Real Madrid - Barcelona sponsor's war

Tomorrow afternoon Barcelona will host Real Madrid at Nou Camp for the 265th Clasico. The clash between Real and Barca has always been a war in every aspect, victories (of single games or trophies) and media battles. Today this competition it’s also about style, so we have gathered the best jersey sponsors in the history of this tradition.

Italian Style

The first official sponsor ever in Real Madrid history, in 1982, was Zanussi, an Italian brand specialized in house appliances.

This is another beautiful capture from Clasicos: Camacho, Madrid’s legendary defender, next to Diego Maradona in Barcellona’s shirt, which as you can see was immaculate.

Actually, Zanussi wasn’t the only Italian brand appeared on Merengue’s shirts, nor the most famous. In 1985, Real signed a four-year partnership with Parmalat, an Italian giant which also appeared on Parma’s shirts. Many great players like Michel, Camacho and Hugo Sanchez wore that shirt.

Different business

From 2007, Real Madrid changes his official sponsor, which in that time was Siemens (and BenQ) logo. Today the company has quite faded into nothing, and probably football fans would likely remember David Beckham’s shirt instead.

The official Blancos’ sponsor became bwin. Nothing weird about that, but it’s peculiar that the previous year Barcellona signed a five-year deal to show Unicef’s logo on its shirts. Barca was a top club donating one of its biggest income to a charity organization.

This was the apotheosis of what Barcelona represented in those years, a reverse sponsorship deal and a shirt wore with true values. On the other side, there were the villains, a money machine with talented players and with a shirt crowned with the logo of a bet-agency.

Agree to a compromise

As said, until 2006 Barcellona kept its shirt clean, a singular choice that made the blaugrana colors legend even more important. The first official sponsors of the Catalan team were Unicef and Qatar foundation, another non-profit organization committed to education and research. However, time changes and the great fairytale ends. In 2013, Barca finalized a massive deal with Qatar Airways with the Unicef logo switching under the number, in the back of the shirt. Ironically, Barcellona switched from being one of the few teams without any sponsor to be one with two. Not so innocent anymore.