Zlatan Ibrahimovic Tops All MLS Jersey Sales in 2018
Zlatan Ibrahimovic's arrival in MLS was met with plenty of excitement–and evidently plenty of eager jersey shoppers.
The LA Galaxy star's jersey is the top-selling player uniform in MLS in 2018, the league announced on Monday. Ibrahimovic tops crosstown rival and LAFC star Carlos Vela, while Atlanta United's Josef Martinez and Miguel Almiron (Nos. 3 and 5, respectively) and D.C. United's Wayne Rooney (No. 4) round out the top five.
Atlanta, which just set the MLS single-season record for home attendance and averaged more than 53,000 fans per game at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, features five of the top 18 kits, with Ezequiel Barco (No. 10), Darlington Nagbe (15) and Hector Villalba (18) joining their talented teammates.
The top selling jersey for an American belongs to the now-retired Clint Dempsey, who comes in at No. 9, while Nagbe, Jozy Altidore (16), Dom Dwyer (19), Graham Zusi (21), Cristian Roldan (22) and Paul Arriola (24) all register in the top 25 in numbers generated from sales on the league's online store.
Other notables include Bastian Schweinsteiger at No. 6, David Villa at No. 7, Sebastian Giovinco at No. 8, Giovani Dos Santos at No. 14 and Bayern Munich-bound Alphonso Davies at No. 17.
Ibrahimovic has certainly dazzled en route to having his kit be so widely purchased. The self-proclaimed lion has scored 22 goals and added 10 assists in 26 matches, and he has led the Galaxy to within one result of a playoff berth.
His other chief rivals have done their part in achieving their statuses as well. Vela has 13 goals and 13 assists in 27 appearances; Martinez set the MLS single-season goal record with 30; Rooney has had 12 goals and seven assists in his 19 games in MLS; and Almiron, who has been heavily linked with a winter move overseas, has 12 goals and 14 assists in 32 games this season.
