The prospective change of chief executive at the Adidas Group, scheduled for 2017 at the latest, is leading to increasing speculation, with a report in Der Spiegel that leading executives from several rival companies were approached for the job. Adidas confirmed in February that it had launched a formal search for a successor to Herbert Hainer, who has been formally in charge since 2001. The German magazine reports that Egon Zehnder approached Björn Gulden, Puma's chief executive, who spent several years at Adidas, as well as Heikki Takala, chief executive at Amer Sports, and an unnamed manager from Nike. Adidas says the board is studying internal as well as external candidates. Eric Liedtke and Roland Auschel, the board members in charge of global marketing and global sales at the Adidas Group, are regarded as the two most likely internal candidates. Auschel's contract was extended earlier this month for three years until 2019, as previously reported, which is in line with the company's policy to organize timely contract renewals. Reuters quoted a Credit Suisse analyst as saying that an internal choice appeared increasingly likely, as governance issues at Fifa affected key sponsors and Adidas may find it harder to attract external candidates. Puma and Amer Sports both declined to comment, but Gulden said in a conference call earlier this month that he relished his task at Puma: “I hope I can do this job as long as possible and that we can show the results,” he said.

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