Chinese ICT and telecommunications firm Huawei has signed Argentine and FC Barcelona football star player Lionel Messi as its latest global brand ambassador for a time period of two years.
The announcement was made yesterday in Barcelona, Spain, Some global media have been speculating that the deal will cost Huawei around five to six million euros annually. The exact figure is not disclosed by the company.
In recent years, Huawei has reached several partnerships with European athletes and organisations in an effort to expand its presence in Europe, including Norwegian Ski Federation, Robert Lewandowski from Polish national football team, Spanish Liga De Fútbol Profesional (LFP) and England’s Arsenal Football Club.
Pakistan Huawei has also recently signed local singer Atif Aslam as their brand ambassador.
“Lionel Messi will help our brand to encourage people to focus, persevere and breakthrough, to connect with greatness, especially in Europe, Asia and Latin America where Huawei has great devotions,” said, Kevin Ho, President, Handset Business, Huawei Consumer BG.
He stressed that Huawei and Messi was a perfect fit as it seeks to sell smart phones and other ICT technologies in over 170 countries, including Jamaica and elsewhere in the Caribbean.
Responding to the partnership Messi said: “You have to sacrifice and go all in, always looking forward to achieving greatness. The day you think there are no improvements to be made, you have to keep working to reaching other achievements.”
Huawei is currently among the top three smartphone manufacturers in the world, the others being rivals Apple and Samsung.
