With their current deal with New Balance set to expire at the end of this season, Liverpool are on the verge of signing a new kit deal with Nike that would begin with the 2020/21 season and, if reports are to be believed, it could well be the most lucrative in the Premier League.
Liverpool and New Balance have enjoyed a successful spell together since their deal began in 2015/16, with the last two seasons yielding consecutive years of record kit sales. But with that deal set to expire at the end of this campaign and following a successful spell in which the club has appeared in back-to-back Champions League finals, winning the last, as well as pushing Man City to the wire, only narrowly missing out on their first-ever Premier League title, a new, more lucrative deal appears to be right around the corner.
The rumours of a deal with Nike have been doing the rounds for a while now, but it appears that they have been lent significantly more weight by the appearance of a line on Forbes’ profile of the club, which simply says: “Liverpool is on the verge of signing a new kit deal with Nike that would begin with the 2020-21 season and could be the richest in the Premier League.” While this may be alluding to previous reports, Forbes is a well respected source when it comes to finances, and they don't tend to make spurious claims.
Currently, Manchester United are the biggest earners from kit deals, raking in £75m a year from their contract with adidas. Liverpool’s deal with New Balance has been worth £45m a year, but that figure looks set to be blown out of the water. Nike’s biggest kit deal to date is with Barcelona, paying the Liga side £1 billion over 10 years, while their largest with an English club is a £900 million, 15-year agreement with Chelsea. New Balance retain first refusal over an extension with the Reds, but would need to match the offer of any prospective successor, which they are unlikely to be able to afford.
With Nike having lost Manchester City to PUMA this season, they’re on the look out for another top Premier League club, and Liverpool fit the bill. The Merseyside club have never had kits supplied by the American giants, so it would be interesting to see what the partnership would offer. This news follows reports that Liverpool are also looking to increase the expansion plans for the Anfield Road end of their stadium, boosting the capacity of the stadium to over 60,000. Big things ahead for the Reds.
Stay tuned for more on the potential Liverpool x Nike partnership as more information is released...
