As Chinese Super League impose salaries cap for players, in order to control clubs finances, Finance Football reveals a new study: Top Highest Paid Football Players in China 2020.
Since the beggining of this year, Chinese clubs aren’t allowed to pay more than €2,3 million a year on foreign signings. Chinese signings will also have a salary cap and clubs will reportedly have a total salary cap of around €90 million.
The move will redraw clubs’ transfer policies and spending. “Our clubs had too much money burned and our professional football has not been run in a sustainable way”, said CFA chairman Chen Xuyuan. “If we don’t take the appropriate measures, I’m scared it will collapse”.
The figures on this study are related to old signings, so this new rules don’t apply to them. But in the near future it is expected to see significant changes on the amounts paid to athletes, as the Chinese Football Association wants to force clubs towards more sustainable economic models.
There is another relevant event, though: the coronavirus outbreak in the world. This will have an huge and unprecedent impact in all industries, including in football.
Oscar on the lead
The salary cap is set on €2,3 million a year. Brazilian forward Oscar earns more than €20 million a year on Shanghai SIPG. The Brazilian star is on the top of the ranking, earning €450,000 on a weekly basis. That means that if Oscar happened to move to Shanghai SIPG this year, he wouldn’t be allowed to receive that amount of money.
But he is not the only one. Playing for Beijing Guoan since 2018, Bakambu’s salary is about €375,000 per week. The Congolose striker is on the second place on the ranking, with an annual salary of about €18 million.
After Bakambu, another Brazilian striker: Hulk. His wage on Shanghai SIPG is about €320,000 per week, or more than €15 million, that made him the third best paid in the Chinese Super League.
Brazilians, Italians… a United Nations
There are 6 Brazilian players on the top: besides Oscar and Hulk, Paulinho (weekly salary of €270,000/Guangzhou Evergrande), Alex Teixeira (€210,000/Jiangsu Suning), Elkeson (€210,000/Guangzhou Evergrande) and Talisca (€180,000/Guangzhou Evergrande) also appear on the top of the list.
From Italy, one can find 3 players that found the “El Dourado” in China before their retirement: Graziano Pelle (€290,000/Shandong Luneng), Stephan El Shaarawy (€290,000/Shanghai Shenhua) and Eder (€250,000/Jiangsu Suning).
In fact, China had become a hot league for football players in the last due to their financial appeal. Nowadays, it’s an authentic United Nations, even on the top.
Belgium (Felaini and Dembele), Austria (Arnautovic), Slovakia (Hamsik), Venezuela (Rondón) are amongst the countries in the list of biggest salaries in the Chinese Super League. But this is about to change.
