Sanjay Sathya

Neal Maupay Ditches Lucky Number 7 at Sevilla to Honor Alex Iwobi

Alex Iwobi, Everton, Neal Maupay, Sevilla

Neal Maupay, the football star known for his internet behaviour is a fan favourite due to his banter.

Yet he was one of the reliable players for Brentford and Everton during his time in the Premier League.

Now on his way to a new club, Maupay brought back an old association with his former teammate.

Neal Maupay completed his transfer to Marseille in the summer transfer window, drawing curtains to a 7-year stint in the Premier league across multiple clubs. But the move did not pay off any good for his career.

Maupay was not eligible to play in the Champions League for Marseille and did not start either in any of the games in Ligue 1.

He was considerably not even the second choice striker and was never included in the squad for longer period.

This had made it easy for him to move out of the club, finding a loan move to Spanish club Sevilla.

A strange outlook of the move was the number choice of 17 on his Sevilla kit.

Maupay had only donned jerseys with numbers 9 and 7 for major part of his professional career. Sooner, the reason was easy to decode for the football community.

The number was chosen as a sign of respect and love for his former teammate, Alex Iwobi, who now plays for Fulham. Iwobi plays with the number 17 for both the club and his national team.

The Nigerian shared the dressing room with Maupay during their time at Everton in 2022.

Maupay had publicly heaped praise for Iwobi in many instances, particularly when he helped him score his first goal for the Toffees.

According to sources, Maupay has also decided to gift his first Sevilla jersey to his friend and inspiration. Iwobi plays with the number 17 for both the club and his national team.

As much as it is heart warming from the Maupay’s perspective, fans picked on this homage to his friend –

But this is not something that bothers Maupay.

In fact he is one of the most coolest footballer out there on social media and is loved for his presence.

His incident with Sevilla’s admin must say much about his character.

Back in August 2025, when Marseille played Sevilla in a friendly game, Maupay did not get his name onto the scoresheet.

The Sevilla’s X platform admin had made a tweet that “Whenever Neil Maupay comes on and doesn’t score, admin smiles”, to which maupay had sarcastically replied “Hey admin, where is your office, i just wanna talk”.

Fast forward to his move to Sevilla, one of the first things he did after his arrival was finding the Admin and posing a photo holding him between his arms.

Characters like Maupay are really so loving to watch.

Imagine a footballer playing for a top division club, being so active on the social Media, joining fans with the banter. At the same time, having gratitude to respect his friend is a sign of a great human being.

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