Argentine striker Franco Di Santo is a member of Chelsea's number 9 shirt curse recipients’ group.Belgian international star RomeluLukaku sealed a loan move to Inter Milan from Premier League side Chelsea earlier this summer and the transfer only reinforced the curse associated with the number nine jersey at Stamford Bridge. Lukaku is the latest player to flop at Chelsea while wearing the number nine shirt. The Belgian star returned to Chelsea from Inter Milan in a £97m club-record deal, but the return lasted for just one season following his move back to the San Siro.
Franco Di Santo, Fernando Torres, MatejaKezman, Gonzalo Higuain and many more have not been able to break the number nine jersey curse at Chelsea. For Di Santo, he came to Chelsea as a young attacker and with an immense reputation. He was even labelled new Diego Maradona.Franco Di Santo signed for Chelsea from Chilean side AudaxItaliano and he was given the number nine shirt at the start of the 2008/09 season after spending some months in the Chelsea reserves.
Argentine international Di Santo scored goals for fun while he was in the Chelsea reserves and that prompted his promotion to the first team at the West London club.He was behind Didier Drogba and Nicholas Anelka in the striker pecking order. To this effect, he failed to start a single game in his lone season with the Chelsea first-team before being farmed out on loan to Blackburn Rovers and a permanent transfer to Wigan Athletic followed afterwards. It is safe to say that Franco Di Santo didn't live up to the hype of being called the new Maradona in his native Argentina just before his transfer to Chelsea.
After his Wigan spell, Franco Di Santo played for clubs in Germany, Spain and Brazil before returning to Argentina in the colours of San Lorenzo. He's presently on the payroll of Gotzepe in the Turkish league.