Why Lamine Yamal Will Wear a Different Jersey Number for Spain vs. England

The teenage superstar has worn No. 19 in almost every Spain appearance.

Lamine Yamal will not wear his usual Spain jersey. | Grzegorz Wajda/SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Images

Lamine Yamal has become synonymous with Spain’s No. 19 jersey, wearing it almost exclusively since debuting with La Roja just over three years ago. But it will be a different number on his back when Spain faces England in Sunday’s UEFA Nations League decider.

Yamal has been reassigned the No. 10 jersey for this match, syncing up his national team attire with his club threads—he inherited Barcelona’s No. 10, made iconic by Lionel Messi, in 2025.

The teenage sensation previously wore No. 19 on his back at Euro 2024 and the 2026 World Cup. However, there is a particular reason why this change has happened now and it is not related to what might be seen as a natural progression into the No. 10 shirt.

Dani Olmo, Yamal’s Barcelona teammate, is the player who usually wears No. 10 for Spain, having done so since the start of 2022–23. But Olmo was unavailable for this month’s international matches due to a muscle injury he suffered in October.

Yamal wore No. 10 for a Spain match in 2024 but returned the jersey. | Omar Arnau/Quality Sport Images/Getty Images

No jersey can be left unoccupied—as Portugal discovered when Cristiano Ronaldo left camp last month and his No. 7 was reassigned to the horror of his outspoken friends. Jersey numbers in official UEFA competition on a national team roster have to run sequentially with no gaps, so every time a player who usually takes a particular number is not there, someone else has to fill their spot—even just for administrative purposes.

The job of Spain’s No. 10 actually went to Liverpool winger Víctor Muñoz when Spain beat Czechia on Thursday, although he stayed on the bench. Yamal wasn’t in the matchday selection either due to his own minor injury problem but has now returned.

The official Spain roster to face England, submitted to and published by UEFA, includes Yamal assigned No. 10. Muñoz, in turn, has transitioned to No. 19 for this match. Rayo Vallecano’s Jorge de Frutos had No. 19 against Czechia and has now been released from the roster.

It is not the first time that Yamal has worn No. 10 for Spain, although that has only happened on one previous occasion—against Denmark in Murcia in October 2024, when Olmo was ruled out.

Muñoz could have kept No. 10 from the Czechia match and Yamal gone straight into No. 19. But, with no disrespect toward the former, having Spain’s superstar occupy No. 10 is a bigger statement—even if he doesn’t intend to keep it.

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Yamal Change Not Expected to be Permanent

Yamal has remained respectful of his teammate. | Vince Mignott/DeFodi Images/Getty Images

Come March 2027, when the next round of Nations League matches take place, Olmo is expected to be back in the picture and Yamal is likely to be wearing No. 19 once more.

The 19-year-old has previously shut down suggestions that he could ask Olmo for a permanent trade so that he can wear No. 10 in every match—for both Barcelona and Spain.

“I think No. 19 suits me too,” Yamal told Spanish broadcaster RTVE in September 2025, crucially after he had already traded his Barcelona No. 19 for No. 10. If there was appetite to change his Spain jersey, it probably would have happened then. That it didn’t is telling.

Although some players incorporate their number into their personal brand—think Ronaldo or Messi—and plenty of others like the consistency, jersey numbers don’t always align between club and country. That’s also perfectly acceptable to many players.

Xavi Hernández always wore No. 6 for Barcelona and No. 8 for Spain. A little confusingly, Andrés Iniesta, a long-time midfield partner on both teams, wore No. 8 for Barcelona and No. 6 for Spain. And they never felt the need to swap because they were happy.

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