I wanted to be Chelsea's David Beckham but my first chat with Jose Mourinho ended my dream

Jose Mourinho swiftly dismissed Florent Malouda's request for the number seven shirt at Chelsea, which belonged to Andriy Shevchenko at the time. The French winger, who joined the Blues from Olympique Lyonnais in July 2007 for £13m, had hoped to take on the iconic number following his move to Stamford Bridge.

Malouda, fresh off winning the Ligue 1 Player of the Year award and tasked with filling the void left by Arjen Robben's departure to Real Madrid, was keen on changing his jersey number. He had previously worn the number 10 at Lyon, contributing ten goals and nine assists in his last season there.

However, his ambitions were quickly dashed by Mourinho. In a 2022 interview with Ladbrokes, as quoted by SportBible, Malouda recounted his first interaction with the Portuguese manager.

"My first conversation with Jose Mourinho was great. I was so relieved to have got the green light to travel to London to finalise my contract," he said. "We talked for a while about which number I was going to wear.

"In France, I wore the number seven shirt, so I asked Jose about the availability of that. He said 'No, Sheva [Andriy Shevchenko] is number seven. Forget about it."

When Shevchenko departed on loan to AC Milan the following year, freeing up the number seven, Malouda chose to remain with his assigned number 15. Reflecting on the alternatives, he added: "[I asked Mourinho] Which numbers are available, then?

Malouda revealed that Mourinho convinced him to take the number 15 shirt at Chelsea, following in the footsteps of his older sibling Didier. He said: "[He told me] 'Your brother Didier wore number 15 for a couple of seasons when he arrived before he changed to number 11, so why don't you wear that? Take your brother's number'."

Malouda made a total of 229 appearances for the Blues, netting 45 times and laying on 41 assists as the club enjoyed a golden era, winning the Champions League, a Premier League title and three FA Cups.

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