Even those who don’t care about squad numbers will admit it was strange to see Eden Hazard in pre season wearing a number to commemorate the moon landings on his back. According to reports he will be wearing a number synonymous with some genuine Real Madrid legends.
When you think of the number seven at Real Madrid some magnificent players leap to mind. Cristiano Ronaldo, Raul, Emilio Butragueño and now Eden Hazard.
READ MORE: Hazard wears bizarre shirt number on Real Madrid debut – but won’t be allowed to keep it for the season
The Real Madrid website was updated today and it shows Eden Hazard will be wearing the number seven this season, with the prevous holder Mariano now being assigned the number 24.
Interestingly Gareth Bale is still listed with his number 11 shirt.
The Belgian ended his time at Chelsea and Lille wearing the number 10 shirt, but it looks like he will need to wait for Luka Modric to leave before he could have any possibility of taking that shirt.
Squad numbers tend to be a bigger deal in Spain where league rules usually limit the use of numbers between 1-25 unless they are assigned to a youth team player who isn’t currently part of the first team squad.
Real have been disappointing so far this pre-season so Zinedine Zidane will be hoping they start the La Liga season well as they look to reclaim the league title from Barcelona.
