Frenkie de Jong will wear the number 21 for his first season at FC Barcelona after new teammate and fellow blaugrana midfielder Carles Aleñá gave up his old number to make the move to 19, which was recently vacated by Kevin-Prince Boateng. The change will allow De Jong to wear the same number with Barça that he had at Ajax.

Before the change, it was announced on Sunday that new player Antoine Griezmann will wear 17, while Neto, another new signing, will don the number 13.

By the numbers

Since jersey numbers became season-long assignations in 1995-96, eight Barça players have worn the number 21. De Jong thus becomes the ninth, following the likes of Robert Prosinecki, Luis Enrique — who had it for eight seasons — Lillian Thuram, Alexander Hleb, Dmytro Chygrynskiy, Adriano Correia, André Gomes, and Aleñá.

A total of 13 players have worn the number 19: Lluís Carreras, Juan Antonio Pizzi, Patrick Kluivert, Dani Garcia, Fernando Navarro, Leo Messi (which he wore for two and a half seasons before taking number 10), Maxwell, Martín Montoya, Ibrahim Afellay, Sandro Ramírez, Lucas Digne, Munir El Haddadi, and Boateng.