He's going to be ours: How Adidas beat Puma and Nike to win the race for signature of Usain Bolt’s successor Gout Gout

Australia’s 16-year-old sprint sensation will pocket $6 million from a multi-year deal he signed with Adidas, a contract that was signed during the in Peru according to reports.

Adidas had to beat and to gain the signature of what many consider to be the successor to .

Teen sprint star Gout Gout, 16, signed a deal with Adidas deal through 2032.

Puma had taken a chance by signing Bolt when he was at the same age as Gout. Adidas secured the Australian’s signature by ensuring two criterias that were put in front of them.

One was that Gout, part of seven children, would continue to stay in Australia. The other was the carrot of training with and his coach Lance Brauman in Florida, which was dangled in front of the soon to be 17-year-old.

Gout Gout has been tipped to have a bright future in sprints and his coach Di Sheppard explains how she spotted the talented 16-year-old.

«Australia has just woken up to this kid. But these shoe companies they’ve known all about him for two years,” Gout’s manager James Templeton told the . «They (Adidas) always conveyed to me … not an urgency, but a real desire to get this guy – A ‘he’s going to be ours’ message. They successfully conveyed that to me all along,” Templeton added.

Adidas is a German athletic apparel and footwear corporation headquartered in Herzogenaurach, Bavaria. It is the largest sportswear manufacturer in Europe, and the second largest in the world, after Nike.

Once Gout Gout’s 100m and 200m performances in the Australian All Schools Athletics Championships went viral, it was clear why there was so much clamour over his signature.

While many young track and field athletes show promise but taper out when the time to compete among the best in the world arrives, Gout’s intriguing potential means that the risk might well be worth it.