Barca player Andres Iniesta could change his current sponsor, US sport equipment producer Nike to the German rival Adidas.


Iniesta was under contract for three years with Nike and the contract will expire in August. If no new agreement is made with Nike, rival Adidas has the intention to negotiate a deal with Barca midfielder Iniesta. According to his contract, Andres Iniesta only has permission to start negotiations with rival Adidas, when his old contract with Nike has expired. Iniesta would then join team mate Leo Messi at Adidas while Nike remains official kit sponsor of FC Barcelona.

Adidas won their court battle with Nike over Lionel Messi's brand support. Nike and Adidas have been battling for the official sponsorship of FC Barcelona wonderkid Lionel Messi, who has been described as the "New Maradona" by no less illustrious a figure than the great Diego Armando Maradona himself.




As FC Barcelona Blog has already reported, Leo Messi had signed a new sponsorship contract with Adidas to the shock of US sportswear giant Nike. FC Barcelona youngster Messi, as fcbarcelonablog already informed their readers in a previous article some weeks ago, sported his new Adidas boots in the Copa Del Rey match against Real Zaragoza. But in court, sports equipment producer Nike insisted that Messi had already agreed a new contract with Nike. The court decided that Leo Messi was obliged to wear Nike football boots until a final adjudication had been made.


Two days after Messi signed for Adidas, Nike went to court. Nike claimed that Messi had already agreed a contract with Nike until 2012. The simple truth of the matter is that the young Argentinian International signed a draft of his contract with Nike at the end of 2005. The new contract was valid until 2012 but the draft did not include the final amount that Nike was going to pay to Messi for the entire contract. In the meantime Adidas hijacked the deal by offering Leo Messi a contract until 2012.
Adidas is going to pay an estimated € 1,000,000 per year. The Barcelona star thanked Adidas for his new contract in a very personal way: By scoring a goal in the new Adidas Predator boots against Real Zaragoza in the Copa del Rey match.


However, Nike was still insisting that Messi wa on their books and claimed that they still had the Barça player under contract. But yesterday the judges in the 'Juzgado de Barcelona number 4' made their final decision, a decision that favoured Adidas.


Lionel Messi is now officially the new Adidas Icon - at least for now.

Nike, the US sport equipment manufacturer and official sponsors of FC Barcelona is considering taking legal action over Lionel Messi's sponsorship deal with Adidas.
The US-giant Nike feels that the previous contractual agreement between Nike and the Argentinian star gives the US-company the right to first refusal and may take the matter to court. An official statement is expected once Nike's legal department has considered its options.

Adidas has sensationally announced the contracting of Lionel Messi (18) in a multi-million-euro marketing deal until 2012. The German sports equipment company, with the famous three stripes, snapped up the rising Barcelona FC Star and Argentinian national player under the nose of US sport giant Nike! Messi was under contract with Nike until yesterday. Nike was expected to land a new agreement with the teenage star, but the surprise hijacking of Messi by Adidas has sent shock waves around the highly-competitive world of soccer marketing.


Leo Messi, who had already trained in his new boots, joins Xavi, Van Bommel and Larsson, the other Barça players also under contract with Adidas. The German company plans to turn Messi into one of the world’s greatest marketing icons and leader of the next generation of players. Adidas seem to have found the perfect replacement for the players, who are in the final phase of their respective careers and whose expected marketing value will drop in the forseable future, such as Zinedine Zidane, David Beckham and Raul.


Leo Messi is hailed as becoming the star and a key protagonist in the 2006 World Cup in Germany, so the timing could not have been better. Adidas have surely set an impressive signal in highlighting their ambition to continue the strong expansion activities which started with the marketing idol David Beckham.


Nike has in Ronaldinho, the great mediatic icon, the ideal figurehead of exclusive marketing campaigns, who has his own strong growing line of products called `R10´. Now it will be interesting to see how Nike will respond to the loss of Messi.


There is no question about it; Adidas has scored a great goal! But I believe, the game is not over yet and a counter attack will follow.