Kylian Mbappé is leaving Nike for On – and will have a stake in the company. Now it emerges that, around a decade earlier, New Balance tried to tempt Cristiano Ronaldo away from Nike with a similar idea.
Kylian Mbappé's move from Nike to On is one of the most talked-about brand switches in football in recent years. After almost two decades with Nike, the Frenchman becomes the face of the Swiss brand's entry into football.
And it is about more than a conventional endorsement contract. According to On, the deal includes a stake in the company alongside financial compensation.
New Balance negotiated with Cristiano Ronaldo
New Balance had explored a similar idea around a decade earlier – with Cristiano Ronaldo. Ben Haworth, global head of sports marketing for New Balance's football division between 2011 and 2017, has now confirmed as much to The Athletic.
“I was involved in a negotiation with Cristiano Ronaldo for New Balance,” Haworth recalls. Ronaldo, he says, was thinking of leaving Nike at the time. He does not say exactly when the talks took place, only that they were around a decade ago.
No move materialised. Instead, Ronaldo extended his long-standing contract with Nike in 2016.
New Balance planned to give Ronaldo a share of its football business
What stands out most is the offer New Balance was planning for Ronaldo. The Portuguese was to be given a share in the brand's business.
“We were going to offer him a percentage of our whole football business,” Haworth tells The Athletic.
How that share would have been structured in practice, and how far the negotiations with Ronaldo had progressed, is not clear from Haworth's comments.
What links the Ronaldo deal to Mbappé and On
Haworth tells the story in the context of Mbappé's move from Nike to On. While New Balance wanted to offer Ronaldo a percentage of its football business, Mbappé's contract with On includes an equity component. How large Mbappé's stake in the company is has not been disclosed.
What connects the two cases is a similar idea: winning one of the world's biggest footballers for a brand not solely with conventional sponsorship payments, but by giving him a financial share in its success.
With Ronaldo, it never went beyond negotiations. With Mbappé, On has now put the idea into practice in a different model.
