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LeBron James has the means to put Liverpool FC’s name on the map.
Some may not know, but apart from being an exceptionally talented basketball player, LeBron James is also a shrewd businessman.
Indeed, at 36 years old, James is still one of the highest-paid players in the NBA. However, he has already been making smart investments outside basketball. Among them, was the 2% ownership stake he acquired in English Premier League club Liverpool FC, a club valued around the region of $2.2 billion, with $613 million in annual revenue as of 2019, Yahoo Finance reported.
With the sporting world hit by the pandemic, Liverpool is among the soccer clubs still recuperating from the financial crisis and one effective way to cash-in is through advertisements.
Unlike other teams, Liverpool is being backed by big-name sponsors such as Nike. With James also among the part-owners, it does make sense that collaboration between the aforementioned figures could generate a substantial amount of money.
Looking at Liverpool’s current roster, the team is stacked with some of the most celebrated soccer stars in the world, including Egyptian striker Mohamed Salah.
According to Liverpool Echo journalist Matt Addison, the said idea will definitely do all parties involved good and a project should be done sooner rather than later.
Based on Addison’s assessment, through adverts starring Salah and James, it will just be a matter of time before Liverpool can “catch up in revenues” with its London rivals Manchester United, who has Cristiano Ronaldo on its squad.
“There’s almost a bit of me that wonders if Liverpool have got enough out of him [Salah] commercially, marketability wise in all sorts of countries,” Addison said on the Liverpool.com podcast. “We talk so often about the Nike kit deal, one of the areas in which Liverpool can help them catch up in revenues with Manchester United. They could’ve made even more of Salah given the status he rightly holds.”
“The fact we haven’t seen an advert with Mohamed Salah and LeBron James is criminal,” he pointed out. “I think we can talk about this global phenomenon a little more about [Salah] as a man as well, that’s the thing that really did have an impact on how people felt about him. He was always seen as a very positive character, a very happy guy.”
