Chelsea's Ramires is closing in on a £25m move to Chinese side Jiangsu Suning.

But why would a 28-year-old Brazil international choose to leave champions Chelsea for a side who finished ninth in China's top tier in 2015?

The midfielder, signed from Benfica for around £17m in 2010, has only started seven Premier League games this season.

And opportunities under interim manager Guus Hiddink have been increasingly hard to come by.

But why China?

Well, there's the link Jiangsu have with his current club Chelsea for starters.

They are managed by former Blues defender Dan Petrescu.

On top of that, some of the Brazilian's international team-mates have been plying their trade in China for some time.

The Brazilian connection

Among the most famous is former Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Paulinho.

He signed for champions Guangzhou Evergrande in June 2015 on a four-year deal and for a fee of £9.9m.

The world-renowned former Real Madrid, Manchester City and AC Milan striker Robinho also played for Guangzhou last season.

He appeared in a side that featured several Brazilians and which continues to be managed by Brazil's former World Cup-winning coach Luiz Felipe Scolari.

International flavour

Scolari succeeded another World Cup winner in charge of Guangzhou - Italian Fabio Cannavaro - who replaced ANOTHER World Cup winner, former Italy boss Marcello Lippi.

And then there's the familiar face of Sven-Goran Eriksson.

He's in charge of Shanghai SIPG, has been working in China since 2013 and even recently claimed he'd like Manchester United and England Captain Wayne Rooney to join him.

Talking about life in China, the Swede was glowing in his praise.

"This is a fantastic country to live in. I live in Shanghai, and if you asked me to compare it to London, I honestly couldn't say which was better.

"Football is becoming huge here and they have very big ambitions for the Chinese Super League.

"We already have famous players, like Asamoah Gyan and Demba Ba, and they have brought something special.

"Football has become much, much bigger even in the time I have been here. I think in the years to come it will be huge and a player like Wayne Rooney could only help that development."

The money

Whether Rooney would ever decide to leave for the far east is debatable, but there's little doubt the pay is pretty good.

Though the only British players to move to China thus far are Maurice Ross in 2010, Derek Riordan in 2011 and Akpo Sodje in 2012.

However one of Eriksson's stars at Shanghai, the aforementioned former Sunderland striker Gyan, will be happy he upped sticks.

He supposedly 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.

Growth

With money like that, the number of recognisable names setting foot on football fields in the Far East is only 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 - just ask Ramires.

Listen: Chinese clubs have 'massive plans and intentions'.

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