It is for Real: David Beckham sells better than Ronaldo

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: Cristiano Ronaldo, soccer’s most expensive player, can’t match the sales boom David Beckham triggered at Real Madrid.

Sales of Adidas AG team jerseys are as much as 75% lower than when Beckham joined in 2003, according to managers of six sports apparel stores in Madrid. Vendors say Spain’s worst recession in 60 years and an unemployment rate of 19.3% is to blame.

“The year Beckham came was amazing, even confectionery shops were putting his face on cakes,” said Isabel Botia, who has managed the Don Deporte store in the Salamanaca district of Madrid with her husband for 22 years. “We were sold out” of team jerseys. “Now we always have shirts in reserve.” Real Madrid, which gets a cut of uniform sales, said September 20 it expects a 3.5% rise in total revenue to 421.7 million euros ($626 million) in the year through June 2010.

Beckham joined Major League Soccer’s Los Angeles Galaxy in 2007. Real Madrid signed Ronaldo for a world-record $133 million from United in June, three times as much as the former England captain cost.

It will take at least a year before new sponsorship accords kick in for Real Madrid following Ronaldo’s arrival, club officials said September 20. In August, the team signed an improved deal with jersey sponsor Bwin Interactive Entertainment AG that takes effect next season. Real Madrid is also seeking to improve its accord with Adidas, which ends in 2012.

Retail sales in Spain have been falling since March 2008 as unemployment soared after the collapse of a decade-long property boom. Even so, Real Madrid spent a record $360 million on off-season signings, also luring Brazil’s Kaka, France’s Karim Benzema and Xabi Alonso of Spain.

Club president Florentino Perez said in May he planned the outlay to kick-start a team that failed to reach the Champions League quarterfinals in each of the past five seasons .