SHANGHAI, May 27 Reuters AliExpress, an ecommerce site owned by Chinese giant Alibaba, has signed former England soccer captain David Beckham as a brand ambassador as it plays catchup with rival PDD Holdings39; Temu in a battle to sell cheap madeinChina goods to the world.

A lowkey crossborder player until recently, Alibaba is now investing aggressively to boost global sales as domestic ecommerce growth wanes. Its international division, which includes AliExpress, is its fastest growing unit with revenues surging 45 year on year over January to March.

Earlier this year, AliExpress also signed on as a sponsor of the UEFA Euro 2024 tournament, which starts in June, where it will invest millions of dollars in discounts, deals and engagement to attract online consumers.

An advertisement campaign featuring Beckham will run in conjunction with the UEFA tournament and encourage consumers to score more with AliExpress, the ecommerce platform said in a statement on Monday.

This comes after the success of a move by PDD Holdings39; Temu to air multiple commercials at the Super Bowl this year encouraging U.S. consumers to shop like a billionaire.

According to mobile intelligence firm Apptopia, Temu39;s app downloads jumped 34 on Super Bowl Sunday from the day before.

Football, soccer, fans in Europe and Latin America are a similar demographic to American football fans in North America, they are generally going to include a lot of pricesensitive, inflationimpacted consumers,…