MANCHESTER CITY HAVE signed a big-money kit deal with Puma.
The much-rumoured collaboration between the reigning Premier League champions and the German sportswear giant is reported to be worth £650million over the course of 10 years — the largest in the club’s history.
The annual figure represents a huge increase on the £20m per season Nike currently pay City and makes it the second-biggest in Premier League history behind Manchester United’s annual £75m partnership with Adidas.
Arsenal and Chelsea boast £60m per season deals with Puma and Nike respectively and the club-specific nature of those partnerships set them apart from a Puma agreement that covers City’s ownership group – City Football Group – and its clubs in Australia, Spain, Uruguay and China.
City’s sister clubs Melbourne City FC, Girona, Club Atletico Torque and Sichuan Jiuniu will all wear Puma kits.
Major League Soccer’s league-wide deal with Adidas means New York City are not included, nor are J-League side Yokohama F Marinos, where City football group is a minority shareholder.
“This announcement marks the start of an exciting new chapter for City Football Group,” Ferran Soriano, City Football Group chief executive, said.
Our relationship with Puma, covering five City Football Group clubs across four continents, will reset the model for sports partnerships on a truly global scale whilst being locally relevant and authentic for fans around the world.
“Puma share our vision for challenging expectations, and we are looking forward to what we believe will be a ground-breaking partnership.”
Long-serving City stars Vincent Kompany, David Silva and Sergio Aguero already have boot deals with Puma and have been involved in the online roll-out of the partnership.
The deal begins in City’s 125th anniversary season and Puma will produce a commemorative kit to be worn in one match of the 2019-20 campaign.
WE'RE NOT REALLY HERE pic.twitter.com/44RiwPvv8M
— PUMA Football (@pumafootball) February 28, 2019
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