England's shirt number list RELEASED!

• Poignant

  3 Jun 10, 22:10

  Peter Crouch will be on Cloud Nine as striker aims to emulate England's World Cup greats
  

  Ten is the number worn by the football gods. Pele, Maradona, Platini, Zidane. But England’s No 9 at a World Cup has also long been associated with greatness.

  In 1966 and 1970 it was Bobby Charlton; in ‘98 Alan Shearer. Nat Lofthouse was the first back in 1954 (in 1950 they did not have fixed squad numbers) and some other
  wonderful players have since followed Bolton’s ‘Lion of Vienna’. Glenn Hoddle and Peter Beardsley are members of the same exclusive club, as is a certain Wayne Rooney.

  But Rooney’s preference for the 10 this time around has provided a vacancy and the player chosen by Fabio Capello to wear the nine in South Africa this month is not someone who necessarily captures the imagination like his more illustrious predecessors.

  

  Top ten: Wayne Rooney, pictured scoring against Andorra at Wembley, will wear the hallowed shirt in South Africa

   

  ENGLAND SQUAD NUMBERS

  1. David James
  2. Glen Johnson
  3. Ashley Cole
  4. Steven Gerrard
  5. Rio Ferdinand (capt.)
  6. John Terry
  7. Aaron Lennon
  8. Frank Lampard
  9. Peter Crouch
  10. Wayne Rooney
  11. Joe Cole
  12. Robert Green
  13. Stephen Warnock
  14. Gareth Barry
  15. Matthew Upson
  16. James Milner
  17. Shaun Wright-Phillips
  18. Jamie Carragher
  19. Jermain Defoe
  20. Ledley King
  21. Emile Heskey
  22. Michael Carrick
  23. Joe Hart

  As a scorer of seven goals in his last six England appearances, Peter Crouch might beg to differ. Might argue that he is a more than worthy successor to the heroes of England’s past. He has scored 21 goals in 38 games in all, which he could quite rightly point out equates to a better strike-rate than Charlton. It took our favourite football knight 106 games to score the 49 goals that remain an English record.

  Later today the FA will officially announce the squad numbers of the England players but yesterday sources close to Capello said it would be wrong to read too much into the selection of Crouch for the No 9.

  Emile Heskey remains in contention for a place alongside Rooney if, that is, Capello decides to kick off that opening encounter with the USA on Saturday week with two
  strikers.

  But Crouch must wonder if he is in the box seat; if, judging by the allocation of the other numbers, Capello has him in mind for a starting place against the Americans.

  If the squad numbers are relatively meaningless, why has Steven Gerrard been given No 4 and Glen Johnson No 2? Why is Jamie Carragher No 18 and David James No 1?

  James is the one that could yet prove misleading when Capello has publicly declared a desire to leave the selection of his goalkeeper until the last possible minute. Robert Green and Joe Hart are also under strong consideration, the Capello camp insisting it was purely ‘out of respect’ that they gave the jersey to 39-year-old James. This will be his third World Cup, after all.

  Crouch is no World Cup novice, either. After a hat-trick against Jamaica that was memorable for the robot dance he then performed in the final friendly before travelling to Germany, Crouch started the tournament as partner to Michael Owen in the absence of Rooney, who was injured.

  

   

  He followed a solid performance in the 1-0 defeat of Paraguay with a goal in the 2-0 win against Trinidad and Tobago, before stepping off the bench in the draw that followed with Sweden and coming on again in the quarter-final with Portugal that marked the end of England’s German adventure.

  

  Prolific: Peter Crouch (right) hugs Ledley King after another goal

  That he remains an international force is great credit to Crouch. He was a Liverpool player in 2006 but he has extended his international career despite the upheaval of moving first to Portsmouth and then to Tottenham.

  The international goals have continued to come, most recently against Mexico, but before that against Egypt in March and Belarus in the final fixture of England’s World Cup qualifying campaign.

  Ask Rooney to identify his preferred partner and he would probably say Heskey, if only privately. Rooney does seem to be at his best when Heskey is on the pitch, and has
  scored nine goals in his last nine games alongside the Aston Villa forward. Capello might also favour Heskey for the qualities he brings to the team.

  Goals might not be one of them but England attack with more dynamism when Heskey is selected ahead of Crouch. Going into this tournament, however, Capello has other factors to consider, not least the lack of first team football that appears to have affected Heskey’s form. His miss against Japan in Graz on Sunday was painful.

  There is nothing Crouch can do about the obvious lack of power and athleticism. All any footballer can do is play to his potential, and Crouch has done just that. He has consistently delivered for England and if Capello does reward him with a starting place as well as the No 9 shirt, he can certainly say he has earned the right to be there.