£50m KIT DEAL AS CITY DITCH NIKE FOR PUMA
MANCHESTER CITY are close to finalising a £50million-a-year kit contract with Puma.
Sportsmail understands talks between the sportswear giant and the Premier League leaders are near completion. The deal will be the largest in City’s history.
Their agreement with Nike, which brings in around £ 20m each season, finishes at the end of this campaign and club officials were keen to get better terms.
The figure of around £50m is thought to be on a par with the Nike deal struck by Chelsea, which will also start in 2018.
It will see City narrow the gap on rivals Manchester United, who are in the third term of their 10-year association with adidas worth £75m a season. Puma are believed to be paying Arsenal £30m, the same figure Tottenham have agreed with Nike in the battle for commercial supremacy.
City’s chief executive Ferran Soriano has worked to increase their portfolio. They are the first top-flight club to find a sleeve sponsor and they continue to build on a profile that yielded record revenues of £473.4m last year.
There is a belief that Pep Guardiola’s brand of football has enhanced their global reach, though City and Puma declined to comment. Eight points clear at the top of the Premier League, Guardiola takes his side to Huddersfield tomorrow with a challenge to leading scorer Raheem Sterling to continue his good run.
Sterling has 11 goals for the season and Guardiola said: ‘It’s the best moment of his career and we’re in November. There’s a lot of time left to score more.’