Anthony Martial makes dramatic leap into third place in the replica shirts hit parade
LIONEL MESSI’S famed No10 Barcelona shirt was the highest selling replica jersey worldwide in 2015/16.
But Anthony Martial‘s No 9 at Manchester United wasn’t that far behind.
Unsurprisingly, Cristiano Ronaldo’s No 7 Real Madrid shirt was the second most popular but United’s summer signing Martial certainly kept the Old Trafford shop very busy.
For the Frenchman’s replica red vest was third on soccer fans’ wanted list.
Of the other Premier Leaguers in the top 10, Eden Hazard weighed in at No 5, Wayne Rooney at six, Sergio Aguero was eighth, Alexis Sanchez ninth and Phillippe Coutinho 10th.
Here, SunSport details the top 10 most sought-after shirts last season – the figures are based on statistics from sports goods distributors like Kitbag and SportsDirect.
1 Lionel Messi
MESSI retained top spot at top of the replica shirt chart. However 2015 did saw a 20 per cent decrease compared to 2014-15.
2 Cristiano Ronaldo
RONALDO rose to second place after his personalised replica shirts saw 108 per cent increase in sales. In 2014-15 season he was fourth.
3 Anthony Martial
MARTIAL topped the Premier League charts after playing a massive role in his first season in England.
4 Bastian Schweinsteiger
THE German midfielder enjoyed a monster 795 per cent increase in shirt sales as a result of his move to Manchester United and zoomed up to fourth from 27th place.
5 Eden Hazard
BELGIAN ace Hazard struggled on the pitch but his replica shirt sales soared to register a massive 150 per cent increase. Hazard was not in the top 10 shirt sale list the previous season.
6 Wayne Rooney
ENGLAND skipper Rooney has been in the top 10 shirt sellers list for more than a decade and an increase in sales took him from ninth to sixth.
7 Neymar
NEYMAR, second in the shirt sale rankings in 2014-15, drifted down – largely due to Premier League players getting more exposure. Adidas and United tried to lure Neymar with £190 million deal but the Barcelona star rejected the move.
8 Sergio Aguero
MANCHESTER City striker Aguero has always been in and out of the top shirt sellers list but in 2015-16 his replica personalised kits sales enjoyed a 60 per cent increase.
9 Alexis Sanchez
A superb first season with Arsenal led to a huge demand for Sanchez shirts took him to sixth in the list. But last year he dropped to ninth.
10 Phillippe Coutinho
A mega 440 per cent increase in shirt sales with Coutinho name over the last 12 months has put him in the top 10 shirt sellers list for the first time.
Clubs with highest shirt sales
MANCHESTER UNITED broke their own record of shirts sold in a season, according to Adidas.
Official United replica shirts recorded a healthy 44 per cent increase.
New signings Memphis Depay, Anthony Martial, Bastian Schweinsteiger dominated the sales for United, while Barcelona’s treble-winning season increased their shirt sales by 32 per cent.
