China Is On Its Way To Becoming A Serious League

There’s an old system to how the small non-European leagues operate: Wait until a big-name player is well past it, and then pay him like he’s still a star to come over. That’s the system MLS has perfected over its two decades, with its league now stocked with former greats like Andreas Pirlo, Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard, who appears to have come to LA for just long enough to get a tan and enough money to buy a yacht to sail away on.

But China is trying to change the game plan. Unlike rich, distant lands like America, Australia and Qatar, China is making bids on players in their prime, and they are starting to attract some attention for it.

Earlier this month, Alex Teixeira, formerly of Shakhtar Donetsk, spurned interest from Liverpool to sign with Jiangsu Suning for almost £40 million. That was only a week after Chelsea’s Ramires signed for the same club for £25 million, which was only three weeks after Atletico Madrid’s Jackson Martinez signed to Guangzhou Evergrande for £31 million.

None of those players are perhaps of the highest quality demanded by the big teams in Europe, but all are young and would have been capable of getting into pretty impressive squads in the more traditional leagues should they have wanted to. And the ambitions of China’s top clubs may not be satisfied yet. According to Sky Sports, an unnamed Chinese club offered £38 million for West Ham’s fantastic playmaker, Dimitri Payet, just today.

And it isn’t just the big names coming over. Young talent, particularly from Latin America, has been flocking their for years. The last three Golden Boot winners in the Chinese Super League have been young Brazilians.

Beyond just players, managers are also feeling a pull toward China. World Cup-winning minds Marcello Lippi and Luiz Felipe Scolari have recently taken over clubs there.

This is, of course, quite bad news for a number of leagues — not least MLS — which seem stuck in the old model of paying out luxury retirement packages. Unless they too change their tactics, such leagues are doomed to continue to be considered last-ditch choices for those with nowhere better to go, and the young talent they have now will quickly begin to head off to places like China where more serious sport is to be had.

And the disruption of China’s rise won’t end there. Mid-level clubs throughout Europe should also worry, as they may begin to find their mid-shelf prospects getting shipped off to China at an increasing rate. This would create an even greater gap between the rich, big clubs and the strivers below.

Such worries can only bode well for China. In a matter of a few years, they have become a league with serious ambitions and a few serious players to match them. If this trend continues, China is going to become a serious option for more and more players. The next time the big clubs go to play summer exhibitions, they may have to lock the hotel doors, lest some of their players try to stay behind.