Nike broke away from Neymar amid sexual assault investigation

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Nike Inc. ‘s football superstar, Neymar, broke up last year after the company began investigating an indictment through a Nike worker that the Brazilian athlete sexually assaulted her, according to others close to the case and documents reviewed through the Wall Street Journal.

In August 2020, Nike did not publicly provide an explanation as to why the premature termination of its approval agreement with one of the world’s best-known athletes. Nike’s marketing contract with Neymar is still 8 years old, according to a user close to the case.

The Nike worker had told her Nike friends and colleagues in 2016 that Neymar had tried to force her to practice oral sex in her New York hotel room where she attended to coordinate opportunities and logistics for Neymar and her entourage, according to people, adding ex and existing ones. Nike Array workers and documents.

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Neymar denies the accusation, his spokesman said. ” Neymar Jr. will vigorously protect itself against such unfounded attacks on the occasion of a claim, which has happened so far,” he said in a statement. Reasons.

The Nike worker filed a complaint with Nike in 2018 and described the incident to the company’s human resources manager and legal counsel, according to the Americans and documents. marketing in the midst of research, according to other people and documents.

Nike ended his relationship with Neymar in 2020 after the athlete did not cooperate with Cooley’s investigation, other people said, who said the investigation was not complete when the business relationship ended.

ENFIELD, ENGLAND – MAY 28: Neymar Jr of Brazil, an education consultation in Brazil at Tottenham Hotspur school on 28 May 2018 in Enfield, England (Photo via Tottenham Hotspur FC through Getty Images).

“Nike ended his relationship with the athlete because he refused to cooperate in a religious investigation into credible allegations of irregularities through an employee,” Nike general counsel Hilary Krane said in response to questions from the Journal.

Ms. Krane stated that Nike had not publicly discussed the factor in the past because “no set of facts would allow us to talk substantially about the factor. It would be useless for Nike to make an adverse comment without being able to provide supporting data. . “

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Neymar’s spokeswoman said the two sides had been in talks since 2019. “This is a case that was scheduled to happen in 2016, as accusations from a Nike worker were only revealed at the time,” she said.

Neymar’s representatives disputed the woman’s account in Cooley’s investigation, but the athlete himself refused to be questioned through Nike researchers, other people said.

Nike’s worker’s attorney responded to requests for comment.

Neymar da Silva Santos Jr. , 29, signed with Nike at age 13, before signing a professional player in Brazil and then a star in Europe. He was the top player to love in football history when Paris Saint-Germain paid FC Barcelona a move-in payment of around $260 million for him in 2017. The striking striker is a leader of the Brazilian national team and recently signed a contract extension with PSG, a leading French club, until 2025.

Neymar, the face of the Nike logo in South America with iconic collections of footwear and attire and one of Nike’s highest-paid athletes at the end of the relationship. “Neymar Jr will no longer be a Nike player as of August 31, 2020,” Nike said. the spokesman said that month.

Approximately two weeks later, on September 12, Puma SE announced that it had reached an approval agreement with Neymar. “Welcome to the @neymarjr #KingIsBack,” Puma’s official account tweeted. marketing printing for the German company, a small rival of Nike and Adidas AG.

A spokeswoman for Puma declined to comment.

Neymar spoke about his signing for Puma in a message last September: “I grew up watching videos of wonderful football legends like Pelé, Cruyff, Matthaus, Eusébio and Maradona,” he wrote. “I need to recover the legacy that these athletes have, created on the field. They played Puma, and of them created their magic in the King. “

Neymar has more than 150 million fans on Instagram. Con Puma, has marketing partnerships with Red Bull, Qatar Airways and PokerStars, according to its website. In recent months, Neymar has revealed marketing agreements with the clothing logo SuperDry and Epic Games Inc. , creator of the video game “Fortnite”.

Neymar traveled to New York last May and early June 2016 for a Nike advertising crusade where he visited Citi Field and met the wonderful Michael Jordan basketball to spark enthusiasm for a shoe collaboration between the Nike Jordan logo and the football star.

The woman, a long-time Nike worker who is still hired at the shoe giant, running with other Nike workers to coordinate Neymar’s logistics and entourage for Jordan’s occasion in Manhattan, other people said.

Then, in the early morning of June 2, hotel staff asked the woman and some other Nike worker to help Neymar, who gave the impression of being drunk, entering her hotel room, the woman told her Nike friends and colleagues that night and later. Days, she told them that when she was briefly alone in the room with Neymar, he took off her underwear and tried to force her to practice oral sex, she said Neymar had tried to save her from leaving the room and then chased her. her down the hotel hallway while she was still naked.

The worker shared the incident with several friends, members of the Nike family circle and workers that night, and in the days and weeks that follow, other people said.

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The worker filed a complaint in 2018 when other Nike women anticipated the percentage of harassment and discrimination allegations as part of an investigation into women’s remedies in the company, according to Americans and documents.

At the time, the worker shared the main points of the alleged incident with Monique Matheson, head of Nike’s human resources department, and Ms. Krane, Nike’s senior adviser, according to the documents.

Neymar continued to appear in Nike marketing the following year. At the time of the Women’s World Cup in France, Neymar gave the impression in a Nike ad in June 2019 about female athletes and their dreams.

Also in June 2019, another woman accused Neymar of raping at a Paris hotel a month earlier. Neymar said the meeting with the woman, a Brazilian model, was consensual and accused her of seeking extortion. Neymar, bringing out the lack of evidence.

The Brazilian government accused the style of defamation, extortion and procedural fraud. Defamation and extortion rates were ignored in 2019 and she was acquitted of the fraud rate in 2020. A spokeswoman for the style said she was sticking to her original version of What Happened.

In June 2019, after the Brazilian style made public her plea, the Nike worker approached Krane and Matheson to seek the prestige of the complaint she had filed against Neymar a year earlier, according to documents and individuals. She told the worker that they took no action because they felt she didn’t need to, other people said.

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Krane said that when the worker first referred her accusations to Nike’s control in 2018, she did so on a condition of confidentiality. “As an employer, we had a duty to respect your privacy and we didn’t think it was appropriate percentages of this law enforcement data or a third party without the worker’s consent,” Krane said.

“In 2019, when the worker expressed an interest in continuing the case, we acted immediately,” Krane said. “From the beginning, we have dealt with the worker’s complaints and her jolgorio very seriously. “

In 2019, Nike intensified its investigation into the 2016 incident and Cooley’s lawyers conducted interviews with witnesses, adding Nike workers, Americans said and documents. Nike helped the worker hire a lawyer and Nike agreed to pay her legal fees, other people said and the documents show.

Cooley’s lawyer, Amanda Main, said her company “conducted a thorough and thorough investigation, either within the company and through external sources. “

Neymar’s spokeswoman said, “As with the sexual assault allegations she made to her in 2019, the accusations that the Brazilian government found Neymar Jr. not guilty, those accusations are false. “

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In meetings with Nike executives, the woman asked Nike to tell the public that Neymar’s habit is not in line with his values, that he would begin to apply morality clauses in athletes’ contracts, and adopt a code of conduct for sponsorship agreements, other people said.

On August 30 Nike proved that Neymar is no longer with the brand and did not mention the reasons for his departure.

Nike remains the sponsor of Neymar’s club, Paris Saint-Germain, and the Brazilian national team, which continues to wear its swoosh logo in uniforms with Neymar’s Call and its number 10.

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