Dusan Tadic's return to the Eredivisie looks to have had an immediate impact on Tjaronn Chery. A photo released by NEC shows Tadic will wear the number 10 shirt in Nijmegen. Chery had held that number since last season, so he will have to give it up.
NEC officially announced on Sunday that Tadic has signed a two-year contract. The 37-year-old forward arrives on a free transfer and is expected to play an important role with his experience in a season in which the Nijmegen side are also involved in the Champions League qualifying rounds.
Tadic's preference for the number 10 shirt is nothing new. When he joined Ajax in the summer of 2018, the shirt number was also a major talking point. It mattered so much to Tadic that number 10 was even written into his contract at the time. Hakim Ziyech wore number 10 then, but ultimately had to hand it over to the Serbian.
Back then, Ajax director Marc Overmars explained that Tadic had made it clear during negotiations that he wanted to play with number 10. "When there was an opportunity to bring Dusan Tadic to Ajax, it became clear during the talks that it was his explicit wish to play with number 10," Overmars said at the time.
Ziyech did not take the decision well. "A few weeks ago we discussed it with Hakim and his agent Mustapha Nakhli. They do not agree with it," Overmars admitted, after which Ziyech ultimately continued with the number 22 shirt. Tadic had, incidentally, still played Ajax's first official matches with number 11.
Ajax also admitted at the time that taking away the shirt number was a sensitive issue. The Amsterdam club even gave supporters the chance to exchange shirts with the old numbers of Tadic and Ziyech free of charge because of the unexpected change.
Things appear less tense at NEC, but the outcome is the same. Chery is losing his familiar shirt number, while Tadic will once again take to the pitch with the iconic number 10 on his back. Which shirt number Chery will wear next season has not yet been announced.