Unlucky 13

With Amr Zaki chosing the number 13 here’s a little look at the origins of the unluckiness of number 13 and other number 13’s in the Premier League

The number 13 is perceived as being unlucky due to the fact that in the Christian religion there were 13 people at the last supper prior to Christ’s crucifiction and Judas Iscariot who betrayed Jesus is believed to be the thirteenth person around the table.

There are many examples listed on Wikipedia of where the number 13 is omitted.

In Scotland, there is no gate 13 in any airport, instead there is a gate 12B.


Some streets do not contain a house number 13.

In some forms of motor sport, for example Formula One, there is no number 13 car.

In many cultures, getting married on any day of the week that falls under number 13 is highly discouraged.

There is a superstition that should thirteen sit at a table to dine, one will die in the next year. To challenge this belief a club The Thirteen Club was formed to disprove it.

The Code of Hammurabi, is the first set of a laws created around 1760 BC, does not contain a thirteenth law.

Microsoft are rumoured to have plans to skip Office 13 for being ‘an unlucky number,’ going directly from Office 12 to Office 14.

Many residential/nursing/ flats and sheltered accomodations don’t have a room number 13 going from 12 to 14 or 12A , 12B and then 14.


The Apollo 13 spacecraft had a mechanical failure after being launched on April 11th at 13:13 CST, forcing it to return to Earth without completing its mission to land on the moon at put its crew at risk.

So what about Premier League players. A look at the current list oo players with number 13 reveal that only 11 of 20 premier league clubs currently have a player listed as number 13 and of these only Michael Ballack, Park Ji Sung and Luis Boa Morte were considered first team regulars last season.

The majority of number 13’s seem to be reserve keepers as you can see in the list below.

Stuart Taylor (Villa) keeper, Zurab Khizanishvili (Blackburn) defender, Abdoulaye Méïté (Horwich) Defender, Michael Ballack( Chelsea) midfielder, Ryan France (Hull) midfielder,Richard Martin( Man City) keeper, Park Ji-Sung ( Man Utd ) midfielder, Steve Harper ( Newcastle) Keeper, Darren Ward (Sunderland ) keeper, Luis boa Morte(Midfielder) West Ham.

Whether Amr Zaki is lucky or not remains to be seen and the debate whether it will be due to his number will i’m sure raise its head again…..fingers crossed!!!!!