From Lionel Messi to Wayne Rooney, many star players were linked with a big-money move to the Chinese Super League after Chinese President Xi Jinping’s call for a football revolution prompted a surge in investment by local tycoons.
But the bad news for players, and the agents who stoke such speculation to drive up wages, is that the CSL’s world-beating transfer boom is over for now after the introduction of restrictions on the import of footballers slowed the flood of spending to a trickle.
Amid a wider crackdown on capital outflows, China’s government-controlled football association brought in a 100 per cent tax on transfers of more than Rmb45m ($7m) last summer. It has since implemented further curbs on the use of foreign footballers in China’s premier league to help the development of local players.