Since the 1910s, soccer players have been assigned jersey numbers to help identify them. While the numbers aren’t as positionally rooted as they were a century ago, most players who wear No. 2 can be found along the back line. Since the number was originally intended to identify a right back, many of the players who wear No. 2 play right back.
But some of the best to ever wear the number aren’t right backs. Some occupy the middle of a back four or a back five, and some are even midfielders or forwards.
Here’s a list of the best players to ever wear the number 2 jersey:
- Cafu (Brazil/Palmeiras, Roma and AC Milan)
- Giuseppi Bergomi (Italy/Inter Milan)
- Dani Carvajal (Spain/Real Madrid)
- Gary Neville (England/Manchester United)
- Willy Sagnol (Bayern Munich)
- Ivan Cordova (Colombia/Inter Milan)
- Clint Dempsey (United States/New England Revolution, Tottenham Hotspur, Seattle Sounders FC)
Table of Contents
The History
As AS explained in an article on the topic, outside backs will typically get the No. 2 and No. 3 jerseys, while center backs typically wear the No. 4 and No. 5 jerseys, though as the game’s evolved, different types of players have worn the No. 2 jersey.
However, many of the best-known players wearing number 2 throughout history have played at the right back position, though the odd midfielder or forward will take that jersey number and make it his own (or her own, since there are also some women’s soccer players who have worn number 2 in maverick fashion).
The best right backs wearing number 2
Cafu
It’s appropriate to start with maybe the best No. 2 of all time. The resume speaks for itself: Two World Cup victories and 142 caps — an all-time record for the squad — with the legendary Brazil team, plus a pro career spanning two decades (from 1989 to 2008) that concluded with stays at Palmeiras, Roma and AC Milan.
While Cafu first tasted World Cup glory in 1994, and suffered the heartbreak on being on the losing end of the final in 1998, he rates the 2002 win as his greatest ever.
As he told the FIFA 2022 World Cup website to commemorate the 20th anniversary of that win, “Winning the World Cup at the age of 24 was a dream in 1994. In 2002, we won the trophy for the fifth time and I was the captain – so for me personally, the weight of 2002 is greater.”
Giuseppe Bergomi
Bergomi, during his career, also lifted a World Cup trophy — with Italy’s classy 1982 team — as well as giving 20 years and more than 500 caps’ worth of service to Inter Milan. Bergomi, the rare pro player to stick to one club his whole career, helped deliver a league championship and three Europa League championships to the black-and-blue side of Milan.
Bergomi also played in four World Cups, getting the victory in his first one, but staying in the mix through the 1998 World Cup at age 34, and captaining the 1990 squad that won the third-place final after getting knocked out by Argentina in the semis.
Though Bergomi played primarily as a right back, he could be utilized all along the back line.
Dani Carvajal
Spain has been a global power in soccer’s modern era, intertwined with Real Madrid as one of the planet’s most potent pro teams. Dani Carvajal has been a talisman for each as a right back, still active for each team after starting his pro career in 2013 and first appearing in the World Cup when Spain attempted to defend its title in 2014.
With Real Madrid, Carvajal’s been part of five Champions League champion teams, looking to build on Los Blancos’ decima-winning form through at least 2025, already having racked up close to 250 caps for the Spanish giants.
Gary Neville
Now best known to modern soccer fans as a commentator for Sky Sports, as well as manager at Valencia for a brief 2015 stint, Neville played his entire career at Manchester United, primarily in the No. 2 jersey, from 1992 to 2011, amassing 400 caps for legendary squads helmed by Sir Alex Ferguson. He also made 85 appearances for the Three Lions between 1995 and 2007.
A Bleacher Report article asking if Neville was the greatest right back of all-time observed, “When Beckham was acclaimed as the greatest crosser of the ball in 1999, Neville formed a formidable partnership with him and was never behind in providing innumerable, and invaluable assists.
He gradually established himself as the most accomplished right-back of his generation, eventually being named the Club-Captain by Sir Alex when Roy Keane departed.”
Willy Sagnol
Though primarily wearing No. 19 for France, Sagnol wore No. 2 for Bayern Munich where he played the majority of his club soccer. In a pro career stretching from 1995 to 2008, Sagnol earned more than 300 caps, leading Bayern Munich to UEFA Champions League, Bundesliga and DFB-Pokal trophies.
Sagnol has since transitioned into managing, currently helming the Georgia men’s national team.
Other great players wearing number 2
Ivan Cordoba
Primarily a central defender, Cordoba was a mainstay of the Colombian national team, getting 73 caps from 1997 through 2011. He was called up to the 1998 World Cup squad — where he was the first to wear the No. 2 in a World Cup since the infamous murder of Andres Escobar following his own goal against the U.S. in the 1994 World Cup.
Cordoba was also the hero of the 2001 Copa America, scoring the only goal in the final to give a perenially-strong Colombian team its greatest moment of international soccer success.
Cordoba also enjoyed a lengthy career as a pro with nearly 500 career caps, the bulk of them earned at Inter Milan between 2000 and 2012.
Clint Dempsey
While Clint Dempsey has won several different numbers over his career, including No. 8 and No. 23, it was his choice of No. 2 — unconventional for a striker — that earned him the nickname “Deuce.”
Dempsey is among the best-ever American players to ever wear the red, white and blue, netting 57 goals (a U.S. record shared with Landon Donovan) in 141 caps.
He was part of three different World Cup squads between 2006 and 2014, and scored one of the fastest goals in World Cup history, blazing the U.S. to an early lead over Ghana within the first 30 seconds of their 2014 opener. The goal made him the first American to score in three straight World Cups.
Dempsey also enjoyed a 15-year career with Major League Soccer bookends surrounding his time in the Premier League. He started with the New England Revolution in 2004, moved to Fulham from 2006-2012, spent a year with Tottenham Hotspur, and closed out his career with six Seattle Sounders seasons, including a 2016 MLS Cup win, before retiring in the middle of the 2018 season.
Dempsey has gone on to a surprising and yet entertaining career in broadcasting, first with CBS/Paramount Plus for its Concacaf Nations League coverage in 2021 — after some time away from the spotlight — and for Fox’s World Cup 2022 coverage in the United States.
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