Why Thomas Partey Uses His First Name On His Shirt Revealed

Thomas Partey has officially been unveiled as an Arsenal player following a £45m move on transfer deadline day, but the midfielder doesn’t use his surname on the back of his shirt.

The phrase ‘It’s Partey Time!’ has become popular amongst Arsenal fans.

However, one place where the name Partey is not seen is on the former Atletico Madrid midfielder’s shirt – either when he plays for Ghana or soon to be for Arsenal.

Rather than his surname, as is customary with footballers, above the Ghana international’s number on the back of his shirt lies his first name, ‘Thomas’.

The 27-year-old has used his first name on shirts throughout his professional career, having also opted for it during his time at Atletico Madrid as well as loan spells at Mallorca and Almeria.

Partey is not the only Premier League player who has taken this approach.

Liverpool’s Virgil van Dijk has ‘Virgil’ on his shirt, Dele Alli no longer has ‘Alli’ on his Tottenham shirt and Sergio Aguero has the nickname ‘Kun Aguero’ on his Manchester City shirt.

And the reason Partey has done so is rather straightforward.

“Yeah! I’ve seen that there are Partey’s everywhere and even the photographer asked me why I don’t use Partey on my shirt and I said it’s because I started with Thomas and people are familiar with Thomas, so I need to go with Thomas,” he explained.