Zlatan Ibrahimovic doesn’t just score goals, he also sells shirts.
Major League Soccer announced on Monday that LA Galaxy striker, and potential league MVP, had topped its list of jersey sales since the beginning of 2018 as recorded by MLSStore.com.
Ibrahimovic edged out LAFC’s Carlos Vela, Atlanta United’s Josef Martinez and Miguel Almiron, and DC United’s Wayne Rooney — who rocketed to fourth place since joining the league at the end of June.
Ibrahimovic has scored 22 goals in just 26 games and has also added 10 assists to his tally as he’s generally tried to strong-arm the Galaxy into a postseason berth.
During Sunday’s 3-1 victory over Minnesota United, he scored once and assisted on another goal while helping the Galaxy to control their own fate going into the final game of the season on October 28.
That game was played in front of 52,242 spectators at TCF Bank Stadium and Ibrahimovic was at least somewhat responsible for the sellout crowd’s arrival in Minnesota.
Ibrahimovic has been a popular player for most of his career, and it seems that popularity has followed him to the United States and in particular Los Angeles. But with a long career across multiple big-name teams throughout Europe – Ajax, Juventus, Inter Milan, Barcelona, AC Milan, Paris Saint-Germain, and Manchester United – Ibrahimovic’s reach is especially large.
But MLS doesn’t reveal the actual number of jersey’s sold by each player and doesn’t break it down by domestic or international sales and is depriving us understanding just how big a reach the Galaxy striker could be making. Thereby it’s impossible to tell if Ibrahimovic is winning over fans close to StubHub Center, or if the sales are coming from overseas where the Galaxy might have the potential to grab new fans who gained some interest in MLS while supporting the six-foot-five Swede.
Also, not available are the jersey sales from StubHub Center itself. Although COG had previously reported that Ibrahimovic had sold over 1,000 jerseys in just his first few weeks of being with the Galaxy. The club did not make updated numbers available when requested for this story.
Clearly, around the world and throughout the United States, Ibrahimovic’s presence and performance are more than enough to lift the striker to the very tops in brand awareness.
But Ibrahimovic wasn’t the only Galaxy player to see their names on the list. Also on the top 25 jersey sales was Galaxy midfielder Giovani dos Santos.
Dos Santos has played in just 13 games this season while scoring three goals. But the Mexican international still remains relatively popular when it comes to jersey sales. He sits at number 14 on the list and is sandwiched between Bradley Wright-Phillips (New York Red Bulls) and Darlington Nagbe (Atlanta United).
A complete list of the 25 top-selling jerseys in MLS can be found below.
