Adidas deny engineering Messi transfer

Adidas have denied offering to co-fund a transfer for Barcelona’s Lionel Messi to Chelsea, Bayern Munich or Real Madrid.

Mundo Deportivo had reported this week that the sports brand, who are Messi’s boot manufacturers, approached the player over the summer with a proposition to fund €125m towards him moving to one of the three clubs named above, who are all tied in with Adidas as kit manufacturers.

The proposition, which also reportedly had Adidas offering the player a 40 per cent boost in income from their current sponsorship deal, has now been denied by the company.

“The relationship between Adidas and any one of its players is just purely commercial,” the German brand’s Press department have told L’Equipe this week.

“Any sporting decisions concern only the player and his advisers. His sports equipment brand has nothing to do with it.”