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Nike built its World Cup campaign on the promise of tearing up the script. Shut out of the final, the brand’s football chief told staff the plan still worked, even as the ending was nothing like the one Nike had written for itself.

Nike did not get the World Cup ending it wanted, and its football chief acknowledged that in writing.

Spain beat Argentina in the July 19 final, with both squads wearing adidas kits. Nike’s two remaining contenders, France and England, had already lost in the semifinals to those same adidas backed teams. For a company that competes on visibility as much as results, the cost was clear: the Lionel Messi and Lamine Yamal jerseys moving through stores in the tournament’s final week were adidas’s moment in the spotlight, not Nike’s.

Camilo Andrade, vice president and general manager of Nike Football, addressed the outcome directly in an internal memo reviewed by Bloomberg News. “I know the ending was not what we dreamt,” Andrade told staff, before arguing the company should be judged on execution rather than the scoreline: “we have done our job.” Andrade went further in follow up comments, telling the team Nike had “executed the plan we wanted” and “controlled what was in our control.”

The message sits awkwardly next to one of the brand’s recent campaign lines. Nike built a marquee World Cup push around the idea of tearing up the script. Instead, staff were being told the script had gone to plan all along.

Nike went into the tournament under chief executive Elliott Hill’s renewed drive into sport as a turnaround lever. Andrade reportedly described the football unit’s recent run as one of the “greatest comeback” stories inside the company, despite what Andrade called a steady run of obstacles. The World Cup was meant to be the proof point.

Instead, the campaign brought operational friction. Nike’s tournament jerseys drew criticism before a ball was kicked, for visible puckering around the shoulder seams. Production delays also kept some World Cup related inventory out of stores during the peak selling window. The clearest miss was domestic: according to The Wall Street Journal, Nike underestimated demand for US men’s national team jerseys, which sold out and were not fully restocked until after the US had already been eliminated.

None of this changes who won the final, but it helps explain why Andrade felt the need to write the memo at all. The memo concedes that Nike wanted a different result while insisting the marketing and product execution behind its campaign held up regardless. That is a harder story to tell than a straightforward win, and a more useful one for an audience trying to judge whether Nike’s football bet is paying off.

Nike is still working through a period of soft growth, with continued weakness in China and at Converse only partly offset by stronger US and running performance. A marquee football moment was one of the more visible ways to show the turnaround has traction. Instead, the final became a showcase for adidas, whose momentum extends well beyond football.

Andrade closed the memo on a forward note, telling staff to “keep pushing, keep believing, keep trying,” and pointed to the 2027 Women’s World Cup in Brazil as the next test.

Editor’s note: SGIE´s Editor-in-Chief reached out to Andrade for comment or an interview. As of publication, we had not heard back from the company. We would welcome a post event review from Nike, forward looking and outlining the path ahead in football. Like Nike, we will be watching the Women’s World Cup with the same interest and commitment we brought to the men’s tournament.