Jack Ma and Xu Jiayin, the two majority shareholders of  Guangzhou Evergrande, made a formal announcement today that officially renamed the team the “Guangzhou Evergrande Taobao Football Team” for the 2015 season.

We haven’t heard of an official announcement for the English name, but “Evergrande Taobao” is a direct translation of the Chinese one. The joint-naming increases the public profile of the two popular brands: the “Evergrande” football club and the extremely popular “Taobao” e-shopping service.

As part of the deal in which Jack Ma and the Alibaba group paid a reported RMB 1.2 billion for a 50% stake in the team, the club could tack on an additional two characters to its official name. The limit meant four-character “Alibaba” wouldn’t fit.

So starting next year, Taobao won’t just be a convenient way to buy stuff you don’t need without putting on your pants, but one of China’s most-winningest football teams in history.

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• Guangzhou Workers Get Time Off To Watch The World Cup

Photo: QQ