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China exodus ... yay or nay ?

Always Offside

Ardent Aussie
Oct 31, 2013
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Axsel Witsel reportedly the lastest player to join a Chinese Super league club for big dollars. Talent wasted or a financial opportunity too good to turn down ?

Some of the below players are admittedly nearing the end of their careers but some are in their prime (Oscar & Witsel being 2 of the more prominent names)


Witsel
Oscar
Jackson Martinez
Hulk
Tevez
Pelle
Papa Cisse'
Gervinho
Ramirez
The guy from PSG (who has become the highest plaid player in the world)

There's many more I am sure, I have only listed the ones I could think of off the top of my head.

Sorry if this have been posted previously I had a quick look & couldn't see anything recent.
 

dontcallme

SC Supporter
Mar 18, 2005
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People come from all sorts of different backgrounds and have different ideas with what they want to do with their lives.

China are putting astronomical amounts of money into their league. When we sold Paulinho I thought we'd got lucky, in hindsight it was to become the norm.

They are also putting money into getting top quality refereeing and I'm sure other areas so the money is not only being used to buy players.

Some players are going to see going to one of the world's superpowers and being part of such a vast project as exciting. Don't blame them at all and I believe their quality of life will be very good there.

See no reason for a South American to want to go to Europe more than China unless you believe the CL is the be all and end all for a footballer.
 

tiger666

Large Member
Jan 4, 2005
27,978
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Yay. Entirely up to them what they do with their lives. No one has the right to tell me what to do with mine. None of your business tbh.
 

Danners9

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Mar 30, 2004
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No different to how people viewed Beckham going to the MLS. Big money, less work, great opportunity.

They do also promote the development of Chinese and other Asian players with caps coming in for foreign players. They need big names to attract fans (attendances are up). Some will choose big money in Russia or China over playing in France or England, others will reject it.

China has big plans for football, but I can't see them becoming the 'super power' they want to be.
 

Japhet

Well-Known Member
Aug 30, 2010
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I think it will turn out like it did in America. Vast amounts of money being spent to attract individual players from abroad with very little effect on the quality of the home grown players or the league in general.
 

easley91

Well-Known Member
Jan 27, 2011
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Football is their job. A job which has a much earlier retirement than the regular jobs. The money is ridiculous, yes, but these players will want to earn as much as possible to set themselves up for that retirement and for that I can't find a reason to blame the players wanting to go.
 

Danners9

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Mar 30, 2004
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Football is their job. A job which has a much earlier retirement than the regular jobs. The money is ridiculous, yes, but these players will want to earn as much as possible to set themselves up for that retirement and for that I can't find a reason to blame the players wanting to go.
Some of the players going seem a bit random though. The other day an Uzbek player moved to the same team as Oscar. Crowds at the airport mobbed him like he was super famous. I'd never heard of him.

Remember Darius Vassell arriving in Turkey? Like that.

Today a Dutch Surinamese player moved from QPR to the 2nd Div in China. The recruitment seems odd. I wonder how they do it.. agent approaches club with a USB filled with videos? sure, we'll sign him! Or an agent in China tasked with finding players, so they do a deal and the player signs. Most European/S American based players will be better than Chinese nationals, anyway..
 

WalkerboyUK

Well-Known Member
Jun 8, 2009
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It's mainly the South Americans, and it's also usually because they are quite pally with the manager already, either through them previously being International or via previous club management.
The Witsel move is the most interesting to me, mainly because it could potentially screw up his international prospects.
At the moment the CPL is not even slightly competitive. He won't have the CL or even the Europa league to play in, so he is no longer pitting himself against high quality opposition. I can't see Roberto Martinez or Thierry Henry jetting out to China to watch him play so, in my opinion, he's completely done with playing for Belgium.

The majority of these deals have been for players coming to the end of their playing careers (Gervinho, Tevez) and others have been players that really didn't succeed at the top level in Europe (Pelle, Papa Cisse). Most won't last more than a year out there, with the change in lifestyle etc, but then comes the problem with leaving the club. When you've just been signed on a £500k per week salary, who in Europe is going to match that, AND pay the transfer fee that will be demanded??
Moving to China is a career killer at the moment.
It's no different to going off to play for a Russian team.

Is the CPL a threat to the top European Leagues - no, and it never will be.
MLS has been going for over a decade and the quality is still way below top flight in Europe (okay, on a par with Scotland), it will take 30 years to reach the required level, and it will be the same in China.
 
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Chris Finch

Well-Known Member
Aug 14, 2012
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People come from all sorts of different backgrounds and have different ideas with what they want to do with their lives.

China are putting astronomical amounts of money into their league. When we sold Paulinho I thought we'd got lucky, in hindsight it was to become the norm.

They are also putting money into getting top quality refereeing and I'm sure other areas so the money is not only being used to buy players.

Some players are going to see going to one of the world's superpowers and being part of such a vast project as exciting. Don't blame them at all and I believe their quality of life will be very good there.

See no reason for a South American to want to go to Europe more than China unless you believe the CL is the be all and end all for a footballer.
The come and get me plea from Clattenburg was ridiculous!
 

Lufti

Well-Known Member
Jan 3, 2013
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No different to how people viewed Beckham going to the MLS. Big money, less work, great opportunity.

They do also promote the development of Chinese and other Asian players with caps coming in for foreign players. They need big names to attract fans (attendances are up). Some will choose big money in Russia or China over playing in France or England, others will reject it.

China has big plans for football, but I can't see them becoming the 'super power' they want to be.

It is a bit different though. I'd imagine living a wealthy lifestyle in America is probably nicer than living one in China, not to mention people wont have a clue about any of the language and probably wont be able to learn it particularly well. Plus, as someone mentioned, a lot of the players are South American so it's a lot further from home for them
 

WalkerboyUK

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Jun 8, 2009
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And now Shanghai SIPG have made an offer of 150 million for Aubameyang and offered him 41 million per year.
 

Danners9

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Mar 30, 2004
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It is a bit different though. I'd imagine living a wealthy lifestyle in America is probably nicer than living one in China, not to mention people wont have a clue about any of the language and probably wont be able to learn it particularly well. Plus, as someone mentioned, a lot of the players are South American so it's a lot further from home for them
I don't think it's that different, apart from the obvious. Beijing and Shanghai are massive modern cities, developing rapidly, lots of foreign people moving there for all sorts of job opportunities. If a player is moving to one of the smaller or more remote cities, sure.. but the differences don't really matter when you're at a club with a foreign manager and a lot of foreign players.

I would expect the club to help out. Tevez has gone to a club where Poyet is manager. AVB manages there. Sven Goran Eriksson is (still) there. Dan Petrescu is there. Fabio Cannavario and Ciro Ferrara are there. Not that foreign all of a sudden.

Once you are away, 'being far from home' is still a flight - it might be a longer flight, but it's still a flight. It becomes irrelevant how far it is. I have moved from England to Oman and now to Australia.
 

WalkerboyUK

Well-Known Member
Jun 8, 2009
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I don't think it's that different, apart from the obvious. Beijing and Shanghai are massive modern cities, developing rapidly, lots of foreign people moving there for all sorts of job opportunities. If a player is moving to one of the smaller or more remote cities, sure.. but the differences don't really matter when you're at a club with a foreign manager and a lot of foreign players.

I would expect the club to help out. Tevez has gone to a club where Poyet is manager. AVB manages there. Sven Goran Eriksson is (still) there. Dan Petrescu is there. Fabio Cannavario and Ciro Ferrara are there. Not that foreign all of a sudden.

Once you are away, 'being far from home' is still a flight - it might be a longer flight, but it's still a flight. It becomes irrelevant how far it is. I have moved from England to Oman and now to Australia.

Those managers probably won't still be there in 6 months time though...
Those clubs are rattling through managers pretty damn quickly!
 

Danners9

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Those managers probably won't still be there in 6 months time though...
Those clubs are rattling through managers pretty damn quickly!
I doubt some of the players will, either.

Dario Conca, previously the highest paid player in the world, has just gone on loan to Flamengo in Brazil. With the quotas, to bring in another, one has to leave.
 

Armstrong_11

Spurs makes me happy, you... not so much :)
Aug 3, 2011
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Surprise of this suddenly surge in money being thrown into football in China, even thou it's been pretty popular in china, I always feel basketball was their team game of choice, most of my friends from China all play basketball, a few bother about football.

Some of the money being spend is getting ridiculous, 2M a month? It's really really hard to turn down that kind of money if you are not Messi or Ronaldo. Not sure if this is gonna last, if it does it might mean quite a few players taking a season or two off to play in the CSL and earn some moo lah, and more senior players finishing their careers there and can retire the rest of their lives and not be pundits. Lol
 

WalkerboyUK

Well-Known Member
Jun 8, 2009
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China is the new Qatar - trying to throw money at players in order to promote a shitty league!
 

IfiHadTheWings

Well-Known Member
Aug 5, 2013
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The way i see it is that if Oscar is worth 500k then im surely worth a few hundred quid to the footballing community...after all i cut a mean orange.
 

yankspurs

Enic Out
Aug 22, 2013
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Aubemayeng just got a crazy offer too.

Cant wait until it all goes bust and these guys are itching to get back into Europe. They'll have a nice large dose of humble pie as soon as they ask for something similar wage wise
 

IfiHadTheWings

Well-Known Member
Aug 5, 2013
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Even if it all only lasts a year, you would be insane to turn that sort of money down, that sort of money can pay for your grandkids grandkids educations, it hurts my head trying to comprehend the figures.
 
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