da bwin： Since 2011 Chinese domestic football has not been the same since.
da dobrowin： It was the first year Guangzhou Evergrande claimed the Super League title. Six years later, the club have been victorious in defending their crown each time with them claiming four titles since their first. But can the team managed by Luiz Felipe Scolari be stopped after stumbling on the final hurdle of this campaign?
Four games remain in the 2016 Chinese Super League season and just two wins separate the Asian Champions League winners from a sixth title in as many years. This is in-spite of the enormous sums of money that have changed hands over the past 12 months between a number of teams in the division.
Foreign acquisitions have been secured by the league’s richest clubs with astonishing sums of money swapping hands, so the eyes of the footballing world have been placed, to an extent, on the most populated nation on the planet. for example, Graziano Pelle was signed over the summer for a staggering €38m fee as he swapped Southampton for Shandong Luneng.
Former Manchester City and Everton striker Jo is now plying his trade for Guangzhou’s rivals Jiangsu Suning along with a number of other Brazilians. Ex-Chelsea player Ramires and once Liverpool target Alex Teixeira have both been signed in big-money moves financed by the government to bring the sporting culture in China to the focal point of the world’s media.
Guangzhou have themselves benefited greatly from the investment. The club is owned by China’s richest man, Jack Ma. The owner of the nation’s largest media company, Ma has pumped millions into Evergrande’s cause to become Asian football’s top side. Ma’s backing has seen players such as Robinho, Paulinho and Jackson Martinez make the switch to the Far East.
Unlike a number of foreign stars who have been imported by the league’s richest sides, Guangzhou’s purchases have been a proven success story. Midfielder Ricardo Goulart was signed in 2015 after some impressive displays in Brazil and has since contributed 50 goals in just 81 games. You would have to search far and wide to find anyone with better statistics.
Goulart has won a number of awards such as Chinese Football Association Footballer of the Year, AFC Champions League Top Scorer, AFC Champions League Most Valuable Player and AFC Foreign Player of the Year – not bad for a player who had never experienced Asian football prior to his arrival in southern China.
To mold such talented players into a side with a number of average players is no easy feat. Tasked with the challenge of blending the players together and finding a suitable formation and style is former Brazil, Portugal and Chelsea manager Luis Felipe Scolari. The 2002 World Cup winning gaffer has been in charge at the club since Fabio Cannavaro departed in June 2015.
Scolari came to China with the task of ensuring they remain Chinese domestic champions and also win the Champions League. The Brazilian did just that in his first couple of months at the helm and gave Chinese football another continental crown.
Often clubs are able to convince big-names managers to join the league but once they grown tired of the country, they regularly depart with an unknown Chinese minnow replacing a big-name and a downward spiral soon follows. Guangzhou hold the aces in the pack with Jack Ma’s ambition constantly being able to attract some of the games biggest names to the club. This is certainly an aspect of the Super League that sees no other side competing at the five time champions’ level.
Now the club has taken an approach that doesn’t see ludicrous money being spent. Ma is proud of his Chinese background and wants Evergrande to be the forefront for the national team’s future success. The country’s top domestic stars have been signed for minimal fees and they hope to encourage the next generation of footballers with the government hopeful of qualification for the World Cup soon with success by the time the 2050 appears. Bold, eh?
Evergrande Football School is front and centre in the push to bring footballing glory to a nation currently languishing in the lower echelons of the sport. China’s leader has made no secret of his love for the beautiful game. He’s also made it clear he wants to see China qualify for, host and one day win, the World Cup.
In just 10 months, and at a cost of $185m, real estate company Evergrande who own a 60% stake in the club, turned an area of rural southern China into the biggest football school in the world. If all goes to plan, the kids learning to trap and pass a ball today could be the ones pulling on a first-team shirt and running out at Guangzhou Evergrande’s Tianhe Stadium in a few years.
For all these reasons it’s not likely that we will see Guangzhou’s Evergrande supremacy relinquished at any stage. Failure in the league for one season would not result in a decline in the club’s fortune because the club’s outlay is now far more superior to any side in the country. Whether it be from pursuing a bargain Brazilian, investing in youth or acquiring a big name manager, no side can close the gap on Jack Ma’s Guangzhou Evergrande in the near future.