After Novak Djokovic fell to a defeat against Carlos Alcaraz at the Wimbledon Championship in July, Nike, the official brand sponsor of the Spanish star, told the world that Djokovic was finished and tennis now belongs to the Alcaraz era. Since then, the Serbian star has won two Masters 1000s and a Grand Slam, while Alcaraz has won no title and has been to only one final in five competitions he featured in.
Lacoste stood behind the 24-time Grand Slam winner since 2017 even when other sponsors ended their relationship with Djokovic in 2022 for other NextGen players.
French brand chose Djokovic over Nadal
In February, Mike Nakajima, a former tennis director at Nike, admitted in an interview with CNN that there’s always a dark cloud around Djokovic and that’s something that big brands don’t want to see. Lacoste CEO Thierry Guibert came to Novak Djokovic’s defense, saying that the French clothing brand would never choose Rafael Nadal to be their ambassador.
Novak Djokovic signed his first deal with Lacoste in the spring of 2017 and has since earned a total of 10 million dollars annually. “Lacoste is so proud to have Nole and would never choose Nadal (with all due respect to him). Thanks @NDjokofan for the English translation,” Lacoste CEO Guibert tweeted.
The Nike director made some comments about Djokovic, referring to recent incidents. “He could well be the most successful tennis player ever. But there’s always a dark cloud around him. It’s like he brings it upon himself. He hits the lineswoman at the US Open (in 2020) and gets disqualified? It happens, I guess.
“But why does it always happen to Novak? Or the whole controversy about the Covid-19 vaccination. Now, as a brand: do I want to be behind somebody who always has controversy around him? Or do I want to go with an athlete with a squeaky clean image?” Nakajima continued which forced Lacoste’s head to respond.
Meanwhile, Novak Djokovic didn’t reply to Nakajima’s comment and has proven to Nike how great a player he is after winning the US Open and his 40th Masters 1000 in Paris-Bercy a few days ago.
How much does Lacoste pay Novak Djokovic
Lacoste has stuck with Novak Djokovic since 2017 and is by far the most lucrative endorsement partner. He can be worth as much as $10 million annually, including bonuses when the Serbian wins big each year on the court. Djokovic’s other remaining sponsors include Head, Asics, Hublot and Raiffeisen Bank.
In 2022, Novak Djokovic was ranked fourth in the top 10 world’s highest paid tennis player, with $33.4 million in prize money, endorsements and appearance fees. The Serbian star’s $155 million in career prize money is tops all-time, $24 million ahead of Roger Federer.
In 2019, UKG known as Ultimate Software before a merger with Kronos declared that it was ending its relationship with Djokovic. “The sponsorship agreement was already planned to expire this year and we mutually agreed there would be no renewal,” a UKG spokesperson said in an email.
However In March 2022, Peugeot renewed the deal its sponsorship agreement with Djokovic, which first started in 2014. Peugeot and UKG were Djokovic’s patch partners on either sleeve of his Lacoste shirts.
