Shirt Number Stories: No. 77

In our latest series, we take a look back at some of the notable players to have worn a specific shirt number in the club's history...

This time around we look back on the (relatively short) history of the No. 77 shirt.

While fixed shirt numbers were introduced ahead of the 1995-96 season in Serie A, it was only for the 2000-01 campaign that double-digit numbers outside relative norms (beyond 25 or so, for example) were permitted.

So here is the rundown of the players to have worn this unusual shirt number...

77

2006-12: Marco Cassetti

The first-ever owner of the No. 77, the full-back joined the club from Lecce in the summer of 2006.

The choice was actually a fairly logical one, even an en vogue one at the time (around this time AC Milan players, for example, almost made it a habit) - Cassetti chose it because he was born in that year, 1977.

Perhaps the best moment for the reliable defender came in December 2009, when he scored in the derby to beat Lazio 1-0 at the Olimpico.

A 77th minute goal, scored by the No. 77. What could be more fitting than that?

2012-13: Panagiotis Tachtsidis

The Greek central midfielder, a screening man in front of the defence, was bought from Hellas Verona in 2012.

Zdenek Zeman had called for his addition ("He impressed me in Serie B") and at Roma he opted for the No. 77 shirt, which he just felt was a lucky omen for him on the peninsula (he was born in 1991, so that wasn't part of it).

"It's been a number that has brought me good luck here in Italy so I stuck with it," he said.

Curiously enough, numbers he would subsequently wear in his career - 7, 43, 34 - would all end up adding up to exactly seven.

2013-14 | 2016-17

In both these seasons, the shirt number was given to Primavera players - although neither of them went on to wear it out on the pitch in a competitive game.

Attacker Jacopo Ferri took it first, while goalkeeper Stefano Greco subsequently 'owned' it too.

2019 - Present: Henrikh Mkhitaryan

Now, of course, every Roma fan knows that No. 77 is Henrikh Mkhitaryan's number - especially after the hat-trick he scored against Genoa earlier this month.

He brought the number with him from Arsenal, where he also wore it - albeit, curiously enough, not all the time.

In fact, for a period he even split his time wearing No. 77 and No. 7 depending on which competition Arsenal were playing in, due to differing rules between the Premier League and the Europa League.

During the 2017-18 season, Alexis Sanchez (who predated Micki at the club, and thus had always possessed it) wore the the No. 7 shirt for the Gunners to start the campaign - before joining Manchester United in the January transfer window.

That opened things up for Mkhitaryan to finally take the shirt he had long coveted - but only in the Premier League, which permitted such a mid-season switch.

In UEFA competitions, however, a shirt number cannot be worn by two different players in the same campaign, so Mkhitaryan was obliged to continue wearing the No. 77 he had started in that term.

That, then, probably already explains to most why he also wears the number for the Giallorossi; with Lorenzo Pellegrini already the established owner of the No. 7, it was the logical choice.

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