When Lionel Messi departed FC Barcelona unexpectedly last summer, many expected the Spanish club to take a hit financially regarding sponsorships. However, ESPN’s Sam Marsden spoke with those within the Catalan side and stated that it is “hard to gauge” the impact of Messi’s exit.
Barcelona’s new sponsorship deal with Spotify includes naming rights to the stadium, men’s and women’s kits, and training shirts. The report suggests that the agreement is worth roughly the same as the previous deal agreed with Rakuten.
Furthermore, current sponsors were not happy to see Messi exit. No word in the report on which company didn’t agree with the decision, but the grievance towards the decision came from one key sponsor.
Nonetheless, now that the La Liga side needs to move on from the Argentine, Vice-president Eduard Romeu stated to Marsden that Barcelona must do a better job marketing other players post-Messi.
Romeu continued by telling ESPN that 50 percent of all shirt sales previously were sold with names on the back. Of that 50 percent, roughly 80 percent carried Messi’s name.
