Varane Can End a Decade of Frustration for Zidane's No. 5 Shirt at Real Madrid
Famous shirt numbers are associated with many players throughout world football, both on the club and international front. While sometimes it's a specific number that encourages comparisons of players across countries or eras, there are also clubs with rich histories of their own for a particular shirt.
At Real Madrid, the most likely one to spring to mind is No. 7, presently worn by Cristiano Ronaldo and formerly of Raul, and others would also likely be worn by attackers—therefore reasonably high in the old 1-to-11 arrangement.
When Zinedine Zidane rocked up to the Santiago Bernabeu in 2001, however, he took hold of the No. 5 shirt; at the time, it seemed ill-suited to a scheming, creative attacker, but the lines have since become blurred with squad numbers and positions, and Zidane made the No. 5 an associative image of his own in white.
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Since he parted ways with it, however, the newly weighted number has been passed on from one to another with remarkably little success, with a decade's worth of players attempting to inherit it with style and grace...and failing badly, for the most part.
This season sees Raphael Varane swap No. 2 for No. 5 as he bids to finally become an undisputed starter at Los Blancos, and perhaps there, finally, Real Madrid have a worthy successor for the shirt that Zidane, now Varane's manager, made so iconic.
Zidane, the legend
The French playmaker arrived at Real from Juventus for a then-world-record fee, ending his first season with a Champions League win—just like he would do as a manager 14 years later, of course.
With the No. 5 on his back, Zidane went on to win LaLiga, the FIFA World Player of the Year and a one-off award from UEFA marking him as the best player of the last 50 years. He famously retired after the 2006 FIFA World Cup final, in which he scored a goal for France, head-butted Marco Materazzi and was sent off before the penalty shootout, which Italy won.
Zidane played over 200 times for Real Madrid across his five-year stay, and quite aside from the haul of individual awards and six trophies he won in that time, perhaps the most memorable instances of his time in white were the constant highlight reels he provided with his ingenuity, skill, vision and unique style.
He left Real Madrid a true legend, not just of the club but of the game itself, and his No. 5 shirt was omnipresent throughout.
The World Cup winner's decline
Zidane's retirement left a big hole, not just in terms of quality on the pitch but in leadership, experience and elite quality, so Real Madrid sought to fill it with someone of equal standing.
The No. 5 shirt was immediately passed to Fabio Cannavaro, with he and Zidane sharing more than one similarity: They both joined Madrid from Juventus, played in that 2006 World Cup final and were nominated to the Golden Ball award for the tournament, with the defender ending as runner-up to the midfielder.
Initially, Cannavaro's signing worked out; he played 39 times in the first season under Fabio Capello and, even if he wasn't at his absolute best throughout, still capped the calendar year by being named Ballon d'Or winner. He's still the last player to win the award other than Kaka, Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi a decade later.
By the start of the following season, though, Cannavaro was aged 33, and it was beginning to show. Despite still being a first-choice centre-back, the Italian saw errors in his game and many forwards able to take advantage of his lack of mobility. 2008/09 was even worse, with Cannavaro stripped embarrassingly at times by even mediocre strikers, while Messi ran Real Madrid ragged when up against the veteran defender.
One good year, one dubious year, one terrible year—and that's about as good as it has been for the No. 5 since Zidane.
Youth and truth
Fernando Gago had been wearing No. 8 for Real Madrid but took over the No. 5 in 2009 to allow Kaka the No. 8 shirt. Argentinian holding midfielder Gago had faced a continual struggle to assert himself as a guaranteed starter at Real Madrid, though he was at least a regular squad member in his early seasons—but that all changed after he took possession of No. 5.
Gago spent most of the season on the bench, managing just 120 minutes of game time in the UEFA Champions League as Real Madrid went all the way to the semi-finals, and not playing at all beyond the second group-stage match. In LaLiga it was little better; he played only five times by mid-March, before a late run in the team after falling behind the likes of Lassana Diarra and Esteban Granero for game time.
The final season at the Bernabeu for Gago saw him suffer repeated injuries, fall out of favour with the management and play just seven times, three of which were in the Copa del Rey.
Gago played less than 200 minutes and left the club in the summer of 2011 having utterly failed to make good on his early promise as a talented young midfield dictator.
The failed step up
With Gago gone, midfield changes occurred once more over the summer and Real Madrid made an impressive signing—or so it seemed—with the capture of Borussia Dortmund's Nuri Sahin.
The Turkey international had been a key player for Jurgen Klopp's team at BVB in Germany, and should have been an excellent addition...but the No. 5 curse struck immediately.
Sahin started the season injured, then failed to displace Sami Khedira and Xabi Alonso, having to make do with a single appearance in LaLiga by late March. He eventually played only four league games that season, never for more than 45 minutes at a time, but his six-year contract at Real Madrid was barely worthy of the name.
He was shipped out on loan after that single dismal season, first to Liverpool—who cut short his spell in January—and then to former club Borussia Dortmund, who re-signed him permanently in 2014.
Bad choices, bad luck
Fourth in line for Zidane's former number was left-back Fabio Coentrao, who signed for Real Madrid for €30 million in 2012. He was seen as a genuine competitor for Marcelo in defence and an alternative to play further ahead of the Brazilian as a wing option.
Sadly, the decision to hand Coentrao the No. 5 shirt saw him go the way of Sahin and Gago before him: flattering to deceive too often, not making the most of his time in white and only being handed starts when injury determined it must be the case.
Marcelo suffered a broken foot in Coentrao's first season at Madrid, allowing a good run in the team midseason, but it was telling that the Brazilian was straight back in as soon as he was fit. By the end of 12/13, Coentrao wasn't even being included in the matchday squad and barely managed 1,500 minutes in his second year.
The Portuguese flyer, so coveted by many clubs before his move to Madrid, was now purely a stopgap option to rotate and rest others when required, not trusted to defend and not valued in attack.
Managing a third season at the club was something of an achievement in itself for Coentrao, though nine appearances—400 minutes—in LaLiga tells its own story. Last season saw him loaned out to AS Monaco, with Real Madrid opting to play a string of out-of-position players at left-back rather than keep Coentrao in place.
Nacho, Denis Cheryshev and Alvaro Arbeloa all filled in for Marcelo at left-back in 15/16, with no left-back replacement sought...and nobody handed the No. 5 shirt in Coentrao's absence.
Some might say this was one of the shirt's most successful seasons in the decade since Zidane left it.
New beginning
And so to Varane.
The French defender is well-established at Real Madrid, yet not a guaranteed starter; a tremendous player when fit...yet not reliable enough to have as the only choice. He ended last year as third-choice centre-back but has started in the team for 16/17.
"I feel good here, Zidane trusts me and I trust him, that is a reason to stay," Varane told Marca in the summer after it seemed he might depart the club.
Zidane has his work cut out to both keep Varane fit and improve the weaknesses in his game, but the head coach has already shown his capacity to improve individuals as well as the team in his short time in charge.
If anyone can finally push Varane toward the stardom for which he was marked from a teenager, perhaps it's his compatriot. It would be fitting that Varane's best and most consistent performances for Real Madrid came wearing the shirt that his manager used to grace, finally ending the long run of disappointments for those bearing it since Zidane did.
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