To me one of the biggest oddities and mysteries of this year, if not the biggest oddity. "Although no financial details of the deal were released, reports have suggested that the Chinese club paid €84m (£71.6m) for Tevez, who returned to Argentina last year after spells in England and Italy." https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/dec/29/carlos-tevez-shanghai-shenhua-chinese-super-league Carlos Tevez is 32 years old, turns 33 in February, and had one-and-half year left on his contract until June 2018. Boca Juniors is a big club, but not one of the world's superclubs. Carlos Tevez has been among the ~ top 30 biggest domestic performers for the last decade, in contrast to his national team and UCL/EL resume. He played well in the English and Italian league so you probably do get value for money. Now the Chinese are paying ~80 million for him. In excess of other players like Alex Texeira (50m), Hulk (55m), Oscar (60m), Ramires (28m) and Jackson Martinez (42m) who will not have the same (domestic) career, but are more or less in their prime age. What is the rationale behind this gigantic sum for a nearly 33-years old with 1.5 year left on his contract? What are the bargaining chips the seller had? What made their position strong? Which intermediaries have a strong position? Are the Chinese paying for access as well? What is it that the Chinese are trying to please, mellow, soft-soap and cater?
Tevez is a proven success in all teams he has played for and he is probably capable of playing at the highest level for a good 3 more years under the right circumstances. Of course for the Chinese to pay out of the roof - it has less to do with Tevez's ability and way more to do with the attention a signing like his brings to that league. Think of it like this - the Chinese are paying 4/3rd what they paid Oscar - and Tevez is just simply a bigger star. Any European club will probably still do the same for Tevez in relation to Oscar. The initial players who moved to the league set the price - what is the price that will bring a player still capable of playing in Europe to move to China? Then they factor in a new value for Tevez using the initial base prices. With relation to what they are paying the players, what Tevez is getting paid is fair. Its just mind-boggling when you compare it to what similar players would be paid in Europe.
That's a good point. Tevez will bring a lot of lemmings and a cult-following to the Chinese league, even in relation to an Oscar, Jackson Martinez etc.
Problem is, you will not play at the highest level in a league like the Chinese because that considers equally good defenders and team tactics. Tevez will be most likely a success but he will only play good enough. It probably ends his International career. Oscar on the other hand is a very good player but has not the potential to reach the first class of players. In an era where Brazil have only a very little chance to win the World Cup, he probably can spare the International career anyway.
The probable reason lies outside football. The top dog of China has in his cross hairs the target of China becoming World Cup winner in 2030/2034. One of the means is a strong CSL. The owners of the clubs are superrich owners of companies and by attributing to a strong CSL they hope for profitable contracts from the gouvernment by pleasing the leader of China. Given the enormous sums going hand in hand with those contracts, the Tevez money doesnot even make a blip in the cost structure of those companies. This was, however not what the Numero Uno of China ment. He wants a league strong because of highly qualified Chinese players. Hence the founding of those thousands of soccer academies in China. So to curb this spending now it has been ordered that only five foreigners can be contracted and only 3 can play in a match. To boost the quality of the youth Chinese kids now suddenly pop up in the Netherlands, having training sessions with Dutch youth teams.
Can't he dream? http://www.english-online.at/news-articles/sports/china-wants-to-become-soccer-superpower.htm
In the same ballpark: Real Madrid pays 45 million euros for 16 years old Vinicius Junior (born 12 july 2000). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinícius_Júnior It's by a few sources claimed that he has too few games at the highest youth levels (let alone senior level) to make any rough predictions. But maybe Real Madrid knows what others don't know. Even if it's sure he's the next Pelé it is still a lot of money for a 16 years old Pelé (with, who knows, a Torres like knee injury always looming around the corner). What explains this price? Marketing? 867074010718384128 is not a valid tweet id Too little observations.— Goalimpact (@Goalimpact) May 23, 2017 Yes. Unless he is Messi part two this is too much.— Goalimpact (@Goalimpact) May 23, 2017
I think the main reason is that Real Madrid is afraid of losing a talent to Barcelona again, as happened with Neymar. Both clubs competed for Vinicius neck by neck (Barcelona tried Neymar and the history of brazilians players in Barcelona to convince him). The minimum price stipulated in the contract was 30 million euros. One increased and the other equaled the offer until Madrid came with the 45 million euros price and won the sale. Flamengo and Traffic (the company that invests in Vinicius's career) were smart in negotiations and refused offers of other European clubs, opting to focus on the Spanish giants. Vinicius played in the most popular club in Brazil and made a huge impact at 2017 Copa São Paulo de Futebol Junior (the most traditional and important competition of under-20 teams in Brazil) and then at 2017 South American U-17 Championship. It has been a very widely spoken name in brazilian football this year. Newspapers, tv shows, articles on websites almost daily basis. In truth, he is really a very promising player and the difference of his talent to the other young players is astounding. I'm not sure if he will correspond to the next-Neymar hype, but I think it almost impossible that he doesn't become a very good player.