List of retired numbers in association football

Association football clubs around the world sometimes retire squad numbers to recognise players' loyal service, most as a memorial after their death.

Background
This practice, long established in the major North American sports, is a recent development in football elsewhere, since squad numbers for specific players were not widely used until the 1990s. Before then, it was typical for players in the starting lineup to be issued numbers 1 to 11 by formation/position on a match-by-match basis, and substitutes to be numbered from 12 upwards, meaning a player might wear different numbers during the season if they were to play in different positions for tactical reasons, or simply not be a regular in the starting lineup.

In contrast, in the American league NASL, players have always worn permanent numbers since its inception in 1967. Moreover, Pelé's #10 was retired by the New York Cosmos during the farewell of the Brazilian star on 1 October 1977, probably becoming the first number ever retired in association football.

Mexico was a pioneer country in the use of permanent numbers in football; these were adopted in the Primera División in the 1980s.

Retiring a player's shirt number usually occurs after the player has left the team or retired. It honours a player who has meant much to his club, and no other player is permitted to use that number in the future. In some cases, such as those of Jason Mayélé, Vittorio Mero, Marc-Vivien Foé, Miklós Fehér, Ray Jones, Dylan Tombides, François Sterchele, David di Tommaso, Antonio Puerta, Besian Idrizaj, Piermario Morosini and Davide Astori, numbers have been retired to posthumously honour a player who died while still active. Also, Norwegian club Fredrikstad retired Dagfinn Enerly's number following an on-pitch accident that left him paralysed. In Britain, only Bobby Moore's, Jack Lester's and Jude Bellingham's shirt numbers have been retired due to great service to the club as opposed to a tragic incident. Although it had not been officially retired, Gianfranco Zola's No. 25 shirt had not been reissued by Chelsea since he left the club in 2003 until re-issued to Moisés Caicedo in 2023.

The Argentina, Ecuador and Cameroon national teams have been prevented from retiring the numbers of Diego Maradona (10), Christian Benítez (11) and Marc-Vivien Foé (17), respectively, by FIFA rules dealing with squad numbers for Finals tournaments; in other competitions, qualifiers or friendlies, national associations may assign numbers according to criteria of their choosing. Similarly, several clubs have been required to reissue retired numbers for continental club competitions due to squad numbering rules of continental confederations. For example, CAF and CONMEBOL have such rules in their club competitions, but CONCACAF does not.

Some South American teams (such as Universitario de Deportes and Flamengo, and even Mexican teams invited for the occasions) occasionally had to re-issue their retired numbers for special cases due to CONMEBOL rules, which stated that shirts had to be numbered 1–25/30 in continental club competitions (such as Copa Libertadores and Copa Sudamericana, among others), although nowadays clubs are not forced to number their players consecutively.

Retired numbers

 * Notes

Special cases

 * Notes

Number 12
Some clubs dedicate a number to their fans, and do not issue it to any player. The most common number for this practice is 12, from descriptions of the fans as "the twelfth man". Clubs and teams that do not give the '12' to any player include:


 * Tirana
 * Melbourne Victory
 * Perth Glory
 * Rapid Vienna
 * Club Brugge
 * Genk
 * Sarajevo
 * Atlético Mineiro
 * Avaí
 * Flamengo
 * 🇧🇬 Botev Plovdiv
 * CF Montréal
 * Beijing Guoan
 * Changchun Yatai
 * Chongqing Tonglianglong
 * Heilongjiang Ice City
 * Shaanxi Union
 * Shandong Taishan
 * Shanghai Shenhua
 * Hajduk Split
 * Omonia
 * Sparta Prague
 * AGF
 * OB
 * Bristol Rovers
 * Gillingham
 * Oxford United
 * Oldham Athletic
 * Plymouth Argyle
 * Portsmouth
 * Reading
 * Flora
 * Lens
 * Mikkelin Palloilijat
 * Arminia Bielefeld
 * Bayern Munich
 * Borussia Mönchengladbach
 * Rot-Weiss Essen
 * TuS Koblenz
 * Werder Bremen
 * PAOK
 * Ferencváros
 * Újpest
 * Kerala Blasters
 * Persija Jakarta
 * Persis Solo
 * Foolad
 * Persepolis
 * Cork City
 * Shamrock Rovers
 * Atalanta
 * Cesena
 * Genoa
 * Lazio
 * Palermo
 * Parma
 * Torino
 * FC Seoul
 * Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors FC
 * Incheon United
 * Jeju United FC
 * Seoul United
 * FK Ekranas
 * Terengganu
 * Valletta
 * Monterrey
 * UANL
 * Guadalajara
 * Yangon United
 * Yadanarbon
 * Thanlyin Technological University
 * PSV Eindhoven
 * Feyenoord
 * Vitesse
 * PEC Zwolle
 * Roda JC Kerkrade
 * IK Start
 * Vålerenga
 * Pogoń Szczecin
 * Lech Poznań
 * Polonia Warsaw
 * Vitória de Guimarães
 * Dinamo București
 * Rapid București
 * Oxford United
 * Zenit Saint Petersburg
 * CSKA Moscow
 * Aberdeen
 * Hibernian
 * Rangers
 * Red Star Belgrade
 * Hammarby IF
 * Malmö FF
 * GIF Sundsvall
 * Basel
 * Club Africain
 * Bangkok United
 * Chonburi
 * BEC Tero Sasana
 * Muangthong United
 * Port
 * Buriram United
 * Fenerbahçe
 * Sivasspor
 * Dynamo Kyiv
 * Hà Nội FC


 * Notes

Other numbers retired

 * 1 – AIK, Djurgården IF, and PSIM Yogyakarta reserve the number for their supporters.
 * 7 – Paysandu reserve the number for their supporters.
 * 11 – Indy Eleven reserve the number for their supporters.
 * 13 – Reading and Bryne reserve the number for their supporters, Panathinaikos reserve the number in honour of Gate 13, the ultras based in the respective gate in home matches. Between 2002 and 2007 Norwich City reserved the number 13 shirt for "the fans" after which it was worn by Declan Rudd while Shrewsbury Town reserve the number 13 shirt for the fan who wins a pre-season competition.
 * 16 – Bursaspor reserve the number for their supporters.
 * 17 – Atlanta United FC reserve the number for their supporters and to reference their inaugural season in Major League Soccer. For the 2021 MLS season, the club also reserved the number 44 as part of a tribute by Atlanta-area sports teams in memoriam of Henry Aaron of the local MLB club, who died on 22 January 2021.
 * 17 – Sagan Tosu retired the number in dedication to their fans.
 * 27 – Bournemouth use squad number for the Steve Fletcher Stand which houses the large majority of hardcore supporters, the number 50 for "12th man" and the number 99 shirt for their mascot, Cherry Bear.
 * 33 – Remo reserve the number for their supporters.
 * 40 – Oldham Athletic reserve the number for their fans.
 * 55 – Rochdale retired the number on 13 January 2017 in honour of five-year old Joshua McCormack who died of cancer.
 * 58 – Portsmouth retired the number for their mascot Nelson, with Nelson’s name and number appearing on club issued match day programmes
 * 79 – APOEL have reserved the shirt number in honour of PAN.SY.FI. (APOEL Ultras), to denote the year the group was founded, 1979.