Arsene Wenger had a front row seat the last time a major Asian nation
sought to supercharge its football development with financial
investment, when working with Nagoya Grampus Eight in the Japanese
league in 1995, but recent events in China have left even Arsenal's
veteran manager flummoxed.
"It's a surprise, it's a distortion,"
he said this week of Oscar's record-breaking £60 million move to
Shanghai SIPG from Chelsea. "I think basically when you're a football
player you want to combine the quality of the competition with the
quality of your wages. But it is a surprise to me."
Big-name
signings on inflated salaries were the hallmark of the J.League when
Wenger worked there for a year before his move to Highbury. Backed by
Toyota, the world's largest car manufacturer, Grampus Eight were among
the clubs who benefitted, while Dunga, captain of Brazil's 1994 World
Cup-winning squad, and midfielder Zinho were enticed to give up football
in Europe and South America respectively to join the Japanese
revolution.
Others were to follow as the influx of high quality
foreign players and coaches prompted a raising of standards that now
sees the nation at the pinnacle of the Asian game.
It is that
model -- at least in part -- that the Chinese are seeking to replicate
and it started when Guangzhou Evergrande paid €10m in 2011 to sign Dario
Conca from Fluminense in Brazil and made him reportedly the
third-highest paid player in world football.
The diminutive
Argentinian, then the reigning Player of the Year in Brazil, helped drag
the club out of the second division in 2011 and into the Chinese Super
League, kick starting a run that has established Evergrande as China's
dominant force.
Conca's success has been proof of concept, while
club owners -- principally the country's enormously wealthy property
developers -- are now seeking to play their role in delivering President
Xi Jinpeng's desire for China to become a power within the world game.
It seems money is no object and the likelihood is that Oscar's mega-move
won't be the last transfer to make international news. Here are the
biggest so far as the record has been broken five times in the space of a
year.
Oscar: £60m
Signed for a new Asian record transfer fee,
Oscar becomes the latest South American to trade Europe for China and
in the process earns himself a reported £400,000-a-week. He will be
expected to lead Shanghai SIPG to a first-ever Chinese Super League
title.
Hulk: £46.1m
Signed from Zenit St Petersburg, Hulk joined Shanghai SIPG
in the previous record-breaking transfer in June as the club sought to
end Guangzhou Evergrande's dominance both in the domestic and
continental game. Injured just 15 minutes into his first game, the
Brazilian played a minor role for the club towards the end of last
season.
Alex Teixeira: £38.4m
Alex Teixeira joined Jiangsu Suning in February
ahead of last year's Chinese Super League in another then-record deal,
choosing to move to China from Shakhtar Donetsk rather than join
Liverpool. He helped Jiangsu to runners-up spots in the Chinese Super
League and the Chinese FA Cup last year.
Jackson Martinez: £31m
Jackson Martinez traded Atletico Madrid
for Guangzhou Evergrande last year in a headline-grabbing move just
seven months after moving to Spain from FC Porto. But he has had a year
to forget with injuries and poor form costing him his place in the
Guangzhou line-up.
Ramires: £25m
Ramires' move to Jiangsu Suning
was the precursor to Oscar's transfer to Shanghai SIPG as his transfer
from Chelsea to the Chinese Super League set a new Asian record transfer
fee at the time. That title would shift to Martinez and then on to
Teixeira over the space of a remarkable 10 days.
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