How Adidas Signed Messi After A Nike Fumble

What is the perfect way to break the internet? For some, posting a nude photo online would be enough, but for Louis Vuitton, bringing together football's biggest stars, Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, for a joint advertisement proved enough to shatter the internet.

The campaign happened before the start of 2022 World Cup, where the stars squared off, but instead of it being in the field, it’s over a game of chess.

The coming together was a rare scenario, as they have featured in opposite teams for a long time, with Messi playing for Barcelona and Ronaldo playing for Real Madrid. The same happens with their boot deals, where Messi represents Adidas while Ronaldo is a Nike Athlete.

Interestingly, at the beginning of their careers, Messi and Ronaldo were contracted to Nike. So why did Messi sign with Adidas?

According to The book, 'Messi vs. Ronaldo: One Rivalry, Two GOATs, and the Era That Remade the World’s Game, this is how it went down. Nike was preparing their marketing campaign for the World Cup in Germany, even holding a photo shoot with Messi.

They then received a phone call from the player's representatives asking them to drop the pictures, and that Messi was signing with their rivals.

Apparently, it was down to a missed request by Nike, who ignored the player's father, Jorge Messi, asking for more tracksuits for the forward.

Nike's Iberian and South American operations failed to get back to Messi senior and that was, so says the book, enough to 'sour' things between player and company.

After that, their refusal to get into a bidding war with Adidas is said to have further put the player and father off staying with the company that had previously sponsored them.

The case went to the courts in 2006, with Nike claiming they had a 'binding agreement' with the player, but they lost the case to Messi and Adidas.

Rather than a 'binding agreement,' the Spanish judges found they had a 'commitment letter,' and Messi switched to Adidas officially in February of that year.

So, if only Nike had honored Jorge Messi's request back in the day, they would be breaking the internet with every advertisement they create today.

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