Yet Chinese soccer’s taste for Brazilians shows no sign of slowing. Last week, Chelsea accepted a $35 million offer for the Brazilian midfielder Ramires from Jiangsu Suning, which had earlier made a failed bid for the Milan striker Luiz Adriano. Moves like those, and the bulk acquisitions of younger players from Brazilian clubs, have soccer officials here concerned about what the money-driven deals could one day mean for the future of Brazil’s national team. Ramires, 28, was a starter at the last World Cup, and while he had fallen out of favor recently, exports like Gil, 28, and Augusto, 27, were thought by some to be part of the national team’s future after their recent resurgence at Corinthians.

“With the crisis here, the prices they are offering, we can’t compete with that,” Edu said of the recent sales. “But in terms of a player’s career, they are going for money, not the status, and for me, that would have made me think twice, as it could get in the way of playing for Brazil.”

Chinese clubs might not release players for national team play except in the mandatory official windows, Edu said, adding: “It’s a personal decision, but you need to balance it. And if you’re good enough and have the chance to play for Brazil, nothing should get in the way.”

In one sense, the China conundrum is nothing new. But the earlier Brazilian star Júnior Baiano was already 31 when he went to Shanghai in 2001, and of the 134 reported moves of Brazilians to China from 2003 to 2010, almost all were players from minor clubs.

But last year the Brasileirão’s two best players — both of them having broken into the national team — made the switch. One, Diego Tardelli, had just won the Brazilian Cup with Atlético Mineiro. The other, Ricardo Goulart, had just won back-to back league championships with Cruzeiro. And the money is only getting better: The onetime Sevilla striker Luís Fabiano left São Paulo for China last month for a reported $7 million a year.

Guangzhou Evergrande could be described as the team that changed the market in 2011, when it signed the Argentine midfielder Darío Conca from the Rio de Janeiro club Fluminense and made him, at the time, the third-highest-paid player in the world behind Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.