French soccer star Kylian Mbappe has ended a two-decade partnership with Nike to join fast-growing Swiss sportswear brand On, giving the Roger Federer-backed company a marquee name for its push into soccer and handing \u200bthe United States (US) giant another high-profile defection.<\/p>\n
The financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed, though On said \u200cthat the structure includes both cash and equity components, without providing further details.<\/p>\n
The move underlines On’s ambitions to expand beyond running and tennis into soccer, where it plans to launch its first boots in 2027 and has brought in former France star Thierry Henry as director of football.<\/p>\n
It adds to pressure on Nike, which \u200bhas recently lost other high-profile players to rivals, as newer brands make inroads into the global sportswear market.<\/p>\n
Mbappe’s move to \u200bOn ends a relationship between the French national team captain and Nike that dates back to 2006 \u2060when he was 9 years old, and comes on the heels of Nike’s loss of recent World Cup winner Spain’s Lamine Yamal \u200bto Adidas.<\/p>\n
“We are proud of what we achieved together on and off the pitch. As he moves into the next phase of his career, \u200bwe wish him continued success for what comes next,” Nike said in a statement.<\/p>\n
His exit comes despite Nike’s foothold in France, where the company has secured an extension to the French national team’s long-running kit-supply agreement until 2033-34.<\/p>\n
The US company last year also lost its more than two-decade-long status as the Premier \u200bLeague’s match ball supplier to Puma, although it has won the contract to become the German national teams’ official kit and equipment \u200bsupplier from 2027.<\/p>\n
On’s US-listed shares pared premarket gains and were slightly higher in trading on Friday, while Nike shares were little changed, indicating the news \u200chad limited \u2060impact on investors.<\/p>\n
The Swiss company is looking for growth in the Americas, which account for more than half of its revenue. It has focused on full-price sales, but has struggled in the region this year amid choppy economic spending.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":29802,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-45916","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Mbappe's move to \u200bOn ends a relationship between the French national team captain.","published_date":"","news_description":"Mbappe's move to \u200bOn ends a relationship between the French national team captain.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/45916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/45916\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45917,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/45916\/revisions\/45917"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=45916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}