Barcelona Announces Vitor Roque’s New Jersey Number

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“The Catalan giants made an initial payment of €30m to secure the signing of Vitor Roque from Athletico Paranaense last summer.

After structuring the deal to comply with La Liga’s financial regulations, they successfully brought the 18-year-old to the club this winter, finalizing the signing.

Following his introduction to the fans, Roque has now been assigned the new shirt number, inheriting the vacant 19 for the next six months, at least.

Speculations had circulated weeks ago that Roque would adopt the number 19. Despite wearing the number 9 at Athletico, currently taken by Robert Lewandowski at Camp Nou, the teenager has embraced this new jersey.

While Roque is not presently registered with La Liga, Barcelona is reportedly optimistic about concluding the deal in the coming days, possibly before Thursday’s La Liga clash with Las Palmas.”

“The number 19 shirt at Barcelona has been without a permanent owner for several years. The most recent player to don the jersey was midfielder Franck Kessie, who wore it throughout last season before moving to Al Ahli.

Kessie inherited the shirt from Ferran Torres, who sported the number for six months after joining in January 2022.

The availability of the number arose when Sergio Aguero relinquished it following his unexpected retirement earlier in the same season.

Matheus Fernandes made a single appearance for Barcelona wearing the number 19 during the 2020/21 season, and Martin Braithwaite held the designation for most of 2020.

Braithwaite took over after Carles Alena had it for six months, following the shared tenure of Kevin-Prince Boateng and Munir El Haddadi in 2018/19. To add to the history, left-back Lucas Digne prominently featured in the number 19 shirt between 2016 and 2018.

Other notable past wearers of the Barcelona number 19 shirt include Sandro Ramirez, Ibrahim Afellay, Martin Montoya, Maxwell, and, of course, Lionel Messi.”

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