CRISTIANO RONALDO has been nominated by rival Lionel Messi for the most club shirts sold in the world.
Both players swapped teams last year, with Ronaldo, 37, returning to Manchester United 12 years after leaving Real Madrid for Juventus.
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Meanwhile, Argentine ace Messi has paired with Paris Saint-Germain on a free transfer to end his love affair with Barcelona.
In September, Ronaldo was well ahead of the 35-year-old in shirt sales by raising £ 187.1 million – almost double Messi’s £ 103.8 million.
But the six-time Ballon d’Or winner has since overtaken the former Sporting Lisbon champions, with PSG moving more than a million ‘Messi 30’ jerseys.
This is the first time in the history of the club that they have managed to download so many shirts, with 60 percent of their sales attributed to the forward.
According to Marca, Messi jerseys raised more than £ 800,000 in the first three hours after reaching the shelves.
With the arrival of the 2021 Copa America champion, Les Parisiens moved their official club shop to the Champs-Elysees to double its area.
PSG chief executive officer Marc Armstrong spoke to the Spanish news agency and revealed how big an impact Messi’s arrival had.
He said: “Demand has grown by 30 to 40 percent and what can actually slow it down is supply.
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“When a signing of this size happens, Ronaldo to United for example, you might think he’s going to be paid by selling shirts.
“But that’s not the case. You can not produce many extra shirts.
“The agreement was set up to guarantee very important minimums, but we can not meet the demand for Messi shirts. We have reached the ceiling.
“Nobody can meet that question. We already sell a lot of jerseys, maybe more than any other team in the world for one player, and that puts us on the next level.
“We have a lot of demand for lifestyle products, the revenue with the Jordan brand is huge, but the demand grows even more when you sign a player like Messi.”
Armstrong also said that PSG earned around £ 600 million in revenue by bringing Messi to the Parc des Princes.