Dean Huijsen Takes Real Madrid's Iconic No. 4 Shirt

Dean Huijsen pulled on a number this week, not just a shirt.

With Dani Carvajal and David Alaba gone at the end of the 2025-26 season, Real Madrid’s dressing room lost experience, leadership and two heavyweight squad numbers. One of them, the No. 4, carries a particular echo at the Bernabéu. Fernando Hierro wore it. Sergio Ramos turned it into an emblem. Alaba kept the lineage alive.

Now it belongs to a 21-year-old centre-back who grew up wanting to be Ramos.

A childhood dream, now on his back

When Madrid unveiled their squad numbers, Huijsen’s name next to the No. 4 jumped off the page. The defender didn’t hide what it meant. On social media, he described it as the realisation of a childhood dream bound tightly to his biggest idol.

"It was always my dream to play for Real Madrid and wear the number 4. When I was a kid, my biggest idol was Sergio Ramos, who wore the number 4 and was a true legend for Real Madrid and for world football," he wrote.

This wasn’t a carefully polished club statement. It was a player admitting he once laced up SR4 boots just to feel closer to the man who defined an era.

"I still remember playing in his cleats, the SR4s, because I wanted to be just like him."

The circle closed a little more when Ramos himself replied to Huijsen’s post.

"I hope it brings you a lot of joy too," the former captain wrote, passing on the number with a simple blessing rather than a grand speech. For a young defender stepping into that lineage, it said enough.

The weight of No. 4

At Real Madrid, some numbers are just ink on a teamsheet. No. 4 is not one of them.

Hierro wore it as he marshalled the back line and dictated games with the authority of a midfielder and the edge of a centre-half. Years later, Ramos transformed the shirt into a global brand, his late goals and snarling competitiveness turning that single digit into a symbol.

Alaba followed, bringing his own calm, multi-functional quality to the role until his departure this summer. Huijsen shared a dressing room with the Austrian last season and made sure to acknowledge him as part of the line he now joins.

"Later, another great football legend wore it, and I had the pleasure of sharing the locker room with him. I want to thank the club, the president, the coach, the players, and all the fans of this great club."

Huijsen didn’t stop at Ramos and Alaba. He reached further back, to Hierro, and added a personal twist.

"Before him, another football legend, Fernando Hierro, wore that number for Real Madrid and for soccer worldwide, but it feels even more special to me because he's from Málaga, just like me," he wrote.

For a young Spain international, that shared hometown with one of the club’s great captains adds another layer of responsibility. It turns a shirt into a thread of history he now has to carry.

Mourinho’s new pillar

The club’s decision to give Huijsen this number is not sentimental. It is a statement.

Jose Mourinho is expected to build a new defensive structure after the exits of Carvajal and Alaba. Within that reshaped back line, Huijsen is being positioned as a central figure, not a fringe option. The No. 4 underlines that trust. Madrid do not hand that shirt to someone they see as a rotation piece.

Huijsen knows exactly what he is walking into. On Instagram, his message read like a pledge.

"I know this jersey number has a history filled with legends, and I hope I can write my own story—and that one day people will consider me worthy of having worn this jersey and this number.

"What I do know is that I'll give it my all every single day, whether it's in training or in a match."

No promises of trophies. No declarations that he will be the next Ramos or the next Hierro. Just a commitment to the work, which is where every great Madrid defender has had to start.

A new chapter for an old number

The No. 4 shirt at Real Madrid now rests on the shoulders of a 21-year-old who once copied his hero’s boots in the park and now walks into the same dressing room with the same digit on his back.

The history is there already: Hierro, Ramos, Alaba. The expectation is there too, baked into the fabric of the club and the number itself.

Huijsen has the talent and the personality to make it fit. From this season on, the story of Real Madrid’s No. 4 will be written in his tackles, his positioning, his decisions under pressure.

The shirt is no longer waiting for a new owner. It has one. Now the 2026-27 campaign will reveal whether Dean Huijsen can turn a childhood dream into the next great chapter of Madrid’s defensive dynasty.