Nike Has Lost More Than 40 Important Players In Past 6 Months - Updated

Update: We have been sent a list featuring not less than 42 players that Nike has lost recently by our follower @m.eisenrigler. It becomes obvious that Nike is calculated by Nike not to extend the contracts with many players. It will be interesting to see if it continues in 2021.

Full List: Players Lost By Nike In Past Few Months

Premier League

Manchester United

  • Anthony Martial
  • Alex Telles

Manchester City

  • Raheem Sterling
  • Phil Foden
  • Kyle Walker
  • Fernandinho
  • Ederson
  • Riyad Mahrez?

Liverpool

  • Gomez
  • Thiago
  • Elliot

Everton

  • Calvert-Lewin

Arsenal

  • Saka
  • Smith-Rowe
  • Willian
  • Lacazette

Tottenham

  • Vinicius

Chelsea

  • James

Aston Villa

  • Barkley

Crystal Palace

  • Eze

Wolves

  • Adama Traoré

La Liga

Barcelona

  • Mingueza

Real Madrid

  • Asensio
  • Varane
  • Ramos

Betis

  • Lainez

Celta Vigo

  • Iago Aspas

Serie A

Juventus

  • Arthur
  • Alex Sandro

Inter

  • Brozovic

Milan

  • Ibrahimovic

Ligue 1

PSG

  • Neymar

Lille

  • Weah

Bundesliga

Bayern

  • Lewandowski
  • Coman
  • Nianzou

Leipzig

  • Mukiele
  • Adams

Bayer 04

  • Schick
  • Diaby
  • Tapsoba

Others

  • David Neres

As an avid follower of football, our website and possibly also our boot stats site Football Boots DB, you surely know that Nike has been the leading football boots brand since several years. However, now Nike seems to change its strategy - the Swoosh apparently lost various of its best players, and that just in the past six months.

Adidas, Nike and Puma supply the boots for around 97% of footballers

In 2020-2021, the situation on the boot market is as follows - Nike is sponsoring more than half of all players of Europe's biggest leagues with around 53%, Adidas comes second with around 37%, Puma comes third with 7%. All other brands except the big three account for just 3%.

Players Who Left / Could Leave Nike

Players who have apparently / officially left Nike does not only include a handful of medium-attractive athletes (in terms of marketability) but superstars like Neymar, Lewandowski, Thiago Alcantara and Sergio Ramos.

We have counted more than 20 popular players who have / are set / were rumored to leave Nike just in the past 6 months.

Nike has changed its strategy

It is pretty certain that Nike did not get short of money unexpectedly to pay those athletes but that the reason is that the Swoosh has changed its strategy. It seems like Nike do not want to sponsor athletes whatever it costs bit let run out deals they think that are too expensive.

In fact, with that large amount of players leaving Nike currently, we think that it is possible that Nike comes together with players to let some contracts end ahead of schedule. We also think that it is sure that Nike does not want to pay many of their players as much as before - see Ribery, Ibrahimovic or Raheem Sterling as examples.

Two brands are snapping the players Nike is losing - Adidas and Puma. In fact, Puma's CEO said that their new strategy is to sign more superstars to make the brand more attractive.

Of course, with thousands of footballers playing the Top 5 leagues (around 3,000), Nike is still sponsoring more than half of all players of them.

All Important Players Who Could Leave Nike

Kingsley Coman: Nike ➡️ Puma

Zlatan Ibrahimovic: Nike ➡️ Unsponsored (Nike, Puma, Diadora)

Willian: Nike ➡️ Puma

Riyad Mahrez: Nike??

Sergio Ramos: Nike ➡️ Adidas?

Thiago Alcantara: Nike ➡️ Adidas

Iago Aspas: Nike ➡️ Adidas?

Arthur Melo: Nike ➡️ Adidas

Marco Asensio: Nike ➡️ Adidas

Robert Lewandowski: Nike ➡️ Puma

Adama Traoré: Nike ➡️ Unsponsored

Phil Foden: Nike ➡️ ???

Raheem Sterling: Nike ➡️ New Balance / Puma ???

Franck Ribery: Nike ➡️ Unsponsored

Kyle Walker: Nike ➡️ Puma

Anthony Martial: Nike ➡️ Puma?

Neymar: Nike ➡️ Puma

Axel Telles: Nike ➡️ Adidas

Raphael Varane: Nike ➡️ Puma???

What do you think of Nike cutting costs by not extending the deals with dozens of players? Comment below.