After selling more replica tops than anyone else last season, Wayne Rooney’s shirt is now just the third most popular selling Premier League shirt behind Robin Van Persie and Steven Gerrard according to figures from Kitbag.com.
It is a stunning drop in fan popularity for Rooney, who sold more shirts that any other player in the top flight of English football last season, but has only mustered 6% of sales for the 2012-13 campaign.
Meanwhile, Van Persie, who moved to Old Trafford from Arsenal last summer, tops the sales with 25.4%, and Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard comes in second with 8.2% of sales.
With the start that RVP has had at United, the fact that he has sold the most shirts is not a surprise. But some of the other names in the top 10 are.
Who would have thought that Fernando Torres Chelsea number 9 shirt would the the second most popular Chelsea shirt ahead of the likes of Mata, Terry and Lampard?
Or that Olivier Giroud’s number 12 shirt would be the most popular Arsenal shirt this season ahead of Wilshere and Walcott?
Here are the top 10 most popular players in the Premier League including their shirt numbers and their percentages of shirt sales:
- Van Persie (20) – 25.4%
- Gerrard (8) – 8.2%
- Rooney (10) – 6%
- Kagawa (26) 5.8%
- Suarez (7) – 3.6%
- Hazard (17) – 3.1%
- Scholes (22) – 2.7%
- Torres (9) – 2.5%
- Kun Aguero (16) – 2.2%
- Giroud (12) – 2.1%