Brazilian stars prosperous on Chinese soccer soil

Striker Diego Tardelli became the first Brazilian national team player to be selected from a Chinese team after Brazil coach Dunga announced his squad for friendlies against France and Chile later this month.

The 29-year-old Tardelli, who recently switched from Atletico Mineiro to Shandong Luneng with a transfer fee of 5.5 million euros, has reunited with his former Atletico head coach Cuca at his new club.

While a number of Brazilian coaches have been drafted into China to train players at all age levels, Dunga believes that we will soon see an increase of Brazilian players heading to Asia.

"It's the economic landscape of globalised soccer," Dunga admitted during a press conference in Rio de Janeiro on Thursday.

"Europe has countries that can no longer afford to buy Brazilian players, and China is investing heavily in soccer. And not just in players, they have many Brazilian coaches also."

According to the statistics released by Germany's Transfer Market when the Chinese winter transfer window closed, Chinese Super League, which starts this week, spent a record 108 million euros to buy players and coaches on the 2014/2015 transfer market.

The Chinese league, which turns into professional for only 20 years, stands only second to the English Premier League in terms of the money spent on transfers, beating most of the top-flight leagues around the world.

In the shopping spree, Brazilian players or players from Brazilian league take up the most eye-catching and valuable transfers, as Chinese clubs have been involved in at least three of the five biggest trades during Brazilian transfer window.

Besides Tardelli, former Brazilian league most valuable player 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. The 31-year-old is said to be unhappy at Fluminense due to a delay in payment of image rights.

However, Conca is no longer the focal point as his then record transfer fee of 9.1 million euros was easily beaten by Evergrande's recent payment of 15 million euros for Brazil international Ricardo Goulart and 11 million for another prolific Brazilian striker Alan from Austria's Red Bull Salzburg.

According to Brazilian newspaper FOLHA DE SAO PAULO, Chinese Super League, for the first time in history, becomes the league which spends the most amount of money to buy players from Brazilian league.

It is said that Chinese league spent 37.65 million euros in its purchase of six players from Brazilian league. In the past, European clubs from Portugal, Spain, Germany and Italy are the major buyers of Brazilian players. However all of them fail to surpass China this year.

Players from Brazilian league wave a scoring storm in Chinese Super League in recent years. Spearheaded by South American attacking trio Conca, Muriqui and Elkeson, Guangzhou Evergrande clinched China's first ever Asian Champions League title in 2013. Meanwhile, half of last season's top 10 scorers are from Brazil. Therefore more and more Chinese clubs adopt to pursue players from Brazilian league.

Cuca, who moved to China after guiding Atletico Mineiro to their first ever Libertadores Cup in 2012, said working conditions in China are light years ahead of even the biggest Brazilian clubs. Comparing with the struggling economic situation in Brazil, the huge salaries offered by Chinese clubs are an irresistible factor.

"I am getting four times what I got at Sao Paulo," Aloisio, Shandong's Brazilian winger, said in an interview with Reuters. "It was an offer I couldn't turn down, it was my future and the future of my family."

More attractive, unlike in Brazil, where there are always delays in salary payment, Chinese clubs pay the players' tax bills and they are paid on time.

"In Brazil, almost a third goes on taxes and it is difficult to get paid," Cuca said. "In China you are guaranteed to get your money on time. I'm not going to lie, I came here firstly to ensure my financial independence."

Before Tardelli and Goulart moved to China, the two Brazilian internationals were warned that they may suffer the consequences playing in the far away east. However, Tardelli's inclusion in Dunga's latest squad refutes claims Asia-based players would be overlooked.

"We have Brazilian professionals working in all those countries," added Dunga.

"We will be observing. This is a new struggle for the coach of the national team. The coaches in coach of Europe do not have to travel to see their players. The Brazil coach will have to."

Though China's investment soars, its competitive level still needs to be developed as China has only reached the World Cup finals once in 2002. With the arrival of famous players and coaches, the Chinese league is attracting more and more attentions and is to some extent boosting the development of Chinese soccer. Endi