The United States has always been a market of sorts for football, and jersey sales have skyrocketed over the holiday season. A recent report analysed the sales of shirts in the country to analyse the popularity of the best footballers practising their skills in the top European division. Fans among fans of the European National Basketball Association are biased towards players from the continent, judging by the best-selling jerseys of the last season. As you might expect, the most famous football clubs that sell the most shirts, such as Barcelona, Manchester United and Real Madrid, regularly top the table.
The popularity and massive growth of the Chelsea Club shirt have placed it at the top rank in the sales of jerseys. The Paris Saint-Germain team deserves a good place in the list of the best football team’s jerseys of all time, thanks to their sponsorship and their new jersey. The Manchester United jersey is very expensive and popular with fans, so Manchester United is ranked number one in the sales of jerseys, not to forget the additions of their star player in the current season.
The Juventus club saw a surge in sales when one of the most famous footballers of all time, CR7, joined Juventus and Cristiano Ronaldo’s Juventus jersey became the most popular football kit. Some say that PSG sold 250,000 Lionel Messi shirts in an hour on the club’s online store. On the other hand, both players sold a lot of shirts in their early days at their new clubs.
While in 2003, there were reports that Real Madrid reimbursed David Beckham’s transfer fee by selling a replica of the player’s jersey. No club has ever refunded a player’s transfer fee directly through the sale of shirts. The money football clubs make from selling shirts varies from club to club depending on the number of shirts sold and the negotiated commission rate with suppliers.
Other clubs such as Liverpool, Juventus, Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester City are also selling heavily, as are German heavyweights Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund. A Premier League club and one of the most successful English football clubs of all time, Liverpool were the first clubs in history to introduce shirt sponsorship into the world of football. The opportunity for fans to purchase a jersey with the name and number of a star player can generate significant revenue for a club.
The sale of shirts is the primary source of income for clubs. The club will receive just over €2 million in commission for the sale of the player’s jersey. For instance, if the shirts were sold at €90 each, which is the price of a new Liverpool home shirt, this would bring in a total of €27m, of which the club would traditionally receive a commission of 7.5%.
