Roy of the Rovers

Roy Race, the teenage goal-scoring sensation at Melchester Rovers, and the star of iconic football series Roy of the Rovers, has signed an exclusive boot deal with British sportswear brand Gola.

It’s not the first time Gola has been seen in the pages of Roy of the Rovers - back in 1981, Gola sponsored the iconic footballing superstar Roy Race, and his team Melchester Rovers. The partnership made the cover of the July 4th 1981 issue of Roy of the Rovers, with Roy first showing off his brand new red and yellow Gola sponsored kit to his team mates. “What do you think of our new playing strip?” he asked. “Terrific, isn’t it?”

In the following years, the Gola sponsorship of Melchester Rovers would become emblematic of Roy of the Rovers for an entire generation of football-mad fans. Now Rebellion – publishers of the rebooted Roy of the Rovers – are delighted to be working with Gola once more!

Roy will be sporting Gola football boots in illustrated fiction and graphic novels for the rest of the 2018/19 season, and will be seen in his custom boots for the first time on the cover of Roy of the Rovers: Teamwork by Tom Palmer (illustrated fiction, published today!).

Roy can also be seen shaking the hand of Gola Chairman Harvey Jacobson on the pitch at Mel Park in the pages of Roy of the Rovers: Foul Play by Rob Williams and Ben Willsher (graphic novel, published 7 March 2019). Having signed a boot deal with the brand, the signature Melchester Rovers colour palette of red, yellow and black has been applied to the Gola Ativo 5 Gamma VX style.

New to the rebooted Roy of the Rovers? Catch up here!

Gola commented:

“Gola is so pleased to be sponsoring Roy Race for the second time and to a whole new generation of readers. The partnership is a fitting tribute to Gola’s long footballing heritage.”

Rebellion CEO Jason Kingsley OBE said:

“We’re delighted to have signed a boot deal for Roy, and Gola are the perfect partner! Gola had a great – and hugely popular – partnership with Roy of the Rovers in the past, and it’s fantastic to be able to re-establish that relationship for the modern era. We’re sure Racey will be scoring plenty of goals with his awesome new boots!”