Best Player, Best Young Player, Best Goalkeeper - Nike Wins 2018 World Cup - Here Are All The Numbers

Jul 16, 2018

by Footy Headlines

It was already certain before the 2018 World Cup final that a Nike team would win this year's World Cup as two Nike-sponsored football federations contesting a world final for the first time. However, a Nike team not only won the World Cup, it was also in all other important statistics a record-breaking tournament for the Swoosh.

“We had three of the four teams in the semi-finals and then two of our teams made the finals. We’ve been in the game of football for over 20 years, and it’s the first time that we’ve had an all-Nike final," says Elliott Hill, Nike President of Consumer and Marketplace.

Nike-sponsored players won all the awards of the 2018 World Cup - the award for the best player, best young player and best goalkeeper (Golden Ball - Modric , Golden Boot - Kane , Young Player of the Tournament - MBappe and the Golden Glove - Courtois).

Ten of the 32 teams in Russia wore Nike kits - including three of the four semi-finalists (France, Croatia and England). Nike immediately began production on 2 star FFF jerseys, available in limited quantities on nike.com and at Nike doors in Paris and Moscow. Adidas made the jerseys for 12 teams, but just Belgium reached the semi-final.

"In addition to the kits, we’ve had great success with our players. Over 65 percent of the minutes played on-pitch were by athletes wearing Nike football boots,” says Hill.

In total, 100 goals of 157 goals (65% - excluding own goals) were scored by players wearing Nike boots. More goals were scored with Nike Mercurial than any other boot (66). In fact, Adidas players just scored 37 goals in total, much less than Nike. Puma players scored 11 goals, while all other brands had no significant impact in the 2018 World Cup.