The number 30 in football has never been as popular as it has been over the past year.
After PSG decided to spend more money, mainly in wages to acquire Lionel Messi, there were millions of sales of the number 30 shirt.
Now while when it comes to the number 30 shirt, Messi is as high profile as it gets, there are a number of other top players wearing it.
In fact, in this post, I will show you 11 highly rated footballers who currently wear number 30 for their club.
Table of Contents
1. Lionel Messi
There isn’t another player to start on other than arguably one of the best to play the game in Lionel Messi.
Now while Messi wears the number 30 shirt for the Parisian giants, its not a number he is typically associated with.
This is because at Barcelona his previous club, he wore the number 10 shirt for 14 years.
However, interestingly enough, it was the 30 shirt that he wore before breaking into the Barcelona team in the late noughties.
It explains why the outside-the-box shot expert and goalscoring machine, opted to go back to 30 after leaving Spain last year.
2. Eddie Nketiah
Eddie Nketiah has had a solid season for Arsenal, taking up that first-choice striker position.
He has done well to fill the gap between Aubameyang who left for Barcelona and the discontent between another striker Lacazette and Arteta.
With that said, number 30 Nkeitah has formed a great partnership with fellow youngsters in Odegaard and Bukayo Saka, as they look to get champions league football.
At one stage Nketiah looked to be the striker that would forever be going out on loan, however, with him performing well, it looks like he is here to stay.
3. Nicolas Otamendi – Benfica
Centre-back Nicolas Otamendi enjoyed a 5-year spell with Manchester City, which included several trophies.
Falling out of favor with Pep Guardiola towards the end however meant it was always a matter of time before Otamendi moved on to pastures new.
Otamendi nowadays plays in Portugal with Benfica in which he retains the number 30 that he wore in Manchester.
The 34-year-old who has won 90 caps for his country, has won three Liga Nos titles with Rivals Porto aswell two Premier League titles.
4. Mohammed Daramy – Ajax FC
Exciting prospect Mohammed Daramy shined at Copenhagen as a teenager, to attract interest from big clubs around Europe.
In the end, it was Ajax who swooped in for him, signing him for 12 million euros.
Daramy who wore numbers 40 and 11 in the Danish capital, switched to his now number of 30.
An interesting fact about this youngster is he is a handy Fifa player too, with him winning the Fifa 20 #stayandplaycup in 2020.
5. Jeremie Frimpong – Bayer Leverkusen
Coming through the Manchester City youth system, dutch born Frimpong has sparked his career into life with two impressive spells at Celtic and Bayer Leverkusen.
Signing for City in 2010, he played 9 years of youth football before swapping the 71 shirt for number 30 at Celtic.
Since then, he has kept the shirt, after moving to Germany on a four and half year deal.
At Leverkusen he has started right where he left of at with Celtic, earning a place in the Bundesliga team of the season for 2021/22.
6. Gavi – Barcelona
While Barcelona have seen some of the best midfielders of there generation depart the club, players like Gavi have given fans a reason to be excited.
Despite being just 17 years old, the spaniard has bags of potential, which is why Gavi was promoted from the B team to the main team after only three games.
Since then over the past year he has made 33 appearances for Barcelona and 6 at national level, becoming the youngest to appear for Spain.
So while the likes of Andres Iniesta and Xavi leaving in recent years, would it have been hard for fans, a new generation of midfielders coming through the catalan system is showing a lot of promise.
7. Junior Messias – AC Milan
Not to long ago Junior Messias was working a typical 9 to 5, however a huge rise within the past 5 years as seen him jump from Serie D to Serie A.
Messias who helped Crotone achieve promotion to Serie A, made a loan move to AC Milan in 2021.
Since then the number 30 has played a significant role in the Rosonneri’s push for the league title.