It was confirmed earlier today that Alvaro Morata would take Yacine Adli’s number seven shirt at AC Milan, and a report has taken a look back at those who have donned the number in recent years.
Questions surround Morata’s move to Milan, on several levels. From queries about the differences between himself and Joshua Zirkzee to questions about the past, there are several things which are being pre-determined about the Spaniard’s Rossoneri time before he has even debuted.
Olivier Giroud, hopefully, ended the number nine curse, but questions are in place about whether that will be the case when Morata joins, and there is a distant question about the former Atletico Madrid striker’s ability to end a spell of underwhelming No. 7’s.
As Radio Rossonera recalls, there have been 10 players to don the number since the 1999-2000 season, starting with the legend, Andriy Shevchenko. Since then, no one has matched his legacy, or come anywhere close.
Ricardo Oliveira took the shirt after the striker departed in 2006 and scored three Serie A goals with the number on his back, and then Alexandre Pato took the number, but he never reached the levels that his first few seasons suggested he could.
Following Pato, Robinho took the reigns, but his previous goalscoring form could not be replicated with his new number. Jeremy Menez fell victim to the same curse after a fantastic opening season, and then Luiz Adriano, Gerard Deulofeu and Nikola Kalinic followed suit.
Samu Castillejo once again did not set the stage alight, and neither did Yacine Adli, so the shirt has another new recipient.
An underwhelming past, but one with a new heir. A potential to settle two historical questions, it is there for Morata to change, and he will aim to do that. He enters the Rossoneri picture when change is in full swing, and new heroes can emerge.
Outside of Pato, none of the other players had the talent to come close to Sheva.
Pato is the biggest WHAT IF talent Milan has had in the last 30 years. He should have been in the same company, with Messi, CR7, Neymar. Crazy that he is just 34 years old today.
I thought Gourcuff was super talented as well.
One of them injuries, the other bad attitude left us with regrets.
He got too friendly with Ronaldinho and his lifestyle allegedly. He was phenomenal though at the start. One of three gems pulled out of brazil by Leonardo
Pato explicitly said that MilanLab destroyed him. Still he was a huge part of the Scudetto and that goal against Barcelona in UCL was insane! The guy was even dating Barbara Berlusconi haha what a legend
It was Barbara. Not Milan lab. “Rode” her into the twilight of his career.
ROFLMAO 🤣🤣🤣😂😂😂😂
Seeing Kalinic’s name just reminds me of that 18/19 window, Kalinic(22.5m), Paqueta(39m), Piatek(35m), Caldara(37.5m), Castillejo(22.5m+Carlos Bacca), Diego Laxalt(20m), Higuain(10.5m loan fee), Fabio Borini(5.5m), and people complain about current management. Mirabelli was smoking something else. Nearly 200m wasted and 6th place to show for it. I’d rather have us do smart business than rubbish like this again.
Of all those players, only Kalinic and Borini were signed by Mirabelli, the rest are Leonardo’s work.
not a superstitious dude. all players but Pato with #7 till now were just plain *hi*. And that goes double for KaliNIČ