The high-flying Spanish football team Athletic Club will change its sponsor for one game this Sunday to that of The Last of Us, with the TV adaptation appearing across the front of the players' shirts. The Max branding will also feature on the sleeves for Athletic Club's league match against Rayo Vallecano on 13th April, the day before season two premieres.
The branding has also been displayed around the team's stadium, San Mames, and will be there until 15th April. Here is winger Nico Williams, striker Gorka Guruzeta, and goalkeeper Unai Simón modelling the shirt:
Speaking on the club's official website, president Jon Uriate was said to be "delighted" about the chance to promote The Last of Us, which replaces the usual sponsor of Kutxabank (a Bilbao-based bank) for one match. "We're the last of the romantics, and just like in the series, we're fighting to defend our identity in a hostile landscape. This partnership reflects our commitment to innovate and grow Athletic's brand on an international level."
What Uriate is referring to here is Athletic Club's policy of only recruiting players from its local area, allowing only those from the Basque Country to play for the club. Unlike other top La Liga sides such as Real Madrid and Barcelona, who freely spend millions of Euros on overseas players, Athletic Club restricts itself to homegrown talent from a region of roughly 2.2 million people. Despite this self-imposed restriction, Athletic Club currently sits fourth in the La Liga table.
"The series' name is thought-provoking and perfectly reflects the uniqueness of Athletic's philosophy," Uriate said. "We're the last team in Europe's five top leagues to still compete only with players from the land we represent, something that was natural during football’s origins as a sport."
The second season of The Last of Us debuts its first episode this Sunday on HBO and Sky, with reviews from media outlets available now.
[source athletic-club.eus]
Comments 10
Would have been pretty humorous if it was golf they were Sponsoring.
drill baby drill
Should have sponsored Southampton in the Premiership. That would have been very apt, Last in the League position and all that!! 😅
@Bionic-Spencer haha the bottom three are so condemned. So much for a relegation battle this term
Excuse my constant cynicism, but this just seems like another example of shameless corporate conglomeration. A videogame becomes a TV series, becomes the sponsor of a football team, while actual footballers are now finding themselves in fighting game franchises. Art imitating life imitating art. If only the (football) pitch was full of zombies... them again, the case could be argued...
Athletic Bilbao is such a cool club. If you HAVE to throw money out the window I could see why it should land on them.
Maybe the region will see a spike in sales of the title.
@J2theEzzo This is how standard business and economic works mister. You got popular product then you promote it everywhere. So there's nothing shameless about it.
@PuppetMaster And yet, I just read about how LocalThunk sent in the clown to accept his Bafta at the game awards, while using the platform to promote a different title entirely; Animal Well. So indeed, the above is an example of standard business practice, but I think it's fair to say the standard is quite shameless, when compared to the exceptions.
@J2theEzzo Shameless if it a bad product and they keep promoting it over and over to the point they plastered the logo into your cereal or underwear with exaggerated word "it's the best sh*t ever".
But this, sponsoring a football club for just one match? There's nothing shameless about it mister.
And the exception you mention, by your logic it should be shameless af because it's a standard "hey i won an award but you guys should buy that game that no one plays" marketing practice that has been existed for years.
@PuppetMaster I don't personally see what TLoU has to do with football, which is why it feels a bit out of place to me, much like putting it all over underwear, whereas, I think someone using a prime spot to make jokes and support indie devs, and games that aren't their own, sounds a lot less invasive or like pushing your product on people. But agree to disagree.
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