The Roma players to have worn the numbers 1-11 most often

In the 2024-25 Roma squad, only six of the shirt numbers between 1 and 11 were occupied – and one of those was just for half of the season.

If we were to rewind 30 years earlier, Serie A had just introduced the concept of assigned squad numbers; before then, the starting XI each week would wear the numbers between 1 and 11.

From the 1995-96 season onwards, players have stuck with a particular squad number each season. Some have taken rare numbers, often on the larger side, while others have filled the more familiar numbers.

But over these past three decades, which players have donned the 1-11 shirts in the most games for Roma?

Here are the answers for each number, only counting appearances since 1995 even though two of the players in the list joined the club before then.

1. Rui Patrício

The Portuguese goalkeeper joined Roma in 2021 from Wolves, where he was wearing the unusual number 11. However, in his new surroundings, he immediately inherited the number 1 shirt, which had been vacant since Robin Olsen’s last outing for the club in 2019 before his series of loan spells away.

Initially at least, Patrício performed far better than Olsen for Roma, with whom he won the Europa Conference League by the end of his debut season.

All in, Patrício made 129 appearances over three seasons, but he struggled to recapture his form from his first campaign and was eventually phased out for Roma’s number 99, Mile Svilar.

2. Christian Panucci

Panucci joined reigning Serie A champions Roma in 2001, when the number 2 shirt was occupied by Cafu.

The Italian defender wore 14 in his first season in the capital and 23 in his second before inheriting the number 2 after Cafu’s move to AC Milan in 2003.

From there on in, Panucci wore number 2 for six seasons, in which he made 229 of his 315 appearances for Roma.

3. Roger Ibañez

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Ibañez was an unknown quantity when he arrived from Atalanta in January 2020 and originally wore the number 41 shirt, even though the number 3 was available.

After starting to prove his worth in his first half a season at the club, Ibañez earned the number 3 jersey ahead of the 2021-22 campaign, and stuck with it for three seasons and 139 appearances.

4. Bryan Cristante

Cristante is now on 318 appearances and counting for Roma, all of which have been in the same shirt number since he joined the club in 2018.

Radja Nainggolan was its previous occupant, but he left for Inter in the same summer Cristante came to the club.

Number 4 was also the last number worn by Daniele De Rossi before he adopted his iconic number 16 shirt in 2005.

5. Philippe Mexès

Mexès wore the number 5 shirt for all seven of his seasons with Roma, between 2004 and 2011, during which time he made 267 appearances.

It has since been worn by the likes of Gabriel Heinze, Leandro Castán, Leandro Paredes, Matías Viña and Evan Ndicka.

The latter was ever-present in the 2024-25 Serie A season for Roma but still has some way to catch Mexès for total appearances for the club.

6. Aldair

So attached to the number 6 shirt that it was retired when he left the club in 2003, Aldair was with Roma since 1990.

After permanently being assigned the number he’s most associated with in 1997, he added 218 more appearances to his collection.

The number 6 shirt was brought out of retirement with his blessing in 2013 for Kevin Strootman, and Aldair was also a vocal fan of its next bearer, Chris Smalling.

7. Lorenzo Pellegrini

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Pellegrini made his first-team Roma debut out of the academy in the number 48 shirt back in 2015, his only appearance before moving to Sassuolo.

After returning to his boyhood club in 2017, he took the number 7, a jersey which the previous bearers of had endured mixed fortunes in.

Before 1995, Bruno Conti made the number 7 iconic, but since squad numbers became a thing, everyone from David Pizarro to Juan Manuel Iturbe wore it.

Pellegrini has become Roma’s captain as their number 7, going on to play 315 times in it so far since his return to the club.

8. Diego Perotti

Despite having the number 10 tattooed on him, there was no way Perotti would have dreamed of asking for that jersey.

Instead, he always had the same squad number while playing for Roma between February 2016 and October 2020, making 138 appearances as their number 8.

While it’s a number usually reserved for midfielders, Perotti was actually the third winger in a row to wear it for Roma after Érik Lamela and Adem Ljajić.

9. Edin Džeko

Like Perotti, Džeko was the number 10 at his last club prior to Roma, Manchester City.

Linking up with Roma in 2015, Džeko took the number 9, like he’d previously worn at Wolfsburg and would subsequently wear for Inter and Fenerbahçe. And while he didn’t perform like the big striker he was expected to be in his first season with Roma, he scored bundles of goals in his second and set on a course to becoming a club legend.

Džeko rose through the rankings to become Roma’s third highest goalscorer of all time across 260 appearances between 2015 and 2021, all as their number 9.

10. Francesco Totti

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Synonymous with the number 10 shirt which no one has dared to touch since, the club’s greatest ever player inherited the iconic jersey in 1997 and from there played 683 times in it – more than anyone else for Roma even taking away his outings in other numbers.

Becoming Roma’s captain in 1998 with the 10 on his back, like his idol Giuseppe Giannini before him, Totti’s longevity was unmatched. His Roma career lasted for 25 seasons, 20 of which came after he was handed the 10 jersey in 1997.

Totti scored 291 goals for Roma after becoming their number 10 – again, more than anyone else in the club’s history even discounting his goals before.

11. Rodrigo Taddei

The versatile Taddei spent nine years wearing the number 11 shirt for Roma between 2005 and 2014, during which time he made 296 appearances.

Those appearances were either as a winger, wing-back, full-back, striker or midfielder and he scored 31 goals along the way.

Fittingly, the 11 shirt has been worn by players in different positions since, including wingers like Mohamed Salah, the full-back Aleksandar Kolarov and strikers such as Artem Dovbyk.