The former England footballer David Beckham has signed up as a global ambassador for AliExpress, an online retail platform owned by the Chinese tech group Alibaba.
The deal comes in the run-up to the Euro 2024 football tournament, which starts in June, and is the latest tie-up for Beckham, following hot on the heels of partnerships with the suit maker Hugo Boss and the air fryer maker SharkNinja in recent weeks. He is also an ambassador for Tudor watches, Tempur mattresses, Unicef, and Nespresso coffee machines, and he also fronts a Walkers crisps ad.
AliExpress is a sponsor of Euro 2024, which will be part of a big summer of sport that includes the Olympics in Paris.
Beckham, who became a global style figure after rising to fame playing for Manchester United, Real Madrid and England, reportedly pocketed £200m from the sale of 55% of the business that handles his brand to the US group Authentic Brands in 2022.
Accounts for the first year of the partnership show that brand Beckham’s revenues more than doubled from £34m to £72.6m, although pre-tax profits fell from £23.6m to £10.8m, chiefly because of an increase in administrative expenses.
Beckham and his wife, Victoria, who has her own fashion label and beauty business, have earned millions through brand deals, with the former Spice Girl joining up with the Spanish high street brand Mango in recent months.
The pair, who live mostly in a £30m white stucco townhouse in west London and own a superyacht called Seven, have a combined fortune of £455m, up £30m from a year before, according to the Sunday Times rich list.
In March, AliExpress signed a deal to be the exclusive e-commerce platform partner of European football’s governing body, Uefa, which oversees Euro 2024.
The tournament, which is taking place in Germany, has also been sponsored by other Chinese groups, including the maker of electric vehicles BYD and the electronics company Vivo.
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Beckham’s work as an ambassador for the 2022 Fifa World Cup, for which he was reportedly paid £10m, attracted criticism. His business profited from his business relationship with Qatar, a country with question marks over its record on human rights, including its treatment of women and the LGBTQ+ community.
Beckham said at the time that he believed sport could be a “force for good” and that the World Cup had stimulated debate about the issues.