Juventus sell Cristiano Ronaldo shirts worth more than half of his transfer fee in 24 hours

Juventus splashed out, spent more than any other Serie A club in Italian football history to sign Cristiano Ronaldo, arguably the biggest sporting superstar from Real Madrid.

The Serie A champions agreed a €100m fee, which eclipsed their previous best of €90m they had paid for bringing Gonzalo Higuain from Napoli in 2016. The 33-year-old will, who has a four-year deal, be paid an annual salary of €30m.

Well, that's a lot of money, considering Ronaldo, despite being as effective as ever, is at the twilight of his career.

Nonetheless, the star value Ronaldo brings to Juventus is undeniable. The unforeseen move has sent fans in Turin into a frenzy.

520,000 Ronaldo shirts sold on the opening day

As it turns out, the Serie A giants are already reaping rewards of signing one of the most marketable sports persons going around.

According to Italian media, the sale of Ronaldo's Juventus jersey hit the roof as early as on the first day. More than 520,000 shirts were sold within the first 24 hours of its release.

The Juventus website had reportedly crashed due to unprecedented demand. In contrast, they had only sold about 850,000 jerseys in the entire year of 2016.

The Italian giants have made more than €50m from the shirt sales on the opening day, according to Fox Sports. An authentic Juventus No. 7 shirt costs €137.45 on the official website of the football club.

Local vendors in Turin have already started to make use of Ronaldo's stardom. An ice-cream parlour in the city has created a "CR7" cone, which has Portuguese cherry liquor and chocolate flakes, according to the report.

Move to Juventus wasn't a difficult decision: Ronaldo

Meanwhile, thousands of Juventus fans greeted Ronaldo during his unveiling in Turin on Monday, July 16.

The five-time Ballon d'Or winner told the club's fans that his move to Turin was a "well thought out decision".

He added that he is grateful to the club for providing him with a rare opportunity that many of his contemporaries won't get at this stage of their careers.

"Juve is a big club and usually players of my age go to Qatar or to China, with all due respect, so coming to such an important and great club at this stage in my career makes me very happy," Ronaldo said.

He added: "Usually players think their careers are over when they are 33. But I don't feel that at all."

"It was a well-thought-out decision. It is the best club in Italy. It has an outstanding manager [Massimiliano Allegri] and coaches so it was not a difficult decision to take."

"I'm a person who likes to think about the present. I'm still very young and I always liked the challenges, from Sporting to Manchester (United), to Real (Madrid) and now Juventus.