When Eric Cantona left Manchester United in 1997 the legendary no.7 shirt was up for grabs. Roy Keane, who was 26-years-old at the time, was offered the squad number by Sir Alex Ferguson but knew how much the no.7 shirt meant to David Beckham so let him take it instead.
Speaking to The Overlap, Keane recalls the interaction.
I think it was my squad number, like in terms of my training number, when I first went to United. I was just 16 as my number because obviously I think it was like, all the other numbers were taken.
A few years later, I told you the story was when I was asked to take number seven. And I went, ‘I’m OK with 16,’ because I remember saying to the manager, I remember saying, ‘Give it to Becks, Becks kind of wants it after Eric.’ And so I was never obsessed with number 16. It was no big deal.
Beckham reflected in his Netflix documentary his version of receiving the no.7 shirt.
It was amazing wearing the No.10 shirt because one of the players I always looked up to was Mark Hughes so for me to wear No.10 was very special. I remember being on holiday in Malta and my phone ringing and we had just signed Teddy Sheringham.
I just went: ‘Hi,’ and he said: ‘It’s the boss,’ and obviously this was something different. He said: ‘We are signing Teddy Sheringham, we are taking the No.10.’ I was like: ‘No boss, I had a great season in this No.10,’ he just said it doesn’t matter and that he would see me in a few weeks. That was it, the No.10 was taken off of me in one of the best seasons I had ever had. But then I arrived back to training and the boss says: ‘By the way, you have got No.7.’
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