Beijing Guo'an Signs Turkish Forward Burak Yilmaz for EUR 8 Million

Beijing's own Guo'an soccer team has gotten in on some of the high-spending action during this winter's transfer window, signing Turkish club Galatasaray forward Burak Yilmaz for a reported fee of EUR 8 million.

London-based English Premier League (EPL) side West Ham United was also interested in Yilmaz, but their offer to Istanbul's Galatasaray was rejected prior to the end of the EPL transfer window earlier this week. Yilmaz will also earn EUR 8 million per year.

The Chinese Super League (CSL) of which Beijing Guo'an is a part and former champion has become a prime destination for players, especially in the latter part of their career. Earlier this week, Jiangsu Suning paid a record transfer fee of EUR 50 million for Alex Teixeira of Ukranian team Shaktar Donetsk, beating out Liverpool FC to sign him. Other top players, including former Chelsea star Didier Drogba and former Arsenal and Real Madrid player Nicolas Anelka signed contracts with Chinese teams, but these arrangements usually ended after one season or less.

The CSL has yet to replicate the success of the Chinese Basketball Association with foreign players like Stephon Marbury. The CSL limits each team to five foreign players, only four of whom may be on the field at any one time.

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I think the biggest concern with the CSL now is how long can these clubs can continue with this kind of spending?

I think no matter if it's going to last or not, these transfer spendings are more of an end by itself than a way to help the development of soccer in China. Many copamanies splashing out money in soccer in China are real estate developers that heavily depend on their relationship with the goverment in order to get the license of using land, including Guangzhou Evergrande, Shanghai Greenland and Hebei CFFC. Their jaw-dropping spendings in soccer transfers not only make them to the headlines, but also help them to establish and maintain a good relationship with the local government. If their soccer team plays good or even wins the championship, it would be very benefitial to local goverment, especially the one who's in charge, career-wise, and that's exactly how the Wanda Group worked out. They spent money on the Dalian Team; the team keeps winning chamipionships, as well as winning "face" for the local goverment; the Group bulit a strong relationship with the government, and it won almost every single piece of land they needed. 

 

The structure at Guo'an is a lot different from Guangzhou Evergrande, Jiangsu and the Shanghai clubs. They don't spend heavily, but bring in some fairly decent foreign players, and they actually promote their younger players up to the first team. I have yet to see that at Evergrande.

I do agree with you, Patrick, the news of these players making the move the CSL and the clubs offering these high transfer fees is stunning. However, with China's iniative to improve football in the country and the CSL trying to clean up its act and attract more fans, makes this is not surprising at all.

I would compare some of these CSL clubs to the big clubs in Europe in terms of having deep pockets to spend on players and provide huge salaries. I think the CSL and the European leagues are similar whereas there is no salary caps in place, rather the clubs have a wage structure in order to keep the books balanced. It's a lot different from the sports leagues in the United States and especially MLS which has so many rules and regulations (I am still trying to understand what they mean by a "discovery player").

I think the biggest concern with the CSL now is how long can these clubs can continue with this kind of spending? Also, how can some of the smaller clubs keep up with the bigger clubs? I remember back some 15 or 20 years ago when the big clubs in the EPL started to spend big on transfers that the smaller clubs wanted to try and keep up. So they went out and spent big on players only to totally wreck their finances. Now, clubs like Leeds United, Sheffield Wednesday, Nottingham Forest and Coventry City are no longer in the EPL.

I think the CSL will have to pay close attention to this in the long run because if one or two of these clubs start to be affected financially by overspending, then it could affect other clubs.

KenChan07 wrote:

I would not exactly call EUR 8 million high spending. That's more like a bargain compared to what Jiangsu Suning, Guangzhou Evergrande, Shanghai SIPG and Shenhua have splashed out on players.

And these guys are not in the late stages of their careers. They continue to play for their respective national teams and are in their prime.

The big question will be whether they can get adjusted to the lifestyle in China. Perhaps there will be no problems for the guys playing in Beijing, Shanghai or Guangzhou, even Nanjing maybe alright for Ramires and Alex Teixeira. But I have my doubts about Gervinho adjusting to life in Hebei, even if he is in Qinhuangdao.

Guo'an also signed Renato Augusto earlier this month, MVP of Brazilian Series A for last season. Guangzhou signed Jackson Martinez from Atletico Madrid for 42 million Euros. I was so stunned by these recent transfer moves. It feels like these clubs are playing real-life football manager, especially when you think of the national team of China, currently ranked 93 in the world and beaten by Hong Kong in the preliminary round of the World Cup qualifications.

It's quite interesting tha the CLS is probably one of the most free and capitalistic sports organizations that have ever existed in the world. Most sports leagues use salary caps or budget control regulations to restrict members from abusing the power of money and to keep the leage balanced, but there isn't a single rule in the CLS in this regard, which means each single club can spend as much money as they want, and in whatever way as they want.

Actually I feel that it embodies China quite well. 

I would not exactly call EUR 8 million high spending. That's more like a bargain compared to what Jiangsu Suning, Guangzhou Evergrande, Shanghai SIPG and Shenhua have splashed out on players.

And these guys are not in the late stages of their careers. They continue to play for their respective national teams and are in their prime.

The big question will be whether they can get adjusted to the lifestyle in China. Perhaps there will be no problems for the guys playing in Beijing, Shanghai or Guangzhou, even Nanjing maybe alright for Ramires and Alex Teixeira. But I have my doubts about Gervinho adjusting to life in Hebei, even if he is in Qinhuangdao.