{"id":660317,"date":"2025-10-07T08:37:50","date_gmt":"2025-10-07T12:37:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?p=660317"},"modified":"2025-10-07T08:37:50","modified_gmt":"2025-10-07T12:37:50","slug":"best-chelsea-players-number-16-jersey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2025\/10\/07\/best-chelsea-players-number-16-jersey\/","title":{"rendered":"Best Chelsea Players to Wear the Number 16 Jersey Ever"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jersey numbers are an important part of football, icons have blazed their trails all while adorned by a familiar number on their back. Some numbers don’t have a lot of history but they have been held by some very notable players. Which is why in this, we’ll be looking at the best Chelsea players to ever wear the number 16 jersey.<\/p>\n

Best Chelsea Players to Wear the Number 16 Jersey of All Time<\/h2>\n

Edouard Mendy<\/h3>\n

While he had a fairly short stint at Stamford Bridge it is hard to forget the man who stood on his head to lead the team to a Champions League victory. Thomas Tuchel’s defensive mindset saw his team scrape results and a big part of that was the impressive performances of Edouard Mendy in the goal.<\/p>\n

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He won the award for best goalkeeper that year, excelling so much he was even named Senegal’s player of the year. In total, he let in just 86 goals in his 109 appearances for the team, keeping 49 clean sheets in the process.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Arjen Robben<\/h3>\n

Dutch star Arjen Robben was likely more known for his time with Bayern Munich but he had a multi-year stint with the Blues that is hard to overlook.\u00a0 He was a young starlet who helped the side win back-to-back Premier League titles, even winning the Premier League player of the month award in November 2004. He was named to the team of the season that year too, his impressive outings on the wing were a key part of the attacking ability that squad had.<\/p>\n

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He made 106 appearances for the team, scoring 19 times and providing 23 assists. He won the Premier League twice, an FA Cup, and to League Cups during his stint in England. He did have some injuries that prevented him from fully hitting his stride but he still managed to play a major part in one of the clubs most successful periods.<\/p>\n

Raul Mereiles<\/h3>\n

Part of the fun of digging into the number 16 jersey and its history is getting to discuss a player like Raul Mereiles. Only here for two seasons but made quite the impression from midfield after his arrival from Liverpool. He played the majority of his minutes in the first of those campaigns, being reduced to just three in his second one.<\/p>\n

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He played 48 times across all competitions, getting 6 goals and 6 assists while racking up an impressive 16 yellow cards. He was a tough presence in midfield, needed to replace some of the grit lost by Michael Essien’s injury. He was a contributor to both an FA Cup win and a Champions League-winning campaign.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Roberto Di Matteo<\/h3>\n

Not only is the manager who delivered the Champions League, Roberto Di Matteo was a star on the pitch for the Blues in the 90s. He was one of their many exciting attacking signings who helped them rise through the ranks<\/a> in the decade to become one of the Premier League’s major players by the time Roman Abramovich came along to buy the club.<\/p>\n

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He played in midfield, where his passing and shooting range made him a consistent threat. His career was sadly cut short from injury, but he accumulated 39 goal contributions in 175 appearances for the team. During that time he won the FA Cup, League Cup, UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup, and the UEFA Super Cup.<\/p>\n

David Rocastle<\/h3>\n

A man who built his legacy with Arsenal, David Rocastle was an England international with the technical abilities to play across the midfield and even as a winger. Knee injuries saw him cycle through teams after the Gunners cut their ties with him and he eventually landed in London once again as he joined Chelsea in 1994.<\/p>\n

The Blues spent a million pounds on Rocastle despite his well-documented knee injuries, believing it to be better to have him on the field at all than to not have him. He was carefully managed by Glenn Hoddle, often being subbed off in starts. His one season of health showcased his talent, his ability with the ball and experience of winning titles with Arsenal made him a pivotal part of that 1994\/95 campaign.<\/p>\n

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He sadly would only play once more after that term, injuries cropping up again before he was sent on loan a number of times. Rocastle is potentially one of the most unlucky players in history. Started his career needing contact lenses, plagued with knee injuries in his prime, before succumbing to illness just two years after his retirement.<\/p>\n

Featured Image<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Jersey numbers are an important part of football, icons have blazed their trails all while adorned by a familiar number on their back. Some numbers don’t have a lot of history but they have been held by some very notable players. Which is why in this, we’ll be looking at the best Chelsea players to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2013,"featured_media":655516,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11,2,3],"tags":[32319],"class_list":["post-660317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea","category-featured","category-premier-league","tag-chelsea-squad-number-history"],"modified_by":"Alex Richards, LWOF Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2013"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=660317"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660317\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":660324,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660317\/revisions\/660324"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/655516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=660317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=660317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=660317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}