Lay any remaining doubts about Clint Dempsey's place in the American soccer landscape to rest.
The Seattle Sounders forward has once again topped the list of best-selling adidas MLS jerseys, this time fending off expansion and name-brand imports – and in some cases, both – to claim peak position for the second straight year.
Dempsey, who led Steven Gerrard (LA Galaxy) and Kaká (Orlando City SC) in the top three, joins Robbie Keane (No. 11) and Graham Zusi (No. 13) as the only players to return to the Top 20 after appearing on the list in 2014. New York City FC teammates Andrea Pirlo and David Villa rounded out this year's top five.
Take heart if your favorite summer transfer appears less loved than your supporters' muscle could provide; the rankings are based on overall retail sales of adidas MLS jerseys on MLSstore.com since the beginning of the 2015 MLS season, so midseason arrivals are at a bit of a disadvantage. Expansion side NYCFC matched the Galaxy with four players each; Seattle, Orlando, the New York Red Bulls and Sporting KC each placed two.
Eight members with US national team caps appeared (Dempsey, Brek Shea, Mix Diskerud, Zusi, Gyasi Zardes, Lee Nguyen, Wil Trapp and Sacha Kljestan), as did two Homegrown Players (Zardes and Trapp) and 13 Designated Players (Dempsey, Gerrard, Kaká, Pirlo, Villa, Obafemi Martins, Frank Lampard, Bradley Wright-Phillips, Keane, Sebastian Giovinco, Zusi, Didier Drogba and Giovani dos Santos).