Sorana Cirstea, current 38th player in the world, made some rather challenging revelations in a podcast in Romania, her native country. Some time ago, when she was the 21st player in the world, she had a sponsorship contract with the famous equipment manufacturer Adidas. The latter, whom she accuses of practices that are questionable to say the least, since she was told that it was better to be beautiful and top 20 than ugly and number one in the world… She explains that the equipment manufacturer was particularly interested in her profile since they considered her to have a good look.
In the ‘La Fileu’ podcast, the Romanian re-explained the importance for players of selling a lot of merchandise through their image, as sponsors have taught her.
Some athletes from certain countries would be more “sellers”, in other countries less buoyant, it is the profile of the players who would prevail: “In general, our contracts are international. […] The best paid are Americans, Chinese and Japanese. Osaka rocks, she was in recent years the highest paid sportswoman! Great Britain sells, Spain, France too. Eastern Europe does not really sell. It depends a lot on you as a personality, what you inspire, how you present yourself.”
Revelations that necessarily work. The equipment manufacturer has, to our knowledge, not yet reacted.
