Arsene Wenger has been around for a long time now. Some Arsenal fans might feel he has been around much too long for their liking but the Frenchman knows what he is talking about. In February this year, Wenger was quoted as saying, “China looks to have the financial power to move a whole league of Europe to China. We are long enough in this job to know that it’s just a consequence of economic power and they have that.”
Wenger was responding to the sudden Chinese invasion that has gripped European football. Consider this: Chinese companies and businessmen have bought 70 per cent stake in Inter Milan; 13 per cent stake in Manchester City; 20 per cent stake in Atletico Madrid; 56 per cent stake in Espanyol and 60 per cent stake in Czech club Slavia Prague. That’s not it. In January 2016, Chinese clubs splurged £200 million on luring players from Europe.
These weren’t over-the-hill players — who are considered “marquee” in the Indian Super League — looking for a last fat pay cheque, but players who can play top-level football for at least five more years. Ezequiel Lavezzi, Ramires, Alex Teixeira all went for China when they could have easily played for most top European clubs.
Lavezzi, the Argentine striker, was one the regular starters at Paris Saint-Germain. So was the Brazilian Ramires at Chelsea. Yet, the money offered was staggering — Lavezzi apparently earns £400,000 a week — and the lure of China was difficult to resist. Since last March, almost two dozen Brazilian footballers have swapped Europe and South America for China. It’s not just the players who are heading to China. World Cup-winning manager Luiz Felipe Scolari, former England manager Sven-Göran Eriksson and ex-Brazil coach Mano Menezes too are plying their trade in the Far East.
This isn’t the first time China has tried to catch the fancy of the world by throwing money at players. A few years ago the likes of Didier Drogba and Nicolas Anelka went to play for Chinese clubs but came back before you could say Xi Jinping. This time, however, China is serious and the acquisition of a legendary club like Inter Milan signifies they mean business.
China as a country is serious about its sport — look no further than the Olympics — and after spending years in corridors of football mediocrity, it wants to rectify that. Xi Jinping, the Chinese president, is a passionate football fan and according to a report published in The Guardian in February, “the president was tired of the world’s most populous country failing at the world’s most populous game”.
China is methodically and strategically attacking football at different levels. One one hand, it is luring world-class talent by offering exorbitant sums of money to make its Chinese Super League (CSL) more popular. On the other hand, the government has set a target to get 20,000 training academies and 50 million children to play football on a weekly basis by 2020. It’s a multi-pronged strategy adopted by a country which is extremely serious about, first hosting a World Cup and then ultimately winning it.
It’s not as if you will have Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo playing in the CSL — although it did make an offer to Wayne Rooney — but other countries should be worried. It was rumoured that Chinese club Shanghai SIPG offered Rooney a staggering salary of $720,000 a week!
Leagues like Major League Soccer in the US have over the years attempted to become the best league outside Europe. They too have had David Beckham, Frank Lampard and Drogba playing in their country, but not with the gusto China has shown.
If the buying of players to play in the league wasn’t enough of an indicator, then the acquisition of Inter Milan surely shows China’s scale of ambition. Inter — without being disrespectful to the likes of Espanyol and even Manchester City — is a powerhouse of European football. The Chinese influence over European football went up several notches with this one deal. If people were wondering that the Chinese interest in football would fade, think again.
The last six months have thrown enough pointers towards the fact that the Chinese mean business. Perhaps Wenger is right when he said the consequences of economic power would have a far-reaching impact. China’s tactical gambit in football might not lead to their ultimate goal of winning the World Cup but it’s clear that the world’s most populous country will soon be a force to reckon with in the world’s most popular sport.
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