According to UK’s leading online retailer UKSoccershop.com, shirt sales of Arsenal’s deadline day signing Mesut Ozil are outselling Gareth Bale’s by five to one.
Madrid has already been criticised for letting the German go for around half the fee they used to make Bale the world’s most expensive player after making a move to the Bernabeu for £86 million.
Germany coach Joachim Low considered the decision to be ‘incomprehensible’, while Madrid players including Christiano Ronaldo and Sergio Ramos have also expressed their disappointment.
UKSoccershop.com managing director Simon Pretswell said: ‘Leaving aside the debate over Bale’s sporting merits, a large part of any major transfer is often the commercial advantages associated with the signing of the player.’
‘In the case of Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and previous stars such as David Beckham, it is almost a license to print money for the club as shirt sales and other merchandising goes through the roof.’
‘While it would be untrue to say there is not an interest in Bale shirts, our sales data shows he is being significantly outsold by MesutOzil and is not attracting the same level of attention generated by Neymar when he transferred to Barcelona earlier in the summer.’
‘Bale’s talents as a footballer are undoubted, but he has never been one of our bestselling Premiership players, with supporters preferring the likes of Wayne Rooney, Robin van Persie, Steven Gerrard and even Fernando Torres.’