Coca Cola, Pepsi and other bubbles on football shirts

Carbonated drinks have always been a topic of discussion in the football's world, or sports in general, for their high content of sugar and various sweeteners, the worst enemies of an athlete. Cristiano Ronaldo is well aware of this, even during Euro 2020 he removed two bottles of Coca Cola, one of the main partners of the European Championship, from the stage of his press conference. The five-time Ballon d'Or winner not only didn't want to be seen with Coca-Cola, but also invited fans to drink water. Following this action of the Portuguese star, the American company had an incredible drop in the stock market for a few days. 

These sponsorships, however, have proved to be fundamental for the world of soccer, having accompanied it in recent decades with their fonts to characterize the game jerseys of the entire planet, from Italy to South America. 

7Up on the Fiorentina jersey

In the 1992-93 season, on the Lotto's Fiorentina jersey, appear a lemon and lime flavored carbonated drink arrived from America, the 7Up. It was the Viola of a certain Gabriel Omar Batistuta, who would soon triumph in the Copa America with Argentina. In that year, Lotto designed a second jersey that sparked such a series of controversies that it went down in history, but not in the way the Italian company would have hoped. The jersey was structured by a pattern obtained with a computerized randomizer starting from the logo of the technical sponsor, which, however, created nets similar to swastikas. And when a reader of the newspaper L'Unità phoned in to warn them that he had noticed the hooked crosses on the jerseys of the purple team, the newspaper launched a campaign that forced Lotto to withdraw the jersey. The season of Fiorentina from then on went badly, resulting in a resounding relegation that also matches the first year of 7Up as a sponsor of the company. 

In the nineties, the American soft drink also appeared on the jerseys of Botafogo, which in that period in Brazil won several trophies. The first black and white uniforms sponsored by the drink had a large logo with a green background on the front and the writing "SEVEN UP" on the back where the players' surnames are printed nowadays. Later on, the sponsor lost the big colored square by simply showing the classic "7Up". 

Roma, Pepsi for a night

In 2007 Roma did not have any sponsors on its jersey, but for one night it hosted the Pepsi brand. On the occasion of the launch of the new collectible cans, in the March 31 match against AC Milan, the Giallorossi team took the field not only with the name and logo of the soft drink, but also with the image of the cans that would be released on the market. The match ended 1-1, with goals from Mexes and Giardino, and the jerseys were then autographed by the Roma players and auctioned on Ebay with the proceeds going to the Associazione Famiglie Italiane dei Sordi per il Bilinguismo Onlus. A unique oddity in our league. 

Pepsi in South America, Boca Juniors and Corinthians

From 2001 to 2003 the Pepsi brand was associated in Argentina, and in general in South America, with Boca Juniors, which in those years won the Copa Libertadores twice with blue jerseys signed by Nike, a large yellow band on the chest and the writing "PEPSI" in big letters. Wearing the jersey was a young Carlitos Tevez, who showed off his skills in those years in big soccer before landing in Europe. 

And if in Argentina it was the Millonarios who brought the drink that has always competed with Coca-Cola to the fields, in Brazil it was Corinthians, from 2000 to 2004, that was sponsored by the drink. Two Paulistas championships and a Copa do Brasil were the successes of the club during the seasons that saw the team take to the field with the Pepsi logo, also in the "PEPSI Twist" lemon version. 

The Cruzerio, Coca-Cola and a very young Fenomeno

In the early nineties, Coca-Cola appeared on Cruzerio's shirts. Uniforms that are still sought after by collectors, mainly because in 1993 a very young Ronaldo Luís Nazario de Lima wore them. Sky blue with the classic five stars on one side and the technical sponsor FINTA on the other, collar and the writing Coca-Cola both on the chest and on the back for a jersey that saw him score in a year and a half 44 goals in 47 appearances, before becoming for everyone the Fenomeno. 

The Club Nacional and the "Pepsi ice"

We are still in South America, this time in Uruguay, where in 1998 Club Nacional took to the field with a jersey that was as unusual as it was original. By virtue of the agreement with Pepsi, technical sponsor FILA designed a dark blue uniform with lighter shades, almost as if it were a square. All this made it seem that on the jersey there were drawn real ice cubes, the same ones present on Pepsi cans of those years. Obviously, at the center of the jersey appeared both the white-red-blue logo and the name of the carbonated soft drink, for a refreshing jersey. 

A National Team with a sponsor: the case of Brazil

1987 was a particular year for Brazilian soccer. It was, in fact, the year in which thirteen teams broke away from the Brazilian Football Federation, which had informed the clubs that they had economic problems, and then got together and organized their own tournament without the presence of the CBF. Thus was born the Copa Uniao, with the thirteen clubs setting up perfect plan to self-finance their project. And among the agreements found, there was one with Coca-Cola, which would be the main sponsor of all teams participating in the event. The infamous logo with the red band appeared everywhere, gaining great success, so much so that it also arrived on the jerseys of the Brazilian national team. It was December 9, 1987 when the Selecao took the field for a friendly match against Chile wearing the classic verdeoro uniform, but with a red strip with the words Coca-Cola on the chest. The match was won by the Roja and it was also the only appearance of a sponsor on the jersey of the greenoro national team.