Celebrity endorsements…an effective way to promote your product.  I get to meet several celebrities during the course of a year here at TZO.  More often than not – these are stars of the sporting arena.

Over the course of the next 3 blog posts I am going to introduce you to 3 of the biggest stars in their respective sports.

Cuauhtemoc Blanco

Cuauhtemoc Blanco is a spokesman for Safeway Auto Insurance.

Blanco is a Mexican professional soccer player who currently plays for Chicago Fire in Major League Soccer of US.

Blanco is the only Mexican football player with an award in a major international FIFA competition, as he won the Silver Ball and the Golden Shoe awards in the 1999 FIFA Confederations Cup. He has been awarded the MVP of the Mexican First League Division five times.

Although Blanco plays mostly as an attacking midfielder, he is tied with Ronaldinho as the leading Confederations Cup goal scorer. Blanco is the second leading goal scorer for the Mexican national football team and his debut team Club América; he is also Mexico’s second top scorer in both the FIFA World Cup and the Copa Libertadores tournament.

Blanco is currently the second highest paid player in the US Major League (behind David Beckham).  He is THE star of the Mexican national team and will be at the World Cup in South Africa.

Blanco remains remembered for the Cuautemiña or Blanco Trick, which he performed notably at the 1998 World Cup. In the trick, Blanco traps the moving football between his feet and jumps over an opposition player’s attempted tackle, landing with the ball under control. The trick is difficult to perform but is eye-catching and has been incorporated as a special skill into the FIFA series of football games. 

Blanco is currently on the cover of FIFA 2010.

I did not get to chat to Blanco too much as he does not speak much Englsh.  He did a great job recording new spots for Safeway Auto Insurance which will be on air here in the US next month.

Cuauhtemoc Blanco

Hamish McDonald

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