It’s official: Philippe Coutinho is a Barcelona player.
A couple of days on from the news breaking that the Brazilian would leave Liverpool, Coutinho’s passed a medical and signed on the dotted line at the Camp Nou. Done and dusted.
There was, however, one small detail yet to be confirmed about Coutinho’s switch to Barca: his new shirt number. As he was unveiled for the obligatory on-pitch keepy-uppies in front of the cameras on Monday, there was still no sign of his new squad number being unveiled.
📍 Camp Nou
⚽ @Phil_Coutinho
🔵🔴 #CoutinhoDay pic.twitter.com/CB30xUqHhQ— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) January 8, 2018
Now, at this point, we should point out that it seems there’s already been a couple of false dawns regarding this particular topic. Initially, it appeared Coutinho was set to be handed the number 24 shirt – on the grounds that this was the only squad number available at Barca.
On Sunday, reports in Spain confidently stated that Coutinho would in fact be handed the number seven shirt once its current occupier, Arda Turan, had left the club in the days ahead.
However, if latest reports are accurate, this no longer appears to be the case, either. It’s claimed that Javier Mascherano’s likely imminent departure will mean that Coutinho inherits his number 14 shirt. The Argentine, who has appeared regularly as a central defender for Barca, left Anfield in 2010. He has recently been linked with a return to first club, River Plate, but is reportedly close to joining Hebei China Fortune.
