If you were to ask most Northern Ireland followers what number David Healy wore when he scored his debut brace against Luxembourg, or what number Steven Davis had on his shirt when he lofted the ball through to Healy to smash home against England they would likely say nine and eight respectively. Those fans would be wrong. The youngsters hadn’t yet cemented their claim for the numbers that adorned their kits as they became legends. The pair actually donned the ten and six shirts, with old-stagers James Quinn and Damien Johnson taking the young starlet’s preferred digits.
With squad numbers becoming a fixture on Northern Ireland shirts since 2012, the question is, would Healy and Davis have moved to those more famous numbers? Established starters nowadays such as Craig Cathcart, Stuart Dallas and Paddy McNair have held on to the 20, 14 and 17 jerseys that have been theirs since Euro 2016 and before while the once treasured number nine shirt has been tossed around any number of centre-forwards since Healy left the international stage behind.
Outlined below is a potted history of Northern Ireland shirt numbers with a general outline of how they have evolved...
[there are many gaps in my knowledge and understanding on this topic, so if you can add or correct anything, please get in touch]- 1883 – For the first 50 years of their existence, players for the Ireland football team, goalkeepers aside, did not wear any unique identification.
- 1897 – the first known instance of an international sporting side wearing numbers on their jerseys as New Zealand’s rugby team faced Queensland in Brisbane. The hosts wore 1-15 and the visitors 16-30 with a match card allowing the supporters to identify the players by name. The first use of numbers in the British Isles was in 1921 in an England vs Wales Five Nations match. Numbering practices varied over the years, with some rugby clubs even employing a lettering instead. International rugby numbering practices weren’t standardised until 1967 when the “France/Ireland” numbering system was universally employed ahead of the “British” system that had been used by England, Scotland and Wales.
- 1911 – Australian rugby sides continued an ad-hoc use of numbers and the practice was employed by a Sydney-based Australian Rules side, with a local soccer club following suit shortly thereafter – the first use of numbers by a football team came in Australia. The following year (1912) it became mandatory for all players in New South Wales to wear numbers on their backs.
- 1923 – the first known instance of a British side wearing shirt numbers as Third Lanark and Argentina’s “Zona Norte” both wore 1-11 shirts during the Scottish club’s South American tour.
- 1928 – the first instance of numbers being worn on British soil as Herbert Chapman’s Arsenal wore 1-11 against Sheffield Wednesday in numbers 12-22 at Highbury.
- 1933 – Everton (1-11) and Manchester City (12-22) become the first teams to wear numbers in an FA Cup final.
- 1937 – England wear numbers for the first time in an official international against Norway in Oslo.
- 1939 – having previously rejected numbering proposals on several occasions dating back to 1933, the Football League make shirt numbers mandatory for the short-lived 1939/40 season.
- Numbering had settled down to each team wearing 1-11 in line with the standard 2-3-5 / W-M formation. Players remained easily identifiable as each number related to an on-field position. This remained the case, in British football at least, until formations began to evolve in the 1960s and you could no longer rely on number 9 being a striker or the player on the right wing wearing a 7 on their back.
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| 2-3-5 formation lay-out |
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| W-M was an evolution of 2-3-5 |
- 1950 – first World Cup (hosted by Brazil) with numbered jerseys, but fixed squad numbers would not be introduced until the next edition, at Switzerland 1954
- 1958 – Northern Ireland employ squad numbers for the first time having qualified for the World Cup Finals in Sweden.
- Northern Ireland’s 1-11 numbering is quite telling. Having lost Jackie Blanchflower due to the injuries he sustained at the Munich Disaster, Peter Doherty went into the tournament unsure of his best defence. Ultimately, he fielded a team with two right-backs and without a recognised centre-half. Dick Keith wore the number five but lined-up on the right of defence while Willie Cunningham wore his usual number two jersey but played in an unfamiliar central role. Centre-forward provided further interest, with injury ruling out Billy Simpson, a hodgepodge of options were tried upfront meaning that the number nine was the only 1-11 jersey not to get an outing.
- 1973 – Numbers on shorts vs Portugal in Coventry. In the early 70s, numbers were appearing everywhere on kits - note Leeds' stocking tags also used by Scotland.
- 1970s – player names begin to appear on NASL jerseys around 1974 and are almost universal in the league within a few years.
- 1979-1981 – Scotland experiment with squad numbers and names on jerseys, the first ever national team to do so. These were worn on at least two occasions against Northern Ireland.
- 1980 – Squad numbers are used by Northern Ireland in the Home Nations Championship. They may have been used earlier, England and Scotland definitely did so.
- 1981 – When the Intercontinental Cup relocated to Tokyo (as the Toyota Cup) in February 1981 the Nottingham Forest shirts (including Martin O'Neill's) had players' names on their back, a first for British clubs.
- 1982 & 1986 – Numbers on NI shorts for World Cup finals. Had been the practice since the 1974 World Cup.
- What is interesting is that players who featured at both tournaments, even those who held 1-11 shirts in both Spain and Mexico, moved about.
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| Multiple players changed numbers between the 1982 & 1986 World Cups |
- 1990 (May) – Numbers appeared on players' shorts for Danny Blanchflower's testimonial, but disappear for a friendly against Uruguay 17 days later - the last outings for the Adidas kits in this era.
- 1992 – The European Championships in Sweden become the first major tournament to feature player names on jerseys.
- 1993 – English Premier League introduce squad numbers and names for all teams.
- 1994 – The USA World Cup sees player names on jerseys for the first time.
- 1996 – Numbers on front of NI shirts for first time. A regular feature for competitive games but not friendlies. Match details added to the shirts at the same time.
- 1998 – Small numbers appear regularly on OS kit shorts.
- 2002 – Distillery become the first Irish League club to use squad numbers and have its' players' names on shirt. (Linfield in 2010)
- 2003 – Aaron Hughes adopts the number 18 shirt for all games – the first instance of a Northern Ireland player regularly starting in a shirt outside 1-11.
- 2008 – Names on Northern Ireland shirts for the first time for a match against Slovakia. It proved to be a false dawn with un-named/1-11 numbered shirts returning for a further four years.
- 2012 – squad numbers/names become a regular feature of Adidas kits
- 2016 – Squad number movements in more recent times are comparatively rare, with many players holding on to their numbers outside 1-11 for their whole careers.
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| Nowadays even established players tend to make a squad number their own, even if outside the traditionally popular 1-11 |
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