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Match ball for Chinese leader

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer presented his  Chinese counterpart President Xi Jinping with a Premier League match ball flown 5,000 miles from London. Tthe UK Prime Minister arrived in Beijing armed with one of the yellow Puma match balls used in Sunday’s Premier League fixture between Arsenal and Manchester United, a game he had attended at the Emirates Stadium.    It wassigned by a number of United pl;ayers.

It was reportedly presented to Xi ahead of a formal summit and lunch in the Great Hall of the People, with China’s president widely known to be a Manchester United supporter. 

Xi’s affection for Manchester United may have been reasonably well known, but more surprising was the revelation  that he told Starmer he also has a fondness for Arsenal, Manchester City and Crystal Palace.

Xi’s last trip to Manchester saw him given a tour of the Etihad Campus by City’s chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak, who has subsequently become a special envoy to China on behalf of the UAE.

Xi’s liking for Crystal Palace may arise from the fact that Sun Jihai and Fan Zhiyi were considered trailblazers when they became the first Chinese players to sign for an English club in 1998, both joining Palace, who were then in the English second tier.

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