David Beckham, Raúl and Zinedine Zidane during an Adidas photo-shoot in China in 2003

Real Madrid embarked on a pre-season summer tour in Asia, for 18 days, to cash in on the worldwide appeal of their then new signing, David Beckham. The tour included exhibition matches played in Beijing, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Bangkok, which generated a revenue of €10 million. However, the preparation value of the tour was questionable despite the wide publicity, and said to have catered more to the needs of the club's marketing.