FC Barcelona are set to face Real Madrid on Sunday in the La Liga clash. As often is the case, El Clasico is being speculated as the title decider for La Liga. Barcelona, first on the league table, are currently 9 points ahead of second-placed Madrid.
A victory for Blaugrana at their home would put them 12 points ahead of their rivals, certainly a position from where the title cannot be lost.
In the lead-up to the match, it was announced by the Catalonian giants that Barça’s kit will feature the logo of Spanish artist Rosalia’s album “Motomami”, to celebrate the one-year anniversary of the Grammy-winning album.
This is the second time this season that Barcelona will be sporting a memento jersey, the first dating back to the 16th of October last year, in the first El Clasico of the season, when the Blaugrana kit featured American pop star Drake. Real Madrid won that match 3-1 at their home.
This time, the Spanish club are honoring Motomami, the Grammy award-winning album by Rosalia.
The Spanish singer-songwriter became the most-streamed artist globally on Spotify last year, with the streaming numbers increasing by 110 percent over the year. The 30-year-old was also the most-streamed female artist in the city of Barcelona.
The shirt features a Motomami logo at the front and the number “1” at the back, referring to the one-year anniversary of the album. The kit is also known to “glow in dark”. Barça’s women’s team, Barcelona Femeni is also set to sport the special kit in their league clash against Real Madrid on the 25th of March.
Copies of this limited-edition kit were put on sale at the Barça Store at Spotify Camp Nou, Madrid, the airport, and the online store.
However, the pricing of these kits might catch you by surprise. The “Limited Edition” Motomami kit has been listed at the price of 399.99 €, and the same kit with autographs of Barcelona’s men’s and women’s “Clasico” starting lineup costs 1999.99 €. These are certainly no cheap kits!
Fans have found the prices of these special edition kits absurd, and have taken no mercy in ridiculing the club for such pricing.
Twitter users took jabs at the price, with some calling this a “cheap financial move”, and some calling the club “broke” for selling kits at unreasonable prices.
Here’s how some users reacted:
This, however, isn’t the first time a football club has been charging unreasonably high for certain “special edition” kits. Clubs like Manchester United, Napoli, Juventus, and others have notoriously done this in the past as well, paving a way for some extra income.
With a string of 1-0 victories, Barcelona have struggled to achieve desired results in their recent matches. Their fans will be hoping for the Motomami kit to bring some luck, unlike the last memento jersey.
Real on the other hand, though have been convincing in their UCL fixtures, the same cannot be said about their league form either. Having regularly dropped points, the league seems to be slipping out of their hands. With the match hanging in the balance, it’ll be interesting to see if this Clasico virtually ends the title race.