Roc Nation vuole rendere il calcio un posto migliore

In the beginning were the players, then came to the club.

By now it seems more than legitimate to ask what Roc Nation's intentions are for the future of european football, a territory so fertile and unexplored to leave ample room for imagination. First of all there is to highlight a scheme that the agency founded in 2013 by Jay-Z seems to follow faithfully in its adventure in the Old Continent, the one that binds Roc Nation to PUMA, the sports brand born in Germany that sponsors of good part of the players signed with Mr. Carter. Jay-Z himself actually has a decidedly close relationship with PUMA, who after choosing him to create some sneakers, in 2018 had appointed him creative director of the Basketball division with the task of supervising creative and marketing strategies.

The same work of Rock Nation want to make in our football, trying to exploit the unexpressed potential of european footballers, thus transforming them into someone capable of living even outside the green rectangle through beneficial and social initiatives. An example of this strategy was we saw during the Covid-19 emergency, between a Bernardeschi engaged in a fundraiser and a Milan at work in the charity event "From Milan with love". Because despite the partnership with the italian club was made official only a few hours ago, the relations between the company of Ivan Gazidis and Roc Nation have been going on for months, driven by the same spirit with which the Jay-Z agency works with Lukaku or De Bruyne.

Just the Inter' striker would seem to represent the perfect prototype of an athlete designed in the Roc Nation offices, someone who besides scoring goals can score on other fields, social or simply web social. Because if it is true that we have been coming for years in which Ronaldo and Messi have shown us the meaning of corporate footballer, it is equally true that the two players from Juventus and Barcelona have proven to be more faces for other brands than real independent brands. An example in this sense is that of Héctor Bellerín, an extra-sport icon with his weight in fashion and a life capable of going beyond the 90 minutes of play.

But if Roc Nation's idea about the future of footballers may seem clear, we certainly cannot say the same about clubs. The agreement signed with Milan will tell us how much field will have Jay-Z and partners in working with a company, but above all how they intend to push a football team out of football. The collaboration between Juventus and Palace, as well as that between Arsenal and 424, presents two excellent examples of branding outside the classic stadium merchanding, a different way of opening the doors of sport to someone who see it only on television. It will take time to understand Roc Nation's true aims in the world of football, but above all to understand if the agreement with the italian club will be only an exception or the beginning of a new course that, after footballers and clubs, could bring Mr Carter repeating what has already been done with the NFL, with which he signed a contract for the management of the strategic board for live music entertainment. Only hypothesis of course, but located on the certainty that Roc Nation has in mind a european football closer to american sport, but most of all a auropean footballer closer to american sports.