The knowledge of jersey printing: brand marketing strategies for watching football stars from Alexander Arnold

Recently, football players' jerseys are increasingly appearing on their first names rather than last names, which actually contains clear marketing strategies. The latest example is Trent Alexander Arnold, who chose to print "Trent" on Real Madrid's new jersey.

Trent's new choice: simplify identity and go global

When officially debuting as a new player in Real Madrid, Alexander Arnold showed off his new jersey: a white jersey with a number 12, with "Trent" printed under the shoulders. This is an important change for the former Liverpool full-back. During his long time at Liverpool, his two last names were printed on the jersey.

He himself explained the reason for making this choice: "To be honest, the explanation is simple: When I travel around Europe, I always noticed the problem of names that confused many people... They called me Arnold, Alexander, Alex, Trent. So I thought of simplifying things: I decided to print Trent on the back of my jersey and be recognized by everyone with the name Trent."

Marketing experts reveal: Branding is the core driving force, however, things are not that simple. Behind this move, there is an obvious marketing strategy. "Real Madrid must have consultants and marketing experts pushing players to make this decision," explained Irving Lafferty of sports creative agency Ear to the Ground to explain to The Athletic. Real Madrid is the club that focuses most on these details, as well as the players' potential media and business influence.

In this specific situation, it is inevitable to choose to print only the name. Misha Sher, a global sports marketing expert, pointed out: "The name Alexander-Arnold is very long and difficult to pronounce. If we think of the most important brands in the world, such as Disney, Nike or Apple, they all have short, easy to remember and pronounce names. Trent is obviously much simpler."

Modern Football Trends: Building a Personal Brand for Players

In addition, Trent Alexander-Arnold is just the latest modern football star to make this choice, which is indicative in itself. Before him, Virgil van Dijk, Dele Ali, James Rodriguez and Sergio Busquets all chose to print only names on the back of the jersey.

There are also some special circumstances, such as Job Bellingham and Jordi Cruyff, who are almost "forced" by their loud last name to move in another direction to get rid of expectations and pressure. In this way, it is like building a real brand around the player's name.

Jamie Carragher explains this well on his podcast: "I think Trent now sees himself as a brand, a personal industry. In our day, many players think this way." In fact, looking back at some examples in the past can also confirm this: important players such as Aguero and Pea Pea Hernandez were allowed to print their famous nicknames on the back of their jerseys. Even in Italy, there was a case of "Ibrahimovic" Ba in the late 1990s, when he chose to wear a jersey with his nickname during his time at AC Milan. While this is not a kind of "wild marketing" like Real Madrid and Alex Dà-Arnold, it is indeed the beginning of the trend.