Furthering Commitment to Equal Pay, Nike Strikes 10-Year Deal With Ada Hegerberg
The soccer star will receive annual six-figure payments for the next decade.
Norwegian soccer star Ada Hegerberg has signed a 10-year-long deal with Nike, furthering both parties’ push for equal pay in sports. In 2017, Hegerberg left the Norwegian national soccer team to protest pay disparity between Norway’s men’s and women’s teams. After the U.S. women’s national soccer team won the Women’s World Cup in 2019, Nike supported teammates’ demands for equal pay and eventually increased compensation protection for athletes who decided to have a baby while under contract.
Though Nike hasn’t disclosed the terms of its new deal with Hegerberg, Forbes reports that the athlete will receive an annual six-figure fee for ten years. The contract also signs her away from PUMA, whose partnership with the 24-year-old player expired over the summer of 2019.
Hegerberg, who suffered an ACL injury and has been off the field since January 2020, issued a statement on her newfound Nike endorsement with Forbes: “For me personally, this is a groundbreaking step in my career…I feel like Nike has inspired millions of people in sports and they’re kind of the game changer in sports when it comes to lifting the women in sports as well and setting the bar, you could say.”
