Chery has signed Polish football star Robert Lewandowski as its global brand ambassador, the Chinese automaker disclosed on Monday — one of the most high-profile individual athlete signings by any Chinese automotive brand to date.
The signing marks a departure from the company’s traditional reliance on team and league sponsorships toward leveraging the global commercial pull of a single star athlete.
The 37-year-old Lewandowski — the FC Barcelona striker, two-time Bundesliga Player of the Season, and one of the highest-earning footballers in Europe — joins Chery as the first individual soccer athlete tie-in across the company’s decade-plus football marketing history.
The deal positions Chery within an accelerating trend of Chinese automotive marketing investment in European football, following BYD’s February signing with Manchester City, MG’s 2024 partnership with Arsenal, and Polestar’s deal with Borussia Dortmund — collectively representing the largest single push by Chinese automakers into Western sports marketing in the industry’s history.
EV contacted Chery Group for additional details, but the company declined to provide further detail as of Monday afternoon China time.
The “Chery For Family” Positioning
The signing ceremony backdrop displayed the tagline “CHERY FOR FAMILY” positioning statement — reflecting Chery’s strategic decision to anchor the ambassador relationship in family-oriented marketing rather than pure athletic performance positioning.
The signing ceremony images shared by Chery executives prominently featured a scale model of the Chery Tiggo 9 — the company’s flagship large SUV that anchors its international expansion across European, Latin American, Middle Eastern, and African markets.
Lewandowski’s Profile
The Polish striker, born in Warsaw in 1988, has played at the highest levels of European football across Germany (Bayern Munich, 2014-2022) and Spain (FC Barcelona, 2022-present), representing direct commercial exposure across two of Chery’s most important European target markets.
His personal social media following exceeds 50 million combined across Instagram, X, and Facebook — placing him among the top 20 most-followed active footballers globally.
Lewandowski has previously held endorsement contracts with brands including Nike, Huawei, Head & Shoulders, Coca-Cola, and Oakley — though the Chery deal represents his first major automotive partnership.
The Polish national team captain has been a fixture in European football for over a decade, having scored over 300 Bundesliga goals during his Bayern Munich tenure and was Barcelona’s striker through the current season.
The Football Marketing Push
BYD, the world’s largest electric vehicle maker in 2025, signed a multi-year partnership with Manchester City last February, replacing Nissan as the Premier League club’s official automotive partner.
The deal — valued at approximately £5 million per year according to British media reports — supplies BYD and Denza vehicles to Manchester City’s men’s and women’s first teams, with BYD branding featured on the training kit sleeve and dugout headrests at Etihad Stadium.
The Manchester City partnership followed BYD’s sponsorship of UEFA Euro 2024 — where the Chinese automaker replaced Volkswagen as the official mobility partner — and a three-year partnership with Inter Milan announced in July 2024 that supplied approximately 70 vehicles to the Italian club.
MG, the brand owned by Shanghai-based SAIC Motor, signed a multi-year deal with Arsenal in January 2024 as the club’s official automotive partner — covering both the men’s and women’s teams.
Polestar, the Geely-backed Swedish-Chinese EV maker, became the official mobility partner of Borussia Dortmund for the 2025-26 season — extending Geely Group’s broader European commercial footprint that includes Volvo Cars and Lotus.
In Italy, Chery’s Omoda & Jaecoo sub-brands signed an Official Automotive Partner agreement with ACF Fiorentina in August 2025, while the same sub-brands signed a league-wide partnership with the Israeli Professional Football Leagues later that month.
Chery’s Football Marketing
Chery’s football marketing strategy has historically focused on team and league partnerships rather than individual athlete endorsements — making the Lewandowski signing a meaningful strategic departure.
The Wuhu, Anhui-based automaker has used football sponsorships since at least 2013 as a core pillar of its global brand-building strategy.
Early partnerships focused on Latin America — including sponsorships with Chile’s national team (2013), Santos FC in Brazil (2013), and Argentine clubs — that helped Chery establish credibility in key export markets during its initial international expansion phase.
The company subsequently expanded to Ecuador’s Independiente del Valle (sponsor since 2019), Chile’s Club Deportivo Universidad Católica (which secured four consecutive Chilean league titles during the partnership period), and various other Latin American clubs.
More recent activations include a Mamelodi Sundowns partnership in South Africa (May 2025), the Spanish national team sponsorship through Chery’s revived Ebro brand (May 2025), the Fiorentina partnership through Omoda & Jaecoo (August 2025), and the UK Soccer Aid for UNICEF principal partnership (March 2026) — which provides vehicles for the 20th anniversary celebrity charity match at London Stadium on May 31.
