Erling Haaland had a pick of elite football clubs to choose from this summer, and he now has several sportswear brands chasing his signature.
New Manchester City striker Haaland is yet to sign a boot deal after his contract with Nike expired earlier this year and he has been seen in recent weeks wearing different boots, highlighting the fact he is no longer tied to the American company.
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In a similar way to how the Norway international had people guessing which club he would sign for when he left Borussia Dortmund, be it City or Real Madrid, he now has people speculating what he will be wearing on his feet in the weeks and months ahead.
Throughout the early stages of the new season, Haaland has taken advantage of being able to wear different branded boots and has been pictured in ones made by Adidas, Nike and Puma.
At his City unveiling just over a month ago, he wore club-branded Puma Ultra boots. City Football Group agreed on a 10-year deal with Puma in 2019 to make their kits.
Then, during City’s pre-season tour in the United States, the 22-year-old played — and scored — against Bayern Munich while wearing Adidas X Speedportal boots. He wore the same ones in the Community Shield defeat to Liverpool on July 31.
Ahead of City’s Premier League opener away to West Ham United eight days later, Haaland walked into the London Stadium wearing Adidas trainers before sporting Nike Mercurial Vapor 14 boots in the game itself. They were on his feet again in the 4-0 win over Bournemouth on Saturday.
“I don’t check online (to see what people are saying) but my father gets this with him,” Haaland told Complex when asked about wearing different brands. “Alfie (his former-pro-footballer dad) tracks it more than me.
“Normally it is not allowed to wear Adidas and Nike together, so that is a little bit why I did it. I got a couple of hate comments about wearing (Nike’s) Jordans and Adidas, but it was just for fun. It was a nice hoodie and I got a couple of pairs of Jordans, so I paired them together.
Haaland wearing Adidas boots during City’s tour in the US (Photo: Getty Images)Even though Haaland’s deal with Nike has ended, it is understood that firm is determined to sign him to a new one. But it faces competition from Adidas and Puma. He had been with the American company since the age of 14.
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Once an athlete’s footwear deal expires, it is commonplace for there to be a six-month matching rights period (though it does vary from player to player and brand to brand).
This means the player is only allowed to talk to brands after the deal ends, and if a rival brand makes a formal offer in the matching rights period, their previous sponsor is allowed to match it.
“As long as there is no formal offer on the table, the athlete is free to wear any boots they want once the contract expires,” says Michele Rinchiuso, a sports industry expert.
Sources point to a change in strategy from Nike, noting how it pulled out of swathes of boot deals and opted to invest in a select few players instead. It is noted how Puma has tried to take advantage of this and is increasing its volume of athletes, but at the same time ensuring it is getting the right players.
Nike’s most notable footballers include Manchester United’s Cristiano Ronaldo, who has a CR7 range with the company similar to its long-term offshoot with basketball icon Michael Jordan, and Kylian Mbappe of Paris Saint-Germain.
Other Nike athletes include Tiger Woods, LeBron James and Rafael Nadal.
Adidas can boast a roster of talent including Lionel Messi, Mohamed Salah and Paul Pogba, and also manufactures Manchester United’s kits.
Puma sponsors Brazil forward Neymar, also of PSG, and Barcelona’s France wide man Antoine Griezmann (currently on loan back at Atletico Madrid) and has a long-standing relationship with Usain Bolt, arguably the greatest sprinter of all time.
Signing Neymar in 2020 ended his 15-year association with Nike — over half his lifetime — and propelled Puma into a different market and helped it attract a new audience and target different consumers.
The King is back !@pumafootball @PUMA pic.twitter.com/E6rbvWrltM
— Neymar Jr (@neymarjr) September 12, 2020
The three brands are each trying to tell a different ‘story’, and it will be down to Haaland to decide where he fits best in that regard. It is an open secret Nike, Adidas and Puma are all vying to tie down one of the most promising players of his generation.
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“Footballers with his ability and his reach are not often available on the market and the brands will be aware of that,” said one source familiar with boot deals.
Adidas, it is noted, creates stories around its slogan “Impossible is nothing”, while Nike’s is “Just do it” and is often viewed as the ultimate goal for an athlete. Puma is seen as more of a joyful brand.
“In the past, any kind of endorsement between a brand and an athlete was about association and putting a name next to a logo and product,” says David Cockayne, the founding director of the master’s degree course in sports business and management at the University of Liverpool.
“Today, it is much more active. We think of athletes as influencers rather than endorsers and the stories they can tell and the social influence they can have.
“For someone like Haaland, who is young and at the start of their career, the opportunity to sign up somebody like him, who can relate to younger audiences, will give you that longevity and allow you to hit a broader cross-section of people.”
Rinchiuso agrees.
“It is critically important to have the best of the best, and the coolness factor for brands is very important,” he says. “If the brand doesn’t have athletes that resonate with the market and can influence a generation, then you can invest as much money into them as you want to, but nobody is going to buy the product.
“Everyone knows Nike have Mbappe long term and the next big thing is Haaland. If you look at it from a superstar level, the only one available on the market with the potential of being a Ronaldo or Messi for the next 10 years is Haaland.”
The striker wearing Nike in the West Ham game (Photo: Getty Images)Because of his age and the fact his career is, relatively, still in its infancy, nobody expects any boot manufacturer to sign Haaland on the cheap.
He was initially signed by Nike while he was a kid at Norwegian club Molde, and various figures are being bandied about in terms of the annual figure he can now command.
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The financial element, however, would also depend on the length of the deal he signs. Multiple sources indicate Haaland would be foolish to enter into a 10-year deal with any one brand, instead suggesting he should opt for four-year cycles that could see him chopping and changing between companies.
There is talk that he could receive in the region of £15million ($18m) a year to sign with a brand, although others point out that would be astronomical and highlight how the sportswear giants are being savvier with their money after the COVID-19 pandemic.
For Cockayne, the intrigue surrounding Haaland and his choice of boots, noting how he has worn all three firms’ products in recent weeks, will only work in his favour.
“Haaland and his team have been very clever with this,” explains Cockayne. “They are trying on different brands and I would guess that they are trying to gauge what his audience are saying about the boots he is wearing — is there a group of his followers crying out for him to re-sign with Nike? How are they responding to him wearing Adidas boots?”
Rinchiuso points to Haaland wearing different brands as an example of trying before you buy, suggesting there is more to it — especially where a footballer is concerned — than just yanking on the boots of whichever firm pays you the most to do so.
“He has been playing with Nike for years, so adapting to another brand or boot is not easy and takes time,” Rinchiuso says. “It is also mentally not easy, because they might get a blister, a little bit of cramp, say the insole is different and the padding is different. He will want to assess the quality of the product and check them out.”
Haaland in Puma boots at his Manchester City unveiling (Photo: Getty Images)It is not a relationship that would only benefit Haaland, though.
If Adidas, for example, coughs up millions of pounds a year to sign the striker, it would expect to see a return on its investment — and this goes beyond selling a vast number of boots across the world because fans see him playing in them on their TVs.
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How many boots they sell is actually secondary. What is more valuable to the firms vying for his signature is the data and digital impact they will be able to harness from concluding a deal.
“When you have a group of young, talented athletes (as clients), it legitimises the brand and that has a knock-on effect in terms of legitimising the price points they can put on all their products, whether it’s golf, fashion, football or anything else,” Cockayne says.
“Data is incredibly valuable and it gives the brand real-time insights into a huge range of audiences. This cuts through geographical boundaries and socio-economic demographic status and gives them real-time behavioural insight into so many audiences.
“For the brand, that allows them to refine their marketing, to be much more targeted. It enables them to personalise and be much more creative in their advertising. It is a catalyst for other marketing activities.
“It is not about selling boots or selling football products.
“Long term, it is about legitimising the brand and in the short term it is about building up a data document that allows their other marketing to be much more focused and efficient.”
Cockayne dismisses the idea of Haaland’s Norway side not qualifying for the World Cup later this year impacting the finances of any deal, saying that attitude was more familiar in the 1980s and 1990s, when the Premier League and the various other domestic competitions did not have the global audience they do now.
He does, however, note that brands will be reluctant to overspend because of the uncertainty surrounding consumer spending. The cost of living is going up, people are still recovering from the post-COVID financial impact and there is a war going on in Ukraine after the Russian invasion in February.
For Haaland, though, he has the world at his feet — no pun intended — and is in a commanding position to extract exactly what he wants from his next boot deal.
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Who the 22-year-old signs for remains to be seen, but he is not short of suitors and it will only elevate his status as one of football’s most exciting talents.
(Top photo: Tom Flathers/Manchester City FC via Getty Images)
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