Catch a shooting star

The TV series is just part of bigger plans La Liga has for China.

In late December, the 270th edition of El Clasico - a fiercely contested derby between Spanish arch rivals Real Madrid and FC Barcelona - was held at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium in Madrid, where the away side from Barcelona defeated their opponents 3-0.

And in an unprecedented move, the match had been arranged to kick off at 8 pm Beijing time, a peak viewing slot for millions of Chinese soccer fans who had previously been used to staying up past midnight to watch the famous fixture. Former FC Barcelona player and French international Eric Abidal also visited Shanghai to celebrate the football fiesta with Chinese soccer fans.

Currently broadcast live in China via the online sports platform PPTV, La Liga viewers normally pay 1 yuan (0.15 US cents) to watch a single match but this was raised to 12 yuan for the most recent El Clasico in a bid to control a surge in traffic to the website's servers.

In October, 2016, La Liga partnered with Shanghai-based Activation Group to found La Liga Club in Shanghai, the organization's first official fan club in China, and its first localized branch outside of Spain.