Botafogo took the pitch with an unusual shirt sponsor in what could be a first for professional football on Monday: a YouTube star’s brand on the team’s jersey. Botafogo wore their iconic black-and-white kits with the logo for “Neto’s” located just above the team crest and a logo for Brazilian YouTube star Felipe Neto on the right breast against Palmeiras on Monday.
New Botafogo shirt sponsor. Photo: @BotafogoOficial | Twitter
Neto is a popular 29-year-old Brazilian with a YouTube channel boasting more than 16 million subscribers, 7.4 million followers on Twitter and almost as many different colors of hair. In comparison, the Rio de Janerio-based Botafogo has less than one million YouTube subscribers and 1.2 million Twitter followers. Our YouTube channel for The18 boasts about 1.5 thousand subscribers (and rising, as soon as you hit subscribe your chucklehead).
Neto recently launched a food brand named, aptly, “Neto” and he happens to be a big Botafogo fan. So the two joined together for the shirt sponsorship. The Botafogo team website stated the deal is just for Monday’s match but could easily be extended, though it doesn’t mention details of the agreement. Botafogo has one more match left in the season, on Sunday against Cruziero.
Neto’s YouTube channel ranks in the top 50 in the world in subscribers. His was the first Portuguese-language YouTube channel to reach one million subscribers, with videos on a wide range of subjects. While it’s hard to say if Neto is the first YouTube star to sponsor any soccer jersey (after all, some clubs have turned to porn stars as shirt sponsors), it seems this is the first deal of its kind in one of the world’s top leagues.
YouTube star Neto is a Botafogo shirt sponsor. Photo: @felipeneto | Twitter
Botafogo lost the match 2-0 to remain on 52 points in eighth place, 20 points behind Corinthians, which has already clinched the league’s best record. Palmeiras jumped two spots up to second place with 63 points.
The18 Recommends For You
