Huijsen Takes Over Real Madrid’s Iconic No. 4 Jersey
The number came first, before the season, before the first tackle of pre-season. Real Madrid published their squad list for 2026-27, and one detail leapt off the page: Huijsen, no longer 24, now carries the weight and history of the club’s iconic No. 4.
For a boy from Málaga, it is not just a digit stitched on a shirt. It is a lineage.
- Sergio Ramos.
- Fernando Hierro.
- David Alaba.
- Now, Huijsen.
The young defender, who spent last year breaking into the first team, did not hide what it meant. On social media he posed with the new jersey and poured out the story that has driven him to this point. Playing for Real Madrid was the dream. Wearing the No. 4 was the dream inside the dream.
“It’s always been my dream to play for Real Madrid and wear the number 4,” he wrote, explaining how Ramos shaped his childhood. SR4 boots, SR4 posters, SR4 as the blueprint for what a modern defender should be. Long before he walked out at the Bernabéu, he was a kid trying to copy that stride, that aggression, that aura.
And before Ramos, there was Hierro. Another captain, another symbol of authority and nerve, another No. 4 from Málaga. That shared hometown gives the shirt an extra edge of meaning for Huijsen. This is not just about following idols; it is about continuing a local thread in the most global of clubs.
The romance of the number, though, collides with a hard reality: this season will define him.
Huijsen’s debut campaign in Madrid was a snapshot of a young defender learning at speed. There were moments that justified the hype – commanding performances, brave interventions, spells where he looked every bit a long-term pillar of the back line. There were also stretches when the rhythm deserted him. Errors crept in, consistency slipped, and his place in Luis de la Fuente’s Spain squad for the World Cup disappeared.
Losing that spot hurt. It also underlined the gap between promise and permanence at this level.
The closing weeks of last season offered a different picture. Huijsen steadied, simplified, and strung together the kind of displays that restore a coach’s trust. That late surge, combined with a full pre-season under José Mourinho’s unforgiving gaze, has turned 2026-27 into something bigger than just his second year in white. It feels like a crossroads.
He knows it. His words make that clear.
“I know this number has a history filled with legends, and I hope to write my own story so that one day people will consider me worthy of having worn this shirt and this number,” he said, adding a promise that will now follow him into every training session and every match: he will give everything, every day.
At Real Madrid, the shirt always comes with ghosts. But this one also comes with a recent mentor.
Before Huijsen, David Alaba wore the No. 4, bringing his versatility, calm and leadership from Bayern Munich to the Spanish capital. Alaba has now decided to leave the club, freeing up the number and, in a sense, passing on a baton that is as much about character as it is about quality.
Huijsen made sure that part was not lost. He spoke warmly about the Austrian, calling him one of the best teammates and people he has met in football. The praise was specific: the work ethic, the constant willingness to help, the quiet leadership that does not always show up on television but shapes a dressing room.
Those months alongside Alaba at Valdebebas were an education. Not just in how to defend, but how to carry yourself as a Real Madrid player.
Huijsen’s public thanks stretched wide – to the club, the president, the manager, his teammates, the fans. That is standard protocol at a club of this size, but the context matters. This is a young defender who has already felt both the pull of the Bernabéu spotlight and the sting of losing his international place. Gratitude, in his case, sounds less like ceremony and more like a recognition that he is being handed another chance to prove he belongs at the top.
Now the number on his back will make that scrutiny even sharper. Every aerial duel, every misplaced pass, every recovery run will be measured against the memory of Ramos flying into a tackle, Hierro stepping out with the ball, Alaba gliding through pressure.
The shirt cannot win a duel for him. It cannot fix a lapse in concentration. But it can do something else: it can strip away excuses. When you wear Real Madrid’s No. 4, you are no longer just a prospect with potential. You are expected to be the standard.
This season will tell whether Huijsen can turn a childhood dream into a legacy of his own – or whether the number he always wanted becomes the toughest test of his career.
