England soccer star’s new app is latest push by athletes to gain more control over media and brand careers

Enterprises such as Kane’s new Cleats Club, a soccer-themed messaging app, and the recent launch of the UR Cristiano YouTube channel by Ronaldo, are creating new opportunities for advertisers hoping to reach the large fan audiences that follow in their wake.

Sports personalities have been able to translate their on-field work into media careers for decades. But it’s more common for them to wait until they’re done playing — and most also work within established structures, such as broadcast commentary or brand ambassador gigs. Kane’s app, which plans to sell display ads and bring on commercial sponsors and Kelce’s $100 million podcast deal with Wondery both show how athletes are vaulting over traditional media fences.

“It used to be that you would have to wait for a media channel to tell the story that you hoped that they would want to tell. Now everyone has the ability to create their own channel,” Karin Kildow, co-founder of sports-focused social agency CCG Social, told Digiday. “The power [has] started shifting over to the individual versus media companies.”

Over on YouTube, Ronaldo broke platform records with the launch of his channel. It gained 1 million subscribers in its first 90 minutes, and totaled 65 million subscribers at the time of writing, per YouTube. Behind the scenes, agency Dentsu Creative Iberia is responsible for the channel’s content strategy and production of several videos each week — and for negotiating sponsorship and brand placement opportunities, though the agency didn’t say whether any had been secured.

This isn’t a shift reserved just for the top names. NFL defensive end Isaac Rochell has built up a considerable social following (over 2 million followers on TikTok, and just under 300,000 on Instagram) by featuring content that has little to do with his day job as a player for the Las Vegas Raiders. This year, he’s interviewed vice-presidential candidate Tim Walz and former U.S. president Barack Obama on his social media channels.

Direct relationship with fans

England captain Kane’s firm The Harry Kane Company recently launched Cleats Club. The app allows fans following a player to speak directly to them about matters off and on the field. Users can pose questions to Kane, and he’ll respond with video, voice notes, images or text responses that are publicly visible. The content isn’t dissimilar to what athletes like Kane sometimes share on X or Instagram, but the new app targets a younger audience than the one that typically populates those platforms.

“It’s the stuff you or I might have with friends in an environment like WhatsApp,” explained James Kirkham, head of brand at Cleats Club. “It’s very personal, not stage-managed.”

The partners currently advertising on Cleats Club, including Skechers, Reflo and Fanatics, were all booked via direct partnerships with Kane, but Kirkham said that the app would sell display units and allow brands to sponsor specific message boards. “They’ll be a part of this wonderful, truthful, honest, pure conversation … it’s great for brand credibility,” he said.

The app mimics the functionality of platforms like Discord, or the official WhatsApp channel created by Warner Records for pop star Dua Lipa. But Kane’s company believes it stands a better chance of monetization than it might with a WhatsApp channel.

“They [Dua Lipa] can broadcast and promote, but they still don’t own anything,” said Kirkham.

Furthermore, the app’s makers say it’s set to be a safer environment than those other platforms for young fans and brands alike. In part, that’s because users will only see questions or messages sent by others if Kane, or another player, acknowledges and answers them.

“There’s not millions of messages of clutter and noise to sift through, you don’t feel at arms length, and you certainly don’t get any of that toxicity,” explained Kirkham.

Though Kane is the current face of the app, Kirkham said users would soon find other soccer names joining the England captain, although he declined to name anyone specific.

“Athletes have always tried to find a way to communicate to their audiences. But it tended to always be done through third parties,” said Steve Martin, founding partner at U.K. sports-focused agency MSQ Sport & Entertainment.

Advertisers know that social content fronted by a sports star, rather than a club badge or broadcaster, will likely command a higher engagement rate from fans. And the niche fan audiences that follow players like Kane across borders and between clubs are attractive to brands.

Long-term success with fans and advertisers will require a highly consistent flow of content and new faces, though.

Ronaldo’s YouTube channel, for example, currently churns out multiple videos a week. But it’s still early days for the channel — and who knows how long the former Real Madrid star will stick with that routine.

“You have to have a constant drum beat, and it has to be constantly interesting,” Martin said. “Ronaldo, with his 65 million followers, will have to entertain those followers the whole time. If you don’t continually entertain on longer form content, this could dry up quite quickly.”