Roger Federer\u2019s agent said \u2018Nike left him\u2019 after the Swiss athlete moved from the American company to join Uniqlo on a $300m deal.<\/p>\n
Before he made the switch, Federer was one of the most famous Nike athletes in the world and had been wearing clothes and shoes with the famous \u2018Swoosh\u2019 on them since 1994.<\/p>\n
But their partnership came to an end when the tennis great moved to Uniqlo in 2018 in what many thought was Federer<\/a> turning his back on Nike.<\/p>\n Now though, Federer\u2019s agent Tony Godsick has claimed it was actually the other way round.<\/p>\n \u201cHe didn\u2019t leave Nike. Nike kind of left him, you know?\u201d Godsick said on Andy Roddick\u2019s Served podcast. \u201cWe were trying to re-sign, and they chose not to re-sign. He would have stayed.<\/p>\n \u201cI spent from 2017, the contract was ending in February of 2018, a 10-year deal. We started in 2008. I spent one year, from the beginning of 17, all the way till when it ended, trying to renew it.\u201d<\/p>\n Nike\u2019s side of the story is they did not see Federer in the same light as the likes of LeBron James and Tiger Woods but their tennis director at the time Mike Nakajima later described it as \u201catrocity.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat should never have happened. For us to let somebody like that go, it\u2019s an atrocity,\u201d Nakajima is quoted in the book The Roger Federer Effect. \u201cRoger Federer belonged with Nike for the rest of his career. Just like Michael Jordan. Like LeBron James, like Tiger Woods. He\u2019s right up there with the all-time greatest Nike athletes ever. I\u2019m still disappointed. But it happened. I have to get over it. It wasn\u2019t my decision and I wasn\u2019t there for it.\u201d<\/p>\n MORE ON FEDERER ON T365<\/p>\n Roger Federer\u2019s court speed claims dismissed by ATP Masters tournament director \u2013 \u2018Not even close\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n