Two days before the climax of this year’s World Cup, kitmaker Adidas ran a hastily constructed ad campaign highlighting talisman players Lamine Yamal and Lionel Messi in front of its famous triple stripe logo. The message of the ad was simple enough: the protagonists of the summer’s biggest sporting event were both Adidas men.

The big-ticket ambassador deals deployed by Adidas and its rivals Nike and Puma belong to a strategy manual written by marketers in the 1980s, one that’s been largely superseded by the creator playbook adopted by athletes and brands alike. Years into that transition, some players are beginning to push back against brands and sports organizations to retain autonomy over their commercial deals.

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