A STEP BACK FOR THE CHINESE FOOTBALL?

A few years ago, the Chinese Super League wasn’t something very appealing to the Football World, including players, managers or even the fans. China wasn’t exporting many players from their league, excluding a few exceptions like Sun Jihai, Hao Haidong and Du Wei, but all with a very limited career in Europe.

However, things changed in these last couple of years due to an incredible investment made by the league in general. Owned by billionaires, some of these teams wanted China and their league to have international recognition, leading a revolution in the Chinese panorama. They started to lure known players from Europe, either on the final tail of their career or young players with amazing potential, due to the wages they could offer. It was usual for a former superstar to end his career on their loved club back on his country, or go to the United States to live an even more luxurious life because of the money they were going to earn there. That paradigma started to change, and players started to feel tempted to play in China for 1 or 2 years to earn the paycheck of their life.

Most well-paid players performing in the Chinese Super League



Oscar (Shanghai SIPG) - £400.000 per week



Hulk (Shanghai SIPG) - £320.000 per week



Graziano Pelle (Shandong Luneng) - £290.000 per week



Ezequiel Lavezzi (Hebei China Fortune) - £290.000 per week



Marouane Fellaini (Shandong Luneng) - £235.000 per week

The Chinese Football Association imposed a salary cap on the Chinese Super League: 10 million yuan ($1.43 million) (pre-tax) for domestic players and 3 million euros (post-tax) for international players. https://t.co/nZMFXdrKBC pic.twitter.com/mZsTmUzZjV — Global Times (@globaltimesnews) December 25, 2019

That will no longer be possible next season. All clubs agreed to put a cap on the wages offered to foreign players. The maximum per week a player coming from other leagues could earn is £49k. Even though the level of the league increased overall, the absurd amount paid in wages was just not viable on the long run, as ratings and sponsorships couldn’t make up for the quantity of spending in these type of players. Now that the experiment is over, are we going to see another downfall of the Chinese Super League? Will this lead to a bigger usage of homegrown talent, consequently elevating their national team? Only time can tell.

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