Renowned sports kits manufacturers Nike revealed it had parted ways with Neymar on Saturday, ending one of its most high-profile sponsorship deals a decade and a half after signing the star striker as a 13-year-old prodigy.
“I can verify that Neymar is no longer a Nike athlete,” a spokesman for American sportswear giant Josh Benedek said in an email to the AFP, without giving details.
According to media reports, 28-year-old Paris Saint-Germain and Brazil talisman in talks with German Nike rival Puma.
Brazilian newscast UOL said Neymar and Nike had failed to reach an agreement on how much he would get for renewing his contract.
He said negotiations between the company and the footballer’s agents had been in trouble months ago.
Neymar’s communications team did not respond to a request for comment.
Similarly, Puma did not respond without delay to questions about reports that the corporate in conversations to point it out.
Brazilian newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo said Neymar’s most recent deal with Nike, an 11-year contract that will not expire until 2022, has a total value of $105 million.
Neymar, who has just come out of the pain of wasting the Champions League final against Bayern Munich, holds the record for the longest-faced football play in history.
PSG paid him 222 million euros from Barcelona in 2017.
Forbes magazine, ranked as the seventh highest paid celebrity magazine in the world, estimates its earnings for this year at $95.5 million, adding approval contracts.
Neymar signed his first contract with Nike when he was a young player for Brazilian Santos, who sold him to Barcelona in 2013.
With his slender beauty, tattoos, ever-changing hairstyles and massive success on social media, the player temporarily erupted on the foreign stage, dazzling world football with the skills he honed through the five “futsal” game on the nasty streets. suburb of Sao Paulo.
But her brand, already tainted by accusations of tax evasion after her murky transfer to Barca, became seriously broken last year when a Brazilian woman accused her of raping her.
Nike expressed “deep concern” at the time, standing firm against the player after police closed the case, raising a lack of evidence.
Neymar will wear Nike apparel in the field: the corporate sponsors are the PSG and the Brazilian national team.
The company sponsors many of the sport’s most iconic names, including Michael Jordan, LeBron James, Cristiano Ronaldo, Serena Williams, Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy.
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