Aston Villa striker Darren Bent is delighted to be playing with the No9 on his back.
Bent admits he knows it doesn't really matter, knows it's just a number, knows that it's how you perform on the pitch that counts rather than what's on the back of your shirt.
But it won't stop the 27-year-old feeling proud as punch when Villa's Premier League season kicks off at Fulham next Saturday.
He admitted to the Sunday Mirror: "I don't know why, but I've never seemed to be able to get the No.9 shirt before now.
"At Ipswich it was just the start of my career, then when I moved to Charlton I was given the No.10.
"At Spurs I think it was 10 again and then 23, I was never able to get it there. And then when I joined Sunderland, Frazier Campbell got there just before I did and bagged it.
"So it's a number I've always wanted to wear but never been able to get.
"I'm just so glad I've got it now, and thankful that Stephen Ireland was willing to give it up because he wanted the No.7 shirt that Ashley Young had left vacant."
