MUFC TOP PLAYERS: Spotlight on #9's

14/07/2025
While squad numbers were only permanently assigned after the dawn of the Premier League era, the no. 9 shirt was always synonymous with your team's talisman, out and out goalscorer, frontman or target man, basically the player who wins games, leagues, trophies and of course all the plaudits.

From Bobby Charlton, through Brian McClair to Zlatan Ibrahimovic we've seen some of the very best pull on the red shirt of Manchester United and boy did they score goals and work hard for their team and manager.

Any player that comes into Manchester United must deal with the history and legacy of our great Football Club and the players that came before them, so with this in mind when we are looking at our number 9 you have to take a closer look at the Gentlemen that set the benchmark for all that follow in their footsteps.

5. Brian McClair 

1987 - 1998

471 Games

127 Goals

The most selfless player ever to pull on the red shirt, an all round team player, the type the fergie era relied upon to turn a good team into a great team- teams that packed the trophy cabinets at The Theatre of Dreams.
Brian was one of Fergie's first big signings, an £850,000 buy from Celtic where he had notched up a goal shy of 100 in 145 games for the Parkhead side.
McClair hit the ground running scoring 24 goals in his first season for United becoming the first player since George Best to hit 20+ for the Red Devils in a single campaign.
Brian, a true gent was a firm favourite among teammates and fans alike and earned cult status with "Choccy's Diary".
Unselfishly he played a deeper role to accommodate the return to the club of star striker Mark Hughes from Barcelona which turned out to be a masterstroke by Sir Alex with the pair forming a formidable strike partnership scoring and setting up goals for each other in almost equal measure.
Just like Sir Bobby Charlton, the Scot was more than comfortable playing in midfield often being the link between attack and defence and did so to great effect to cater for a charismatic Frenchman named Eric Cantona.
Another example of his selflessness was giving up his treasured number 9 shirt to Andy Cole, while he initially wanted number 69 instead he settled for number 13 after a few harsh words from the gaffer. Cole got number 9 and formed a formidable partnership of his own with Dwight Yorke which culminated in the glorious Treble of 1999.
So i think we can all thank Brian for this gesture as it helped Andy to settle in and feel at home which in turn led to the goals and partnership that created history.
While the new number 13 assisted two of the greatest, if not most memorable goals to be scored by a red which signed off McClair's United Career in style, with another couple of goal involvements of the highest standard to once again show us that he was always in the right place at the right time throughout his time with the Mighty Manchester United.
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Honours; Premier League x4, FA Cup x2, League Cup 
& European Cup Winners Cup 


4. Andy Cole

 1995 - 2002
275 Games
 121 Goals 

Just like the young man who wears the number 9 shirt at the moment Andy Cole got a lot of stick in his first couple of years at the club. England Manager Glenn Hoodle once said it took Cole five chances to score one goal, which is ridiculous because if your in the right place five times in a game it proves how good a forward you are, which was the case shortly after his arrival in 1995 when he hit the back of the net five times in a single match versus Ipswich.
In fact Andy's United career really took off when he was given his own favoured number 9 shirt by a certain Mr. Brian McClair and we all know how that turned out.
As for Hoddle he was made to eat his words when an aging Cole's Blackburn side met Glenn's Spurs in the Millennium Stadium for a Worthington Cup Final, Andy grabbed the winner in the 69th minute to lift the trophy for Graeme Souness' team and fair play to Graeme who had Cole's back all the way.

Honours; Premier League x5, FA Cup x2 & Champions League
 

2. Tommy Taylor & 3. Jack Rowley

Taylor donned the number 9 shirt from 1953 - 1958, scoring 20+ goals in each of his 5 seasons at the club. He also bagged a brace on his debut and in a total of 191 games he hit the back of the net an impressive 131 times but tragically had his career and life cut short as one of eight players to die as a result of the Munich air disaster.
Rowley was the first legendary number 9 for our club and it was he who set the standard for the likes of Charlton, McClair and Cole showing how his position should be played. With 211 goals he no doubt would have added a lot more to that tally if not for World War II
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1. Sir Bobby Charlton

MUFC 1956 - 1973

758 Games

249 Goals

Bobby Charlton began his United Career with 2 goals on his debut against, ironically, Charlton Athletic. The then 18 year old picked up a nasty knock on his favoured right foot in the lead up to his United bow but the athletic Charlton didn't let this stop him and actually put his brace of goals away with the left peg.
He had a wicked shot with both boots often scoring from distance, rattling the net his favourite method of scoring.
Sir Bobby actually started out as a left winger with his pace and finished up as a midfielder with how he could pass a ball and read the game, he was most successful as a pretty skillful playmaker however but just like McClair it was all these attributes that made him a top number 9.

Honours; 1st Division x3, FA Cup & European Cup

*Ballon d'Or winner 1966

6. Louis Saha

2004 - 2008, 124 Games & 42 Goals 

Honours; Premier League x2, League Cup & Champions League

7. Dimitar Berbatov

2008 - 2012, 149 Games & 56 Goals
Honours; Premier League x2, Club World Cup

8. Frank Stapleton 

1981 - 1987, 258 Games & 70 Goals 
Honours; FA Cup x2

9. Zlatan Ibrahimovic

2016 -2018, 53 Games & 29 Goals 
Honours; League Cup, Europa League Trophy

10. Rasmus Hojlund 

2023 - Present, 54 Games & 18 Goals

Our current number 9 most definitely fits the bill, we're talking about a young man who works his socks off for the cause, that much is plain to see. He deserves to be given a proper chance to fulfil his potential and prove himself to everyone, so hopefully he's not as hard on himself as the media and even some of our own fanbase.
If Ruben Amorim could turn Viktor Gyökeres into the goalmachine he was at Sporting Lisbon he can surely turn our current talisman into a top striker with the benefit of his strict pre-season regimen. 
 Rasmus himself has an almost identical record of 1 goal in 3 games to what Viktor had at Coventry before Mr Amorim started working with him, with more pressure on our guy to preform for a top top club and at a much younger age.

Honours; FA Cup


Stuart Pearson, 1975 - 1979
 180 Games & 60 Goals
  Honours; FA Cup 


Anthony Martial, 2015 - 2024, 317 Games & 90 Goals


Romelu Lukaku, 2017 - 2019, 96 Games & 42 Goals 


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