Kevin de Bruyne to wear No. 11 and not Diego Maradona's No. 10 at Napoli, which would have been a huge deal

The Belgian midfielder had been spotted wearing the iconic number during the preseason

Kevin de Bruyne won't be wearing the iconic No. 10 at Napoli after all. It looked like he might become the first player in the recent history of Napoli to be officially assigned the iconic No. 10 jersey that once belonged to Diego Maradona after he was spotted on the first day of training ahead of the 2025-26 season with his new team wearing the training kit with a small number 10, which was immediately noticed by fans on social media. 

In the end, it's the No. 11, but wearing the No. 10 would have been a huge deal. Here's why:

De Bruyne wearing Maradona’s number 10 👀 pic.twitter.com/euDTVvAk9X

— Random KDB match comps (@KDBZone_) July 15, 2025

Why it's a special number

The Napoli No. 10 bring us back to the 1980s and early 1990s when the legendary Maradona played for Napoli, winning the first two Serie A titles in the history of the club and one UEFA Cup. Maradona, probably the greatest player in the history of the game, played for Napoli from 1984 to 1991, reshaping the history of the club and the Italian Serie A. Back then, numbers were not assigned to players, but it depended on who was going on the pitch, and the number 10 was worn by the most talented attacking player on the pitch, and this is why when Maradona was on the pitch, it was his number. 

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Who wore it after Maradona?

Serie A teams started to assign numbers to players in the second part of the 1990s and this is why in 2000 the club decided to retire the number 10 as an homage to the player that shaped the history of the Italian club over the seven years he played for Napoli. 

However, after the club went bankrupt and was acquired by the current owner, Italian businessman Aurelio De Laurentiis, Napoli were relegated to the third division, where numbers are assigned to players for each game, and they had to print jerseys again with the number 10 on the back. 

On April 2006, Argentinian striker Roberto Carlos Sosa became the last player in the history of the team to wear and also score against Frosinone with the Napoli jersey number 10 at the Stadio San Paolo, now called Stadio Diego Armando Maradona. 

If De Bruyne were to wear the iconic number, it would have been a revolutionary decision for both the player and the club, as nobody had the courage to do that before in a city where Maradona is more than a soccer legend.