New Barcelona signing Denis Suarez has been given the No. 6 shirt formerly belonging to club legend Xavi Hernandez.
Barca exercised a buy-back clause and paid Villarreal €3.25 million to sign Suarez earlier this summer after the 22-year-old had impressed in recent seasons with Sevilla and Villarreal, as well as making his senior Spain debut in a warmup friendly ahead of this summer's Euro 2016 finals.
Suarez has so far been used in a central attacking midfield role in the 4-3-3 system, which was the position in which Xavi spent most of his time at the Camp Nou as he played in a club record 869 games between 1998 and 2015.
Barca players in that position have traditionally worn the No. 6 or No. 8 shirt, although right-back Dani Alves wore the No. 6 shirt for one season before leaving for Juventus earlier this summer.
A club statement ahead of the new campaign confirmed Suarez's number along with those for other new signings Lucas Digne, Andre Gomes and Samuel Umtiti, as well as Sergi Samper, who has been promoted to the senior squad.
"The complete squad numbers for the Barca 2016/17 season have been revealed," the statement read. "Although the list will not be definitive until transfers close on August 31, the players will be appearing at the Gamper on Wednesday with their new shirts.
"There are five changes with respect to the previous season: Denis Suarez will take the number 6 that Dani Alves inherited from Xavi a year ago; Samper takes the unclaimed number 16; Digne will take the 19 previously worn by Sandro; Andre Gomes has gone for Adriano's 21; and Umtiti will be wearing the 23 that [Thomas] Vermaelen leaves after going on loan to Roma.
"The latter two, incidentally, have both opted to retain the numbers they wore last term at Valencia and Olympique Lyon respectively. All of the players that served under Luis Enrique last season will continue to wear the same numbers, while [Marc] Bartra's '15' is now free."
In an interview earlier this summer, Suarez had said: "The shirt number is not the most important, but of course of the numbers which are free, for all that Xavi was, I would love to wear that '6.' But if it is No. 26, then no problem. Xavi was the best midfielder in history. Everything he did, his turns, his passes..."