I think he was bought as a CR replacement, of course nobody expected from him to score 50 goals in a season but to be the game changer player with his own style. There is a reason why people wanted him to get the 7.
He wasn’t
Was bought as a skilled winger who’d break defences, improve chance creation, contribute 10-15 yearly at best. Got injured and massively unlucky so never became what was supposed to be.
Nothing similar to CR impact, tangibly or intangibly, as you couldn’t possibly find a personality less similar to CR if you wanted.
And folk don’t care what number he wears
It’s superstitious crap and if liga allowed it and there was no tradition he’d easily choose something like 88 to feed into some ‘two fat ladies’ joke