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The Story Of The Blues: Football's Original No.9

The FA Cup final of 1933 was the first major occasion where players wore numbers on the back of their shirts.

It was contested between Everton, who wore 1-11, and Manchester City, who donned 12-22.

That meant the great William Ralph 'Dixie' Dean, the Blues' greatest-ever goalscorer, was football's original number nine.

Everton's line-up was as follows.

1. Ted Sagar
2. Billy Cook
3. Warney Cresswell
4. Cliff Britton
5. Tommy White
6. Jock Thomson
7. Albert Geldard
8. James Dunn
9. Dixie Dean (c)
10. Tommy Johnson
11. Jimmy Stein

Everton ran out 3-0 winners - courtesy of goals from Stein, Dean and Dunn - to lift the trophy in front of a crowd of 92,950 at Wembley.

Not only was Dean the original, he is, arguably, the greatest.

Having started his professional career with Tranmere Rovers, he caught Everton's eye as an 18-year-old, with the Club paying a fee of £3,000 for his services in March 1925.

Dean quickly became a heroic figure, netting 33 goals in his maiden campaign for the Blues, including the first three of 37 hat-tricks for the Blues.

In total, Dean scored 383 goals in 433 appearances for Everton and his record of notching 60 league strikes in 1927/28 is one that unsurprisingly still stands today.

He also won two league titles and one FA Cup with the Club and, in May 2001, a 10-foot bronze statue was unveiled outside Goodison Park in his honour.

Click here to learn more about Dean's incredible legacy.

Bill Shankly (former Liverpool manager)
Dixie was the greatest centre forward there will ever be. His record of goalscoring is the most amazing thing under the sun. He belongs in the company of the supremely great, like Beethoven, Shakespeare and Rembrandt.