Sports agency MP & Silva and Juventus will join forces to launch Chinese and Japanese web services for the Italian soccer club's fans in each country. The marketing services deal includes websites, online shops and mobile phone sites - specifically focusing on a website in China, and a mobile phone site in Japan after market research conducted by the agency.

The deal coincides with Juventus handing a trial to Yang Yun, the 20-year-old Chinese defender, who impressed coach Claudio Ranieri during the club's tour of Asia. The Shanghai Shenhua youngster will train with the Italian giants for two weeks with a view to securing a transfer.

"MP & Silva conducted market analysis and has chosen the platforms in accordance to the preferred modes of news consumption of the Chinese and Japanese audiences," said Peter Leible, MP & Silva Asia managing director. "Mobile is hugely popular in Japan with over 110 million subscribers, who tend to prefer to access information on the go, while the internet remains to be China's most preferred mode of reading news, considering that both internet user base and penetration is well over 20 per cent year-on-year. Through these strategically selected platforms and local partners, we are confident that Juventus is not only well-positioned to consolidate and build their fan base, but these sites will form an important way for the club to reach out to their existing as well as attracting new fans."

Marco Fassone, Juventus' chief sales and marketing officer, said: "Fundamentally, these projects represent an important step forward for the club as we leverage on the success of our tour across Asia-Pacific from last year. We have a huge and growing fanbase in Asia, and while we would like to meet our Asian fans on a more regular basis, new media platforms are important channels for us to engage them daily, even from the farthest corners of the world."