Despite being legends of two different sports, there is something eerily similar in the way David Beckham and Michael Jordan responded to their first shoe deals. MJ, who signed with Nike back in 1984, made a demand for a $40,000 Red Mercedes even before signing. David Beckham started wearing Adidas shoes back when he used to play for Manchester United in 1996 and is known to have signed a deal with the global giants around the same time.
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Beckham’s contract, worth exactly £50,000, resulted in him splurging the entire amount on a BMW M3, as revealed in his recent Netflix documentary, BECKHAM. While MJ demanded a fancy car even before signing, Beckham ended up splurging his entire paycheck on a BMW.
David Beckham’s documentary outlines hilarious similarities with Michael Jordan
Both Beckham and Michael Jordan came from financially difficult backgrounds. However, both of them cherished fancy cars and used some of their first earnings to get themselves one.
MJ talked to Nike and told them he wanted a $40,000 Red Mercedes before he signed. While Beckham did not have the same kind of leverage, he also found a way to land his first fancy car. After signing a £50,000 with Adidas, Beckham ended up using the entire amount for a BMW M3, according to Mirror.
As revealed in his documentary, David Beckham was always fond of nice cars, and today has an eye-watering collection that features some of the most luxurious vehicles ever made. Michael Jordan did something similar as well and owns a range of expensive vehicles as well.
Both the players ended up going out of their way to get their first nice cars. MJ’s hype and popularity from the start meant that he could twist Nike’s arms and force them into getting him a car. That is exactly what he did, claiming that he wouldn’t sign until he received the Red Merc he wanted.
Beckham, on the other hand, had only begun to establish himself as one of the best players in the world, back in 1996. This meant that he had to use the entire paycheck in order to get the car, and he did exactly that:
“I spent my money, I liked nice stuff. As soon as we got money I was like I want to buy a nice watch. I signed a contract with Adidas for £50,000 and I went and bought an [BMW] M three for £50,000!”
While both the players got the fancy cars they wanted, they had to take slightly different but equally extreme routes. MJ was ready to fight with companies, while Beckham did not think twice about spending his entire Adidas paycheck at once.
Michael Jordan’s Nike deal dwarfs David Beckham’s Adidas contract
Back in 2003, David Beckham was at the pinnacle of his career. A move to Real Madrid was accompanied by a lifetime Adidas deal which was worth a whopping $160.8 million.
While huge, the number dwarfs in comparison to the Nike deal that MJ signed. Jordan has been with the company since 1984, and his Air Jordan brand made more than $5 billion in 2022 alone.
That translated to a payment of more than $235 million, which seems to be his biggest yearly payout from the company to date. Air Jordan is known to produce billions of profit for Nike every year and made a whopping $5.12 billion in 2022 alone.
