When Nike had both C Luo and Messi, but why did they eventually lose Messi?

For the past 15 years, there has been a tit-for-tat between the pint-sized genius from Argentina and the pretentious superhero from Portugal, even when it comes to their most important dinner guy - soccer shoes. With nearly a billion-dollar contract in hand, Messi chose Adidas, while Crosby chose Nike.

However, before Messi and Crosby became rivals in the soccer world like Pepsi and Coca-Cola, they played for the same team. For a brief period before the 2006 World Cup, Nike owned them both.

With keen judgment, good timing, and some good luck, Nike spotted both players at the start of their careers and tied them to Nike's Swoosh. Nike later repeated the same trick with Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal in tennis, and LeBron James and Kevin Durant in the NBA. The talented youngsters Nike managed to pick up would soon prove to be the greatest players of their generation - this time in the world's biggest sport.

Soon after, Nike lost one of them.

What exactly prompted Messi to switch to Adidas is still a matter of opinion. Today it might be said that it was the result of a combination of factors. Just about all of these factors are related to the concerns of a father who felt that Nike was not treating his son well. Both Nike and Messi's family were non-committal to the reporter's request for clarification.

This article's account of what happened is based on dozens of interviews with former Nike and Adidas executives, Messi and Crosby's teammates, coaches, and entourage members. Many of them asked to remain anonymous for personal reasons, some for their jobs, and there's nothing wrong with being discreet after all.

Nike once owned both Messi and Crosby

The craziest part of this story is that Nike once owned both Lionel Messi and Cairo.

Until the 1990s, like most Americans, Nike executives in Beaverton, Oregon, saw soccer as a minority hobby. Then, in 1994, soccer came to the United States, the first time the World Cup was held there, breaking attendance and ticket revenue records.

Two centuries ago, the rules of soccer were first written down in a London pub, and now it seems that soccer is finally taking hold across the Atlantic. Nike, which ranks 7th in the world's number one sport in terms of retail sales, realizes it can no longer stand by and watch. A former Nike executive says that at the time, people didn't see Nike as a professional soccer brand.

In late 1995, a young ad man named Jerry Helm and a few of his colleagues got together in an Oregon office building and resolved to change that perception. True, they knew almost nothing about soccer, but they were good at selling shoes. So they decided to pry open the soccer market by turning to the one sales team that had sold the most shoes in years. That team was the All-Stars. "We knew that if we could build a team of all-star players," Helm says, "the kids in Europe would stay."

All-star teams don't exist in the strictest sense of the word in European soccer, but how could that be difficult for Nike?

To get the idea of creating an all-star team off the ground, Nike agreed to fund the most expensive ad in its history. Soon, some of the world's biggest names in soccer began flying on Nike charter flights and wearing Nike shoes. In the absence of an all-star cast of rival teams, Nike hired Apollo 13's special effects team to create a legion of undead soccer demons, with Satan as their player and coach. The ad was named "Good and Evil".

The reaction to Nike's heavyweight ad bordered on hysteria. The ad was condemned by FIFA and banned in Denmark but was praised at the Cannes Film Festival. Less than six months after the ad was launched, Nike signed a 10-year, $400 million contract to become the official sponsor of the Brazilian national team. Nike was the disruptor of the soccer industry at a time when people didn't know what a "disruptor" was.

By the beginning of the 21st century, it was safe to say that Nike had already achieved success, despite being a late entrant. Manchester United, Brazil, Barcelona and some of the best players in the world were wearing Nike "hooks". Crucially, Nike also has a long-standing relationship with the Portuguese national team, which is why it was able to take notice of a kid born on the Portuguese island of Madeira in the middle of the Atlantic.

While half of Europe was vying for Cairo's attention, he chose to join a team where he would later stay the longest. After a brief contact period and dozens of pairs of sneakers, Cairo partnered with Nike in 2003. Meanwhile, Messi agreed. By then Messi had moved to Barcelona from Rosario, Argentina, when he was still in high school.

Cairo's relationship with Nike proved to be very fruitful. in 2016, he became one of only three athletes, after Michael Jordan and LeBron James, to receive a lifetime contract with Nike. Messi's encounter with Nike was very short-lived. In less than 3 years, he left.

Was Nike too petty to make it lose Messi?

Nike's headquarters in Beaverton never gave an official statement about Messi's departure. But one former executive remembers that within the company they had a saying - a slightly rude one, according to him - that "success has a father, failure is an orphan".

In this story, the focus of the problem is on one father. For the first few years, Messi's father, Jorge, was content to let his son run around in the same Nike gear as Barca. Jorge was a factory worker and also his son's agent. Nike couldn't contain their excitement: they felt they were breeding a new star.

In 2005, the company created a commercial that edited footage of kids playing soccer in the streets of Barcelona. Toward the end of the 60-second commercial, a shaggy-haired teenager takes the ball past several training dummies on a dark training field and shoots into the goal from 25 yards away. He caught the attention of the soccer world by looking straight into the camera.

"Remember my name," he said, "Lionel Messi." He was wearing Nike from head to toe at the time.

That year, Messi was 18 years old. It was also the year when all the big names in soccer realized that Messi could not be ignored. At that time he led the Argentine team to the 2005 FIFA World Youth Championship, a World Cup reported for youngsters under 20 years old.

The late Argentine legend Diego Maradona declared at the time, "Messi will be my successor. He will be the new golden boy." Maradona is considered one of the greatest soccer players of all time.

Everyone from Barcelona to Beaverton knew that Messi's next stage was the 2006 World Cup in Germany. More than a year in advance, Nike began getting its stars ready. They arranged for Messi to have a photo shoot in Barcelona, where he performed his usual tricks over and over again from all angles. But early in the coming year, Nike received a call asking them to drop the set of photos.

Because Messi was already an Adidas player.

Nike executives couldn't believe what they were hearing. The company has been supplying Messi with sneakers since he was 14 years old and also sponsors the only professional club he has ever played for. If there was ever a natural candidate to create a lifelong bond with Nike, it would be Messi.