The Football Pitch Has Become the Carmakers' New Showroom

25.06.2026 • Ando Rahu

The battle for the car buyer's attention is no longer fought only in showrooms and TV spots — increasingly, it is decided on the football pitch. Established brands and newcomers alike are chasing the most valuable currency in the automotive world: consumer trust. Top clubs, national associations and especially big stars guard their reputation carefully and rarely tie their name to a product they don't believe in. That is precisely why a partnership with a football star means more than visibility for a carmaker — it is a public sign that the car has crossed the threshold of trust.

The latest example comes from Barcelona, where Chinese manufacturer Chery named Robert Lewandowski as its brand ambassador and handed him its flagship, the Tiggo 9 hybrid SUV. With that, Chery stepped onto a path that Europe's major brands have been paving for decades.

The Rules Were Written in Germany

The blueprint for the union of cars and football is to be found in Germany. Since 2019, Volkswagen has been the main partner of the German Football Association — a role it took over from Mercedes-Benz — and it has supported the German Cup since 2012; the deal runs until the summer of 2028. The Bundesliga club from Wolfsburg also belongs to the group.

In the premium segment the bond is even tighter. Audi owns eight percent of Bayern Munich and supplies the team with cars. Mercedes-Benz stood behind the German national team for 46 years until 2018 and has remained close to its home club VfB Stuttgart, whose stadium has carried the name of Porsche-linked company MHP since 2023. BMW has been Real Madrid's official car partner since 2022, again as Audi's successor.

What Do the Stars Drive?

Lewandowski's journey through Europe's elite has gone hand in hand with the major brands. At Munich he was part of the Audi fleet; after his 2022 move to Barcelona, the car changed to Cupra, which also belongs to the Volkswagen Group and builds an individually configured car for each player. At Real Madrid, Kylian Mbappé and Jude Bellingham receive a car from BMW every season, while in Lewandowski's old place in Munich, Harry Kane drives an Audi. What makes the Chery deal special is that, for the first time, Lewandowski represents a carmaker personally — not as part of a club-wide package.

Partnership Carries Both Opportunity and Risk

The football audience is one of the largest and most loyal in entertainment, and a single top player speaks to fans in dozens of countries — Lewandowski has more than 50 million followers across social media. But mere visibility can be bought by anyone with the budget. The real value of a partnership lies elsewhere: a world-class athlete puts his name on the line, and the decision to tie himself to a brand signals that he believes in it.

In this way the star's values — discipline, reliability, family — transfer to the car as well. Such everyday reassurance is hard to fit into a 30-second clip. In Spain, Volkswagen has linked football to electric mobility, and BMW uses its Real Madrid partnership to showcase electric cars. For a brand still new to Europe, like Chery, the backing of a famous athlete means more than a rise in awareness — it gives the buyer a reason to take seriously a car they might otherwise overlook in favour of a more familiar name.

Who Is Chery?

A brand only now gaining recognition in Western Europe is by no means a newcomer to the car world. Founded in 1997, Chery is one of China's leading carmakers and has been the country's top-exporting passenger-car brand for 22 consecutive years. In 2024 the company sold 2.6 million vehicles, of which more than a million were exported, and it operates today in over 110 countries. Chery was also the first independent Chinese brand to surpass one million units in sales, and the first to master the full production of engines, gearboxes, chassis and platforms. In hybrid technology the company has nearly a quarter-century of experience — and it is precisely this segment that stands at the heart of Chery's European strategy.

Chery's Game in Europe Is Bigger Than One Star

Lewandowski is just one part of a much larger plan for Chery. In April 2026 the company opened its first European operations centre in Barcelona, coordinating sales, supply chains, finance and public relations, and launched a research and development institute focused on electrification, smart mobility and meeting European standards. In Barcelona's Zona Franca district, Chery plans to restart a former Nissan plant together with Spanish company Ebro-EV Motors and, according to Reuters, to grow output to as many as 150,000 cars a year by 2029. Football is just one link in this chain — from factory to showroom. The real test is turning attention into trust, test drives and lasting customer relationships.

The picture is constantly shifting: Mercedes-Benz left the national team's partners in 2018, Volkswagen extended its deal with the association, and Opel has withdrawn from professional football. Priorities are reassessed, and new manufacturers fill the vacated space, speaking ever more in the European tongue.

What Chery's Arrival Means for the Estonian Buyer

The Baltics are no sideshow in this plan. Chery's dealership network is already taking shape in Estonia, and the first cars will reach customers soon. The Estonian market will see primarily the Tiggo family, with prices starting from just over €23,000 for the hybrid Tiggo 4 HEV and reaching close to €49,000 for the flagship Tiggo 9. The entire model range is built on hybrid and plug-in hybrid technology — meaning Chery enters the Estonian market exactly where demand is currently growing fastest.

For the Estonian buyer, the arrival of a new player means above all greater choice and tighter price competition in precisely the hybrid segment, where the tone has so far been set by familiar Asian and European brands. Whether Lewandowski's name and the trust signal of the football pitch will translate into trust here as well will become clear only after the first test drives and customer experiences.

The Pitch as the Most Visible Showroom

Chery is active on the pitch for a simple reason: a car is at once a financial and an emotional choice. The buyer's eye drifts toward familiar brands, and the focus is increasingly on hybrids, electric cars and software-driven vehicles. Lewandowski behind the wheel of a hybrid works as a trust signal — a sign that a respected star considers the car worthy of his name. At the same time, Volkswagen and BMW defend the position built over decades by tying themselves to sustainability and broader social responsibility.

In this game, the football pitch is a neutral and highly visible showroom. Chery steps onto it as a brand that has won the personal backing of a player whose entire career has been intertwined with the giants of the car industry — but who now, for the first time, represents a single brand truly in person.