Who's Behind the Shirt? - Manchester United No. 7

Inspired by a post by @tomlee and his comment regarding Thiago Alcantara (and subsequently seeing the long line of poor Liverpool No. 6's - Luis Alberto, Don Hutchison, Phil Babb, Fabio Aurelio, Markus Babbel, Dejan Lovren, John Arne Riise), it got me thinking about the shirt numbers at each club that have some historical significance (or not).

Although shirts have had numbers for a long time, it was the 1993/94 season that squad numbers were introduced and with it an association with a shirt number that would increase the history, and in some cases the burden, that the player wearing that shirt would carry.

In some clubs, a shirt number is more than just a shirt number. It's symbolic of the greats that have worn the shirt before. And at Manchester United, the number 7 shirt has been worn by some of the club's greats going back to the days of George Best.

Source

So with a focus on the Premier League era, who has worn Manchester United's legendary number 7?

1993 / 1994 - Eric Cantona
1994 / 1995 - Eric Cantona
1995 / 1996 - Eric Cantona
1996 / 1997 - Eric Cantona
1997 / 1998 - David Beckham
1998 / 1999 - David Beckham
1999 / 2000 - David Beckham
2000 / 2001 - David Beckham
2001 / 2002 - David Beckham
2002 / 2003 - David Beckham
2003 / 2004 - Cristiano Ronaldo
2004 / 2005 - Cristiano Ronaldo
2005 / 2006 - Cristiano Ronaldo
2006 / 2007 - Cristiano Ronaldo
2007 / 2008 - Cristiano Ronaldo
2008 / 2009 - Cristiano Ronaldo
2009 / 2010 - Michael Owen
2010 / 2011 - Michael Owen
2011 / 2012 - Michael Owen
2012 / 2013 - Antonio Valencia
2013 / 2014 - Vacant
2014 / 2015 - Angel Di Maria
2015 / 2016 - Memphis Depay
2016 / 2017 - Memphis Depay
2017 / 2018 - Alexis Sanchez
2018 / 2019 - Alexis Sanchez
2019 / 2020 - Alexis Sanchez
2020 / 2021 - Edinson Cavani

Wow! What a list that is. Some of the greatest players of all time have worn the shirt so it's understandable what an honour it is.

I won't eulogise each player, that'll take too long (as it did with my David Beckham competition entry but I'll make a few observations.

Despite the greatness of the names on this list, since Cristiano Ronaldo, the wearers of this shirt have underdelivered for Manchester United, with the exception of Antonio Valencia who played much better when "demoted" to number 25.

Michael Owen played a bit-part (but did score some important goals), Di Maria and Depay would have been forgotten if I hadn't made the list. Sanchez, world class for Arsenal has disappeared since and Cavani is past his best but doing a job when needed.

A quick Google search for "manchester united no 7 shirt" focusses on this fact - Is the shirt cursed since Cristiano Ronaldo left?

I'll leave that with you to discuss.

*Note: You wouldn't believe how many times I typed shirt without the 'r' whilst writing this.