This season's first El Clasico between Barcelona and Real Madrid will feature rapper Drake, who has teamed up with the Catalan giants.
And no, before you ask Joan Laporta has not pulled another economic lever to sign the Canadian crooner play in midfield alongside Pedri. Neither have Barcelona teamed up with Sheffield Wednesday, bringing the famous owl to the side's famous blaugrana stripes.
Drake is a noted football fan – or is that soccer? – and has been seen a few times posing in various football shirts, so now he's getting his OVO logo on the front of the Barça jersey.
Why is Drake's OVO logo on the Barcelona shirts during the El Clasico against Real Madrid?
As part of Barcelona's partnership with Spotify, Drake is the first artist to feature on the front of those famous blue and red stripes after hitting 50 billion streams on the music streaming service.
To celebrate, his OVO owl logo (that stands for 'October's Very Own') is adorning the Barça shirts, with the rapper himself claiming, “This doesn’t feel real but it is.”
“This initiative shows our potential to become a unique platform to offer experiences that help bring us closer to our fans while reaching out to new audiences around the world,” Barça said.
Naturally, this link-up reminds us of another La Liga celebrity collaboration.
Back in the 2000s, Atletico Madrid struck a shirt sponsorship deal with Colombia pictures. Atleti were sponsored by a number of Hollywood movies, including Hellboy, xXx2, Spiderman and Hitch.
As part of the initiative, the Colchoneros even handed out shirts to A-list actors, with the likes of Harrison Ford, Tobey Maguire and Will Smith looking particularly confused as to what all this nonsense was about.
Barcelona will be hoping that Drake doesn't continue his infamous football curse this weekend when they take to the Clasico.
All Roma players banned from taking photos with Drake until the end of the seasonApril 15, 2019
In the worst case of rotten luck, the Hotline Bling star posed with Layvin Kurzawa, shortly before Paris Saint-Germain suffered their worst defeat in almost 20 years. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang posed with Drake ahead of Arsenal losing 1-0 to Everton, Sergio Aguero ahead of going out of the Champions League to Tottenham Hotspur and Paul Pogba just before an FA Cup defeat to Wolves.
In perhaps the biggest turn-up though, heavyweight Anthony Joshua's unbeaten streak came to a shock end against Andy Ruiz Jr after he was seen with Drake before the fight. Barcelona might be fighting against the tide against Real…
