Lebo Moloto is going to wear the №10 shirt for Nashville SC. Here’s why that’s significant.
Nashville SC posted a video on Friday showing the name “Moloto” and the digits “1” and “0” being pressed onto a blue jersey. As far as number reveals go, this number and name combination is among the more significant the club could have shown us. To understand why this is noteworthy, we first have to take a quick trip across the Atlantic Ocean and 80 years into the past.
In 1939, the English Football Association made shirt numbering compulsory and required that players’ numbers match their position, based on the 2–3–5 or “pyramid” formation. The numbers went from 1 to 11, starting with the goalkeeper at the top of the pyramid, reading from left to right across the backline, then down to the midfield (called halfbacks at the time) and ending with rightmost player on the five-man forward line. This numbering system got convoluted in a hurry, as most teams in the FA had already moved on from the 2–3–5 by 1939 but were nevertheless obligated to adhere to the shirt-numbering scheme.
As the shape of formations evolved, the numbering system stayed, even though the numbers came to signify players occupying completely different areas of the field than they did in the 2–3–5. As the 4–4–2 came became popular in the second half of the 20th century, the №10, once an inside forward on a the five-man forward line, became a second striker. In the modern day, a number 10 is commonly understood as being an attacking midfielder who operates in the space behind the striker, where you usually want your most creative and technically skilled players.
Because of the demands of that role, the №10 shirt often ended up on the back of the team’s best player. When the FA liberalized its shirt numbering policy in the early 1990s, the №10 shirt came unmoored from its fixed position on the pitch and started to follow the team’s best attacker, wherever he happened to be lining up on the field. Today, Lionel Messi is a №10 who wears the number 10, but the number is also worn by wide midfielders (Eden Hazard), wingers (Christian Pulisic for the USMNT), and strikers (Harry Kane, Sergio Aguero).
So that’s the context in which Lebo Moloto is getting ready to wear the №10 shirt for Nashville SC, becoming the first professional player to wear that number for the club. As NSC has yet to play its first game, it’s nearly impossible to say that Moloto is the team’s best player, but he certainly seems to possess many of the qualities you want from a №10. From the moment his trade from Swope Park Rangers was completed, he was a strong candidate to be a starter in an attacking midfield role. After this news, it would a pretty significant shock if that’s not the case — at least to start the season.
That squares with the comments made by head coach Gary Smith and technical director Mike Jacobs on the occasion of Moloto’s signing.
“Lebo is a dynamic combination of creative ability & team-first mentality,” said Smith. “He has a graceful appreciation of the ball when in possession and is capable of making and scoring goals on his own or linking with others.”
“From day one we have been looking for ways to create a competitive advantage in building out our roster,” said Jacobs. “Adding a player of the caliber of Lebo was an opportunity we had to take advantage of, and we were fortunate to work out a deal that enabled us to do so.”
2017 was the most productive year of the 27-year-old South African’s professional career. In 33 appearances for Swope Park Rangers, Moloto scored seven goals and assisted four four more. According to stats supplied by Nashville SC, he created 52 chances and completed more than 84 percent of his passes.
We’ve still got a long way to go toward figuring out what the starting XI is going to look like, but the back line and Moloto’s role in the midfield are starting to come into focus.
