Manchester United’s Amad Diallo scores dramatic World Cup winner as crypto sits on the sidelines

Amad Diallo came off the bench in the 56th minute and buried a 90th-minute winner for Ivory Coast against Ecuador on June 11, becoming the first Manchester United player to score in the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Fellow Red Devil Marcus Rashford has also found the net in the tournament, giving United’s contingent a strong showing on football’s biggest stage.

The goal and what it means for United’s brand

Diallo’s strike in Philadelphia was the kind of moment that turns promising players into household names. A substitute appearance, a last-minute goal, a clean sheet for his country.

What’s notably absent from United’s current sponsor roster? Any crypto company. Manchester United previously had a partnership with Tezos, the layer-1 blockchain, as part of the club’s training kit sponsorship. That deal represented one of the more prominent intersections of crypto and elite-level football. It’s no longer active.

Crypto’s football retreat

Rewind to 2021 and 2022, and crypto companies were spending aggressively to plaster their names across stadiums, jerseys, and tournament broadcasts. Crypto.com bought naming rights to the Staples Center in Los Angeles. FTX had its logo on MLB umpire uniforms. Socios fan tokens were marketed as the future of supporter engagement.

Then the market imploded. FTX collapsed spectacularly. Several fan token projects saw their values crater. And clubs that had eagerly signed crypto sponsorship deals found themselves quietly distancing from the sector.

Manchester United’s own trajectory tells the story in miniature. The Tezos deal was announced with the usual fanfare about innovation and digital transformation. Now the club’s sponsor page reads like a traditional corporate portfolio: sportswear, tech chips, nothing blockchain-adjacent.

What this means for crypto and sports investors

Athletes like Diallo and Rashford, whose market value can shift significantly based on tournament performances, are exactly the kind of endorsement targets that crypto companies pursued aggressively a few years ago. Tom Brady promoted FTX. Steph Curry backed FTX. Those partnerships became cautionary tales rather than success stories.

As of June 2026, Manchester United’s official partners include adidas and Snapdragon, with no active crypto sponsors noted.

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