Agencies-Gaza post
Superior to Ronaldo… Messi sinks Paris with money
The Paris Saint-Germain Club successfully sold more than 1 million shirts for the first time in its history, including a 60% of Argentine star Lionel Messi’s No. 30 shirt, becoming the most sold team for its shirts last season.
Qatar’s Nasser Al-Khelaifi, president of Paris Saint-Germain, revealed to the newspaper Marka that, after Messi’s first season, the club’s total revenues amounted to approximately 700 million euros.
“We have already made a lot of money because of Messi,” Al-Khalifi said, referring to the huge sales of the Argentine international’s jersey with the team.
Lionel Messi’s fame prompted sales of Paris Saint-Germain shirts to this high ceiling, bringing the Flea to a new record, despite his struggles on the pitch.
This is the first figure of its kind for any footballer, confirming the continued attraction of Argentine Lionel Messi to investments in shops.
This means that sales of Messi’s shirts outstripped those of rival Cristiano Ronaldo, who returned to Manchester United for a second stint last summer.
Copies of Ronaldo’s shirts with Manchester United generated £187m in sales by September.
But Manchester United is no longer the club selling the largest number of shirts, with Paris Saint-Germain at the top.
In the hours following the verification of Messi’s accession to Saint-Germain, nearly 1 billion euros (£ 857 million) were generated from T-shirt sales alone.
“Demand has grown by 30 to 40%,” Marca quoted Mark Armstrong, chief partnership officer at Saint-Germain.
He added, “When a signature of this magnitude happens, Cristiano Ronaldo to Manchester United, for example, you might think he’s going to get paid by selling shirts, but that’s not the case. You can’t produce too many extra shirts”.
He explained, “We cannot meet the demand for Missy shirts. We’ve reached the ceiling. Nobody can meet that demand. We already sell a lot of shirts, probably more than any other team in the world to one player. “
