Manchester United, the renowned football club, has recently assigned a new shirt number to its defender Diogo Dalot for the upcoming 2025-26 season. This change comes in the wake of several player departures that have opened up a handful of available jerseys at Manchester United.
Dalot, who had been wearing No. 20 since he joined the club seven years ago, will now don the archetypal right-back shirt number - No. 2 - previously worn by Victor Lindelöf and legendary former captain Gary Neville.
Interestingly, Neville also transitioned from wearing No. 20 to acquiring No. 2 during his tenure with Manchester United from 1996 until his retirement in 2011 – a path that Dalot is now following.
Favourite of Ruben Amorim's tactical system
Dalot was named Manchester United Players’ Player of the Year by his teammates at the end of the 2023–24 season and played an impressive total of fifty-three games across all competitions last season alone. His natural suitability for Ruben Amorim’s tactical system has made him stand out among most players in the squad and contributed significantly to his success on-field.
Having joined United as a teenager during José Mourinho’s managerial reign, Dalot had limited senior football experience under his belt at that stage; hence his shirt number history is largely confined to what he wore for United.
The Portuguese player sported No.30 for Porto when he made his breakthrough there while playing with no.5 on loan at AC Milan after falling out with ex-United boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. Dalot has worn no.2 sparingly in the past, for Porto at youth level, and occasionally for Portugal—although his usual number for his country is five.
Legacy of no. 2 shirt at Manchester United
The No. 2 shirt has a rich history in Manchester United's Premier League era, with very few players having the honour to wear it since numbers became fixed ahead of the 1993–94 season.
Paul Parker was the first to have this honour, followed by Gary Neville who held onto it until his retirement in 2011. After Neville, Brazilian talent Rafael da Silva wore it from 2012 until he was surprisingly sold in 2015. Lindelöf then took over when he arrived from Benfica in summer of 2017 and kept it until his recent release. In earlier years when shirt numbers were fluid and could change depending on who started each game, Johnny Carey, Bill Foulkes and Shay Brennan enjoyed most success wearing No.2.
As Dalot steps into this new season with an iconic number on his back that carries a legacy of its own within Manchester United's history, fans are eagerly waiting to see how he will uphold this tradition.
