Nike lost Messi in 2006 in an attempt to save a few hundred dollars.
Along with him, it ended up losing billions in potential revenue.
This is the story of how one of the most iconic partnerships in sports was created — the one between Lionel Messi and Adidas — and how close we came to seeing both Messi and Ronaldo as Nike ambassadors.
Lionel Messi is, without a doubt, one of the most famous footballers in the world and one of the most recognizable public figures on the planet.
Throughout his extraordinary 20-year career, the Argentine has become synonymous with many things: his homeland Argentina, his boyhood club FC Barcelona, and, of course, the iconic three stripes of Adidas.
Messi became an Adidas athlete in 2006 and has since turned into the brand’s most marketable, most profitable, and most successful sportsman — so much so that Adidas offered him a lifetime contract worth over $1 billion. Messi is Adidas, and Adidas is Messi.
But what if we told you that Messi once played, scored goals, and amazed the world while wearing a different brand?
It turns out that early in his career, Messi was a Nike athlete, and had Nike not made a poor decision by neglecting his family, he might still be wearing the Swoosh logo today instead of the three stripes.
When Lionel Messi made his professional debut for Barcelona in 2004, the long-haired No. 30 came off the bench against Espanyol to replace club legend Deco, launching one of the greatest careers in sports history.
The boots worn by the La Masia product? A pair of silver Nike Mercurial Vapor boots — the same model Cristiano Ronaldo was wearing at the time.
Yes, you read that correctly. At one point, Nike had both Messi and Ronaldo as its athletes.
So how did Nike let one of the most promising talents in the world slip away to its eternal rival, Adidas?
According to those involved in the deal, it all started “over a few hundred dollars’ worth of sportswear.”
Messi was a Nike athlete during the period when the young boy from Rosario was rising through the academy ranks in Catalonia and reaching the first team at just 18 years old.
He was clearly seen as the heir to the throne at Camp Nou.
After his breakout in Europe, Messi attracted the attention of major brands eager to sponsor the teenager, offering large sums of money to secure him as a representative.
In preparation for the 2006 World Cup, Nike reportedly organized a photoshoot in which Messi was one of the main faces of the campaign.
However, just a few months before the tournament, sources within the campaign claim they received a phone call asking for the photos to be removed.
Nike was briefly informed that Messi had decided to sign with Adidas, despite having worn Nike boots and gear since the age of 14.
The reason? First, in 2005 Adidas offered Messi a contract worth £748,000 (around $1 million) per year to lure him away from Nike. However, Nike’s offer was not far off that amount.
What made the difference was a simple act of negligence by Nike toward the Messi family, which is believed to have damaged the relationship — specifically, the brand’s failure to respond to messages from his father, Jorge Messi.
According to the book “Messi vs. Ronaldo: One Rivalry, Two GOATs, and the Era That Remade the World’s Game” by Jonathan Clegg and Joshua Robinson, one of the reasons Messi left Nike was the company’s failure to respond to his father’s request to be supplied with several sets of sportswear — a request worth only a few hundred dollars (and likely far less in actual cost to Nike).
Neither Nike Spain nor Nike Latin America ever replied to Jorge Messi, causing significant dissatisfaction within the Messi-Cuccittini family.
Yes, Nike lost Messi over something worth about the price of back-to-school clothing.
This disregard marked the beginning of the breakdown in relations and helped negotiations between Messi’s camp and Adidas, ultimately bringing the Argentine to the “three stripes” in February 2006.
After learning about the Messi–Adidas deal, Nike attempted to block the move, accusing Messi of “breach of contract” and even taking him to court.
To Nike’s surprise, the court ruled that Messi had not breached any agreement, as no such contract actually existed.
The document Nike presented was merely a “letter of intent” to wear their boots, which held no legal value.
As a result, the Spanish court ruled in Messi’s favor, and the future Barcelona star began his legendary journey with the German brand.
Years later, Lionel Messi is the most successful footballer in the history of the game: an eight-time Ballon d’Or winner, multiple European Golden Shoes, the all-time top scorer for Argentina and Barcelona, a World Cup champion, and the only Adidas athlete with a lifetime contract — perhaps the greatest sponsorship deal in the history of sports.
