Ozil's No.67 and other great players' random shirt numbers

E yebrows were raised when Mesut Ozil was presented as a Fenerbahce player, revealing that he had chosen to wear the No.67 shirt at the Turkish club.

Ozil explained that the number is the postal code for the Zonguldak region, where his family are from, offering some reason for the choice.

But the World Cup winner isn't the only great to have worn an unusual number in his playing days.

One of the most famous cases was Ivan Zamorano at Inter. The Chilean had to give up his No.9 shirt to Ronaldo, so had the No.18 himself. Curiously, he asked to insert a symbol between the numbers, so his shirt read '1+8'.

Another was Hicham Zeroali. His nickname was 'Zero', so he wore the No.0 on his back at Aberdeen. Gianluigi Buffon wore the No.88 at Parma, offering a peculiar explanation for that.

"It's a symbol of strength," the Italian said. "It reminds me of four balls."

Angelo Peruzzi had the No.70 at Lazio and Bixente Lizarazu wore No.69, because when he signed for Bayern Munich he weighed 69 kilos and was 1.69 metres tall.

A recent example came as Neymar wore the No.360 for Santos against Sao Paulo, though the reason for that was commercial.