Manchester City have signed a long-term kit deal with the German company Puma, who will replace Nike from next season in a 10-year agreement worth £65m per season.
The contract covers City’s sister operations in Australia, Spain, Uruguay and China, but the Premier League champions will receive the bulk of the money in what is thought to be the second most lucrative equipment package in English football.
Manchester United’s current deal with Adidas brings in around £73m per annum, while Barcelona are out in front in Europe with a contract with Nike worth £132m a season. City will move fractionally ahead of Chelsea with their new deal, and earn almost twice as much from their kit sponsorship as Liverpool and Arsenal.
Björn Gulden, Puma’s chief executive, said the agreement with Manchester City was the biggest deal his company had ever done, while Ferran Soriano, the head of the City Football Group, described the partnership as ground-breaking.
“This is a historic day for us, what we are doing has not been done before,” he said. “This is an unprecedented partnership that resets the model on a truly global scale.”
