There are familiar names among the best-selling soccer shirts in the world from the previous season. With so many top talents on the move, fans constantly crave the latest shirts their favorite players wear. For example, Lionel Messi moved to Major League Soccer with Inter Miami. Before then, Cristiano Ronaldo started the wave of transfers to Saudi Arabia when he joined Al-Nassr.

However, when it comes to European clubs, there are still elite sides that stand out among the rest. With the top leagues in Europe having a global reach, millions of people from across the globe want to get their hands on teams releasing new kits. That explains why teams release new jerseys each campaign even if the modifications are minimal.

Teams in England, Spain, Germany and France all cracked the top-eight clubs in the list of the best-selling soccer shirts in the world. Notably, this does not mention any player on the back of a shirt or whether it be the home or away strip. Instead, it is simply the raw number of shirts a club sold during the 2022/23 season.

Dr. Peter Rohlmann of PR Marketing assembled the data on how many shirts clubs from across the world sold. Major clubs top the list.

The best-selling soccer shirts by club in 2022/23

These are not the official sales numbers clubs are reporting on their shirt sales from the previous season. However, the data does provide some insights into which clubs are the most in-demand.

  1. Liverpool — 1,800,000
  2. Manchester United — 1,750,000
  3. Real Madrid — 1,700,000
  4. Barcelona — 1,600,000
  5. Bayern Munich — 1,350,000
  6. Manchester City — 1,290,000
  7. PSG — 1,100,000
  8. Arsenal — 850,000

There is certainly a heavy emphasis on the Premier League, as half of the clubs in the top eight are from the English top flight. That includes the top two in Liverpool and Manchester United. The two red rivals have two of the biggest global followings. However, United may see this as a loss since it considers itself the most popular club in the world. This statistic would also frustrate Adidas, which recently expanded its record-breaking deal with United in a 10-year deal that exceeds $1 billion.

However, four of the eight clubs in the top eight do use Adidas as their kit provider. United, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and Arsenal all use Adidas. Liverpool, Barcelona and PSG have Nike as their provider. That makes Manchester City the one standout. Its provider is Puma, which generally has just one or two clubs it makes kits for in each league. Manchester City winning the treble helped sell kits as fans wanted a piece of the success.

Premier League dominating again

Seeing four teams from the Premier League is not necessarily surprising, either. The league’s depth of popular teams draws in more people. Also, with European success from clubs like Manchester City, Chelsea and Liverpool in the last five seasons, the popularity of the elite clubs continues to climb.

What will be interesting to see, though, is if Manchester City can rise in these rankings. The treble winners won the lot and had five players finish in the top nine in Ballon d’Or voting. Fans want a piece of success, and City can take the opportunity.

PHOTO: IMAGO.