October 1997. The greats of world football gathered at San Siro for Franco Baresi’s testimonial match. From Baggio to Bergomi, from Van Basten to Zico, teammates and rivals stood side by side before a packed crowd to honour Milan’s eternal captain.
It was a landmark moment in Italian football. The evening was branded “6 Per Sempre” and culminated with Milan officially retiring Baresi’s number six shirt. A hitherto unprecedented tribute that enshrined the sacrosanct bond between player and shirt. No player would be deemed worthy of wearing Milan’s number 6 again.
It was a gesture heavy with symbolism, a declaration of sainthood that preserves Baresi’s black and red legacy in perpetuity. In a Catholic country, the metaphor felt apt. Yet the idea itself was imported – inspired by American sports – and enabled by the recent adoption of squad numbers, which created space for shirt numbers to carry meaning beyond mere function.
Embed from Getty ImagesVeneration of the modern icon
In the years that followed Baresi’s canonisation, retirement of the number became the customary honour bestowed on contemporary symbols as they left the stage.
Across the city, Inter retired Javier Zanetti’s number 4 upon his retirement in 2014. Elsewhere, the practice flourished, particularly among provincial clubs keen to immortalise players who embodied their identity: Roberto Baggio’s 10 at Brescia, Sergio Pellissier’s 31 at Chievo, Alessandro Lucarelli’s 6 at Parma, Francesco Tavano’s 10 at Empoli, Marco Rossi’s 7 at Genoa and Francesco Magnanelli’s 4 at Sassuolo.
In these cases, devotion to the shirt is honoured alongside the moments of brilliance that transfigured the player from servant to icon.
Embed from Getty ImagesDoctrine and retrospect
Retirement of the jersey has also been applied retrospectively, formally elevating historical figures into the status of legends.
Cagliari retired Gigi Riva’s number 11 in 2005. Napoli followed by withdrawing Diego Maradona’s number 10. Inter later honoured Giacinto Facchetti by retiring the number 3, while Genoa preserved the number 6 worn by their long-serving captain Gianluca Signorini.
Here, the act is less about farewell than about doctrine – defining who belongs in the club’s pantheon.
Embed from Getty ImagesMartyrs and memorial
The most sombre use of shirt retirement is as a memorial.
The sudden death of Davide Astori in 2018 shook Italian football. Fiorentina retired the number 13 immediately; Cagliari, where Astori had also captained the club, followed suit. Similar gestures marked other tragedies: Piermario Morosini (Livorno and Vicenza, 25), Vittorio Mero (Brescia, 13), Jason Mayélé (Chievo, 30), and Federico Pisani (Atalanta, 14).
Bologna retired the number 27 in memory of teenage prodigy Niccolò Galli. One of his closest friends and former teammates, Fabio Quagliarella, carried that number throughout his career as a personal act of remembrance.
In 2017, Cosenza retired Donato Bergamini’s number 8, nearly three decades after his death (age 29) in circumstances that remain unresolved. The club pledged to keep the shirt vacant until the investigation into his death reaches a definitive conclusion.
Embed from Getty ImagesRelics and folk rituals
Not all retirements carry the same weight. Several clubs have withdrawn the number 12 in honour of their supporters – the metaphorical dodicesimo uomo. Atalanta, Cesena, Genoa, Lazio, Lecce, Palermo, Parma, Pescara and Torino all fall into this category, a gesture that borders on the ceremonial.
Known for his eccentricity and superstitious ways, club president Massimo Cellino treated the number 17 as a harbinger of misfortune, keeping the shirt largely unassigned throughout his spells at Cagliari and Brescia.
Other retirements have reversed course. Livorno retired Igor Protti’s number 10 in 2005, only to reinstate it two years later at Protti’s request. He wanted, he said, to return “the dream of wearing it” to future generations. Roma did the same with Aldair’s number 6, initially retired in 2003 before being reissued a decade later with the Brazilian’s blessing for Kevin Strootman.
Embed from Getty ImagesLimbo
Some numbers exist in deliberate ambiguity.
Paolo Maldini’s number three at Milan has not been definitively retired, though it has remained untouched since his retirement in 2009. The club made one exception: the shirt would be available to a Maldini descendant. The shirt remains vacant, a sacred relic awaiting the touch of one deemed worthy. When Daniel Maldini reached the Milan first team, he declined the number – perhaps aware that his name alone was not enough to justify its weight.
Francesco Totti’s number ten at Roma occupies a similar limbo. Vacant since 2017, it has never been officially withdrawn, yet no player has dared to claim it. The shirt remains available in theory, but untouchable in practice.
Embed from Getty ImagesWhether motivated by tragedy or legacy, retiring a shirt number remains football’s most profound act of remembrance. By definition, it is an exclusive club that few can ever join – a way for a club or city to enshrine a player’s memory, paradoxically eternal, yet never to be seen again.
Calcio England 