From June 21st till July 19th Egypt will host the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations. 24 nations will compete in 6 stadiums across 4 cities for the African Championship. The winner receives $4.5 million, while the runner up takes home $2.5 million.

After analysing the kit sponsors at both the FIFA World Cup 2018 and the Copa América 2019, we now take a look at the kit sponsors at the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON).

The 2019 AFCON kit sponsors

Puma sponsors the most teams at this year’s Africa Cup of Nations with five. Host nation Egypt, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Guinea-Bissau and Senegal will all play in Puma kits. However, the German brand no longer sponsors 2017 champions Cameroon (now wearing Le Coq Sportif).

Umbro follows with three nations, while four brands – Adidas, Garman, Macron and Nike – sponsor two nations. Italian brand Garman sponsors two out of three debutants with Madagascar and Burundi. While Umbro will also supply the official ball.

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Eight smaller brands, including Kappa, Uhlsport and Mafro, complete the list.

During the 2017 African Championship there were 11 different brands compared to this edition’s 14. Adidas (4) and Puma (3) were the only two brands sponsoring multiple teams, while Nike did not sponsor a single nation.

Battle of the brands among star players

When looking at some star players set to play at the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations, we see that they are all sponsored by the market’s biggest brands. Sadio Mané (Senegal), Riyad Mahrez (Algeria), Thomas Partey (Ghana) and Hakim Ziyech (Morocco) all wear the latest Nike boots. Africa Player of the Year 2018 Mohamed Salah is sponsored by Adidas, while Kalidou Koulibaly (Senegal) dons Puma boots (as far as we can tell).

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Last six Africa Cup of Nations winners

The last six Africa Cup of Nations champions all wore one of the three main brands of the sports apparel industry: Puma, Adidas or Nike. Puma partnered Egypt during the nation’s successful runs in both 2008 and 2010. The German brand also supplied 2015 champions Ivory Coast and Cameroon when they won the 2017 edition.

When Nigeria won in 2013, the Super Eagles wore Adidas kits. While 2012 champions Zambia wore Nike kits during their successful campaign that year.

Compared to World Cup 2018 and Copa América 2019

The number of different kit brands at the Africa Cup of Nations (14) is far higher than at the 2018 World Cup (8) and 2019 Copa América (5). Even when taking into account that only 12 teams compete at the Copa América. The African teams wear a lot of smaller, lesser-known brands.

Bigger football nations are in general sponsored by bigger brands like Nike, Adidas and Puma. As the previous six editions showed, it is often those nations that are crowned champions. Will this be the case again this year?