Cristiano Ronaldo: The expensive reality of Man Utd star giving so many shirts away | OneFootball

Cristiano Ronaldo is often mobbed by opposition players at full-time asking for his jersey.

At the point that you’re a footballer of such fame and renown that fans run onto the pitch just to give you a hug or pose for a selfie with you, it’s only inevitable that you’ll be mobbed by shirt swap requests in tandem.

And can you blame the players who do exactly that? Of course you can’t, because getting your hands on a match-worn Ronaldo shirt is about as cool as football memorabilia can possibly get.

Ronaldo dishing out match-worn shirts

That's especially the case when you get players from random Europa League clubs or lower ranked international teams for whom a clash with Ronaldo might literally be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

As such, Ronaldo must have given away his fair share of jerseys over the course of his decorated career spanning spells at Sporting Lisbon, Manchester United, Real Madrid and Juventus.

Besides, given that elite footballers are often given what feels like a whole wardrobe's worth of jerseys for each game, even wanting to keep a shirt for your own collection doesn't necessarily stop you from dishing out threads.

How much does it cost Ronaldo to give shirts away?

However, believe it or not, doing so is actually quite a costly exercise.

Why? Well, because Ben Foster revealed earlier this year that footballers actually have to pay for every strip that they give away, which understandably came as a surprise to many a supporter.

Nevertheless, given that Foster was a Premier League veteran himself up until recently and shared the dressing room with Ronaldo at Old Trafford, it's fair to say that he's a pretty good authority on the matter.

Speaking on his successful ‘The Cycling GK’ YouTube channel back in January, Foster not only revealed this fun fact about life as a footballer, but he also did the maths on what that might mean for Ronaldo.

And it turns out that the five-time Ballon d'Or winner has probably spent a small fortune - at least, by a regular person's standards - on giving out his jerseys across 20 legendary years in the sport.

Foster explained: “Cristiano Ronaldo gives his shirt away pretty much every single game, but what you don’t know is us footballers actually have to pay for every single shirt we give away.

“Now, don’t get me wrong, this is not going to touch the sides of Cristiano’s bank balance. However, let’s go through the maths of how many shirts this guy has given away.

Video: Foster estimates Ronaldo has spent £77,000

“So, he’s played 1,100 games in his career, alright. You get two shirts per game and I ain’t saying he gives away every shirt every single game but in those 1,110 games, you’d like to think that he’s given one away every single game. Pretty much, alright, give or take one or two.

“So, we’re going to start with that figure: 1,100 games. And if you look at the price of what these shirts cost nowadays – the current home Manchester United shirt costs £100.

“Don’t get me wrong, back in the day they were a bit cheaper – £50, £60 – so let’s work on they cost on average about £70. 1,100 shirts times £70 is £77,000. Whaaaaat?”

A small fortune for a lot of people

As Ronaldo approaches the 1,200-game mark, that figure is only going to rise and rise and rise, leaving a monumental bill in its wake even if it won't make a dent in Ronaldo's bank balance.

But considering that £77,000 would still be a life-changing amount of money for many, many people around the world, it's still astonishing to think that he might well have forked out that much money giving away his shirts.

That being said, what it brings for the players and fans who end up with them is simply priceless.