IF Che Guevara had been a footballer in this era of stratospheric hype his image rights contract would have made David Beckham resemble a vagrant.

Ever since the Argentina-born Cuban revolutionary’s death in Bolivia in 1967, his beret-clad portrait has adorned T-shirts, posters, cups, album sleeves, key-rings, tea towels – you name it, Guevara’s bravura visage has been plastered across it.

But there’s even more life in the old radical yet – and back in his Latin American homeland too.

Brazilian third division side Maduriera this week unveiled a new kit and yes, on it is the ubiquitous face of Chevie G.

The reprinted visage does not cover the entire front of the shirt – nothing so crass. Rather, bold Ernesto’s iconic mug-shot is a suitably smaller version on the side of the Maduriera shirts.

The Rio de Janeiro-based club incorporated the striking portrait on their maroon strip to commemorate their tour of Cuba 50 years ago.

Usually the club shifts ten shirts a month, but in a leap that, percentage- wise, would rival a transfer featuring Ronaldo, Bale, Messi or Beckham, the club have sold more than 3,000 in two weeks since its launch.

Will the success of such a daring initiative spread and now be taken up by more high-profile clubs? After all, modern football is as much about making a fast buck as making a shrewd pass.

There could be so many variations.

Clubs of each nation could plump for their own national heroes – though Belgian teams could have a particularly limited selection.

Clubs could opt for their own past favourites – Billy Bremner on a Leeds United shirt, Charlie George for Arsenal, Alex Young for Everton, Len Shackleton for Newcastle, the late Bobby Moore for West Ham, natch. (Don’t all those names just show my age? If readers out there don’t know who they are, then check out the game’s history, football did exist before the Premier League. Honest, it did.) But let us return to the concept let loose by the imaginative powers of the Maduriera club.

Just which political leaders would feature on some of England’s leading clubs?

Let’s start with Chelsea. Well, given the fact they are owned by a Roman and are run by a manager not averse to megalomaniacal tendencies, then any of the Caesars might well adorn the blue is the colour jersey. If not Augustus, how about Caligula, now he was a bit of a lad, wasn’t he?

Napoleon Bonaparte, he was another with designs on empire.

Not only does the former emperor share the same Gallic heritage as current Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger, but his resolve to conquer the Continent is presently driving the Gunners’ carriage across Europe, albeit with little general success – up to now.

You could bet your bottom franc, dollar, pound that the majority of domestic football clubs if offered who of leadership candidates they would most like on their shirts, would reply Winston Churchill.

His ‘V’ for victory sign would be stirring enough and could also be interpreted as a concerted push on two fronts for a league and cup double.

But just who would best suit a Churchillian image? It surely has to be a club based in London and such capital bias would lean to West Ham. Currently the bubbleblowers boast the bulldog spirit of boss Sam Allardyce, who, like Churchill, suffered the wounding rejection of his nation despite previous warlike accomplishments.

In these days of increasing football equality, how about a woman’s countenance gracing a club strip?

Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor perhaps? Nein, always too busy with phone calls – making, receiving, or being tapped by the Americans.

Speaking of whom, Hillary Clinton then? The President in waiting of the USA, she would at least satisfy the significant American presence in the boardrooms of the Premier League.

Sorry Hills baby, there’s just one inviolable candidate and that’s Margaret Thatcher. Her rampant capitalism and no compromise diktat in which everyone else but her beloved brethren could go hang, would perfectly embroider yet another new outfit for Manchester United. Politics’ most grab-it-all-forthe- few guru meets football’s money-making machine. You could not think of a more likely marriage – consummated in hell between the Blue cross lady and the Red Devils.

Now, those few followers of these weekly ramblings may question to which politico should be splashed across Liverpool’s red.

There’s just one face and one face alone. Bill Shankly. But a political leader? You bet, football’s most revered, respected and resolute socialist. Now that would be a replica shirt worth buying and worth wearing.