China football revolution to spark world transfer fee record in 2017
From a parade of players heading East, to a web of acquisitions in the West, 2016 was a big year for China’s grand football strategy. And 2017 is set to be even bigger
After more than 20 years spent researching and writing about football, there are several large stacks of magazines from across the world piled up in the corner of my office. Among them is a 2003 edition of Football Business International (FBI), a now-defunct British trade publication. This particular edition is notable for its front cover, which proclaims “the Chinese are coming”.
More than a decade on and some people are still making the same claim, but it’s been a long wait for the Middle Kingdom to get its act together.
In some ways, the failure of China to become a prominent football force has reflected their abysmal World Cup performance in 2002 (played three, lost three).
China’s noughties football revolution never actually arrived, in spite of a second attempt several years ago notably marked by Didier Drogba and Nicholas Anelka’s arrival at Shanghai Shenhua in 2012. Though China hardly stormed the gates of world football even at this point, the seeds of something more profound were, however, already being sown.
With these seeds having now germinated, there is a sense this year that we are on the cusp of a more meaningful Chinese football revolution.