In 1994, the World Cup traveld to the United States of America and it looked as though a new country had caught the footballing bug.

Since then, MLS and US football in general has found hurdles to overcome, but growth in popularity is certainly there, even if it’s been fairly slow for domestic competitions over the last two decades. Sluggish growth, though, certainly isn’t an accusation you can aim at one American organisation’s entry into the sport since that tournament 24 years ago.

Nike first ventured into football around the time of that World Cup. The American brand felt as though they needed to get involved with soccer’s growing popularity in the country and USA 94 was supposed to be the big bang. It wasn’t a sport Nike were familiar with, though, and there was a learning curve as they started to create kits for European football clubs. But the seminal moment came in 1996 when they started making the iconic yellow kits for Brazil.

Since then, they’ve gone from strength to strength, endorsing some of the biggest names in football and reinforcing their position as the biggest sportswear manufacturer in the world.

On Sunday, the World Cup final will see France and Croatia take to the field to face each other, and one of the (admittedly lesser) stories around that match will be the fact that this is the first time ever in which Nike will be the kit sponsor of both teams in the final of football’s biggest competition.

Ready already. @KMbappe
⠀ ⠀
Believe. #justdoit pic.twitter.com/yBGw2apbbI

— Nike Football (@nikefootball) July 10, 2018

Four years ago, when Germany beat Argentina in the final of the Brazilian edition of the competition, it was rival manufacturer Adidas who provided the kits for both sides, but both losing semi-finalists of that year were Holland and Brazil, both of whom wore Nike kits. Last time it was the third-place playoff, this time the final itself.

Given how widespread the Nike swoosh is in football these days – on boots, kits and even balls (though Sunday’s ball will be an Adidas one) – it’s hard to believe that the company has never had both teams in the final.

This time, Nike will see its logo burnish the kits of both sides (including, obviously, whoever will lift the trophy at the very end) as well as the boots of players like Kylian Mbappe and Luka Modric: the stars who have been gracing the company’s social media channels over the past few weeks.

With the biggest game of the lot left to come on Sunday two teams will battle it out for the right to call themselves World Cup winners. But Nike can already claim victory.