More than 40 million viewers in China watched Espanyol’s clash against Real Valladolid on Saturday due to the involvement of striker Wu Lei.
Marca cite that TV figures in the Far East dwarfed that within Spain, where they report that only 177k viewers tuned in for the game.
The 27-year-old striker netted his first goal for the Catalan club since joining for a €2m fee from Shanghai SIPG in the winter transfer window.
“I like that people think I'm the talisman of Espanyol,” Lei told his introductory press conference last month.
“I'm currently not in the best physical shape unfortunately, due to some injuries, and I need time to catch up and adapt because it's different from China but I have the confidence to be here for many years.
“My level of Spanish? What I use every day, greetings, and technically the coach has made us a list of words to learn as quickly as possible, and later this month I will ask my private teacher to improve with Spanish.”
