Is China the New Footballing Superpower?

Prior to 2012, China was not seen as a dynamic player on the world football stage. It was mostly seen as a destination for a certain breed of veteran players to see out the remainder of their careers. In fact, Chinese football was probably at its lowest ebb following a bribery scandal in 2010 which saw the vice chairman of the Chinese Football Association (CFA) and the former head of refereeing accused of corruption. As a result of this, the Chinese Government placed a nationwide ban on all football gambling and began to rebuild.

By the summer of 2012, though, many notable footballers surprisingly made the move to East Asia. Names such as Didier Drogba, Nicolas Anelka, Seydou Keita and Yakubu all signed for Chinese clubs in a relatively short period of time. In addition to this, many highly respectable and reputable names in management began to migrate to China. This included the likes of former World Cup winning manager, Marcello Lippi (who is now manager of the Chinese National Team), when he took over at Guangzhou Evergrande – reportedly earning £30million over the course of his two and a half year deal with the club. It soon became apparent that Chinese teams had what seemed to be an almost infinite amount of cash at their disposal and were not afraid to flaunt it to attract talent.

Throughout the 2015/16 Chinese Super League (CSL) season, more high-profile players were being brought in for hefty price tags. Long-time Liverpool target, Alex Teixeira, joined Jiangsu Suning for a stunning £42.5million from Shakhtar Donetsk. This was soon followed by the acquisition of Atletico Madrid forward, Jackson Martinez, who had failed to impress at Atletico during his short six-month stint with the club. However his under-performance didn't stop Guangzhou Evergrande paying an extortionate fee of £35.7million for the Colombian international. In February 2016, forgotten winger Ezequiel Lavezzi became one of the highest paid footballers in the world when he joined Hebei China Fortune from Paris Saint Germain – earning a weekly salary of £493,000. The spending did not stop there. In January 2017, Chelsea flop Oscar joined Shanghai SIPG for £60million and Shanghai Shenhua captured Carlos Tevez and made him the highest paid footballer in the world - earning a reported weekly salary of £615,000 a week. 

This outlandish spending marked a turning point in the way Chinese clubs were approaching the game. With the sudden and dramatic influx of expensive foreign players joining the CSL, a quota for non-APAC footballers was placed on teams in late January 2017. New procedures meant that only five “foreign” players could be named in any one squad, and only three were allowed to be in the starting eleven. With this new rule imposed, players like Chelsea’s Diego Costa and Dortmund’s Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang quickly turned their back on offers from China and chose to remain at their current clubs.

It is widely believed that this quota was placed on teams as economists had predicted that if Chinese clubs continued to spend at this rate, they would be unable to sustain healthy economic growth in the future. With new rules and regulations in place, Chinese football teams will now have to closely monitor the ways in which they can improve their squads with strategic transfers. Perhaps this will mark the end of a “Golden Era” in Chinese football or will we start seeing uncapped foreign players being nationalized by China as a way to escape these new rulings? Only time will tell.

daniel_clemenson@outlook.com

The Dimitri Payet Saga

The Dimitri Payet Saga - 

The popular phrase "From hero to zero" has never been more apt than when considering Dimitri Payet's current status at West Ham United. After all, it was only in February 2016 that the French international midfielder signed a new five year deal with the club  -  becoming its highest paid player (earning a reported £125,000 per week) in the process. However, less than a year after pledging his future to the claret and blues, Payet is now locked in dispute with the Hammers after refusing to play for them, much to the dismay of manager, Slaven Bilic, and the legion of West Ham fans .

With the club struggling to find form in the early stages of the 2016/17 EPL season, many speculated the team were experiencing teething problems at their new home ground, the London Stadium. By the beginning of the New Year, though, a surprise development went some way towards explaining their erratic form. In early January 2017, Slaven Bilic confirmed, in his weekly press conference, that the 2015/16 Hammer of the Year, Dimitri Payet, no longer wanted to play for West Ham. After a successful Euro 2016 campaign - which saw Payet score on three occasions helping his national team reach the European Championship Finals - the player's reputation was growing rapidly. Yet as the domestic season commenced, it soon became clear that Payet's club form was failing to live up to expectation. Fans asked: 'Why was he unsettled? Could it be he was saving himself for a new club?'. As the January transfer window opened amid a frenzy of unprecedented spending by the Chinese, many believed that this emerging footballing nation would be Payet's next destination. But after turning down three offers from Chinese clubs, it became clear that money was not the driving factor in Payet's desire to move on. Soon 'Family reasons'  were being cited for his desire to return to his former club Marseille. The star was even said to be willing to take a 30% pay cut in order to do so. However, there was  a major stumbling block  -  Marseille needed to buy Payet out of his newly signed mega-contract with the East London club and this would not come cheap.

Over the following weeks, meetings were held between the two clubs' officials but no fee could be agreed. At first an offer of £19 million was made by Marseille but this was quickly rejected by West Ham. There followed an 'improved' bid of £20 million which was also turned down. Now, as we reach the last week of the January transfer window, the French club have launched a final bid of £22.5 million to land their man. West Ham, however, remain adamant that the price for the mercurial midfielder is a cool £30 million and are refusing to compromise on their valuation.

With talks over a loan deal until the end of the season imminent and the January transfer window soon coming to a close, one thing is for sure … you have not heard the last of this epic power struggle between a club with big ambitions and a disgruntled yet talented player longing to return home.