23 February,2014 01:58 PM IST | | Moeena Halim
Goalsquad.com, a recently launched e-commerce portal, currently stocks official football merchandise from nine of the world’s best clubs
The official merchandise of Arsenal FC, FC Barcelona, Chelsea FC, Manchester United FC is available at the e-commerce portal, Goalsquad.com
Did Alex Ferguson's departure leave you as miserable as Sachin's farewell? Or, perhaps it was Meust Ozil's Arsenal record signing that you were too busy celebrating.
The official merchandise of Arsenal FC, FC Barcelona, Chelsea FC, Manchester United FC is available at the e-commerce portal, Goalsquad.com
Whether you're still supporting Moyes' Manchester United, or are a devoted Gunner, a diehard Liverpool loyal or banking on Barca, 28-year-old Aashay Shah understands your devotion all too well. That's what inspired him to launch e-commerce portal Goalsquad.com, which currently retails the official football merchandise of nine clubs - Arsenal FC, FC Barcelona, Chelsea FC, Manchester United FC, AC Milan, Juventus FC, Liverpool, Manchester City FC, Real Madrid FC.
"The game has gained quite a large fan base in the country. A lot of youngsters watch more football than cricket. But the fans haven't really been catered to until now," observes the ManU fan. "I was very keen on buying figurines of the players but I couldn't find them anywhere in the city. And although I've had it relatively easy thanks to the Manchester United Café, fans of other clubs had no way of buying authentic merchandise," he continues.
"I realised that even if someone was willing to buy counterfeit products, there wasn't much variety available in the market," says Shah, who made sure he changed that. Launched a mere fortnight ago, the portal currently stocks merchandise such as Soccer Starz's two-inch figurines and collectors cards, as well as jerseys, caps, armbands, car accessories, clocks, towels, and so on. "The best part of this is that because I order in bulk, the price difference between counterfeit products and the authentic stuff really isn't much at all," adds Shah.
Hoping to tie up with Nike soon, Shah plans to retail international team jerseys, T-shirts and flags in time for the FIFA World Cup in June. But what the entrepreneur is looking forward to the most is sponsoring football-based events in city schools and stocking merchandise from local teams such as Mohan Bagan too. "Hopefully by 2030, India should be in the World Cup," he says, signing off.
Log onto www.goalsquad.com
