River Plate seals most expensive strip in Argentina league

By renewing their agreement with German sportswear company Adidas, who provide sports kit, soccer club River Plate will have the most expensive strip in Argentinian soccer league.  

   The agreement, signed several days ago by the club's directors, stipulates the link between the two entities has been extended until 2021 for a total of 60 million U.S. dollars which breaks down to around 10 million U.S. dollars per year. 

   With their new strip, River Plate will overtake the cost of their rival Boca Juniors's strip which currently costs eight million U.S. dollars per season courtesy of an agreement with U.S. company Nike. 

   In 2012, Boca Juniors, from the La Boca neighborhood in Buenos Aires, renewed the contract they have had since the end of the 90s with Nike until 2019 despite Adidas also showing an interest in kitting out the current champions of Argentinian soccer. 

   With the renewed contract, River is giving another example of how the club has recovered since the inauguration of the new leadership. Rodolfo D'Onofrio became the club's new president in December 2013 after the club were demoted to the second division in 2011 and then returned to the first division one year later. 

   With D'Onofrio at the helm, River won the championship in 2014 with coach Ramon Diaz and in December of the same year, the side from the Nunez neighborhood in Buenos Aires won the Copa Sudamericana while coached by Marcelo Gallardo.  

   In 2015, River became the champions of the Copa Libertadores de America for the first time in 19 years. They also won the Recopa Sudamericana and they are currently in the semifinals for this year's Copa Sudamericana. 

   And if that was not enough, the Argentinian club are preparing to play in the Club World Cup 2015 which will take place in Japan in December. The team could go on to play Spain's Barcelona in the final, depending on other results.  Endi