According to UK newspaper the Mirror, when David Beckham joins Italian giants AC Milan on loan from his current club LA Galaxy in January, he will wear the number 75 shirt.
With both the number 7 and number 23 shirts (his previous numbers at Man Utd, Madrid and LA) already occupied, the English superstar will be given the number 75 to wear upon his back, which is incidentally the year of his birth.
High numbers appear to be popular currently at the San Siro with summer signings Ronaldinho, Mathieu Flamini and Andriy Shevchenko all similarly taking their birth years as squad numbers, 80, 84 and 76 respectively.
Reported in another British paper this week was the news regarding London based club West Ham nearing a new sponsorship deal. The Times suggests that West Ham are tying up negotiations with Asian betting company SBOBet which could see the club receive around £1.9m over the course of 18 months.
This comes shortly after their agreement with defunct holiday company XL ended just 12 months into a three-year-deal, worth around £3m. Any announcement from the club is expected to appear within the next week.
Fellow Premiership side Manchester City have also been busy this week negotiating shirt sponsorship contracts.
The team managed by Mark Hughes is close to completing a new £40 million football kit deal with sportswear manufacturer Puma which will cover the next 4 years starting from 2009/ 2010. The current Le Coq Sportif kit deal ends this season but City want the new sponsors tied up by Christmas
Sponsorship news is also rife on the continent with both Feyenoord and Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) agreeing deals during the past seven days.
FortisASR are expected to become the new sponsor of the Dutch side whilst Emirates have extended their partnership with the Parisian club.' PSG, who remain the only side currently in Ligue 1 never to have been relegated from the highly competitive French top flight will therefore carry on wearing the distinctive Fly Emirates slogan on their shirts.
For further news regarding football shirts visit footballshirtculture.com.
By James Bailey
