The biggest deal in club history. Paris to earn a billion

They made Neymar the most expensive footballer of all time, and their squad also includes the talented youngster Kylian Mbappé. Now, Paris Saint-Germain has signed the most lucrative sponsorship deal in the club’s history.

The figure of 1.2 billion euros is one that even the wealthiest sports clubs in the world can no longer ignore. That’s the amount that will flow into the Paris Saint-Germain budget over the coming years. The club has extended its partnership with Nike until 2032. Over the next thirteen years, the Paris side is expected to receive nearly 1.2 billion euros. In practice, this is the third-highest kit deal in football. “The agreement represents a historic milestone and shows what our club has become on the global sports map,” said Nasser Al-Khelaifi. Nike will be outfitting not only the men’s and women’s football teams, but also the handball division. All three are top-tier operations — and PSG’s handball team features some of the world’s highest-paid players, such as Nikola Karabatic, Mikkel Hansen, and Sander Sagosen.

The new deal will further boost the already growing trend of club jersey sales. In March, PSG passed the one-million mark in jerseys sold in a single season for the first time. Previously, Nike supported PSG with about 25 million euros per season. Under the new agreement, that amount will rise to 90 million per season. That’s why the one-billion milestone will be surpassed.

Until 2011, PSG resembled a talented athlete who never managed to fully realize their vast potential. The team from the suburb of Saint-Germain is the only major club in one of the world’s largest cities. While Paris Saint-Germain did win the Cup Winners’ Cup in 1996 and claimed two league titles, it long lived in the shadow of clubs like AS Saint-Étienne and Olympique Lyon. Everything changed with the arrival of Qatari capital.

In 2011, the club was taken over by Qatar Sports Investment, led by the fabulously wealthy Nasser Al-Khelaifi, with a clear goal and vision: to make “Les Parisiens” a respected global brand. From the very beginning, investments matched that ambition. Two years ago, Brazilian attacking virtuoso Neymar arrived under the Eiffel Tower. The price? A flat 222 million euros — by far the highest fee ever paid for a player. Despite the 20 trophies PSG has collected since the start of this new era, the club still hasn’t managed to become a true football superpower — mainly due to its failures in the Champions League.

The Arab owners know that money has to flow into the club’s coffers, not just out. In advertising and marketing, the capital-city club has been thriving. “Attendance is rising, and so is the league’s reputation. With Neymar, the single-player effect clearly worked, and the club is steadily growing in the field of sports marketing,” said sports analyst Jozef Tokos recently when asked about PSG. A clear sign of PSG’s continued commercial progress is the new partnership between the American company Nike and the Parisian club. The giant U.S. corporation has supported PSG continuously since 1989, and over the weekend, the two parties signed a historic new deal.