The Chinese Super League (CSL) transfer record has been broken for the third time in 10 days after Jiangsu Suning spent £38.4m on Alex Teixeira. The Brazil midfielder had been a target for Premier League side Liverpool but has become the Chinese Super League’s latest high-profile recruit.
Ex-Chelsea midfielder Ramires was signed by Jiangsu Suning for £25m. That was followed by Jackson Martinez’s £31m move to Guangzhou Evergrande Taobao from Atletico Madrid.
The total amount spent on those three players is just over £94m (122m euros). According to the transfer market website, which tracks commercial dealings in sports, revealed that Chinese Super League clubs have spent £199.5m (258.9m euros) in their current transfer window, which runs until 27th February.
That total could rise, with more big signings expected in the coming days. In contrast, Premier League clubs spent £175m (227m euros) in their window, which closed earlier this week.
Their most expensive signing was £18.3m Stoke City paid for Porto midfielder Giannelli Imbula. Liverpool had been closely linked with a move for Teixera, 26, during the January transfer window.
Shakhtar Donetsk claimed they rejected a £24m offer from the Reds for the attacking midfielder before agreeing to sell him to Jiangsu.
However one of Shanghai, a former Sunderland striker Asamoh Gyan, became one of the highest paid players in world football last July.
The 29-year-old Ghanaian forward, who spent just one full season in the Premier League, is reported to earn around $350,000 per week (£247,000).
That is a weekly amount only bettered by a handful of football’s finest, think Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.
The CSL season gets under way in early March and the question is, why are they spending big to sign players?
Reports have it that CSL want to grow the league, that is the reason its splashing big sums of cash to lure top players.
According to Rowan Simons, a Beijing-based football reporter, interest and investment in football has been “growing for five years”.
He also says it is politically motivated, backed by the President of the People’s Republic of China.
“President Xi is a big football fan,” Simons told BBC World. “There has been a huge and unprecedented football revolution in China led by him, which has turned the game on its head.”
Simons said schools were focusing more on football, adding: “It was seen that football was only useful if it was carried on into a profession.
“It’s no longer just seen as a profession. It’s an incredible transformation.”
The recent spate of signings has started to attract attention in do Premier League.
Asked if the Premier League should be concerned about the CSL’s spending power, Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger replied: “Yes, of course.
“China looks to have the financial power to move the whole league of Europe to China.”
However, he wondered whether CSL clubs would continue to pay out huge sums of money on transfer fees.
“Will they sustain their desire to do it?” he asked. “Let’s remember, Japan started to do it a few years ago but slowed down.
“I don’t know how deep the desire in China is. If it is a very strong political desire, we should worry.”
Growth
With mega money spent already, the number of big names setting foot on the CSL is likely to grow.
Attendances are up, wages are definitely up, and so are sponsorship revenues.
Wealth and population increases in China have already turned sport into a multimillion-pound business, and clearly the Chinese Super League is on an upward curve too.
Anthony Nlebem
