carries a lot of significance in football, but also for Yamal personally
Lamine Yamal will wear the No 19 shirt for Spain at the World Cup despite being the team’s star player.
This is despite already wearing the No 10 shirt for Barcelona at club level since the start of last season. Why is this, and who currently wears No 10 for Spain?
The player currently wearing the No 10 jersey for Spain is Dani Olmo, Yamal’s Barcelona teammate. At Barcelona Olmo wears the No 20, but in the Spain team shirt numbers are determined by seniority, which is basically judged by the number of caps a player has won for Spain.
Olmo has held Spain’s No 10 shirt since before Yamal’s debut for the national team. The midfielder has made 50 appearances for his country, double Yamal’s tally, which gives him priority when selecting from the available numbers.
When Olmo made his debut for Spain, the No 10 shirt was available and he has worn it ever since. With the same jersey still available and Olmo choosing first due to seniority, he has decided to retain the shirt, while Yamal will continue with the number he wore during Spain’s Euro 2024 campaign.
The No 10 shirt carries a lot of significance in football, but also for Yamal personally. The two immediate frontrunners in his position for Barcelona, Lionel Messi and Ronaldinho, had both worn the No 10 shirt for Barcelona and for Argentina and Brazil respectively.
At club level, Ronaldinho handed down the No 10 shirt to Messi. The No 19 shirt Yamal currently wears was also previously worn by Messi for Argentina before the No 10 shirt became available.
However, Yamal does not mind wearing the No 19 shirt for Spain and there was no dispute between him and Olmo over the No 10 jersey, according to people close to the Spain squad.
Yamal will be one of Spain’s most prominent players as they pursue only their second ever World Cup title and a repeat of the successes of Spain’s 2008-2012 generation.
