According to the blog of “Euromericas” – a leading company in the field of sports marketing – among the clubs which sold the most shirts in the 2014/2015 season, we find in first position Real Madrid, with sales equal to 2,533,000 shirts, while in second place we find Barcelona with 2,440,000. Following are Bayern Munich (1,977,000), Manchester United (1,946,000) and Chelsea (1,866,000).
As regards, however, the number of best-selling shirts by player, according to “Kitbag” – the European online store which is a leader among those specialising in football products – the classification is markedly different and is as follows:
It seems clear than that Real Madrid and Barcelona owed their success in the classification for the 2014/2015 season above all to their leading stars, Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, who played a key role in the marketing of their respective clubs. The same thing occurred at Manchester United, which in the classification of the top five players had two players from its own team, and at Chelsea, which earned fifth place in both the top 5 clubs and the top 5 players with Eden Hazard. It is a different matter for Bayern Munich for which it seems clear that, although not having one particular player increasing the number of shirts sold, several players from the team contributed to its success in the classification.
As for the 2015/2016 season (again according to “Euromericas”) the clubs which sold the most shirts were Barcelona, with 3,637,000 shirts sold, and Bayern Munich, with 3,312,000. Then we find Chelsea (3,102,000), Manchester United (2,977,000) and only in fifth place Real Madrid (2,866,000).
Also in the previous season there were variations between the number of shirts sold by club and the number of shirts sold by player. The classification was as follows:
In first place for sales during last season we therefore find Barcelona with a record number of sales of over 3 and a half million shirts, an increase of almost 50% compared to the previous year, due most likely to the trio of trophies won at the end of 2015. And then also Lionel Messi stayed in first place, and another star from Barcelona joined the top 5, Neymar Jr, with almost a million sales. Bayern Munich, on the other hand, although not gaining the top spot and although still having no player in the classification of players who sell the most shirts, nonetheless managed to increase its sales by 67%, the biggest increase of the season. Chelsea, which instead saw an increase in sales of 66%, managed to climb two positions in the top 5, the same two positions that were also climbed by Eden Hazard. As for Manchester United, despite the rise in sales of slightly over 50%, the club stayed in the same place as last year. However, it seems that for Real Madrid the 13% increase in sales was not enough to hold its leadership in the top 5 clubs with the most sales, and indeed such a low percentage increase saw the club fall back to fifth place. It seems that not even the presence of two of its players in the top 5 was enough (James Rodriguez in second place and Cristiano Ronaldo falling sharply back to fourth place) to maintain the record in sales.
Despite the numbers of the past two seasons showing the dominance of Lionel Messi in the global shirt market, it should be noted that the data for the 2015/2016 season are updated to May 2016. Taking into consideration Real Madrid’s victory in the Champions League and Portugal’s victory in Euro 2016, we can immediately see that Cristiano Ronaldo has already managed to claw back some places in this classification, returning to the top places with an exponential increase in the sales of shirts with his name.
The following table, on the other hand, shows in millions of euro the annual value of the kit sponsors for the top 9 best-paid clubs and their contract variations.
Starting from the data in the table, if things should remain the same, without any contractual changes for the 9 teams above, the classification would change as follows:
- Real Madrid (140m.)
- Barcelona (105m.)
- Manchester United (95m.)
- Bayern Munich (90m.)
- Chelsea (75m.)
- Arsenal (38m.)
- Liverpool (35m.)
- Juventus (29m.)
- Milan (18m.)
Another form of data is instead that revealed by the classification drawn up just a few days ago and published by Sporting Intelligence, regarding the average number of shirts sold by the biggest clubs in the world over the last 5 years. From this classification it can be seen that the average level of sales is as follows:
From the above we can therefore deduce that the sales percentages of the 5 clubs with the best sales worldwide have always enjoyed a positive trend, a consequence of the continuing globalization of football, which sees teams such as Manchester United or Real Madrid manage to spread their brands globally with increasing ease.
An average level of sales such as that enjoyed by Manchester United over the last 5 years also makes it quite clear why Adidas has decided to offer a contract worth over 90 million euro per annum to the English club. And in the same vein but even more so, we can also understand the reason why Barcelona (Nike) and Real Madrid (Adidas) have been offered contracts worth over 100 million per annum starting respectively from 2018 and 2020.
With such earnings in the Spanish championship, where Real Madrid and Barcelona will earn a total of almost 250 million euro from their kit sponsors, in the English championship where, besides the extraordinary income from TV rights, Manchester United and Chelsea will together earn a total of 170 million euro, and in the German championship, where Bayern Munich by itself will earn fully 90 million euro, the Italian championship – with Juventus and AC Milan which together do not even reach 50 million euro – seems increasingly sidelined, and the longer it goes on, the more difficult it will be to bridge the gap which has developed between Serie A, Liga, Premier League and Bundes League. The watchword for the Italian clubs is therefore “Win”, to return to holding an importance place in the football which counts.