Oscar’s bags are parked and the Brazilian is soon to be an ex Chelsea player to become one of the new high profile players playing in the free spending chinese Super League, according to reports in the Daily Mail.
Before Oscar’s imminent transfer to Shanghai SIPG no one I know, at least had ever heard of such a name in football circles.
According to the same article Oscar is leaving for a transfer fee of £52 million and will be pocketing £400,000-a-week. This puts him among the highest paid players in the World.
By any standards this sounds crazy. This is no longer about football and how does one rationalize these values from a footballing perspective.
This spiky matter brings me back to the much talked about stalling discussions between Sanchez and Arsenal and invariably Mezut Ozil and Arsenal.
The former is particularly relevant since reports have emerged that Alexis Sanchez has been offered £500,000-per-week to join former Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini at Hebei China Fortune.
These numbers, I dare say , are a mouthful. Do these astronomical amounts mean the player brings more value to the Chinese spectator ? The other suggestion could that the Chinese super league is so horrible that they have to pay through the nose to bring decent players over to the land of the dragon.
Didier Drogba and Nicholas Anelka were some of the first recognized faces to play in the Chinese League. From what I gather , Drogba’s experiences were not the best and he left faster than he came.
One thing is clear: the level of soccer in China is still at infancy stage. This means that the level of competition and organisation is below what we are accustomed to in the Premier League, La Liga and Bundesliga.
Players and their agents are aware of this aspect. Like they say in the underworld, every man has a price. This sadly now applies to soccer. Hopefully this is just a flash in the pan and not sustainable.
Players who are still developing like Oscar will follow the gravy train and of course secure their futures. Soccer will be deprived of talent and sadly we will never know what Oscar could have been in a competitive league. Soon we will be asking, Oscar who?
Until later folks….
