Mandzukic finally joins AC Milan, gets No.9 shirt

Milan officially announced the signing of Mario Mandzukic on a six-month deal.

The 34-year-old Croatian forward decided to challenge the curse of the club’s No 9 by picking the jersey number.

This is because no one has been able to live up to the expectation of the shirt number, since Filippo Inzaghi left. So far, nine players have tried their luck with the shirt, and they have not succeeded. This has made the number to be labelled as a curse.

The likes of George Weah, Jean-Pierre Papin, Marco van Basten, Aldo Serena, Pietro Paolo Virdis, Angelo Sormani, Patrick Kluivert, Roberto Baggio, Daniele Massaro,  Juan Schiaffino, Gunnar Nordahl and Nils Liedholm won the jersey number before Inzaghi. The Italian striker  enjoyed a decade of football with the San Siro outfit.

Being a shirt of great history at the club, Madzukic, who last played for Juventus before leaving the Serie A is hoping to live up to expectation wearing the jersey. The Croatian had during his career which includes a stint won some laurels with the Old Lady.

Inzaghi, who is the current manager of Benevento, won two Champions League and a Club World Cup with the Rossoneri, wearing the jersey. During his ten year stay with the Rossoneri, the World Cup winner played 300 competitive games and scored 126 goals before retiring in July 2012. It is now left for Mandzukic to fill that void.

Krzysztof Piatek, Gonzalo Higuain , André Silva , Gianluca Lapadula, Luiz Adriano, Fernando Torres, Mattia Destro , Alessandro Matri , and Alexandre Pato  won the number nine jersey but were unable to spearkle at San Siro.

Mandzukic will be 35 in May. He so far scored 197 goals in 497 competitive games, during his spells with Wolfsburg, Atletico Madrid and Bayern Munich. He is expected to form a formidable partnership with Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

Reacting to his move, the 34-year-old described it as a great opportunity, with a promise to give his best in helping the team succeed.

Milan currently tops the Serie A after 18 games. It expected that Mandzukic would help them ease the load in attack after Ibrahimovic just returned to the starting line-up for the first time since November.

Written by: Oladipupo Mojeed