Sports sponsorship: how the “Athlete-Brand” is reshaping contract drafting

A recent documentary aired on France Télévisions, “Kylian Mbappé, la diplomatie du ballon rond“ (“Kylian Mbappé: The Diplomacy of the Beautiful Game”), highlighted an inescapable reality of modern sport: the elite athlete is no longer merely a sportsperson — they are a geopolitical entity, a vehicle of soft power, and above all, a brand in their own right.

Behind the sporting feats lie precise mechanisms rooted in sports law and the sports business. Sponsorship has changed. Gone are the days of the athlete as a “human billboard”; today, strategy takes precedence over volume, and this shift has a direct impact on the drafting and negotiation of sponsorship contracts (or endorsement agreements).

A legal breakdown of this pivot from pure visibility to brand strategy.

The athlete-brand: positioning strategy comes before the sponsorship contract

Even before turning to the drafting of a contract, the question of the athlete’s positioning is central. Whether in an individual or a team sport, the stakes are the same: what matters is not the number of logos on a kit, but the overall coherence of the athlete-brand.

Two broad strategies can be observed in the market:

• The premium, selective strategy: This is the model adopted by Kylian Mbappé. His partners are few in number and all positioned in the premium or luxury segment (Hublot, Dior, etc.). This approach is also found in other disciplines. The triathlete Vincent Luis, for example, recently explained the importance of a limited roster of sponsors in order to favour lasting relationships (an approach also shared by figures such as Laurent Vidal or Jan Frodeno).
• The broad, mass-market strategy: Conversely, an athlete like Cristiano Ronaldo has built an equally powerful brand, but with a far wider spectrum: more partners, a more mainstream target audience, and a presence across multiple sectors.

The initial legal challenge: From a legal standpoint, structuring such a brand often entails setting up dedicated companies to exploit image rights (such as image-rights companies). This preliminary structuring is the indispensable foundation on which the commercial contracts will subsequently rest.

The anatomy of a standard sponsorship contract

To properly understand how the athlete-brand is upending practice, it is worth recalling what a sponsorship contract is in legal terms. It is an agreement whereby an athlete authorises the use of their image and associates their public standing with a brand, in exchange for remuneration.

In its “classic” form, such a contract generally comprises the following blocks of obligations (among others):

• Display obligations (visibility): These define where, when, and how the athlete makes the brand visible. This framework is often minutely detailed: wearing specific outfits or equipment, the number of posts on social media, required formats, and so on.
• Behavioural obligations and the morality clause: The athlete is bound by a duty of loyalty. They must not harm the sponsor’s image: they must avoid controversial conduct, refrain from appearing alongside competitors, and respect the brand’s DNA. In the event of a scandal (negative publicity), these clauses provide the basis for terminating or renegotiating the contract.
• Participation in public relations (PR) activities: The contract sets out the time the athlete must devote to shoots, advertising campaigns, corporate events, or press conferences.
• Remuneration: In cash (fixed fee, performance bonuses, visibility-linked bonuses) and/or in kind (equipment allocations, travel).
• Protective clauses: Term, territorial scope, sector exclusivity, and conditions governing the end of the contract.

Negotiating a sponsorship contract in the era of the athlete-brand

The partnership between Kylian Mbappé and Dior, featured in the documentary, illustrates a paradigm shift. In this type of contract, the traditional display obligations appear far lighter. The athlete is no longer an advertising board: their appearances with the brand are rare and extremely controlled, which paradoxically makes them far more powerful.

The direct legal consequence: Contracts are no longer drafted to sell mere visibility; they contractualise a “positioning.” Exclusivity clauses become more restrictive, and the balance of bargaining power shifts. The athlete’s lawyers no longer negotiate merely a fee — they negotiate the preservation of their client’s image against the brand’s demands.

Protecting the athlete’s image rights and brand: what must be anticipated

Working today on a sponsorship contract with an elite athlete means anticipating complex legal challenges:

• The conflict between individual and collective image rights: This is the corollary of the athlete-brand. An athlete with a very strict positioning (for instance, refusing to be associated with sports-betting or fast-food brands) may come into conflict with the sponsors of their national team or club. The most striking illustration in recent years is undoubtedly the standoff between Kylian Mbappé and the French Football Federation (FFF). Refusing to endorse certain brands partnering with Les Bleus, the player boycotted promotional activities to protect his own “brand” and his commitments. This conflict exposed the obsolescence of the FFF’s image-rights convention (which dated back to 2010), rendered inadequate by the weight of these new “athlete-brands.” Advised by his lawyer, the player thus asserted a genuine right of oversight, upsetting the traditional balance. As a result, particular attention must be paid to carve-out clauses (exceptions) and to drawing a clear line between the image of the player alone and the image of the player on international duty.
• Protecting the intellectual property of the athlete-brand: The athlete-brand is not merely a marketing concept — it is an intangible asset. This necessarily entails filing and protecting trademarks (names, initials, logos, or even signature goal celebrations and catchphrases) with bodies such as the INPI or the EUIPO, in order to secure their exploitation and prevent any free-riding (parasitism). Kylian Mbappé’s approach in this respect is now a genuine textbook case in trademark law. Before the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO), the striker has not only registered his name, his initials, and his company’s logo, but has also protected the design of his famous goal celebration (the crossed arms). More strikingly still, the player has locked down the commercial use of his own punchlines: the phrases “Moi, tu m’parles pas d’âge” (“Don’t talk to me about age”) and “Le football, il a changé” (“Football has changed”) are officially registered trademarks. This legal offensive makes him one of the most protected footballers in the world when it comes to intellectual property. By locking down the attributes of his personality in this way, the athlete secures total control over merchandise and consolidates the financial value of his brand vis-à-vis sponsors.

In conclusion, sports sponsorship has become deeply sophisticated. It now calls for a bespoke approach, in which the drafting of the endorsement contract must dovetail perfectly with the athlete’s overall development strategy.

Our Sports Law team advises professional athletes, agents, and brands on structuring, drafting, and negotiating their sponsorship contracts and on exploiting their image rights.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a sports sponsorship contract?

It is an agreement whereby an athlete authorises a brand to use their image and associates their public standing with that brand, in exchange for remuneration in cash and/or in kind. It sets out in detail the visibility obligations, the athlete’s conduct, and the conditions governing the end of the contract.

Which clauses are essential in an endorsement contract?

The key clauses concern display obligations (visibility), the ethics and loyalty clause, participation in public relations activities, remuneration, as well as the protective clauses: term, territory, sector exclusivity, and termination conditions.

What is an “athlete-brand”?

It is the approach by which an elite athlete structures themselves as a genuine brand, with coherent positioning and a strategic choice of partners. The athlete-brand becomes an intangible asset in its own right, one that can be legally protected and enhanced in value.

How can a professional athlete’s image rights be protected?

Protection is generally achieved by structuring dedicated image-exploitation companies, by precise contractual clauses (exclusivity, carve-out), and by registering trademarks (name, initials, logos, distinctive signs) with the INPI and the EUIPO.

What is a carve-out clause in a sponsorship contract?

It is an exception clause that precisely delimits what falls outside a contractual commitment. It is used in particular to manage conflicts between an athlete’s individual image and the collective commitments of their club or national team.