If a fan of any team reviews the collection of t-shirts of his favorite club, he will notice that they all have the same shield, somewhat changing colors and, above all, a diverse handful of different advertising brands on their front.
Except for the one who has the shirt of Ranger de Talca, a historic team in the Chilean League, recently promoted this year, which in the shirts of recent years always has the same advertising, an unprecedented fact in world football.
And in a sports industry, where the figures that matter are expressed in millions of dollars, those who prefer to count years with links that point to a true forever are rare. In world football the benchmark is the rise of Chile with the longest sponsorship on the front of a shirt, which will reach 54 uninterrupted years.
An oasis of loyalty that has remained between Rangers de Talca and Productos Fernández (PF), who beginning in 2026 announced the renewal of their contract, which extends until 2031, and highlight it as a bond that surpasses powerful players such as the German Bayern Munich or the English Arsenal.
“An achievement that speaks of loyalty, identity and tradition, values that unite us on and off the field,” the Rangers club expressed on its social networks.
In the universe of t-shirts, the red and black of the ‘Piducanos’ has worn the letters of the food products company – hams and cured meat – on its chest since 1977, which surpasses as “main sponsor” that of VfL Wolfsburg of Germany with Volkswagen (35 years) and the Yokohama F. Marinos of Japan with Nissan (34 years).
Then the clubs Cruz Azul from Mexico (33 years with Cemento Cruz Azul), Zenit de Saint Petersburg from Russia (29 years with Gazprom), Bayern Munich (24 years with Telekom/T-Mobile) and Arsenal FC (20 years with Fly Emirates) appear.
“We believe in relationships that are built with time, coherence and conviction and we know that there are bonds that are not measured in seasons, but in decades,” the PF company said in a statement.
In world football, however, there are much older commercial relationships whose contracts over the years have mutated from shirts to stadium naming or secondary sponsorships. There the leaders are the Dutch PSV Eindhoven with Philips (113 years old) and the Spanish Betis with Cruzcampo (55 years old).
In the case of the Dutch giants, their bond was recognized by the Guinness Book of Records in 2023, when they turned 110 years old.
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References of a region
Rangers and PF are predominant institutions in Talca, located 300 kilometers south of Santiago in the Maule region – central Chile – known as the heart of Chilean wine for its ancient vineyards, whose products compete internationally.
The soccer team is known as “El Gigante del Maule” and is the fourth oldest club in Chile at 123 years old. Although it has remained in the promotion league for 12 seasons after being relegated in 2014, in the first division it played 46 seasons, managing to be runner-up on two occasions (1969 and 2002).
The history of Productos Fernández also began at the beginning of the 20th century, founded in 1902 by the Spaniard Manuel Fernández, who began the tradition of producing cured meats, bringing recipes originating from Ponferrada to Chile.
They were born almost at the same time, and, although the strategic alliance came many years later promoted by the deceased heir of the founder, Manuel Fernández Godoy, the relationship between both institutions began early with several members of the family occupying management positions in the club.
A bond with property
The link between Rangers and PF deepened since last December, when the power structure in the Maule club took a strategic turn by putting 50% of the shares up for sale to a group of local businessmen, among whom is José Luis Fernández, a member of the founding family of PF.
The economic contribution that the investment represents has not been publicly disclosed, nor has the amount of the sponsorship, but for the food company “being part of Rangers is accompanying a history, a city and a passion that transcends generations,” they explained.
The movement, however, has a clear objective to fight for the place to go directly to the First Division of the Chilean league in 2027, after recovering the home field in the renovated Fiscal stadium in Talca that hosted the U20 World Cup last year, and with it the hope.
The 2026 version of the jersey with the world’s longest-running front sponsorship costs just dollars and is branded by Chilean sportswear company KS7.
With information from EFE.
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