Although Manchester United have a storied history, the No. 9 is synonymous with just one player, and that is the most important player of the club’s past, Sir Bobby Charlton.
In the Premier League era, the No. 9 kit has been given to some high-profile transfers, but, in many ways, it has bounced around since 1992, with even the likes of Paul Scholes and Roy Keane donning it.
More recently, Manchester United have tried giving the iconic shirt to players like Anthony Martial and Romelu Lukaku after they were marquee signings, but neither ended up panning out.
Big-name short-term signings like Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Radamel Falcao have worn the No. 9 kit, too, but they made even less of an impact at Old Trafford.
Here are the five strikers who wore the No. 9 at Manchester United after 1992 for more than a season, ranked in order from worst to best.
5. Romelu Lukaku
Romelu Lukaku joined Manchester United as the hottest young striker in the Premier League, having scored a jaw-dropping 25 goals in his final season with Everton during the 2016/17 campaign.
24 years old at the time of his move, Lukaku was heading to Old Trafford entering the prime of his career, and he looked like he was poised to become a Premier League Player of the Season contender at a club like Manchester United. Heck, he was already on the shortlist in that final season with Everton.
Lukaku scored 16 goals with 7 assists in a solid enough first season at Old Trafford, but, in truth, it was a far cry from his performances the previous season at Everton and a bit worrying to fans after Man United invested a total of 90 million pounds in the Belgian star.
But no matter, Lukaku was decent enough, and there was optimism that the uber-talented striker would raise his game in his second season at Manchester United.
Instead, Lukaku was poor, looking like a shell of the player he was at Everton, to the point where incoming manager Ole Gunner Solskjaer phased him out of the lineup for Marcus Rashford.
Lukaku forced his way out of Manchester United a season later, moving for 80 million euros to Inter Milan, where he would later win the Serie A title and the league’s MVP.
Although Lukaku never matched his price tag and was a disappointment, he did have a good first season under Jose Mourinho and probably would have accomplished more with a better structure at the club.
4. Anthony Martial
Anthony Martial is viewed less favorably than Louis Saha, likely because Manchester United have been a lot less successful in the post-Sir Alex Ferguson era and more likely because of his price tag.
Man United spent 36 million pounds in order to sign Martial from Monaco in 2015, making him the most expensive transfer for a teenage player at the time.
Even then, fans around the world were critical of the signing, because Martial, while a talented prospect, wasn’t seen as ready to make the jump.
He scored 9 goals with 3 assists for Monaco in the 2014/15 season, but Martial was viewed as too raw to be worth that sort of a price tag.
Martial scored 11 goals in an encouraging first season at Old Trafford, but his play never progressed after that and even seemed to regress, if anything.
The Frenchman did have one strong season with the club in 2019/20 when he found the back of the net 17 times, seeming to break out as a 23-year-old.
However, Martial never followed up on that with an atrocious 2020/21 campaign, failed on a loan to Sevilla that was meant to save his career, and has been anonymous since then.
With Rasmus Hojlund at the club and Man United heavily pursuing Bologna’s Joshua Zirkzee, Martial’s days at Old Trafford are very much numbered.
3. Louis Saha
If Anthony Martial and Romelu Lukaku are viewed by Manchester United fans now as busts, Louis Saha’s memory seems much kinder now, as his inability to entrench himself at Old Trafford had nothing to do with a lack of quality.
Saha was so good that he seemed to have just as much, if not more, quality than Ruud van Nistelrooy upon his arrival, dominating the Premier League at times with Wayne Rooney at his side.
He even made 20 total international appearances in his career for the French national team, which reached the World Cup Final in 2006.
Saha lasted five seasons with Manchester United and won two Premier League titles, but his actual statistical impact ended up being minimal.
Saha never even scored double-digit goals in a single season for the Red Devils and only managed more than 10 starts on two different occasions.
When Saha got hot, like he did in the first half of the 2006/07 season when he was tabbed to replace Ruud Van Nistelrooy next to Wayne Rooney, he looked like the player Man United signed from Fulham.
But thanks to injuries, those moments were few and far between. Saha was an asset when Man United won the title in 2006/07, but, other than that, his time at Old Trafford was nondescript.
It’s a shame Saha wasn’t able to show the true extent of his abilities in the prime of his career, but he managed to stay at the club for so long despite a low scoring output because Sir Alex Ferguson and the fans could see that he brought a different element of quality and stood out, even with other excellent attacking players around him.
If you want to know just how good Saha was and how underrated he is nowadays, listen to the likes of Peter Crouch and Rio Ferdinand talk about him, especially Rio’s anecdote that Saha was so good with both feet, he legitimately didn’t even know which foot was his best one.
2. Dimitar Berbatov
Now we are moving into the territory of players who wore the No. 9 kit for Manchester United for multiple seasons and were indisputably good players for the Red Devils.
A Premier League icon, Dimitar Berbatov isn’t quite as iconic as Andy Cole, but the Bulgarian sensation may have developed a more last impression for his unique nonchalance and ridiculous first touch.
A technical wizard, Berbatov played for Manchester United from 2008/09 to 2011/12, winning the Premier League twice including in the 2010/11 season when he scored 20 goals with 4 assists.
With his trademark “Berbatov Spin” and eye for the spectacular, Berbatov was a star for Manchester United without ever looking like he broke out of second gear.
Although he only played for Man United for four seasons, Berbatov made a lasting impact at the club, living up to his 31 million pound price tag from Bayer Leverkusen.
Berbatov could be a bit streaky, but as his record of three hat-tricks in a season showed, he could stand with any striker in the world on his best day.
1. Andy Cole
Andy Cole is an icon of the Premier League, wearing the No. 9 kit for Manchestere United from 1995/96 onward until he left the club in 2001/02 for Blackburn after his prime ended.
Cole never matched the insane 34 goals and 14 assists he registered in 1993/94 as a 21-year-old phenom for Newcastle, but he forged an excellent career for himself at Old Trafford.
In total, Cole had five seasons with double digit goals, including a combined 51 goals from the 1997/98 to 1999/00 seasons. Cole won the Premier League five times with Manchester United.
Additionally, Cole was a key part of the Manchester United side that won the Champions League title in 1998/99. From 1997/98 to 2000/01, Cole scored a whopping 16 Champions League goals.
You can’t tell the story of Manchester United’s success in the second half of the 1990s without discussing Cole’s impact at the club extensively. He was a top player.
