How China became a player in the world of soccer
As big money lures star players east, cash transfers off the pitch go in the other direction – with some of Europe’s biggest clubs attracting the attention of Chinese buyers
Had Vladimir Lenin been a present-day football pundit instead of leader of the Bolshevik Party in revolutionary 1917 Russia, he may still have deployed his famous observation that “there are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen” to recent events in the world of soccer.
Without wishing to torture the Lenin theme, it would not have been lost on the man himself that in large part the catalyst for world football’s pivot to Asia was President Xi Jinping (習近平), general secretary of the Communist Party of China, who has made it crystal clear he wants his country to develop into a football powerhouse in double-quick time.
You know things are changing when Antonio Conte, the Italian manager of one of England’s most famous football clubs, Chelsea – which became synonymous with conspicuous wealth in the years after they were bought by Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich in 2003 – speaks in the following terms. “The Chinese market is a danger for all,” Conte told The Guardian last month. “Not only for Chelsea, but all the teams in the world. But I think we must concentrate on our work, not think that in China there is a lot of money and they can arrive to take the players there.”
The boys from Brazil: how China became soccer’s new El Dorado
Conte’s doom-laden comments came in the wake of news that one of his players – 25-year-old Brazilian, Oscar – was on his way to the Chinese Super League team Shanghai SIPG for £60 million (HK$571 million).