I visited the place where Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe's match-worn shirts have ended up – and I was stunned by what I found.
Every match day, players enter the field of play to compete for the all-important three points.
So much preparation goes into getting squads ready for the crucial 90 minutes. From nutrition, sleep, tactics, and analysis to printing new signings' names on shirts, everything is done to perfection - but what happens to the shirts after the game?
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Most players change their kit at half-time, so they wear an average of two shirts per game. Take Cristiano Ronaldo as an example.
Ronaldo, 40, has played 1,261 professional games (at the time of writing) across his time at Sporting CP, Manchester United, Real Madrid, Juventus, Al Nassr and the Portugal national team.
Essentially, he could have worn around 2500 shirts. But where did they end up, how did they get there and how much are they worth?
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Well, many of these have ended up at one of MatchWornShirt’s five offices around the world and SPORTbible visited their Amsterdam HQ to find out exactly how this works.
The company - founded by brothers Bob and Tijmen Zonderwijk - is a leading brand in the industry and boasts partnerships with over 300 football clubs – including Chelsea, Tottenham and PSV Eindhoven.
Both have always been avid football fans and their loyalties lie with Ajax despite them being born near Arnhem, a city around 15 kilometres from the border with Germany.
The Amsterdam-based club had an influence on the reason they started the now-hugely successful company. Back in 2015, Bob, 34, and Tijmen, 37, wanted to give their headmaster father a gift as he neared retirement. And what better way to impress an Ajax season ticket holder than buying him a shirt worn by his favourite player?
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Midfielder Davy Klaassen was that man and he embodies the values of the brothers' father of being a "hard worker that carries the team". From that moment an idea became reality.
The pair previously worked in the legal industry and made a drastic change in career when they founded the company back in 2017. This was a huge risk at the time but in Bob's own words this was "not necessarily what made us tick".
Now, while you are watching Champions League and Premier League fixtures, you can bid for players’ shirts while they are still on their backs. Auctions can start from £0 and bids reach near to the £50,000 mark.
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But how does Cole Palmer’s shirt get from Stamford Bridge to the customer within a matter of days?
Bob Zonderwijk told SPORTbible that the kit person is the “most important person” in the process.
“Obviously, it’s nice if a CEO signs a contract… at the end of the day if the kit person is not happy with it or it’s distracting [them] from their daily work we have a problem,” Bob explained.
“It is always important, when we sign a new partner, that we meet with the kit person and make sure they have enough resources.”
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Palmer, 22, netted four goals in a single half during Chelsea’s 4-2 Premier League victory against Brighton in September and one Singaporean fan parted with £34,411 to secure the player’s shirt to mark the occasion – the seventh highest price in the company’s history.
But what shirt had the highest price?
As you can probably imagine two players trump the rest - Messi and Ronaldo.
Messi, 37, dominates the list with six shirts in the ten highest sales. While Ronaldo has two of the top ten highest prices.
Mbappe, 26, is tenth with his PSG shirt from the Ligue 1 side’s 4-1 Champions League defeat against Newcastle United in October 2023 sold for £31,000.
Ronaldo’s last-ever Manchester United shirt from the 3-1 loss against Aston Villa in November 2023 sold for an eye-watering £39,148 with a portion of the proceeds going to The Royal Legion.
"[Manchester] United [players] always sign [the shirts] the next day at the training ground," Bob said.
“So he got off the pitch, took his shirt off, went on to Piers Morgan and the rest is history. He never returned to the club.
“We ended up having an entire United squad of signed shirts and for Ronaldo, we had a worn shirt without a signature because he never returned to the club.
“That’s the highest-selling Ronaldo shirt that we ever sold because there’s a story behind that.”
Meanwhile, the highest-ever price MatchWornShirt auctioned a shirt for was Messi’s PSG shirt he wore during the club’s 1-1 draw against Reims in January 2023, which sold for £49,446 - the jersey marked the Lunar New Year. Shirts that are considered limited edition, unique or mark a special occasion tend to sell at the highest prices.
Top 10 most expensive shirts
Lionel Messi - €55,019 (£49,446)
Lionel Messi - €50,517 (£44,598)
Cristiano Ronaldo - €45,012 (£39,148)
Lionel Messi - €43,623 (£38,689)
Cristiano Ronaldo - €43,206 (£36,942)
Lionel Messi - €42,786 (£36,786)
Cole Palmer - €41,127 (£34,411)
Lionel Messi - €37,405 (£33,372)
Lionel Messi - €35,869 (£31,738)
Kylian Mbappé - €35,748 (£31,000)
What happens if a player throws their shirt into the crowd?
As you will know, footballers have a habit of taking their shirts off and throwing them into the stands after they have scored a goal despite this often resulting in them being shown a yellow card by the referee. But how does this effect MatchWornShirt's auctions.
"It definitely sometimes happens," Bob said. "That’s also a tricky part of our business model because we really believe in our auction starting from kick-off.
"When you are in the stadium you can already bid on the shirts the players are wearing – that’s where the excitement is.
“But it can happen that a player [scores a goal] and takes off his shirt and throws it into the stands. Then we have to take it offline.
“Players will have multiple shirts per game. Sometimes they reuse it though. But usually, players can still have one of their match-worn shirts because they only give one to us.
“What we do have quite regularly is that family members of a player buy the item in the auction. But we haven’t had a player tell us they want their shirt back.”
How are the shirts authenticated?
Of course, with expensive goods, whether that be jewellery or clothing, owners like to know if their items are legitimate. And MatchWornShirt have a genius way of authenticating their products.
They use 'Fabricks' chips which are heat-pressed onto every shirt the company sell and it uses ‘NFC technology’.
This means when you tap the chip with a smartphone, you get a digital certificate of authenticity and even specific information about the shirt, which enables MatchWornShirt to provide cast-iron guarantees of authenticity to reassure fans, collectors and clubs.
In April 2024, MatchWornShirt announced they had teamed up with Eredivisie side PSV Eindhoven making the Dutch club the first side to play with 'Fabricks' chips on their kit.
According to the company's website "a number of major European clubs will soon also be playing with the technology on their shirts, including Paris Saint-Germain, AS Roma and Club Brugge".
So next time your favourite player scores check out MatchWornShirt's site as you could bag yourself a memento.
Topics: Cristiano Ronaldo, Football, Kylian Mbappe, Lionel Messi, Spotlight
Luke Davies