Numbers game
11 Nov 2026 - The Guardian Part 1 Picking the male players who have defined football’s shirts Rob Smyth Will Unwin Sachin Nakrani 1 - Lev Yashin One is the loneliest number, but it also allows you to stand out – especially in football, where you play by different rules and wear different attire. Nobody stood out quite like Yashin, the almost mythical USSR and Dynamo Moscow goalkeeper of the 1950s and 1960s. He often wore a flat cap in goal, and his trademark kit led to the nicknames “Black Spider” or “Black Panther” (strictly speaking, it should have been the less catchy Very Very Dark Blue Spider). Yashin remains the only goalkeeper to have won the Ballon d’Or. With a respectful nod to Dino Zoff, Peter Schmeichel and others, he was a simple choice. 2 - Cafu It would be a crime against dynamism and flair if we did not give one of the traditional full-back numbers to a Brazilian. Some of their great right-backs did not actually wear No 2 – Djalma Santos and Carlos Alberto, World Cu...
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