Nike is getting into the NIL game, but not just for college athletes.
According to multiple reports, Nike has signed high school soccer stars Alyssa and Gisele Thompson to name, image and likeness deals. The California-based sisters are the first high school athletes that Nike has signed to NIL deals.
The deal was first reported by the Los Angeles Times.
The sisters attend Harvard-Westlake School in Los Angeles and are two of the best high school soccer players in the United States. Alyssa, a junior, and Gisele, a sophomore, are both committed to Stanford and are members of the U.S. national team’s youth system.
The details of the contract have not yet been announced, but Evan Sroka, who represented the sisters in negotiations, told the Los Angeles Times that the deal includes “monetary compensation.”
Nike also recently signed two college athletes — UCLA soccer player Reilyn Turner and Stanford golfer Rachel Heck — to NIL deals. Beginning last summer, the NCAA allows college athletes to profit off their name, image and likeness — a move that many in the amateur sports world were anticipating.
Some high school athletes have also benefited from the new NIL rules, as long as they follow their state’s laws as well as the rules from their high school athletic associations.
• Jacob Calvin Meyer can be reached at jmeyer@washingtontimes.com.
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