The signing of Alexis Sanchez broke footballing records, Manchester United Executive Vice Chairman Ed Woodward has revealed.
Revealing the club’s quarterly figures, Woodward spoke about the January transfer window’s biggest move in a conference call with investors.
Woodward, the club’s highest-up public figure who represents the owners, the Glazers, in every way, was delighted with the commercial impact of Sanchez signing.
Sanchez signed a four-and-a-half year deal at the club midway through the month and shirt sales broke records for a mid-season transfer.
“Alexis Sanchez has set a new January signing record in terms of shirt sales – three times that previous record,” Woodward revealed, referring to all clubs, not just United.
In terms of social media, Sanchez’s deal was the biggest ever for the club, and trumped Brazilian star Neymar’s move to Paris Saint-Germain from FC Barcelona last summer, football’s most expensive ever deal.
“This trade [Sanchez’s move to United] generated some interesting social media stats,” Woodward continued.
“It was the biggest United post on Instagram with two million likes and comments, the most shared United Facebook post ever, the most retweeted United post ever and #Alexis7 was the number one trending topic on Twitter worldwide.
“To put all that into context, the announcement posts generated 75 per cent more interaction than the sale of the world’s most expensive player last summer when Neymar moved from Barcelona to PSG.”