Gavi secured his future at Barcelona after seeing the club able to officially register a contract renewal that will keep him at Camp Nou until at least June 2026. A Spanish court ruling helped this go through, with La Liga officials refusing to accept it because of fears around the club breaking their wage limit.
With the new deal, Gavi was also rewarded with a new shirt number – the no.6! Even though it was most recently worn by Riqui Puig (before he left the club last summer) – the no.6 Barca shirt earned its reputation because Xavi Hernandez donned it in his career.
After getting this iconic number, Gavi has focused on scripting a similarly decorated career and helping his beloved club dominate at the top of European football for many years to come. The teenager has already become a major fan favourite since breaking through to the first team last season.
In fact, when he signed the new Barca contract last year in September, the fans were allowed to witness it happening live at Camp Nou. A lot of supporters turned up for a meet and greet session with Gavi, with one female even cheekily giving her number to the teenage sensation.
Gavi’s new shirt also appears to have been a huge hit among the Barca supporters. It is selling like hotcakes, with fans scrambling to get a hold of his jersey. As a matter of fact, the sales of the shirt have surpassed expectations and are dominating charts among the club’s player jerseys.
As per reports, Gavi’s no.6 shirt is currently the best-selling shirt among any of the Barca superstars. Normally, most fans tend to buy the no.10, no.7 or no.9 kits of their team because of the importance which they hold and because they are mostly worn by the best players in the team.
Robert Lewandowski was given the no.9 jersey after joining Barca, but it seems that fans are crazier about Gavi than him! This could be because of the Spanish midfielder being ‘one of their own’, having come up through Barca’s famous La Masia academy before making a major splash at the senior level.
But it appears that Gavi might be forcing a major change in the historical tradition when it comes to the sale of Barcelona shirts. In the past, normally the no.10 shirt has always been the best seller. That definitely was the case during the years when Lionel Messi used to don it.
That is now long gone and Barca decided to give the honour of being ‘the heir to the throne’ to Ansu Fati in 2021. The La Masia product emerged into the scene before the likes of Gavi and Pedri, allowing him to get the important shirt number.
Unfortunately for Fati, injuries have ruined his career so far. Even though he has avoided picking up knocks this season, the competition levels in the frontline have affected his game-time – as he’s only started a handful of games this season.
As a result, there isn’t that much of a craze among the fans to wear his shirt despite the history behind it. Even Pedri’s shirts are selling more than Fati’s, while Gavi is dominating the sales charts. In fact, almost nobody is buying Fati’s no.10 kit at all in the Barca stores. This has reportedly caused the sales and marketing team of Nike (the brand that manufactures the jerseys) to get worried.
They are now trying to find solutions to improve the sales of Fati’s no.10 jersey and help it be among the top-selling merchandise once again. That could, however, be difficult to pull off unless Fati starts outperforming some of Barca’s best players and start games regularly.
Gavi has elevated himself to become a bonified hero among the fans and brought back the prestige of the no.6 shirt – as he aims to replicate Xavi’s heroics and win many major trophies with Barcelona in his career.
