"Usually, players of my age go to Qatar or to China" said Cristiano Ronaldo when he signed for Juventus last week. He may be plying his trade in Italy next season, but there's work to be done in China this summer for his 2018 CR7 tour.
Ronaldo embarked on a PR mission to China last summer with Nike, and now he's heading back out there to sit all 1.3 billion of them down to found out why the hell they don't all worship him yet. Yep, the CR7 brand show heads east to raise his already sky-high profile with a number of visits and opportunities laid on by Nike. The Juventus man posted a photo on his social channels today before his crew boarded the Swoosh branded plane.
2017 saw the birth of the pre-season icon tour. Nike and Neymar hit up Los Angeles, adidas and Pogba toured China, and now CR7 is off to China for a second successive year with his sights set on making friends, and money, and friends, but mainly money. The Chinese football market is one of the fastest growing markets in the game and showing his face round those parts of the world will only further elevate his superstar status. And that, of course, is good news and good business for Nike.
The solo #CR7Tour to China will undoubtably result in Ronaldo missing at least the beginning of Juve's tour to the USA next week when they'll face Bayern Munich, Benfica, and his previous employers Real Madrid. Ronaldo's schedule for his China tour is yet to be unveiled but he is due to stop off in Singapore for a day on his way to his final destination. Have a flick through the images below to see what he got up to last summer.
Stay tuned for more on Cristiano Ronaldo's CR7Tour of China. And feel free to call your own holiday a summer promotional tour too. Just chuck your initials and squad number in front of your destination. Done.
Yes, you're right. He is wearing his upcoming Nike React FC CR7 shoes. Course he is. Doesn't miss a trick this boy.
