Newcastle United’s man wears the number seven shirt.
Achraf Lazaar has told The Chronicle how he came to wear Newcastle United’s famous number seven shirt.
The Morocco international joined Newcastle in a £3 million deal (according to The Mail) from Palermo in the summer.
The 24-year-old has only managed one Championship appearance for the Magpies so far, being forced to be an unused substitution in United’s last three games.
It has not been a brilliant start to life at Newcastle, but Lazaar has big shoes to fill after selecting the club’s number seven shirt – previously worn by the likes of Rob Lee and Kevin Keegan.
But the man himself has revealed to The Chronicle that the process of securing that shirt number took a little bit of extra work due to the fact that Christian Atsu also wanted it.
He revealed that manager Rafael Benitez made him and Atsu – a loan signing from Chelsea – contest a penalty shootout in order to determine who won the shirt number.
“When I signed for Newcastle the number 3 shirt was taken by Paul Dummett. After I looked what was left and myself and Christian Atsu picked but Atsu liked 7 too,” he said.
“The manager told us to have a penalty shoot-out to decide who got 7. I have had 7 all of my career and this was my chance to get it again.
“I won the penalty competition then I had to say sorry to Atsu because he is my friend! I love him but I had to say it was my number!”
Newcastle, who sit top of the Championship, visit in-form Leeds United on Sunday, but Benitez’s side are also bang in form at the moment and they aim to protect a seven-match winning streak.
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