United Nations Ambassador and Chelsea midfield maestro Michael Ballack has teamed up with Arsenal's Emmanuel Adebayor to fight AIDS.

It is World AIDS Day today (Monday, December 1) and the pair combined at Stamford Bridge recently to raise the profile of the campaign.

Ballack has worked with the UNAIDS campaign in his role as Goodwill Ambassador since 2006 to raise awareness on HIV prevention.

'I have been the ambassador for them for nearly two years now, they asked me and it has been a pleasure to work with them. It is a big honour and it is always good to do something in this kind of problem which everybody is involved in, and to make a statement and show that in my position as a famous football player I can help to make people understand more and think about this problem every day,' Ballack said.

'AIDS is still around and I think that we should all work together to help others. I am proud to a part of this campaign and happy that such a star like Emmanuel wants to help, as he is a big star in Africa', added the 32-year-old. 'The World Cup in 210 is in South Africa and it is a big thing, not just for young people but everybody.'

It is not the first time Ballack has been involved in advertising work, and he can be currently seen on 'Target Practice' in an adidas commercial. There have also been adverts for Samsung and others back home in Germany.

'Over the last few years I am used to it because in Germany there are a lot of commercials, so for five or six years it is something I have done. I dressed up as a mountaineer once with the national team,' he smiled. 'It was fun. It's all good fun, and in this case it is for a good cause.'

According to latest UNAIDS figures, there are an estimated 33 million people living with HIV in 2008 and 2.7 million new HIV infections. Sport plays an important role in empowering young people and is a key arena for raising awareness on AIDS.