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Christian Pulisic made his first appearance in a Chelsea shirt today, sitting on the bench to start the game against Kawasaki Frontale. The immediate question that followed the announcements of the lineups — as has been asked a million times since his official arrival earlier this summer — was what shirt number was he wearing.
Turns out he was in Gary Cahill’s old number, the No.24 shirt.
Christian Pulisic will wear the number 24 in our friendly versus Kawasaki Frontale.
— Chelsea FC USA (@ChelseaFCinUSA) July 19, 2019
Please note, squad numbers are not confirmed. The numbers the players wear tonight, are not necessarily what they will wear during the season.
BUT.
Chelsea went out of their way to remind everyone that preseason numbers, like the preseason games themselves, are not quite the real things.
(And that applies to all the players, not just Pulisic, such as Mason Mount’s No.19 shirt.)
Please note, squad numbers are not confirmed. The numbers the players wear tonight, are not necessarily what they will wear during the season. https://t.co/d4OnqRijx9
— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) July 19, 2019
The eventual question of course will be whether it’s Callum Hudson-Odoi or Christian Pulisic who inherits Eden Hazard’s old No.10. It may or may not be reserved for the former’s new contract.
To find out that answer and all the other shirt number-related things, we’ll have to wait a bit longer it seems.