Victor Munoz Takes Liverpool's No.23 Shirt with a Legacy

Victor Munoz has barely taken his first steps at Liverpool, and already he’s stepping into a shirt with a story.

The Spain international, fresh from World Cup glory and a June move from Osasuna, reported back for pre-season at the AXA Training Centre this week. His squad number had been one of the few remaining mysteries of Liverpool’s summer, left hanging while he was busy winning the biggest prize in the game.

Now it’s settled. Munoz will wear No.23.

It is not just a spare number on the rail. At Liverpool, 23 carries echoes.

Luis Diaz was the last to pull it on, using it in the 2022/23 season before switching to the No.7 shirt the following campaign. That change kept him in elite company: only five players have worn No.7 for the Reds in the Premier League era, underlining the status that particular digit holds at Anfield.

No.23 has its own lineage. Jamie Carragher made it famous, wearing it for the entirety of his 16-year Liverpool career, dragging the club through countless nights of tension and drama with that number stamped on his back. Before him, another academy graduate, Robbie Fowler, gave the shirt its first real life.

Fowler took 23 for three seasons, a young striker with a ruthless streak, before stepping into the No.9 ahead of the 1996/97 campaign after Ian Rush vacated the role at the head of Liverpool’s attack. The change marked a passing of the torch; the number he left behind began to grow in stature of its own.

Since then, the 23 has been seen on the backs of Emre Can and Xherdan Shaqiri, both adding their own, shorter chapters to the story.

Now it belongs to Munoz, a newly crowned world champion and the latest addition to a very small group: he is one of just six players to win the World Cup while on Liverpool’s books, and the first since fellow Spaniards Pepe Reina and Fernando Torres did so in 2010.

Jeremy Jacquet’s early claim on the No.5 closed off one traditional route for a central figure. No.23, though, offers something different: a connection to the club’s recent history, a number associated with resilience, flair and decisive moments.

Munoz arrives with a medal already in his pocket and a legacy number on his back. What he writes under it is now entirely up to him.