Ben Foster reveals the surprise item footballers have to pay for after a match

Ben Foster estimated how much Cristiano Ronaldo has spent on handing over his jerseys to fans and players as he spoke about footballers having to pay for every shirt they give away.

More often than not, players at each Premier League club are given two shirts per game.

Those shirts can be exchanged for an opponent's jersey, or passed on to friends and family. But there is a strict rule in place – players must pay the cost of each shirt that needs replacing.

Ben Foster gave an insight into this rule on his YouTube channel Cycling GK, where he brought up former Manchester United teammate Cristiano Ronaldo, who has played over 1,000 games in his career.

In fact, he estimated in 2022 that the five-time Ballon d'Or winner has spent £77,000 on handing out jerseys .

Foster began: "Right guys, 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.

"So, he's played 1,100 games in his career and you get two shirts per game.

"I'm not saying he gives every shirt away every single game but, in those 1,100 games, you would like to think he's given one away every single game, pretty much, give or take one or two.

"So, we'll start with that figure: 1,100 games. If you look at the price of what these shirts cost nowadays, the current home Man Utd shirt costs £100."

Foster added: "Don't get me wrong, back in the day, they were a little bit cheaper, £50 or £60. So, let's work on they cost on average £70."

After a brief pause, the former Watford goalkeeper added: "1,100 shirts times £70 is £77,000. Whaaaaat?"

At the time of writing, that amount will have only increased after Ronaldo celebrated his 1200th professional match with a goal and an assist in Al Nassr's 4-1 win over Al-Riyadh last year.