World Cup fever is continuing to swell with competition in Brazil starting in just two weeks.  News and stats have been coming out recently regarding brands involved with World Cup players and teams. And in light of Adidas and Nike thought to be about equal, currently, in soccer revenue and Puma coming on strong lately in pursuit of teams but, interestingly, also deciding to hold off all its marketing push until after the World Cup, I thought I’d provide some visuals regarding these three giants of the footwear and apparel industry. Of the 32 teams involved in WC14, 27 are sponsored by the big three:

Nike sponsors six of the top 10 most marketable players (calculated mostly by perception of global awareness).  This year’s Ballon D’Or winner, Ronaldo, interestingly, has three times the number of Facebook and Twitter followers as the average of the rest of the top 10…

*Note: Not all top 10 most marketable will get to continue their exposure over the next month.  Zlatan’s Sweden failed to qualify for WC and 36 year-old Henry is not on Les Bleus’ squad.