Cristiano Ronaldo's shirt: Real Madrid deal of the century

Cristiano Ronaldo is also causing a commotion in Real Madrid's official store. His magnificent form and new image, much friendlier, have caused sales of his shirts to soar at the start of this year. His popularity has grown so much that he no longer needs to vie with Iker Casillas to see who can sell the most. CR7 is now the undisputed leader in shirt sales.

Real Madrid store at the Bernabeu Stadium

The 'Cristianomania' began earlier this season in the month of October. That's when he forgot the crisis by sadness and emerged as the undisputed leader of the team. Cristiano Ronaldo, based on goals and work, has pocketed Real Madrid fans, who idolize and support him as never before.

Real Madrid and Adidas have never seen a boom in shirt sales quite like what is happening with Cristiano Ronaldo just now. You would need to go back to the times of Beckham and Zidane to see a similar level of sales. But current sales of Cristiano's shirt look set to continue rising and, although official figures haven't been released yet, it seems likely that Ronaldo will surpass any of the former 'Galactico' greats.

Over at Adidas they're rubbing their hands with glee at the 'Ronaldo effect' – the Portuguese star is sponsored by Nike incidentally – meaning the shelves need to be refilled every day. Real Madrid is a money making machine thanks to the marketing of its players. German multinational Adidas considers the Real Madrid stadium shop to be its "most profitable premises in the world". On match days it's almost 'mission impossible' to even get into the shop, with queues of up to 20 minutes forming. According to a study by Sportintelligent, Real Madrid and Manchester United are the clubs with the highest shirt sales around the world – one and a half million shirts per season.

After CR7, which players sell the most team shirts? Iker Casillas, Sergio Ramos, Xabi Alonso and Mesut Özil are the four Real Madrid players who, along with Cristiano Ronaldo, complete the club's top 5 in terms of shirt sales. The Spaniards have all been in that position for the past five years, whilst the German has slowly climbed the rankings to become one of the team's most-liked footballers, mainly thanks to his silky skills. Other popular players are Higuain and Benzema, although they aren't on the same level as the five mentioned above. Iker Casillas also leads the way in the number of Spanish national team shirts sold.