_**Throughout the 2024/25 season, we're taking a look at some of the best players to have worn a range of squad numbers for West Ham United, since they were introduced for the start of the 1993/94 campaign.**_
_**Vote for your favourite No9 from the four chosen nominees below!**_
All West Ham No9s since 1993/94
**1993-1995**
Trevor Morley
**2006-2009**
Dean Ashton
**1995-1996**
Tony Cottee
**2010**
Ilan
**1997-2000**
Paul Kitson
**2010-2013**
Carlton Cole
**2000-2001**
Davor Šuker
**2013-2019**
Andy Carroll
**2002-2004**
Jermain Defoe
**2019**
Javier Hernández
**2004**
Jobi McAnuff
**2020-2021**
Saïd Benrahma
**2004**
Mauricio Taricco
**2021-present**
Michail Antonio
**Dean Ashton**
DOB: 24.11.83 WHU: 2006-2009 Apps: 56 Goals: 19
Dean Ashton’s time in Claret and Blue was sweet, but far too short. A Club-record signing when he moved from Norwich City in January 2006, Ashton managed 19 goals in 56 appearances for the Irons, before his career was ended early due to injury.
He made his mark for the Club almost immediately, scoring in three consecutive Premier League matches before notching a brace in the FA Cup sixth-round victory at Manchester City. He would score again in the final against Liverpool, while also forcing Jamie Carragher into scoring an own-goal.
His form duly caught the eye of new Three Lions boss Steve McClaren, who named Ashton in the full squad for the first time in August 2006. However, disaster struck when he broke his ankle in training. He was finally rewarded with his first England cap in the 3-0 friendly win in Trinidad and Tobago on 1 June 2008, before old ankle problems reared their ugly head again ahead of the 2008/09 campaign.
Ashton was forced to admit defeat in his battle to play on in late 2009, but the attacker’s time with the Hammers is still looked upon fondly - by both the player himself and supporters everywhere.
**Carlton Cole**
DOB: 12.10.83 WHU: 2006-2013, 2013-2015 Apps: 293 Goals: 68
With a West Ham United career that spanned almost nine years, featured 293 appearances and saw 68 goals scored in all competitions, there is no denying that Carlton Cole’s determination, work-rate, loyalty and attitude make the former striker a modern-day icon in east London.
Having joined the Hammers aged 22, back in the summer of 2006, Cole is still involved at West Ham to this day, working in the Club’s world-renowned Academy of Football as the Loans and Pathway Manager.
After coming through the youth ranks across London, at Chelsea, Cole switched to the Boleyn Ground in search of game time, and he duly came off the bench to score the third goal in an opening-day victory at home to Charlton Athletic on his West Ham debut.
Twenty-one appearances in all competitions in his maiden campaign were followed by 37 in his second. More regular starting berths led to more goals, and for nine seasons, including the promotion-winning campaign in the 2011/12 Championship year, Cole was pivotal to the Hammers.
The now 41-year-old initially left the Club in June 2013, but he soon returned and spent another two seasons with West Ham before finally bidding a permanent farewell to his playing days with the Irons in May 2015.
**Andy Carroll**
DOB: 06.01.89 WHU: 2012-2013 (loan), 2013-2019 Apps: 142 Goals: 34
Andy Carroll experienced every emotion in Claret and Blue during his seven seasons with the Club, from the highs of scoring hat-tricks, vital goals and the sensational final season at the Boleyn Ground, to the lows of devastating injuries and disappointing defeats.
Carroll arrived from Liverpool in 2012 as one of English football’s most-feared forwards, and his outstanding form during his initial loan spell led to chants of ‘We want you to stay’ during the final-day 4-2 Premier League win over Reading. A permanent move was soon completed, only for injuries to restrict Carroll to just 32 appearances over the next two seasons.
Having worked hard to return to fitness, he was an important member of Slaven Bilić’s record-breaking squad during the Farewell Boleyn campaign, scoring nine times, including an unforgettable hat-trick against Arsenal. After moving to London Stadium, Carroll scored twice in the official opening fixture against Italian giants Juventus, before netting one of West Ham’s all-time great goals, with a soaring scissor-kick to double the Irons’ advantage in an eventual 3-0 win over Crystal Palace in January 2017.
Older, wiser, fitter and stronger, the former Hammers striker is still hitting the target at fourth-tier French outfit FC Girondins de Bordeaux, aged 35.
**Michail Antonio**
DOB: 28.03.90 WHU: 2015-present Apps: 323 Goals: 83
Signed from Nottingham Forest in summer 2015, Michail Antonio is closing in on ten years at West Ham United and has proven himself to be one of the best-value Premier League signings, by any club, in the past decade.
Our No9 - who is currently in hospital recovering from a serious road traffic accident - has played across the pitch for the Irons, featuring on both wings and at full-back before finding his home as the leading man in attack. Antonio is now the Club’s leading Premier League goalscorer (68), and the joint-highest scorer in Europe alongside Jarrod Bowen (ten).
He is the only West Ham player to score four goals in a Premier League game, and became the first to reach 100 Premier League goal contributions earlier this season. He has more London Stadium assists than anyone else (24). And, don’t forget, he was the first opposition player to score at Tottenham’s new stadium when West Ham became the first away team to win there in 2019.
He also netted in our final match at the Boleyn Ground, a sensational 3-2 win over Manchester United, scored our first Premier League goal at London Stadium, was named the 2016/17 Hammer of the Year, and of course played a key role in the team’s unforgettable 2023 UEFA Europa Conference League triumph.
The 34-year-old has rightly earned himself Club-legend status, having consistently produced the goods under each of Slaven Bilić, David Moyes, Manuel Pellegrini and Julen Lopetegui.
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