“We knew if we could assemble a team of all-star footballers,” Mr. And so they resolved to crack the soccer market by turning to the one group of pitchmen who had sold more shoes over the years than anyone else: all-star teams. True, they knew next to nothing about soccer. One former Nike executive said that people at the time didn’t take the company seriously as a soccer brand.Ĭhanging that perception was the remit of a young ad man named Jelly Helm and a few co-workers as they huddled in an office block in Oregon late in 1995. 1 sport, realised it could no longer afford to sit on the sidelines. Two centuries after the laws of the game were first written down in a London pub, it looked as though soccer was finally establishing a foothold across the Atlantic. shores for the first time, smashing records for attendance and ticket revenue. Then, in 1994, soccer came looking for America. Until the 1990s, like most Americans, the company’s executives in Beaverton, Ore. The craziest part of this story was that Nike ever had either one of Mr. Picture: Luis Bagu/Getty Images Good vs evil Lionel Messi celebrates a Barcelona goal during a Champions League group clash in 2005, wearing Nike boots. Ronaldo, coaches, and entourages - many of whom spoke on condition of anonymity since their relationships, and occasionally their livelihoods, hinged on discretion. The account of how that happened is based on dozens of interviews with former executives at both Nike and Adidas, as well as teammates of Mr. Nike didn’t respond to a request for comment, nor did the Messi family. In the end it was a combination of factors, all linked by the single thread of a father deciding that Nike wasn’t treating his son properly. There are competing versions of just what triggered Mr. The same way Nike would later endorse Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal in tennis, or LeBron James and Kevin Durant in the NBA, it had managed to secure a pair of teenage talents who could soon call themselves the greatest players of their generation - only this time it was happening in the world’s biggest sport. Through shrewd judgment, canny timing, and a bit of dumb luck, the company had spotted the two players at the dawn of their careers and tied them both to the Swoosh. For one brief spell before the 2006 World Cup, Nike had both of them. Ronaldo was Nike.īut before they were on both sides of soccer’s answer to Pepsi vs. The rivalry between a diminutive genius from Argentina and a preening superhero from Portugal has played out over the last 15 years as a tale of opposites, right down to the most important tools of their trade: their cleats. When the World Cup kicks off next month, the two biggest stars in Qatar will be Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, the players who have defined the modern era of the world’s most popular sport and together achieved a level of fame normally reserved for popes and U.S.
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