Espanyol to issue special 'Chinese' shirt due to Wu Lei's popularity

MADRID - The arrival of Chinese striker Wu Lei to Spanish Liga Santander club Espanyol from Shanghai SIPG continues to create reverberations around the Barcelona-based club.

The club has confirmed on its website that in just two weeks Wu Lei became the player who sold the most replica shirts of 400 in their first team squad.

The club has announced that it is going to launch a limited edition of replica shirts which can be bought from Espanyol online shop on February 22, the same day as the home game against Huesca.

The 300 fans who are quickest off the mark will be able to buy 100 shirts with Wu Lei's name written in both western and Chinese characters, while there will also be 100 shirts bearing the names of striker Borja Iglesias and midfielder Marc Roca, also in western and Chinese characters.

Meanwhile, sports paper Diario AS reported that Espanyol have already received requests for 5,000 shirts from China and that these shirts will be sold both in shops and online.

Wu Lei has played only about 80 minutes (against Villarreal and Rayo Vallecano) for Espanyol, but his pace and willingness to attack have already made him a popular figure, especially after he won a penalty against Rayo, which helped Espanyol level the scores in a game they went on to win 2-1.