How much will PSG make from Lionel Messi shirt sales?

The club would make the signing fee is always the talk everytime a top club make a marquee signing.

It was again the talks after Lionel Messi completed his free transfer to Paris Saint-Germain.

As at the time of this article, the Parisian club have reportedly sold over 830,000 jerseys of the Argentine superstar.

But is this always the case – is this a fact or a myth?

Can Paris Saint-Germain make back the weekly wages they are going to pay the former Barcelona superstar.?

If indeed over 830,000 pieces at an average rate of €100 have been sold since the transfer was completed how much have Paris Saint-Germain made.?

According to reports, Lionel Messi will earn €75m in two years, while also getting a €25m signing bonus.

So, in two years Lionel Messi will cost Paris Saint-Germain a whooping sum of €100m.

The prices of the jerseys range from €83-158 but for the sake of calculations let’s peg them at €100.

This means a total of €83m have been made from jersey sales so far.

In reality, Adidas, Nike, Puma, and other kit suppliers get 85-90% of shirt sale revenue and this is the industry standard.

While Clubs generally receive 10-15% on shirt sales.

This is because the kit suppliers already paid the Clubs a certain amount when the sponsorship deals were signed.

In this case, Paris Saint-Germain get €80m per year from licensing deals with Nike/Jordan Brand.

And could get more money from the jersey sales if certain conditions are met (a large number of sales).

For example, Barcelona received approximately €30m annually from Lionel Messi shirt sales from an overall €200m.

To put this into perspective at an average rate of €150 Barcelona must have sold over 1.3m jerseys before receiving the €30m paycheck.

Paris Saint-Germain already sold over 830k pieces, let us say they sell 2m pieces.

And his current jerseys cost between €83-158 but for the sake of calculations pegged at €100.

This means a total of €200m would be made from his jersey sales and Paris Saint-Germain get €30m which is 15% of the revenue.

This is not even up to his yearly gross salary of €35m and not even up to what he would cost them €100m over two years.

There are a few exceptions to the 10-15% rule.

Liverpool’s new five-year £150 million ($200m) deal (£30m a year) with Nike reportedly sees them take a 20% commission from sales.

Bayern Munich, which is part-owned by Adidas, may be given a slightly more favourable revenue share once a certain (very large) number of shirts are sold.

So, in reality, clubs don’t make back the transfer money spent on a player from the jersey sales.