{"id":1138632,"date":"2020-03-29T20:11:08","date_gmt":"2020-03-29T19:11:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/?p=1138632"},"modified":"2020-03-29T20:11:08","modified_gmt":"2020-03-29T19:11:08","slug":"wijnaldum-special-connection-number-five-shirt-number-zidane","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/news\/wijnaldum-special-connection-number-five-shirt-number-zidane\/","title":{"rendered":"The player who inspired Gini Wijnaldum&#8217;s &#8220;really special&#8221; connection with No.5 shirt number"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Liverpool midfielder Georginio Wijnaldum has credited Zinedine Zidane as the inspiration for him wearing the No.5 jersey.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The 29-year-old Dutchman is among the first names on Jurgen Klopp&#8217;s teamsheet and since joining from Newcastle United in 2016, he&#8217;s emerged as one of the Premier League&#8217;s most consistent performers.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Wijnaldum at Liverpool: Five key things to know\u2026<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Wijnaldum joined Liverpool in 2016 after spending one season at Newcastle United.<\/li>\n<li>He&#8217;s since gone on to make 177 appearances in all competitions, registering 18 goals and 16 assists.<\/li>\n<li>Klopp has predominantly uses him as a box-to-box midfielder.<\/li>\n<li>Wijnaldum made headlines when he came off the bench to score twice against Barcelona last season.<\/li>\n<li>His present deal at Anfield expires in June 2021.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>https:\/\/audioboom.com\/posts\/7533381<\/p>\n<p>Wijnaldum has struck three times across 28 Premier League outings this season as the Reds have raced into a 25-point lead over Manchester City at the top of the table.<\/p>\n<p>His performances subsequently earned strong reviews from pundits, with many feeling the 62-time Netherlands international wasn&#8217;t getting his just dues. That being said, Wijnaldum&#8217;s teammates and manager were not in that camp.<\/p>\n<p>An attacking midfielder during his PSV Eindhoven days, he&#8217;s very much a box-to-box midfielder these days, a far cry to the role Wijnaldum&#8217;s footballing idol Zidane played. Nevertheless the Frenchman had a profound effect on him when discussing the number on his back.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Sancho, Haaland, Hakimi &amp; Brandt | Meet Borussia Dortmund&#039;s Fantastic Four\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/OpOpxJuRT0U?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>Subscribe to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UC_QgsfA8W1TdLADOz0txpTg?sub_confirmation=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Squawka\u2019s Youtube channel here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Number five is a really special number for me,&#8221; he <a href=\"https:\/\/www.goal.com\/en-gb\/news\/my-favourite-player-is-zidane-liverpools-wijnaldum-reveals\/110bcnj5vs79w1kw73t2ifjl1l\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">revealed<\/a> on an Instagram Live broadcast.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It was my lucky number when I was young but also because my favourite player, Zinedine Zidane, was playing with number five.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I was really happy that I could start my professional career as number five. Since then, I&#8217;ve played with number five at Newcastle and when I came to Liverpool, the club basically kept number five for me. I was really happy with that.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Liverpool midfielder Georginio Wijnaldum has credited Zinedine Zidane as the inspiration for him wearing the No.5 jersey. The 29-year-old Dutchman is among the first names on Jurgen Klopp&#8217;s teamsheet and since joining from Newcastle United in 2016, he&#8217;s emerged as one of the Premier League&#8217;s most consistent performers. Wijnaldum at Liverpool: Five key things to&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":202,"featured_media":1138633,"parent":0,"menu_order":2679,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_focuskw":"","_yoast_wpseo_title":"Liverpool news: The player who inspired Wijnaldum's \"really special\" connection with No.5 shirt number | Squawka","_yoast_wpseo_metadesc":"Liverpool midfielder Georginio Wijnaldum has credited Zinedine Zidane as to why he wears the number five jersey.","footnotes":""},"tags":[],"news-category":[],"class_list":["post-1138632","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":{"external_featured_image_url":"","hide_featured_image_pattern":false},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v28.0 (Yoast SEO v28.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Liverpool news: The player who inspired Wijnaldum&#039;s &quot;really special&quot; connection with No.5 shirt number | Squawka<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Liverpool midfielder Georginio Wijnaldum has credited Zinedine Zidane as to why he wears the number five jersey.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/news\/wijnaldum-special-connection-number-five-shirt-number-zidane\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The player who inspired Gini Wijnaldum&#039;s &quot;really special&quot; 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