Hollywood couldn’t have scripted it any better.
That’s the thinking of the team at American Eagle, which had the foresight to sign soccer phenom Lamine Yamal as a global ambassador in January. Yamal and his Spanish teammates won the FIFA World Cup on Sunday against last year’s champions, Argentina, and the 19-year-old made history as the youngest player to win both the World Cup and the UEFA European Championship.
American Eagle inked an unprecedented five-year deal with the athlete that includes him being featured in campaigns and collaborating on limited-edition product.
Now the first co-branded product will launch on Sept. 3 in time for the back-to-school season.
“We’re still riding the World Cup wave,” said Craig Brommers, chief marketing officer of American Eagle. “It was an unbelievable tournament for Lamine and his Spanish teammates. Given Lamine’s success over the last month, our internal rally cry has become: ‘From Yamal to the mall.’ Back-to-school is our Super Bowl of denim, now we’re saying it’s the World Cup of denim.”
Lamine Yamal is also starring in the company’s back-to-school campaign.
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To celebrate Yamal’s — and Spain’s — victory, American Eagle changed its name over the weekend to Lamine’s Eagles. The company reinvented its logo featuring his initials and a soccer ball covered in patchwork denim, renamed a popular model The 19 Jean in honor of his age and uniform number and took over Times Square with billboards celebrating the athlete.
“I personally met Lamine in Barcelona back in September 2025, and it was the first time I appreciated how popular he is in Spain and throughout Europe,” he continued. “He literally cannot go outside without getting mobbed. And when we were talking about this potential partnership, we talked about how both sides could benefit from the relationship. Obviously, American Eagle partnering with a true rising global sports star, and then Lamine wanting to crack the United States market in a larger way.”
Brommers believes that the popularity of the World Cup has brought a newfound appreciation of the sport to American consumers — one that he believes will continue. And Yamal has become one of the best-known faces of soccer.
American Eagle rebranded itself Lamine’s Eagles over the World Cup final weekend.
“Lamine’s upside is still pretty high,” Brommers said.
“Wearing number 19 at 19 years old and winning on July 19, Hollywood cannot write a story better,” Brommers said.
And American Eagle’s target Gen Z and Gen Alpha consumers heading into malls for their back-to-school wardrobes will find Yamal’s likeness in store windows, on the homepage of its website and dominating the company’s social media. “This is a really exciting moment for our brand,” he said.
The capsule will be co-branded and will consist of about 25 men’s and unisex pieces including denim, woven bottoms, rugby shirts and sweaters. Brommers said the color palette of greens, tans, whites and burgundy was inspired by Yamal’s hometown and “feels rich like the Spanish culture.”
American Eagle renamed one of its models The 19 Jean in honor of Yamal.
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Although Yamal was busy training and servicing his other sponsors, Brommers said he was nonethless involved in the design of the capsule. “What he was really interested in doing was marrying his sense of street style with the American heritage of our brand and finding tension between those two worlds.”
The capsule will be sold globally, he said. “Right now, he’s one of the most known athletes in the world. He’s already a force around the world and his name and likeness have dramatically increased in terms of awareness here in the States.”
And for the next five years, he’ll be partnering with American Eagle on more capsule collections. “When consumers see it, they’ll know this is a nice marriage, and it’s the first of many to come.”
