Beckham kicks Ronaldo's earning power into touch

MADRID: 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 percent 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 percent 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 Salamanca district of Madrid with her husband for 22 years. "We were sold out" of team jerseys. "Now we always have shirts in reserve."