[2008] Nike wants Ronaldo in Barcelona

this post was published exactly one year ago:


Spanish football weekly paper Don Balón claims that American sportswear supplier Nike will do anything to keep Manchester United winger and Portuguese international Cristiano Ronaldo (23) in England or to make him move to Barcelona (read more here).

Nike wants to break Adidas' dominance in the football market during the next years. After losing Messi two years ago to their German rivals, Nike therefore wants to keep Cristiano Ronaldo at a "Nike team" so they can fully exploit his image.

If Ronaldo would move to an "Adidas team" like Real Madrid, the promotional possibilities would be strongly reduced. Nike already experienced the negative effects of such a move when David Beckham joined Madrid.

With the Portuguese winger wanting to move to Spain to be closer to his family and home land, Nike would help Barcelona, who has a contract with the American firm until 2018, to finance the 90 million euro° transfer fee: Barcelona would pay 50 million euro° and Nike would immediately put down 40 million euro°, reducing then afterwards their annual payment by 4 million euro a year over the next ten seasons.

Since the sports supplier also sponsors the Portuguese national team, Nike could then fully exploit the image of the football icon that Ronaldo has become over the last season. The possible election of former Barcelona sports vice president and former Nike executive Sandro Rosell as Barcelona president later this summer could be the key element in the operation (read more here).

With the relations between Real Madrid and Manchester United being on a historic low, Manchester United, and especially manager Alex Ferguson, would - in case they cannot hold on to the player - prefer to see Ronaldo leave for Barcelona to pay Madrid back for the troubles they have caused the English Premier League club.


Read more 21 June 2008 news:
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Tottenham was looking for Valdes agent
Gomis alternative on the centre forward list