Beckham, Rooney, Van Nistelrooy - Cunha has big boots to fill as Man Utd's No 10

Matheus Cunha is set to take the storied No 10 shirt off Marcus Rashford after completing his £62.5million move to Old Trafford.

The Brazilian will become the latest in a long line of players to wear the hallowed jersey. In the Premier League era, 10 other players have taken on the mantle.

Prior to 1993, the likes of George Best, Sir Bobby Charlton, and Denis Law all wore the No 10 during a time when fixed squad numbers were not around.

Back in the day, shirt Nos 1 to 11 were typically assigned based on starting position. But now, they have a story behind them - it's the players who define the number, not the other way round.

Some of United's greatest players have graced the No 10 and bestowed it with unique meaning and pressure.

And here, Mail Sport looks back at every Red Devil to try it on in the Premier League era.

Mark Hughes (1993-95)

The first season of the Premier League in 1992-93 saw no allocated squad numbers. However, Mark Hughes often wore this No. And when they became allocated in 1993-94, this famous No became his.

Those two season yielded his customary goals and trophies during United's dominance that decade. He scored 34 goals in 100 games in all competitions over those two seasons alone - with the Red Devils winning a Premier League and FA Cup Double in 1993-94.

After Hughes left the club, the No was vacant for a season until the man below took it...

David Beckham (1996-97)

For a whole generation, David Beckham is a stylish figure whose free-kicks they tried desperately to emulate in parks and streets across the nation; kids contorting their bodies into unnatural positions in a vain attempt to meet the ball in the right place and 'bend it like Beckham'.

Before sporting the iconic No 7, Beckham had a short stint with the No 10 on his back. It was with this shirt that he made his first steps to becoming a household name, with  a spectacular halfway line strike against Wimbledon on the opening day of the 1996-97 season.

The midfielder found the back of the net from 57 yards out, a goal which was later voted as the 18th greatest sporting moment ever by the British public, in a poll conducted by Channel 4.

Beckham won six Premier League titles with the Red Devils and scored 85 goals in 394 appearances. While these numbers aren't too shabby, we all know his impact extended past the stat sheet. If Cunha could emulate half of what Beckham did at United, he would go down in the club's history forever.

Teddy Sheringham (1997-2001)

Following Eric Cantona's shock retirement in 1997, Teddy Sheringham had big boots to fill up front for United. He joined from Tottenham for £3.5m, and wore the No 10 for the entirety of his tenure at Old Trafford until 2001.

During this time, he made 153 appearances and scored 46 goals, the most important of which came in the 1999 Champions League final.

The 6ft 1in striker came off the bench to score an equaliser against Bayern Munich in added time, before Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's winning goal clinched a historic treble for United just moments later.

During his tenure, Sheringham won three Premier League titles, while his most prolific goalscoring season came in his swansong year at the club, when he scored 15 goals. To think he'd struggle to make the best three players on this list says a lot about the history of United's No 10 shirt.

Ruud van Nistelrooy (2001-06)

Ruud van Nistelrooy can't technically be called a 'proper No 9' because his goalscoring antics at United were performed with the No 10 draped on the back of his shirt - but you get the point.

In his debut season at the club, the Dutchman netted 23 goals in 32 league games, scoring in eight consecutive matches, and was named the PFA Players' Player of the Year.

Barring an injury-ridden 2004-05 campaign, Van Nistelrooy scored 20 or more goals in every Premier League season he played in.

He departed Old Trafford after five seasons with a total of 150 goals in 219 appearances, and four more trophies to his name, including a Premier League title. Out of every player on this list, a player like Van Nistelrooy might be what the current United are screaming out for the most.

Wayne Rooney (2007-2017)

Having been given the No 8 when he arrived from Everton in 2005, Wayne Rooney switched to the No 10 ahead of the 2007-08 season.

And it was with the double digits on his back that he performed most of the work which cemented him as one of United's greatest ever players - perhaps their greatest.

After making the change, Rooney won four Premier League titles, an FA Cup, a Champions League and more. The former club captain is United's all-time top goalscorer with 253 goals in 559 games.

Rooney's legacy goes unspoken. He embodied everything it meant to play for United, not just wear the No 10 shirt. He was a real fan favourite, and a paragon which the club have been begging for since his exit.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic (2017-18)

Zlatan Ibrahimovic initially donned the No 9 when he joined United on a free transfer from PSG in 2016. In his first season, he proved why he was still one of Europe's most dangerous frontmen, scoring 28 goals in 46 games.

His season was cut short by an ACL injury sustained in April 2017, but he was still instrumental in leading United to an EFL Cup and a Europa League title.

Yet, in spite of all of his self-aggrandisement, which saw him refer to himself as a lion or even as 'Zlatan' in the third person, Father Time claimed victory over the seemingly indomitable Ibrahimovic.

He wore the No 10 in his second season, which was derailed by his knee injury, meaning he only made seven appearances in all competitions and scored just once. Consequently, the Swede's contract was terminated by mutual consent in March 2018.

Marcus Rashford (2018-2025)

Few Carrington graduates have burst onto the scene quite like Marcus Rashford did. He made his mark after being called up at the eleventh hour to replace Anthony Martial in a Europa League game against Midtjylland in 2016. Rashford scored a brace in that game, then another against Arsenal just days later.

Given the No 10 shirt in 2018, Rashford was tipped to join the ranks of club icons. While spells of brilliance have punctuated his time at Old Trafford, including a 30-goal campaign in 2022-23, too many seasons have passed where he's just been off it.

For every dazzling spell of form, there has been an equal stretch of anonymity. In fairness to him, he didn't choose to get chucked into United's worst era in Premier League history.

Whether time will be kind to Rashford's legacy is yet to be seen. He's won two FA Cups, two EFL Cups and a Europa League title. In 426 games, the forward has scored 138 goals and is United's 13th all-time top goalscorer.