Explainer | Guangzhou Evergrande – China’s richest football club in need of bailout
- ‘Be The Best Forever’ demanded the club crest as years of big spending comes back to haunt it
- High-profile signings with wages to match plus investment in academy have left club short
It is five short years since Chinese Super League clubs were throwing the cash around to rival some of Europe’s biggest names, breaking Asian transfer records left, right and centre.
Guangzhou Evergrande – the reigning five-time champions of China – signed Colombia international striker Jackson Martinez from Atletico Madrid for €42 million in early February 2016.
The record lasted until Jiangsu Suning signed Brazil striker Alex Teixeira for €50 million from Ukraine’s Shakhtar Donetsk later in the month before it would be beaten again by Shanghai SIPG’s €55.8 million signing of another Brazil striker, Hulk, in June of that year. The Shanghai side would best it again that December when they signed Oscar from English Premier League side Chelsea for €60 million.
Those transfers helped Chinese clubs spend a collective US$451 million in 2016, double what they spent in 2015, to become among the world’s top five spenders.
Five years on it has all changed. Martinez, Teixeira and Hulk have all gone, as have Jiangsu Suning.
The Chinese Super League champions folded before the current CSL season amid financial troubles for owners Suning.