‘He Didn’t Want to Be With..’- $220 Million Worth Novak Djokovic’s Lack of Affinity Towards Roger Federer’s Long-Term Sponsor Revealed by Ex-Director

Some of the most elite figures in the tennis community have always been on the radar of the sports apparel powerhouse, Nike. The list also includes the ATP legends, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal as they previously signed their respective endorsement contracts with the American multinational corporation.

However, it appears, that the company may have kept Federer and Nadal’s arch-rival off of their sponsorship list. It is none other than Novak Djokovic who has collaborated with various sports and fitness brands except Nike. Speaking about the same, the former director of Nike, Mike Nakajima brought to light the major factors affecting the company’s preferences for tennis stars.

Former director reveals why Novak Djokovic was never on the radar of Nike

In a recent episode of the ‘Talking Tennis’ show, Mike Nakajima recently made some huge revelations about Nike’s decision to pick Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal over their arch-rival, Novak Djokovic. He stated that it was a conscious decision as the company believed that Rafa and Roger were the ideal players to carry the torch on the men’s circuit.

Nakajima also said that it is quite possible that the Serbian tennis player will become the greatest on the ATP Tour, in terms of Grand Slam tally.

However, he also said, “It is a decision that we made consciously that Roger and Rafa are the two guys that we say to go after and nothing more than that. You know, like I said, he’s had an amazing career and you’ll continue to have that. But we just felt that, you know, those are the two guys that we want to stand behind and those are the guys that we’ve started to continue to renew their contracts.”

Later, the former director of Nike was also asked if the controversies surrounding the reigning Australian Open champion might be a reason behind the sports fashion brand’s preference of not collaborating with him.

Nakajima answered by saying, “Once again, you know, it’s very expensive, you know, to sign all those three players, you know, the tennis is a very small business within that. So when you say that, you know, back in the day when we wanted to go after 10 athletes and we got nine of them we felt okay, well, we can let that one go.”

Nakajima also revealed some regional factors behind the same

During the show, the former director revealed some marketing strategies of Nike that affected their decision to pick Rafa and Roger over the Serbian tennis legend. Nakajima said that there was not a well-established market for the brand in Serbia, so they had to take those regional factors into consideration.

Even Switzerland was not a “big market” for Nike, however, Federer’s profound influence got him that endorsement deal.  Spain, on the other hand, was a huge opportunity for the company given its huge following  of Nadal.

READ MORE- ‘The King of All’- Novak Djokovic Hyped to Become the ‘GOAT’ of All Athletes After His Unprecedented Dominance Over Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal

As a result, they decided to stick with Federer and Nadal as they were global icons. Nakajima also said they had nothing personal against the ‘Djoker,’ while he brought to light some of his other sponsorship deals including Lacoste.

He said, “So nothing personal to Novak and maybe he didn’t want to be with Nike anyway, because he certainly got treated well from you know, from Lacoste and Uniqlo and Adidas before that. But you know, at the end of the day, that’s the decision you make as a group and we stand behind it.”

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What do you think of Nike’s decision to not collaborate with Novak Djokovic? Let us know in the comments section.