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Klutch Sports has scored another victory. Just one day after securing a two-year, $97.2 million contract extension for Los Angeles Lakers superstar and top client LeBron James, the agency dove right into the world of college football and high school sports, landing top quarterback recruit and verbal USC football commit Malachi Nelson on Thursday, as reported by Pete Thamel of ESPN.
Sources: ESPN No. 1 recruit Malachi Nelson is signing with Klutch Sports. He becomes that agency’s first high school football client. Nelson, the country’s top high school QB, is verbally committed to USC.
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) August 18, 2022
Malachi Nelson, the no. 1 recruit in ESPN's rankings of the 2023 class, became the first high school football client at Klutch Sports. Nelson, who appears to be headed to California after verbally committing to USC football, will now share the same agency as LeBron James. Not a bad blueprint for success.
Nelson, a 5-star recruit out of Los Alamitos, California, recently took a visit to College Station to see Texas A&M up close. Despite that visit, the talented signal-caller was reportedly committed more to head coach Lincoln Riley than anything, meaning it would be pretty shocking to see him leave USC football.
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Just as shocking as it is to see a high school football player with an agent. But such is the nature of college sports in a name, image, and likeness (NIL) world- and power to Rich Paul and Klutch Sports for jumping into that world.
Malachi Nelson has already gone down the NIL path, as he signed a deal with the h.wood Group, a Los Angeles hospitality firm with 30-plus restaurants and clubs. Nelson had said that he would have upwards of $1 million in NIL deals by the time he enrolls at USC.
He'll also join LeBron James at Klutch Sports.
