After the news of Manchester United’s history-making kit deal with the German sportswear maker adidas, shares of Manchester United surged almost 5% yesterday on the NYSE market, according to a report by Forbes.

Wall Street now affords Manchester United an enterprise value of $3.6 billion (£2.1b). In April, the Exchange valued Real Madrid as the most valuable team in the world, worth $3.3 billion (£1.9b), with United trailing the Spanish club in second place at $3.17 billion (£1.84b).

This new development means that Wall Street now values Manchester United as the most valuable sports team in the world.

The likelihood of Real Madrid being able to catch Manchester United, in regards to how Wall Street identifies their valuations, is remote.

La Liga is negotiating their next television deal collectively. In previous times, Real Madrid and Barcelona benefitted from the Spanish league allowing individual teams to sell their media rights. But that will no longer be the case after this season.

Real Madrid is also tied to its shirt sponsorship deal with Emirate Airlines through the 2017-18 season and with Adidas through 2020. So the chances of them overtaking Manchester United remain remote.

To put the numbers in perspective, the next highest valued teams in sports are Major League Baseball’s New York Yankees ($2.5 billion) and the National Football League’s Dallas Cowboys ($2.3 billion). But those numbers may increase since American businessman Steve Ballmer’s offer to buy the NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers for $2 billion.

After the disappointment of missing out on the Champions League and finishing seventh place on the Premier League table last season, the news coming from Old Trafford in recent times indicated that Manchester United aren’t wasting time licking their wounds.

The record breaking kit deal with Adidas was preceded by the announcement of two transfer signings: Ander Herrera from Athletic Bilbao and Luke Shaw from Southampton; as well as the hiring of former Ajax, Barcelona and Bayern Munich manager, Louis Van Gaal.

The Dutch manager has a Champions League title on his CV (Ajax) and just finished directing Netherlands to a third place finish in this year’s World Cup.

Although Manchester United will be missing from European football for the first time since the 1995-96 season, the club’s continued domination of the global market is showing that the decision makers at Old Trafford are making every attempt to ensure that United’s absence from that competition will be a brief one.