The New York Yankees are running out of jersey numbers

A good twenty-six years ago, the Lega Calcio made a historic decision destined to change its aesthetics forever by introducing personalised jerseys with surnames on the back and abolishing the compulsory numbering from one to eleven. This change meant that a footballer could identify himself and be identified with a number, linking his name to that number and turning it into a symbol. There are many clubs that have paid homage in this way to flags, captains, or unfortunate champions, associating a game number only with an athlete by retiring that jersey forever. 

It is a custom that the world of football has taken over from that of baseball where, since the early days of the competition, it was common to retire the jersey numbers of the most famous and representative players. The first to be retired was in 1939, the number 4 of Lou Gehrig, a great hitter struck down by a ferocious illness. And because of this custom now more than common in all sports, the New York Yankees have all but run out of jersey numbers, having retired so many over the years.

A first solution thought up within the New York Yankees would be to, in agreement with the federation, discontinue numbering for coaches and technical staff. In baseball, in fact, all teams also assign numbers to their coaches and technical staff, thus occupying some 11/12 extra numbers. A change that would entail a change that would be historic in some ways and that all teams, not just the famous one in New York, would obviously be obliged to follow. Not least because continuing at this pace would lead to the team being assigned 3-digit numbers, with no other possible alternatives.