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Pepe confident Real Madrid lingerie line will be a hit

MADRID (AFP) - Real Madrid defender Pepe said Thursday that he was confident that the lingerie line for women which the Spanish giants plan to launch next year would be a hit.

"I am sure that a club with so much history and such special fans will have supporters who will buy them," the 26-year-old told a news conference following a training session.

The slips and bras bearing Real's logo will be made by Valencia-based textile company Little Kiss and they will hit store shelves in March alongside the souvenir jerseys, t-shirts and other club souvenirs already on offer.

Leaked photos of models wearing the lingerie were published in sports daily Marca on Wednesday and quickly circulated around the Internet.

"It is great. The girls are very pretty," the Brazilian-born Portuguese international added.

Growing revenues from merchandise sales combined with increasingly shrewd global marketing have made Real the world's largest revenue-generating club, according to an annual ranking compiled by business advisory firm Deloitte.

Real pushed Manchester United into second place in the annual Deloitte Football Money League in the 2004-05 season and has maintained the top place ever since.

The club's marketing revenues from sales of souvenir jerseys and other objects bearing Real's logo account for more than 100 million euros of its annual budget of over 400 million euros.