(Update: Sancho deal now confirmed by both Borussia Dortmund and Manchester United)
The Manchester United No.7 shirt had endured quite a slump lately, despite its marvelously rich history. Legends among legends George Best, Bryan Robson, Eric Cantona, David Beckham and Cristiano Ronaldo all wore it, but so did busts Angel Di Maria, Alexis Sanchez and Memphis Depay.
While that second group of players have found success elsewhere, they just couldn’t fully succeed in Old Trafford red. One guy who really has succeeded at United however is Edinson Cavani, who wore the shirt last season. He was probably United’s best signing of last summer as he truly delivered the goods.
And now that United have closed the deal on their splash signing of the 2021 summer, in Jadon Sancho, the new arrival has requested the lucky number 7. This means that Cavani will be given a new number for the 2021-22 campaign. This according to a report in the Evening Standard.
The ES article points out that with “Anthony Martial’s future at the club uncertain, Cavani could end up taking his no. 9. The other vacant numbers include 12, 15 and 20.”
Martial has been linked with a move away for some time, and if he does indeed leave, you’ll be looking at a United attack that features Cavani as a centre forward, with Marcus Rashford lining up on the left, with Sancho on the right, backed up by Mason Greenwood.
Factor in Bruno Fernandes and Paul Pogba pushing forward in the midfield, and wow that’s quite the lineup. There is, potentially, a whole lot of great service potentially going to Cavani.
We’ve seen varying reports on how much the Jadon Sancho transfer fee is exactly, but all the of the monetary figures are in a specific range that would make him the third most expensive player in United history. The only two more expensive players in their history are Harry Maguire and Paul Pogba.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank, partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America” and “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” has regularly appeared in WGN, Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune.