Just days after Liverpool’s headline-grabbing deal with Nike commenced, the team’s talismanic manager, Jurgen Klopp, has reportedly signed a new deal – with Nike’s bitter rivals, adidas, making him one of the rare managers to capitalise on such a deal.
While Liverpool have enjoyed the reveal of their first-ever kit from new technical partners Nike this week, along with their first Swoosh-fuelled advert, Jurgen Klopp – the manager who finally ended the club’s 30-year wait for a league title – has reportedly signed a sponsorship deal with adidas, meaning that when the 21/22 season commences, he will be patrolling the touchline in Nike apparel, and adidas trainers.
Thanks to his infectiously likeable character, Klopp has become one of the most marketable figures in the game in recent years, and during Liverpool’s time with New Balance, Klopp was only too happy to fall in line with the club's kit supplier, wearing New Balance footwear on the touchline – the brand even supplied Klopp with his own signature style of 990V3 trainers, which the German happily wore. But with the conclusion of Liverpool’s New Balance deal, Klopp has emerged as one of the available talents in the Reds’ roster, and it looks as though he will partner up with the brand from his homeland going forward.
Personal endorsement deals with top sports brands are rare for managers as they tend to sign deals with those that exist at the club, with Jose Mourinho the only other coach with a long-term high-profile association different to that of their club, and it also happens to be with adidas.
Klopp patrolling the sidelines in a pair of Sambas? Yeah, could see that.
