Professional footballers earn a staggering amount of money, which is paid to them by their football clubs, but let’s not forget they earn incredible money from wearing football boots too. The bigger the superstar, the bigger the sponsorship deal. Learn how much extra cash famous footballers can earn by wearing certain brands on their feet. The list below includes the top five deals in professional football today.
Kylian Mbappe and Nike
Kylian Mbappe started out at AS Monaco when he was a teenager, and at that time, he was wearing Nike football boots. He now plays for PSG and has to choose between Adidas, Puma, or stick with Nike. It took him some time, but he chose to wear Nike football boots. He signed a 10 year deal that will take him to 2029. The deal is worth an incredible £140 million and makes the French football star one of the highest paid players in professional sports.
Cristiano Ronaldo and Nike
Cristiano has been signed by Nike since 2003, when he was playing for Manchester United as a fast winger. It was in 2016, when Cristiano was in his last contract extension with Real Madrid, that Nike offered him a lifetime contract. Cristiano earns a staggering $15 million a year by wearing Nike football boots when he enters a football pitch. You add this to his wages, and you can see how he is one of the wealthiest athletes on earth.
Lionel Messi and Adidas
Since Lionel was a teenager playing for Barcelona, he has been wearing Adidas football boots. It all started in 2006, but it was not until 2017, when Messi signed a lifetime deal with Adidas. This deal makes Messi £18 million annually with the massive German company. Itl also gives the German manufacturer exclusive rights to his image. The player can earn a nice percentage on every product that Adidas sells with his image. Adidas football boots are trendy mostly because of the Messi brand, and there is no point in denying that the Argentinian football star has pushed the brand to the next level.
Erling Haaland and Nike
At only 22 years of age, Haaland is one of the faces of world football. He has completed an incredible treble with Manchester City and scores a fantastic amount of goals every season. It makes sense that a company like Nike would want to pay Haaland big money to wear their boots. So in April 2023, Nike decided to re-sign with Haaland on a mouthwatering £20 million a year deal. This deal will run for a decade with Nike. At this young age, you can only imagine the next contract Haaland will get to sign.
Neymar and Puma
It was in 2011 when Neymar signed with Nike football boots; that deal was worth a cool £11 million per year. Once the deal ended in 2020, it was Puma who caught the attention of Neymar. The deal that Neymar has with Puma is the largest individual boots sponsorship in the game today. It is worth a nice £23 million per year. Puma designs boots with the help of Neymar. The footballer adds his input into how football boots should look. Neymar has influenced many young players and made Puma an attractive brand once again.
Conclusion
As you can see from these deals, professional footballers can earn huge amounts of money thanks to wearing certain logos on their feet. Once you add this money to their already massive weekly salary, you can easily understand how footballers are multi-millionaires. Probably, within a few years, we will be talking about professional footballers as billionaires.
