Manchester United and Real Madrid lead shirt sale charts

Manchester United and Real Madrid sit atop of the global shirt sale charts with 1.4 million shirts sold per season on average over the past five years.

United and Madrid are two of the three teams that have managed to surpass the one million mark between 2007-08 and 2011-12, with Spanish titans Barcelona completing the top three with 1.15m shirts sold per year.

England has four teams in the top 10, with Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal accompanying Manchester United, while Juventus, Inter and AC Milan represent Serie A. Bayern Munich completes the top 10 in fifth position.

All of the teams in the top 10 either wear Adidas or Nike jerseys, with both brands having five representatives in the list.

The figures, which were published by Sportingintelligence, have been compiled by veteran analyst Dr Peter Rohlmann and his team at the consulting bureau, PR Marketing.