Neymar is the best investment we have made

When in September 2020 the German brand Puma snatched the American Nike to the Brazilian Neymar, the world of sports sponsorship spoke of "earthquake".A year later, those responsible for the feline teaching rub their hands for the appeal that the PSG player has given them and because they have reopened the doors of football, blocked so far by Nike and Adidas.

At the moment it is a prime step, because Puma remains far from its two great competitors in terms of business volume.Nike exceeds 42.000 million and Adidas moves at 20.000 million, compared to 5.200 that Puma has signed in his last exercise, something in recoil with respect to the previous one due to the impact of the pandemic.

But Neymar's pull has begun to be noticed in a brand that had lost a lot.To this responds the pharaonic contract that they proposed to the Brazilian player, about 20 million euros per year, according to the figures advanced by the specialists and not formalized by Puma.Far from the 9 million euros that every year disburs.

"It is the best investment we have made," said its president, Bjorn Gulden to the German press, in reference to Neymar, whose presentation video was seen in just a few hours for almost 7 million people a few minutes after being hung on Instagram.The Brazilian knows how to handle social networks and their influence on young people is evident.

France, where Neymar plays since in 2017 the PSG disbursed 220 million euros to take its services, the most expensive transfer in history, has become the most growth market of the feline brand.Their sales have reached a record in terms of sports clothes and equipment for children.

Neymar, but not only: also Griezmann, eat or varane

Not everything responds to Neymar's arrival in his fan of names.Puma has been betting on football for some time and has attracted names like Antoine Griezmann, Kingley Coman or Raphael Varane.But some impact must have the Brazilian, they maintain in Puma, that they put a figure on the table: their Future Z soccer boots model, created for Neymar, has sold twice as much as their predecessor, Future, when the Brazilian stillI was in Nike.

The head of the Neymar project within Puma, Clément Lacour, adidas signed, says in the newspaper L'équipe that no face had shaken its sales so much since the signing of the artist Rihanna in 2015.The impact has been noticed in particular in France, where Puma already saw 21 % of the first division players, compared to 7 % of three years ago.Adidas are still far away, which has 45 % of the players under contract, and Nike, 32 %.

But Neymar's arrival has also helped change Puma's image in the eyes of the players, who begin to consider it at the same time that the two greats in the market.Lacour points out that young people now want to sign for Puma, while the brand increases their penetration into some markets, such as the Brazilian, where their Instagram account records the largest number of followers.Another record attributable to Neymar.

His image, also to sell 'casual' clothes

The optimism invades the German brand's premises, whose president Gulden assured a few days ago to the newspaper Handelsblatt that the brand aspires to bend its business volume within a period not too long.To do this, they not only want to sell sportswear and every day they develop their "casual" models, for which they also use the image of Neymar.

Its creative director, Heiko Denns, was in contact with the Brazilian star to create models derived from her tastes, her way of life, her past, according to Lacour."Neymar wanted to inspire the places where he grew up, so we made winks to references to Santos and Sao Vicente in all the pieces of the collection," he says.The PSG player will also be present in the line they have planned to get about Batman, a character admired by Neymar, on the occasion of the film's premiere about the bat man.

Neymar's impulse encourages Puma to continue reinforcing his presence in football.The Norwegian Erling Haaland, one of the most in vogue players at the time, whose contract with Nike Expiraca, is in negotiations with the German brand, according to the newspaper Bild.