Court Ruling: Barcelona’s Rafinha Must Wear Adidas Boots

Here is an odd story coming out of Spain today. Barcelona midfielder Rafinha has been ordered to continue wearing adidas boots, after he tried to make a break from the 3-stripe this past Summer. Basically, Rafinha thought that his contract ended this past June, and made the decision to switch to some blackout Mizuno boots. But, adidas had the option to extend the contract and took him to court when he refused to switch back.

Rafinha has been an adidas sponsored player since 2011, but felt the brand had not backed him when he suffered significant injuries in 2015 and 2017. The district court in Amsterdam, where the original sponsorship deal was signed, ordered Rafinha to pay a fine of €10,000 for each day he continued to refuse to honor his contract up to a maximum of €1m. That is some series money to lose on a daily basis!

At this point, it doesn’t affect Rafinha that much since he is out for the rest of the La Liga season after having cruciate ligament surgery. He will, however, continue to promote adidas via social media to try avoid any other fines. I think we will be hearing more about this one come this summer when he is back in action!

In case you were wondering, HERE is where you can find the Mizuno Boots Rafinha was wearing!