Florian Wirtz vs. club legends - Can midfielder become Liverpool's best ever No.7?

02.08.2025 - 14:55 | source: Transfermarkt | Reading Time: 3 mins

Anfield's new No.7

Florian Wirtz vs. club legends - Can midfielder become Liverpool's best ever No.7?

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As if Liverpool fans weren’t already excited enough about the new Premier League season, the club sent most of the Anfield faithful into overdrive on Friday with the announcement that new signing Florian Wirtz would be donning the No.7 jersey. While most clubs have an affinity to attacking numbers - such as No.7, No.9 or No.10 - that number in particular holds a special place in the heart of most Liverpool fans. As such, Wirtz will have to be at his absolute best this season and perhaps even for a number of years after that if he hopes to live up to the number he has inherited. And to understand why, we need only look back at the club legends that have played with the No.7 on their backs for the Anfield club through the ages.

Which Liverpool legend played the most games wearing No.7?

As we can see from the table above, when it comes to players that wore the Liverpool No.7 for the longest periods of time there are some true legends of the game to pick from. Naturally, Kenny Dalglish leads the way with a remarkable 489 games for the Anfield club wearing the famous number, followed by Ian Callaghan, James Milner and then Ballon d’Or winner Kevin Keegan on 313 games. Steve McManaman makes up the top five with 169 games, prior to his move to Real Madrid. So how far up this list could Wirtz get? Well, the modern player can easily play 50 games a season and considering that Wirtz is only 22, he could feasibly come within touching distance of Dalglish’s record if he is able to avoid injuries and indeed stays at the club for the next eight or nine seasons.

Which Liverpool No.7 scored the most goals and assists?

Wirtz obviously demanded a huge fee from Bayer Leverkusen and that was largely due to his remarkable return of goals and assists in the Bundesliga. Over the course of his time at the German club, the young attacking midfielder bagged no less than 57 goals and 65 assists in 197 games - which works out at 0.62 goal contributions per game. When we take a look at which Liverpool No.7s bagged the most goals and assists, we can see that Dalglish and Keegan once again lead the way with 349 and 183 respectively. If Wirtz can maintain his same average in English football, it would take him over 560 games for Liverpool to match Dalglish’s record. That seems a bit unlikely, but not entirely impossible. And considering that he’d be able to reach the top five with more than 103, he really should be aiming to be quite high on this list by the time he departs the club.

Which Liverpool won the most trophies?

To no great surprise, Dalglish once again leads the way when it comes to No.7s that have won the most trophies with Liverpool. Over the course of his career, the Scotland international won a remarkable 25 major and minor trophies with the Anfield club, followed by Ian Callaghan (18), Craig Johnston (11), Jan Mølby (10) and then Keegan (9). Winning silverware is obviously the main reason why Wirtz made the move to Anfield this summer, but to match Dalglish’s record he would have to win every competition Liverpool take part in for seven straight seasons. Again, there’s nothing stopping the German international from perhaps catching Keegan’s silverware haul, but it would take something truly special for Wirtz to win 25 trophies with Liverpool between now and the end of his career.

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