Trent Alexander-Arnold will be forced to ditch the shirt number he has always worn for Liverpool once he completes his move to Real Madrid. The full-back has reportedly agreed a free transfer with the Spanish giants which will be formally completed once his contract expires at the end of June.
Alexander-Arnold wore a variety of different shirt numbers while in Liverpool's youth ranks, but he has stuck with 66 since breaking into the first team. The 26-year-old has donned the iconic number for well over 300 games, and that era will come to an end once he leaves Anfield for the Spanish capital.
The rules in Spain dictate that any player named in a 25-man La Liga squad must wear a number between 1 and 25. Alexander-Arnold will therefore have to abandon that part of his identity as a player and head in a new direction.
He has worn 2, 7, 8 and 10 on the international stage, however those numbers are currently occupied by Dani Carvajal, Vinicius Junior, Federico Valverde and Luka Modric respectively. Unless Los Blancos do some off-season reshuffling, Alexander-Arnold is set to land a number he has never worn before.
The Reds academy product went against the grain by sticking with 66 for so long. Liverpool kit management coordinator Lee Radcliffe claims that sentiment had nothing to do with the right-back's decision.
"When we get any young lads that come down from the academy, we always deliberately try to give them a high-ish number," he told the Liverpool website in 2020. "We don't like to give them a low number in case they sort of think they've made it straight away, if you know what I mean.
"You pick it out because it's a free number and it's around that sort of number you think, 'We'll give that out because he's only just come down'. It's weird to see such a high number and for someone to be happy with it!
"I think he's that laid-back that he's obviously been given the number and thought, 'Yeah, that'll do me. I'll keep that', and not realised how iconic it's become over the years."
Alexander-Arnold has been out of action since suffering an ankle injury against Paris Saint-Germain earlier this month. He is expected to return to the pitch by the end of April, just in time for a farewell streak of matches which looks set to culminate in a Premier League title triumph.