Luxury fashion giants Hermes and LVMH are expected to deliver stagnant or declining profits this week despite a boom in popularity for their high-end man bags among the world’s footballing elite.

In the wake of the World Cup, the costly man bag that a football star is proud to carry is emerging as the product with most promise.

During the tournament, Norwegian striker Erling Haaland was frequently seen – off the pitch – with one or other of his £1million collection of oversized Hermes bags, such as the £37,365 HAC 40 Birkin.

Launchmetrics, the fashion analytics site, calculates that pictures of Haaland with his Birkins created £6.6million of brand value for Hermes, the €176billion (£150billion) French fashion house.

But even Haaland’s endorsement is not expected to have revived the company’s fortunes, with analysts predicting Hermes to have delivered a profit of €2.2billion in the first half of this year, down slightly on the €2.25billion in 2025.

Meanwhile, LVMH, a €235billion luxury behemoth whose brands include Louis Vuitton and Dior, is expected to report a profit decline to €5.4billion from €5.7billion over the same period when it delivers figures tomorrow.

This is despite the likes of England midfielder Jude Bellingham generating an estimated $1.1million (£825,000) for Louis Vuitton in his role as a brand ambassador.

And French forward Kylian Mbappe is thought to have produced $1.3million in value for Dior after packing his training kit into the brand’s £4,500 Normandie tote.

The profit projections will provide little comfort for the fashion giants as they try to revive demand and offset declines in the Middle East due to the Iran war as well as a slowdown in the massive Chinese market.

One bright spot is demand from affluent customers in the US, with American men also increasingly drawn to the allure of the Birkin.

But this has failed to provide much momentum for the share prices of both companies, which have slumped this year.

LVMH stock has fallen 29 per cent since January while Hermes is down 23 per cent over the same period.

The two luxury giants may be hoping to defy the gloomy predictions following figures from British brand Mulberry, which last week saw its losses for the year to March sharply narrow to £8.9million from £32million following an upturn in sales.