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Stars boom in Chinese Super League

Xinhua, March 6, 2015 Adjust font size:

A long list of stars will boom in Chinese Super League in the upcoming season as over 100 million euros were lashed out in transfer market for both foreign players and domestic ones.

The money, standing only second to the English Premier League, brought in 47 foreign players and saw 62 Chinese players move to new clubs.

Among the foreign ones, South American players are quite popular, especially the Brazilian strikers.

Former Brazilian league top scorer Dario Conca returned to China and joined Shanghai SIPG club after only one year at Brazilian club Fluminense. He had three successful seasons with Chinese champions Guangzhou Evergrande.

Guangzhou Evergrande kept the useful principle of "more money, more fabulous" and brought in another two Brazilian strikers.

The 15-million-euro player Ricardo Goulart topped in the transferring market in CSL and the 23-year-old proved his worthiness in the first two group stage matches in Asian Champions Leagues by 4 goals.

However, the defending champions had to wait at least five months to see whether Alan Douglas worth the other 11 million euros, as the 25-year-old Brazilian forward suffered a left knee injury before the new season kicks off.

Shandong Luneng bought Diego Tardelli from Brazil's Atletico Mineiro, who scored 10 goals from 23 Brazilian Serie A matches in 2014. The Brazil forward became the first current Brazil national team player in CSL, as he was called by Brazil coach Dunga for friendlies against France and Chile later this month.

South Koreans are also a force to watch, especially the defenders. Both Kim Young-Gwon and Jang Hyun-Soo, who made their appearances in the 2015 Asian Cup, proved their success in Chinese Super League.

Five clubs bought five South Korean defenders for each in the new season, including Kim Ju Young of Shanghai SIPG, who made the South Korean defender record signing of 2.2 million euros at the end of 2014.

Tim Cahill, the most famous Socceroo veteran, announced to leave the New York Red Bulls and join Shanghai Shenhua just three days after Australia triumphed in the Asian Cup. The 35-year-old was in career best form during the Asian Cup in Australia, arguably scoring the goal of the tournament with a stunning bicycle kick in the quarterfinal against China.

Besides the South American legion and South Korean force, European players from lesser leagues attract more attention than before.

Iceland internationals Vidar Kjartansson and Solvi Ottersen are the new signings of Jiangsu Sainty while Beijing Guoan gave striker Erton Fejzullahu a two-year contract after loaning the Swedish international in July 2014. Endi