Cristiano Ronaldo's shirts are incredibly valuable.

Whether you're an opposition player asking for a swap or an ambitious fan holding up a sign, the idea of getting your hands on one of the Manchester United star's jerseys is the stuff of dreams.

Besides, you could certainly forgive Premier League players for celebrating Ronaldo's return this summer for the prospect of sharing the pitch with him and potentially nabbing his kit alone.

The cost of giving shirts away

However, we'd wager that you didn't know that the increasingly-common trend of players giving away their jerseys was one that pinched their wallets.

At least, that's according to Watford goalkeeper Ben Foster, who carried out a fascinating maths experiment on how much Ronaldo might have spent on giving away jerseys across his career.

Foster explained on his successful 'The Cycling GK' YouTube channel that players have to pay for the shirts that they give away, which must add up to a hefty figure as far as Ronaldo is concerned.

Ben Foster makes his estimate

The Hornets shot-stopper mused: "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, 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?"

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Woof. Imagine having to foot a bill of £77,000 over the years just for giving away your jerseys.

An eye-watering figure... for us, anyway

Now, like Foster says, that won't exactly make too much of a dent in Ronaldo's bank account when he's touted to earn £510,000-a-week from wages alone - and even more so from sponsorships.

However, that doesn't make the figure any less eye-watering for people like you and I because £77,000 could buy you everything from an Aston Martin supercar to the deposit on a London flat.

Man Utd 1-0 Aston Villa Match Reaction (Football Terrace)

In fact, if you really want to overthink it, then the estimate on Ronaldo's jerseys work out at around 3.5 Ford Focus cars, 85 United season tickets, 102 flights to Australia and 2,566 copies of FIFA 22.

Oh, and approximately 308,000 Freddo chocolate bars. Of course.

But for all the precious memories that Ronaldo's generosity will have given to opposition players and supporters over the years, we feel pretty certain that he'd think that the £77,000 was worth it.

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