Can João Pedro finally break Chelsea's No. 9 curse?
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KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Chelsea's No. 9 shirt has produced years of underwhelming striker records.
- Didier Drogba and Diego Costa succeeded, but both avoided the infamous number nine.
- João Pedro has already scored in his first game wearing the shirt.
The theory is simple. A traditional number nine is supposed to score goals. At Stamford Bridge, however, strikers given the iconic shirt have frequently struggled to do exactly that.
It has happened often enough for the idea to become part of Chelsea folklore.
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Is Chelsea's No. 9 shirt really cursed?
In the literal sense, no.There is no voodoo magic involved, and a shirt number cannot suddenly make a striker forget how to score.
The more convincing explanation is that Chelsea have repeatedly found themselves in difficult circumstances with their centre-forwards.
Some arrived under enormous pressure because of their transfer fees. Others suffered injuries, changed managers or lost confidence. Several were signed when they were already approaching the latter stages of their careers.
That is the rational explanation.
Football, however, is not always rational.
Once a pattern becomes established, it can create its own pressure. Every missed opportunity from a Chelsea No. 9 is inevitably compared with the players who struggled before him. The shirt gains a reputation, supporters expect the worst and the player knows exactly what people are talking about.
That makes the curse feel increasingly real, even when the underlying causes are perfectly ordinary.
Chelsea No. 9 history: the numbers
Since Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink left in 2004, 11 different players have worn Chelsea's No. 9 shirt, although two of those players were not conventional strikers.Here is how the shirt has fared since his departure:
| Player | Years in No. 9 | Games | Goals |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink | 2000–04 | 177 | 87 |
| Mateja Kežman | 2004–05 | 41 | 7 |
| Hernán Crespo | 2005–06 | 73 | 25 |
| Khalid Boulahrouz | 2006/07 | 20 | 0 |
| Steve Sidwell | 2007/08 | 25 | 1 |
| Franco Di Santo | 2008/09 | 16 | 0 |
| Unassigned | 2009/11 | - | - |
| Fernando Torres | 2011/14 | 172 | 45 |
| Unassigned | 2014/15 | - | - |
| Radamel Falcao | 2015/16 | 12 | 1 |
| Unassigned | 2016/17 | - | - |
| Álvaro Morata | 2017/19 | 72 | 24 |
| Gonzalo Higuaín | 2019 (loan) | 19 | 5 |
| Tammy Abraham | 2019/21 | 82 | 30 |
| Romelu Lukaku | 2021/22 | 44 | 15 |
| Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang | 2022/23 | 21 | 3 |
| Unassigned | 2023/25 | - | - |
| Liam Delap | 2025/26 | 41 | 2 |
| João Pedro | 2026/ | 2 | 2 |
Note: Figures represent the players' full Chelsea careers in all competitions. Hernán Crespo and Tammy Abraham wore other shirt numbers during parts of their Chelsea careers.
The contrast with Hasselbaink is obvious.The Dutchman scored 87 goals in 177 appearances whilst wearing No. 9 for Chelsea. Since then, very few players have come close to providing the same reliability in front of goal.
Mateja Kežman was the first warning sign
The problems began almost immediately.Mateja Kežman arrived at Chelsea after scoring 30 goals in a single season for PSV Eindhoven, with José Mourinho bringing him to Stamford Bridge in 2004.
Expectations were high.
The reality was very different.
Kežman scored just seven goals in 41 appearances during his Chelsea spell before leaving after one season.
Hernán Crespo never really got the opportunity
Hernán Crespo was a different case.The Argentine was an established world-class striker with the pedigree to succeed at Chelsea, yet his Stamford Bridge career was never allowed to develop normally.
Despite scoring 25 goals in 73 appearances, Crespo spent a significant portion of his time away from the club on loan.
His Chelsea numbers were hardly disastrous, but his career at Stamford Bridge never matched the level supporters expected from a striker of his calibre.
Chelsea gave No. 9 to a defender and a midfielder
Then things became even stranger.Khalid Boulahrouz and Steve Sidwell hardly represented the traditional No. 9 profile.
Boulahrouz, a defender, wore the shirt during the 2006/07 season and scored no goals in 20 appearances.
Sidwell inherited it the following campaign and managed one goal in 25 games.
It is hardly surprising that a shirt traditionally associated with elite goalscorers failed to produce much attacking output when it was handed to players whose primary job was not scoring.
Franco Di Santo followed in 2008/09 and scored none in 16 appearances.
The number was then left unassigned for several seasons.
Fernando Torres: the £50 million striker who never quite clicked
Then came the biggest name yet.Chelsea signed Fernando Torres for £50 million in January 2011, making him the most expensive player in British football history at the time.
At his peak, Torres had been one of the world's most feared strikers. But by the time he arrived in West London, injuries had already affected his explosiveness and consistency.
Torres eventually scored 45 goals in 172 appearances for Chelsea.
Those numbers are not terrible in isolation.
But context matters.
Chelsea had paid a record fee for a striker expected to lead the line and regularly score at an elite level. Instead, his time at the club became defined by inconsistency and the question of what might have been.
The expensive striker era made the curse look worse
After Torres, the transfer fees, and expectations, kept rising.Radamel Falcao arrived on loan in 2015/16 with one of the biggest reputations in European football but managed just one goal in 12 appearances.
Álvaro Morata followed in 2017 and initially looked capable of putting the curse to bed. He scored 24 goals in 72 appearances, but his Chelsea career gradually deteriorated and he eventually moved on.
Then came Gonzalo Higuaín, another elite striker whose best years were already behind him by the time he arrived on loan.
Chelsea were desperate for goals, and Higuaín had previously been one of Europe's most prolific forwards. But the version of Higuaín that arrived at Stamford Bridge was no longer the player who had dominated Serie A.
He scored five goals in 19 appearances.
Tammy Abraham came closest to breaking the spell
One of the more interesting cases was Tammy Abraham.Unlike several of the expensive signings before him, Abraham was a homegrown player coming through the Chelsea system.
He scored 30 goals in 82 appearances whilst wearing No. 9 and, crucially, produced a superb Premier League campaign during his first full season in the senior side.
His league tally became the highest recorded by a Chelsea No. 9 in a single Premier League campaign in the period covered here.
Abraham showed that the shirt itself was not the problem. Given a stable run in the team, confidence and regular minutes, a Chelsea No. 9 could still score goals.
Romelu Lukaku added another chapter
When Chelsea brought Romelu Lukaku back in 2021, expectations were enormous.The Belgian was returning after an outstanding spell at Inter Milan and had already proved himself as a Premier League goalscorer.
Instead, his second Chelsea spell became one of the club's most disappointing recent striker stories.
Lukaku scored 15 goals in 44 appearances before his relationship with the club deteriorated and a return to Inter followed.
Aubameyang and Delap failed to change the story
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang arrived in 2022 with a reputation as one of Europe's most prolific forwards.By then, however, the Gabon international was well beyond the peak years of his career. He scored only three goals in 21 appearances for Chelsea.
Liam Delap's spell was even less productive.
The striker managed just two goals in 41 appearances during the 2025/26 campaign, adding another chapter to the increasingly familiar story.
João Pedro has already made the perfect start
João Pedro enters the story under rather different circumstances.The Brazilian has inherited the No. 9 shirt with Chelsea supporters already well aware of its reputation. That means the pressure is immediate.
But his start could hardly have been better.
João Pedro scored twice in his first two appearances wearing Chelsea's No. 9 shirt.
That does not prove the curse is dead.
But there is something important in how João Pedro arrives at the situation.
Rather than being a veteran striker trying to rediscover his prime, or an expensive signing carrying the weight of a huge transfer fee, he has an opportunity to build his Chelsea career within a younger and increasingly talented attacking group.
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Why João Pedro could finally break the Chelsea No. 9 curse
If the curse is really nothing more than a collection of circumstances, then Chelsea's best hope of ending it is not superstition.It is stability.
The club need a striker who can stay fit, remain a regular starter, play in a settled attacking system and avoid being constantly surrounded by managerial upheaval and squad turnover.
João Pedro appears to have the ingredients required.
He has attacking quality around him, greater competition for places and a squad built with considerable attacking talent. Under Xabi Alonso, he also has the chance to develop within a clearer tactical structure.
None of that guarantees goals.
But it gives João Pedro something many previous Chelsea No. 9s never had: the possibility of continuity.
FAQ
Is Chelsea's No. 9 shirt really cursed?
No. There is no evidence of a literal curse. The pattern is better explained by injuries, form, recruitment, managerial changes and player circumstances.Who was Chelsea's most successful No. 9?
Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink stands out, scoring 87 goals in 177 appearances whilst wearing Chelsea's No. 9 shirt.Did Didier Drogba wear Chelsea's No. 9 shirt?
No. Didier Drogba is one of Chelsea's most successful strikers, but he wore other shirt numbers during his Stamford Bridge career.Can João Pedro break Chelsea's No. 9 curse?
João Pedro has made the perfect start by scoring twice in his first two appearances wearing No. 9, but consistency over a full season will be the real test.More Football Stories
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