Throughout the 2024/25 season, we're taking a look at some of the best players to have worn a range of squad numbers for West Ham United, since they were introduced for the start of the 1993/94 campaign.
Vote for your favourite No20 from the four chosen nominees below!
All West Ham No20s since 1993/94 | ||
|---|---|---|
1993-1996 | 2003-2004 | 2015-2016 |
1996-1997 | 2004-2007 | 2016-2018 |
1997-1998 | 2007-2011 | 2018-2019 |
1999-2003 | 2011-2015 | 2020-present |
2003 | 2015 |
|
Nigel Reo-Coker
DOB: 14.05.84 WHU: 2004-2007 Apps: 142 Goals: 11
It’s now almost 19 years to the day since Nigel Reo-Coker came within seconds of eclipsing the great Bobby Moore as the youngest-ever West Ham United captain to lift the FA Cup.
A fairly decent strike from a certain Steven Gerrard extinguished that particular dream on the eve of Reo-Coker’s 22nd birthday back in May 2006, in a final that went down in history as arguably the most thrilling of the modern era.
Rewind just two years. With the Club having chased his signature for some time, Reo-Coker first arrived at Upton Park from Wimbledon as a teenage hopeful snapped up by then-manager Alan Pardew, quickly becoming a cult hero in east London.
Appointed as captain by Pardew in his first full season in Claret and Blue, Reo-Coker led his colleagues to promotion from the Championship in 2005, making 47 appearances in all competitions, and then played an integral role in that memorable first season back in the Premier League, culminating in that unforgettable clash against Liverpool at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.
Among the heroes who helped pull off the great escape from relegation in 2006/07, Reo-Coker left for Aston Villa in July 2007, and also featured for Bolton Wanderers, Ipswich Town, Vancouver Whitecaps, Chivas USA, Montreal Impact, IK Start and MK Dons before hanging up his boots in 2018.
Guy Demel
DOB: 13.06.81 WHU: 2011-2015 Apps: 83 Goals: 1
Versatile defender Guy Demel enjoyed plenty of glories during his four seasons in Claret and Blue, including starting the 2012 Championship Play-Off final win over Blackpool at Wembley.
The Ivory Coast international, who was born in France, was signed for Sam Allardyce’s Hammers in August 2011, following a productive six-year spell at German Bundesliga side Hamburger SV, where he made 200 appearances and twice won the UEFA Intertoto Cup, in 2005 and 2007.
After picking up an injury in a development squad fixture at Tottenham Hotspur, he belatedly made his first-team debut for West Ham against Middlesborough at Riverside Stadium in November 2011, only for a series of further injuries to restrict his game time until he completed his first 90 minutes in an Irons shirt in the 2-1 final-day victory over Hull City.
Demel started both legs of the Championship Play-Off semi-final victory over Cardiff City, assisting Ricardo Vaz Tê’s strike in the second leg at Boleyn Ground.
After helping West Ham to the Premier League, his maiden top-flight campaign yielded a tenth-place finish and 32 appearances. The now 43-year-old played his part in subsequent mid-table finishes, and a run to the EFL Cup semi-finals in 2013/14, before being released in summer 2015.
André Ayew
DOB: 17.12.89 WHU: 2016-2018 Apps: 50 Goals: 12
Though André Ayew only made a half-century of appearances for West Ham United, he will be remembered fondly for the goals he scored while donning the famous Claret and Blue shirt.
Having joined Marseille as a budding talent, entering the youth academy for the 2006/07 season, Ayew, known as ‘Dede’, broke into the first team the following season, marking the start of a near decade-long spell with the senior squad, where he scored 60 goals in 209 appearances and won several honours before joining Premier League side Swansea City in June 2015.
Following an impressive first season in South Wales, that yielded 12 goals in 35 appearances in all competitions, we moved swiftly to secure Ayew’s services. Despite a slow start to life at London Stadium, he ended 2016/17 in fine form, scoring five goals in his last 13 outings to help consolidate an eleventh-place finish for Slaven Bilić’s Hammers.
The Ghanaian international made 24 appearances in all competitions during the first half of the 2017/18 season, scoring seven goals, before returning to Swansea on a permanent deal in January 2018, just 17 months after departing.
Now aged 35, Ayew, who has been capped 120 times by his country and is the son of a three-time African Footballer of the Year, is still going strong with Le Havre in France’s Ligue 1, having had spells with Fenerbahçe, Al Sadd and Nottingham Forest since leaving the Swans in 2021.
Jarrod Bowen
DOB: 20.12.96 WHU: 2020-present Apps: 235 Goals: 71
West Ham United’s 2023 UEFA Europa Conference League final match-winner, the Irons’ second-highest Premier League scorer of all-time, the reigning Hammer of the Year and the current Club captain, Jarrod Bowen is undoubtedly a modern-day Claret and Blue hero.
Signed from Hull City in January 2020, Bowen’s half-decade in east London has certainly been full of personal and collective landmarks that he, his family, his Club and its supporters will never forget.
Having risen to prominence at boyhood club Hereford, he moved across the country to Hull aged 17 in 2014, became a Premier League player at 19, then enhanced his reputation hugely with 52 EFL Championship goals in just two-and-a-half seasons for the Tigers.
That form saw Bowen become one of the most-coveted players in the country by the midway point of 2019/20, when West Ham swooped for his services - and the rest is history.
Since then, he’s been a mainstay in the starting XI under each of the last three managers, accumulating 235 appearances and scoring 71 goals. Cup final match-winners, record goalscoring seasons, individual accolades and 16 England caps later, Bowen will be vying to guide his team to more success over the coming years.
