With the announcement of the news of Lionel Messi’s departure from his team in Barcelona, the most famous shirt in the city has disappeared from the shelves of the club’s official stores, and many fans who bought Messi’s shirt with it have been put in Barcelona’s predicament.
With thousands of Messi number 10 shirts sold, fans now have the right to return them after the player’s transfer, and it is up to Nike to decide what will happen to those “returned” shirts.
According to the newspaper “Marca”, the issue of the return of new shirts when the player moves is a routine matter in clubs, and something similar happened when the Brazilian Neymar moved from Barcelona in 2017.
According to various studies, about 8 out of 10 shirts sold in Barcelona are Messi shirts with number 10.
This means that Barcelona will lose between 20 and 30 million euros per season due to the absence of Messi’s shirt.
Economist Mark Seria explained that after Messi’s departure, Barcelona hopes to sell the Dutch Memphis Debye shirts at a good pace after this “hit”.
“Memphis could be the best-selling shirt, perhaps with a rate of five out of ten shirts sold, thus avoiding a drop in sales of more than 30 percent in the short term,” Syria said.
The new Barcelona shirts for the 2021/22 season went on sale from June 16, which means that fans bought the new Messi shirts two months before the decision to leave, while acknowledging that the Argentine will remain at the Camp Nou.