Character selection and Loading profile settngs

Hi! I am wondering what is the best way to make character selection system. I mean let's say I have 4 GameObjects which are only Images showing what kind of characters is that. Each character has different Speed, Health, Power etc.

Player click on character 2 and how to load right profile settings for that character?

Should I:

1. have prefabs which would have component "ProfileSettings" of "Stats" and in inspector each prefab would have different values assigned.

2. or have an xml in which I would store settings for each prefab and after starting the game I would load the prefab, GetComponent() and then I would rewrite values from Deserialized XML into prefab's component?

Thanks for answer in advance