14 November 2023 , 08:30
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Former Real Madrid superstar Zinedine Zidane has revealed that Florentino Perez's personal preferences influenced him to pick the same shirt number that Jude Bellingham now wears for the club.
The World Cup winner famously donned the number five on his back on his way to cementing his icon status at Santiago Bernabeu between 2001 and 2006. Not usually an orthodox shirt number for a midfielder of his ilk to wear, he became synonymous with the jersey in the Spanish capital.
Now, the hero of Madrid's legendary Champions League win at Hampden Park in 2002, has revealed how the idea for him to wear the number was the brainchild of club president Perez. In a wide-ranging exchange with fellow Ballon d'Or victor Lionel Messi for Adidas Football, he described how the Los Blancos chief pushed him into the decision to pick it.
Following in his footsteps over two decades after he first joined the LaLiga giants, Englishman Bellingham has since adopted the shirt number in homage to Zidane. The boy wonder looks to have been galvanised by the decision, having notched a staggering 13 goals in his first 14 outings.
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Now, the man known to many as 'Zizou' has reflected on Bellingham's swashbuckling start to life as the new incumbent in the number five shirt at Madrid. And he explained the 'rule' imposed by Florentino Perez which forced Zidane's hand and may well have caused Bellingham to do the same.
Describing how he first decided to take the number back in 2001, Zidane said: "It was kind of weird to see someone else with the number five, seeing a central midfielder with the number five was weird.
"But do you know how that happened? Florentino [Perez], the president, didn't like players wearing high numbers like 25, 30, 35, he was from the old school. The number one for the goalkeeper and then up to number 11, that’s it.
"[Former Real player Manolo] Sanchis had the number five and played in defence," he explained. "He left and when I got there the president told me ‘wouldn't you like to have a number from one to ten?
Zinedine Zidane famously wore the number five during his glittering spell with Real Madrid (PIERRE-PHILIPPE MARCOU/AFP via Getty Images)"I said yes and picked the number five shirt because he didn’t want me to have 25, 30, 35. He said ‘this is not football, this is American football’ so in the end I got five."
Zidane added: "He said ‘please’ and I thought ‘it’s my first day, I will say yes’ but in the end the number five for me is now strong because it’s history with me, with Madrid, the number 10 but the number five too. I don’t remember much about the number 21 with Juve."
Fast forward 22 years and Perez is still calling the shots at Los Blancos, even if it is unclear whether he had an influence on Bellingham taking Zidane's former jersey. What is certain is that he appears to have been inspired by the weight of the shirt, after experiencing one of the best starts to a Madrid career in history.
Previously, Bellingham had worn the number 22 at club level with previous employers Birmingham City and Borussia Dortmund. He also wore the number at international level before flittering between the number eight and number ten jersey in the past year with the Three Lions.