Sport, like nothing else in the world, brings fans together to create memories that last a lifetime.
Now, as the memorabilia boom continues, supporters are able to own part of their history more than ever before.
A Paris Saint-Germain shirt worn in the 2025 Champions League final
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Paris Saint-Germain are just one of the teams who auction their shirts via MWSCredit: MatchWornShirt
MatchWornShirt’s increasing popularity in the space should be no surprise as they auction the shirts of global sports stars to their die-hard fans.
It’s not just a financial investment, though, but a souvenir of sentimental value.
Each shirt represents not only the personal journey of a player but of the fan too, intrinsically connected.
Moments within the jersey mean just as much to the players as those in the stands - and observing across the globe.
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A fan’s first match, a milestone goal - or maybe just a quiet connection, unknown to all but those buying the shirt.
And MWS caters for everyone from their offices in Amsterdam where they were founded in 2017 by Bob and Tijmen Zonderwijk, two fans who wanted a match-worn and signed Ajax jersey for their father.
“I do think that the industry is in a bit of a boom at the minute,” said James Flude, their Head of Business - and avid Chelsea shirt collector.
“People are seeing the values that are going to these shirts and to these moments, to these items, and people want a piece of it. So you're getting an increasing amount of financial investors in addition to what I would call emotional investors, people like me, that just collect because they want that memory of the shirt, the feeling, the occasion.
“I think that both of them genuinely are interesting to me on both a personal and professional level because obviously we want to sell the biggest products, the best items, the real talking points.
“But I'm also just as excited by the person that might go to a Fulham game and it might be their kid's 18th birthday and they want to get a Harry Wilson shirt because it's something that means something to them.”
Bob and Tijmen Zonderwijk the founders of MWS
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Bob and Tijmen Zonderwijk are the founders of MWSCredit: MatchWornShirt
Portugal shirts are also available with MWS
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Ronaldo's shirt has fetched a tidy sum after going up for auctionCredit: MatchWornShirt
Wilson is one of those quieter connections but, as you might expect, Cristiano Ronaldo recently broke their auction record with a £54,369 sale, while Lionel Messi and other top players lead the way when it comes to their biggest auctions of all-time.
Top 10 biggest MWS auctions
Cristiano Ronaldo's record-breaking match-worn shirt against Hungary
Cristiano Ronaldo - £54,369
Marquinhos - £48,119
Lionel Messi - £49,446
Lionel Messi - £44,598
Heung-Min Son - £41,221
Cristiano Ronaldo - £39,148
Lionel Messi - £38,689
Cristiano Ronaldo - £36,942
Lionel Messi - £36,786
Khvicha Kvaratskhelia - £36,783
Flude added: “You've got two reasons to collect, right? The big names will always sell. So, Cristiano Ronaldo is always going to sell, whether he barely even touches the ball or whether he scores a hat-trick and wins the World Cup. He will always sell for eye-watering sums of money.
“The other part of it is moment-based and people investing because something special happens in that game. Ideally in that shirt, but definitely in that game.
“The one that stands out for me last year, the Cole Palmer one when he scored four goals in the first half, that sold for £35k, I think, maybe more.
“We sell the moment as well as with the shirt.”
Paris Saint-Germain, Chelsea, AC Milan, Tottenham, Bayern Munich, Arsenal, and Man City are among the teams MWS have deals with.
And that list continues to grow as they target strategic partnership around the globe.
Flude continued: “A lot of clubs also say, well, why should we do every game? Why do we want to do every match? But in that game, every game, there are people [with emotional attachments]. First season ticket, first game since they've been born, first date, first whatever. And so there's all those milestones on an emotional investment level, which will give people a reason to purchase.
“I think the more that we can tap into that, the better. And the other element of it in terms of why every game is, that's how you make sure you get the stories. Because, for example, have we not had every game with Chelsea last year? We might not have got that Cole Palmer shirt.
With MWS’s success also comes expansion.
talkSPORT.com were invited to their new warehouse in Zaandam where all of their operations are being invested in, with innovation at the forefront of their growth.
Whether it’s the stunning new way to visualise the shirts on their website - offering a full 360 degree look so you can see every crease and grass stain, or their work on bringing framing in-house, it’s a seriously impressive operation.
Cole Palmer's match-worn Club World Cup final shirt
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Cole Palmer's Club World Cup final shirt was sold by MWSCredit: MatchWornShirt
Quality control is also of utmost importance. Each shirt is checked for authenticity with staff tallying every fleck of mud using images from the matches they are from.
The jerseys are also given a sniff - and they’re not as eye-watering as the record-breaking auctions.
They even have a special treatment which shreds any DNA left on them - an innovation which paid for itself when COVID hit, allowing the business to continue flourishing despite global lockdown.
And the growth looks set to continue too with the United States their next target.
The charismatic Flude said: “When we go to a new sport, we always want to do it in the right way and make sure it's sustainable and effective when we do it. So, cycling we did well. Rugby is really picking up some pace now at international level. But to be honest, the main focus for us will and will continue to be now for a while, the US focus and the US sport.
“We launched the Chicago Bulls last month. We've got a number of other US announcements coming soon and that will be the core focus from a new business perspective. And there will be others further down the line.
“With individual sports, it's more challenging because of where the rights lie. So we looked at golf, we looked at tennis, and we also looked at Formula One.
“We would love to work eventually with all of those sports, but we want to make sure that when we do get into a new sport, we're well equipped, both resource-wise, financially, operationally, because shipping a golf club is very different to shipping a football shirt. There's a lot of different nuances that maybe wouldn't seem a big deal from an outsider's perspective, but have a huge knock on effect on the business.
“So we'll continue to focus on those three core sports, football, rugby, cycling for now. And then also massively into the US. So we're looking at focusing massively on basketball for the next year and eventually NFL, NHL. The big US sports, because that's where the market really is for memorabilia.”
Meanwhile, as the market broadens, some unexpected items do go up for auction sometimes too.
Flude added: “We've had some very random items brought to us and suggested to sell. I mean, the one that stands out is we sold Feyenoord’s floodlights, which again was a big question internally, like, should we even do this? And they basically changed their floodlights at De Kuip. And they had, I don't know how many, a hundred individual light bulbs, whereby people basically had to go and collect.
“I was thinking, ‘How are they going to sell? Who's going to want a huge industrial light bulb?’
“Turns out a lot of Feyenoord fans did. And that auction raised £105,000.
“It's crazy. I think at one point we got offered a hot tub by the Manchester United Foundation that Cristiano Ronaldo sat in.
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“We actually said no to that one for operational costs. So yeah, you get offered some sort of weird and wonderful things, but the beauty of it is like there is demand for a hell of a lot.
He added: “[Shirts are] our core business, but actually experiences, other items, different things that we can bring to our collectors is for me just as exciting as what we offer now. And I think there's a lot more that we can do in that space as well.”