Former Real Madrid forward Mariano D\u00edaz has reflected on the enormous responsibility he felt after inheriting the club\u2019s legendary No. 7 jersey, one of the most historic squad numbers in football. Speaking to The Athletic, the striker admitted that while receiving the shirt was a proud moment, it also came with immense pressure and expectations.<\/p>\n
Mariano was handed the No. 7 shirt in 2018 following Cristiano Ronaldo\u2019s departure to Juventus. The number had already been immortalised at the Santiago Bernab\u00e9u, previously worn by iconic figures such as Ra\u00fal Gonz\u00e1lez and Ronaldo, before being passed down to the Dominican-born striker. Mariano said the honour was significant, but so was the burden attached to it.<\/p>\n
\u201cTaking on that number was very nice, but at the same time it put a lot of pressure on me,\u201d he revealed. \u201cThis jersey number may probably be the most important number ever worn by a Madrid player because it was worn by Ra\u00fal, Cristiano, and many legends.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite the pressure and the enormous expectations that followed, Mariano insisted he never viewed himself as Ronaldo\u2019s direct successor. The Portuguese superstar had redefined the No. 7 at Real Madrid with his historic goal-scoring feats, and Mariano acknowledged the impossibility of replicating that legacy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Former Real Madrid forward Mariano D\u00edaz has reflected on the enormous responsibility he felt after inheriting the club\u2019s legendary No\u2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":202,"featured_media":37320,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[321,3686,1823,3796,4270,4271,266,181],"class_list":["post-16444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football","tag-cristiano-ronaldo","tag-david-ornstein","tag-fabrizio-romano","tag-football","tag-mariano","tag-no-7","tag-real-madrid","tag-ronaldo"],"reading_time":"2 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/202"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16444"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16444\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}