Who will inherit James Rodriguez's No.10?

Posted Wednesday, May 17, 2017 by Marca.com

The No.10 shirt at Real Madrid looks to soon be up for grabs with James Rodriguez having waved goodbye to the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu fans on Sunday against Sevilla.

The Colombia international has a 75 million euro price tag and the next beholder of his shirt number will be as important for the club's marketing department as for Zinedine Zidane.

The attacking midfielder arrived in Madrid after an impressive World Cup showing in 2014 and adopted the number which had been redundant for a season following the departure of Mezut Ozil to Arsenal. 45,000 supporters went to the Bernabeu for his presentation - with most of those being Colombians.

Since then, the James shirt has been one of the highest-selling shirts with particular popularity among South American supporters.

But with the 25-year-old set to leave the Spanish capital in the coming months, there are a number of candidates looking to make the shirt their own.

Luka Modric wears the No.10 shirt when he turns out for Croatia, while Marco Asensio wore the number for Spain's U19 side that were European champions last year.

Isco has worn the number 22 shirt whenever he has been able to do so, but has played with No.10 on his back in a number of U21 games for Spain.

The number may be reserved for a big-name signing this summer however, which could be Kylian Mbappe of Monaco. The shirt has always been worn by Madrid's biggest-names, except for the seasons in which it has not been used and between 2009 and 2011 when Lassana Diarra adorned the number.

Since LaLiga established squad numbers, Madrid have had eight owners of the No.10 shirt: Michael Laudrup, Clarence Seedorf, Luis Figo, Robinho, Wesley Sneijder, Lassana Diarra, Mesut Ozil and James Rodriguez. Before that, though, names including Puskas, Netzer, Hagi and Prosincki were owners of the number.