Zlatan Ibrahimovic Allegedly Turns Down Sponsorship Deal With PokerStars
World-famous football star Zlatan Ibrahimovic has allegedly refused a contract with PokerStars to become an ambassador of the world's biggest poker room in France.
According to France's daily Le Parisien and reported earlier in March by PokerNews Italy, the Swedish footballer decided not to associate his image with PokerStars because he was not satisfied by the financial conditions of the agreement that the poker room offered him.
Unconfirmed sources say that the deal would have rewarded the player with somewhere in between �3 to �4 million a year.
Nine-time winner of Sweden's Guldbollen (Golden Ball) and one-time winner of the Golden Foot award, Ibrahimovic landed in France in 2012, after the Qatar Sports Investments-owned Paris St. [Removed:361] bought him from Silvio Berlusconi's AC Milan in an operation worth �65 million in total.
To date, Forbes places the player in the 12th spot of the 2014 The World's Highest-Paid Athletes list thanks to the $40.4 million earned in 2014 between his salary, his bonuses, and other extra endorsements.
Le Parisien reported that the negotiations between the player and PokerStars were coordinated by the VIP-Consulting, a Paris-based company that during the past have already managed to convince other football players as Andr��-Pierre Gignac, Eric Di Meco, and Anthony Lopes to participate in events organized by PokerStars.fr.
At the time of publishing, PokerNews was not able to get a confirmation of the missed deal either from PokerStars or from VIP-Consulting.
Image courtesy of CaughtOffside
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