Who wore number 0 in football?

FIFA rules state that players can take numbers from 1 to 99, but history has many examples of players not following these rules. Many football federations allow players to play under completely unconventional numbers.

There are rare cases when the number “0” or simply the absence of a number is the goalkeeper’s prerogative.

Moroccan footballer Hisham Zeruali quickly became the darling of the Scottish public, who bestowed upon him the nickname “Zero”. The Moroccan wore such an exotic number, playing for the Scottish Aberdeen (1999-2002), and the reason for this was the surname. Rather, the nickname “Zero”, which was invented because of the surname. And although the FIFA requirements state that players are allowed to take numbers from 1 to 99, Zeruali, as an exception, spent the whole season with the number 0 on his back.

At the same time, he demonstrated good football, scoring a hat-trick against Dundee, and Manchester United fans even wanted to get him into their team and began to draw T-shirts with the name Zeruali and number zero. But the Moroccan no longer shone: he first went to the Middle East, then returned to his homeland, where he died in 2004 in a car accident. And number 0 in “Aberdeen” was assigned to him forever: though it is not clear why, because now this number is banned in Scotland.