Lewandowski ends sponsorship deal with Huawei over links to Russia

World Footballer of the Year, Robert Lewandowski, has ended a sponsorship deal with Huawei, the Chinese technological company confirmed on Tuesday.

Huawei, however, failed to disclose the reasons behind the end of the partnership with the Bayern Munich and Poland striker.

Huawei dismissed speculations the decision could have to do with the Chinese company allegedly helping Russia make its networks safe against hackers in the wake of its invasion of Ukraine.

It described a report to that effect as “untrue and based on inaccurate and false information” in a tweet on Monday.

That report is said to refer to a now-deleted Chinese report which said Huawei would train some 50,000 experts in Russia at its research centres.

Meanwhile, Lewandowski’s agent had earlier on Monday confirmed the development, noting that the Poland striker had terminated his contract with Huawei, which is said to be worth around £4 million per year.

Lewandowski’s agent, in a statement, said: “Today, we decided to end the marketing cooperation between Robert Lewandowski and the Huawei brand.

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“Therefore, the implementation of all promotional services has been suspended on our part.”

The Poland striker has been critical of Russia’s invasion, wearing captain’s armbands in Ukraine’s colours in the last two Bundesliga games.

He also welcomed the decision of FIFA to suspend all Russian teams from international football.

Poland were originally to play a World Cup play-off match in Russia on March 24, 2022, but Lewandowski had stated that he would not play against Russia.

Lewandowski was named the Best FIFA Men’s Player of the Year 2020 and 2021.

The Star