Chelsea have signed some great players over the years, who went on to make tremendous impact and reach outstanding heights with the club....CONTINUE READING THE FULL ARTICLE>>>
However, Chelsea have also been unlucky with some transfers over the years, as the strikers they signed who wore the number 9 Shirt went on to flop at the club.
In this article, I’ll be taking you through the players who have worn the cursed number 9 Chelsea shirt.
1. Mateja Kezman
Kezman only managed 4 goals in 25 career appearances for the blues, which is far beyond the standard of a top quality striker. He is currently the agent of top midfielder, Sergej Milinkovic Savic.
2. Hernán Crespo
Crespo racked up 20 goals and 1 assist in 49 appearances at Chelsea. He still was not able to meet up to the standard at Stamford bridge.
3. Khalid Boulahrouz
One of the most regretted transfer business in the history of the blues. The striker could not score a goal in 13 appearances.
4. Steve Sidwell
Steve Sidwell joined Chelsea from Reading and took up the number 9 shirt at the club, but the blues were too much of a step up for the midfielder after helping Reading to gain promotion to the English top-flight.
Sidwell went on to make just 25 appearances for the blues before being sold that same season, thus continuing another No.9 trend at Chelsea – players lasting just one season.
5. Franco Di Santo
The best thing that can be said about Franco Di Santo’s move to Chelsea is that the number 9 shirt was back at the hand of a striker once again.
Lacking experience and the quality to lift the number 9 curse, the young Argentine went on to make 8 appearances for the blues and scored no goal.
6. Fernando Torres
Since the departure of Franco Di Santo, Chelsea did not have a recognized centre forward until 2011, but the man who took the number 9 shirt was expected to break the curse, once and for all.
Fernando Torres joined Chelsea from Liverpool for a staggering, then british-record fee of £50 million, but his move to the west London club is now regarded as one of the greatest flops in the history of the premier league.
7. Radamel Falcao
Chelsea went on to sign Radamel Falcao ahead of the 2015/16 season, despite the forward struggling on loan at Manchester united in the previous campaign.
The Colombian managed only 1 goal in 10 matches before he was shown the door in the summer of 2016.
8. Alvaro Morata
Chelsea again went without a recognized Number 9 in the 2016-17 campaign, before attempting to remedy their striker woes with another big-money Spanish signing.
Alvaro Morata, who cost the blues up to £70 million and signed a five-year deal at Stamford bridge, never fully impressed at west London and was allowed to leave on loan after just 18 months.
He then returned for the 2019-20 season, but then wore the No.29 as he attempted to escape the cursed number 9 jersey.
9. Gonzalo Higuain
Gonzalo Higuain remains one of the biggest flops in the premier league, despite being a world cup finalist with Argentina and a star at club level with Real Madrid, Juventus and Napoli.
He spent six months on loan at Stamford bridge from January 2019, after Morata was allowed to leave, but never adjusted to the pace of the Premier League as he often appeared unfit.
Scoring five goals in 18 appearances was an underwhelming return for a player of his calibre, and he went back to Italy at the end of the campaign.
10. Tammy Abraham
After impressing on loan at Aston Villa and with Chelsea under a transfer embargo, new manager Frank Lampard put his trust in academy product Tammy Abraham as his No.9 ahead of 2019-20 season.
The young Englishman impressed under Frank Lampard, scoring 18 goals in 47 games that season as Chelsea qualified for the Uefa Champions League.
The following campaign, however, saw a loss of form, with the striker scoring only 12 goals all season, with the arrival of Thomas Tuchel as manager.
Tammy Abraham was sold to AS Roma in the summer of 2021 and has hugely impressed in the Italian Serie A. As far as Chelsea No.9s go, he was among the better ones, but still didn’t meet up to the standard.
11. Romelu Lukaku
One of the reasons why Chelsea cashed in on Abraham was because of the return of Romelu Lukaku to Stamford bridge for a club-record fee of £97.5 million and was viewed as a big statement made by the English giants.
Going on to score just eight goals in 26 Premier League games later, it is still hard to fathom just how badly wrong things have gone. Injuries, loss of form, lack of interest, ill-advised media interviews – all have been blamed for the belgian’s lacklustre return to England.
Lukaku has now gone back to Inter Milan on loan, as the Chelsea No.9 curse remains fully intact, waiting to be broken.
