Timo Werner is no stranger to sharp-tongued criticism.
While his imminent return to the Premier League on loan at Tottenham Hotspur has unearthed some of the trickier moments during his two years in London with Chelsea, Werner has been the subject of unwanted jibes since his days as a teenage prodigy at Stuttgart.
Reflecting on his rapid ascent in the Bundesliga, Werner sighed: “There is a lot of envy in football.” The fleet-footed German revealed that he had been “slapped down” by “some of the fans, parts of the media, the coaching staff or a teammate”.
No Premier League player is free from criticism in the hyper-reactive modern age and Werner will be no different. Here’s a look at the digits that may be draped across his back while he tries in vain to please all the critics.
When a 17-year-old Werner made his debut for Stuttgart in 2013, he was wearing the number 19, the same figure which he would carry throughout his three seasons in the first team.
A hotly controversial move to the much-maligned Bundesliga upstarts RB Leipzig in 2016 sent Werner’s popularity tumbling much further than his decreased squad number. Werner was handed an 11 he would come to cherish. Donning the same digits on his senior international debut, Werner was given the 11 at Chelsea and took it back up on his return to Leipzig in 2022.
“I think it’s a good number for a striker,” Werner told Chelsea’s official website shortly after Pedro’s departure allowed him to take up his favoured shirt. “I love the number 11. I have it as well in the German national team. Yeah, I think my number is very good. It fits good to me.”
Werner wore the number 9 shirt for Germany at the disastrous 2018 World Cup. Starting all three games in his nation’s group-stage exit, Werner failed to score while forcing just one save out of an opposition goalkeeper.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Werner has shunned single-digit squad numbers since. “I love to have two numbers on the back,” he revealed. “It looks a little better for me on my back to have two numbers rather than one.”
Unfortunately for Werner, his precious number 11 is in the possession of Bryan Gil. Spurs are desperately light up front, which partially explains the emergency move for Werner, ensuring that an exit for Gil remains unlikely.
Ryan Sessegnon wears 19 – Werner’s second choice – for Spurs and has recently returned to fitness, offering a defensive option in another thin area of Tottenham’s squad.
Werner will have little interest in the availability of 1, 2 and 6. Eric Dier’s imminent departure could free up 15, while 16 is up for grabs immediately. Alternatively, Werner could go for 24, 25, 26 or 28.
Anything above 30 is usually reserved for academy graduates but Spurs have a gaggle of first-teamers unfazed by lofty digits. If Werner wants to follow the trend set by summer arrivals Micky van de Ven (37) and Destiny Udogie (38), he is more than welcome to any of 31, 32, 34 or 39.
Whatever Werner picks, he’ll undoubtedly face some criticism for his choice.
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