Dean Huijsen Takes on the Historic Number 4 Shirt at Real Madrid
At Real Madrid, some numbers are just digits. Others are inheritance.
Dean Huijsen has stepped straight into the latter category.
The young centre-back has confirmed he will wear the number 4 shirt next season at the Santiago Bernabeu, a choice loaded with history, expectation and childhood dreams. For Huijsen, it is not a marketing decision. It is the realisation of something he has carried with him since he first fell in love with the game.
As reported by Spanish newspaper Marca, the defender linked his choice directly to Sergio Ramos, the man who turned the number 4 into a symbol of defiance, leadership and drama in white. Ramos was his greatest idol growing up, the benchmark for what a Real Madrid centre-back should be.
As a boy, Huijsen laced up Ramos’ famous “SR4” boots, copying the movements, the aggression, the aura. The shirt number was never just a number. It was a target.
Now, he gets to live inside that dream.
“I hope it brings you many joys too.”
Ramos, no stranger to the emotional pull of the Bernabeu and its iconic numbers, responded with a simple, generous message: From one number 4 to the next, the baton has been acknowledged.
But Huijsen’s choice is not only about Ramos. He has been careful to place himself in a longer line of central defensive royalty.
He made a point of honouring Fernando Hierro, one of the great captains in Madrid’s modern history and another giant to have worn the shirt. Their bond is not just professional admiration; they share the same region of origin, a detail Huijsen himself highlighted as making the legacy of the number even more personal. For a defender from that area, following Hierro in any way is no small thing.
Then there is the most recent chapter: David Alaba. Huijsen did not overlook the Austrian, the last man to wear the 4 before him. Sharing a dressing room with Alaba has given the youngster a close-up view of what that responsibility looks like day to day.
He has spoken of Alaba’s professionalism, his leadership in the dressing room and on the pitch, and his constant willingness to help his team-mates. Those qualities, he noted, have defined Alaba’s time at Real Madrid and shaped the standard Huijsen now wants to meet.
The message from the new number 4 is clear: he knows exactly what he is walking into.
Huijsen publicly thanked the club, the board, the coaching staff, his team-mates and the supporters for the trust they have placed in him at such a symbolic level. This is not a teenager grabbing a famous shirt for the sake of it. It is a player who understands that at Real Madrid, certain numbers come with a story already written.
He is stepping into that story with open eyes.
The defender has accepted the responsibility that comes with the shirt and the tradition of big names behind it. He does not want to be a footnote in the list that runs through Ramos, Hierro and Alaba. He wants his own chapter, his own moments, his own nights when the number 4 on his back feels like the natural continuation of a lineage rather than a borrowed costume.
He ended his message with a pledge that fits the weight of the decision. He promised to give everything, every day, in training sessions and in matches, to be worthy of the shirt and of the history it represents.
At the Bernabeu, number 4 has never been just a figure stitched on fabric. For Dean Huijsen, it is now both a dream fulfilled and a standard he must live up to, one demanding answer after answer every time he walks onto that pitch.
