Chinese soccer clubs pursuing false prosperity

Editor's note: Reportedly, Gareth Bale, a Welsh soccer player for Real Madrid, has received irresistible offers from several clubs in the Chinese Super League, and it is anticipated he will give the nod to a three-year contract offered by Jiangsu Suning, a club sponsored by the Suning Holdings Group in Nanjing, Jiangsu province. China Daily writer Li Yang comments:

The other big names coming to play in China this summer include Salomon Rondon, Marko Arnautovic and Stephan El Shaarawy.

Chinese clubs have become the most active buyers of soccer players, particularly those who would like to capitalize on their talent with a big pay check as their careers draw toward the final whistle.

At least three of the top clubs in the CSL have already naturalized or will naturalize players from Europe and South America, with the naturalized players seeing an instant rise in their salaries.

To some extent, the first division of China's professional league has become a competition of investment, despite Chinese soccer fans calling for the clubs to divert their attention from buying near-to-retiring foreign players to cultivating young Chinese talents.

The decision-makers of the sports administrative department should not be blinded by the wealthy clubs' dazzling performance in Asia, but rethink how to build a healthy connection between the professional leagues and the national team, and fundamentally the development of the sport in China.

China's main rivals on the pitch were Iran and the Republic of Korea in the 1980s. The list expanded to include Saudi Arabia, Japan, Uzbekistan in the 1990s. Now it includes almost all Middle East countries, and Vietnam and Thailand.

While the other Asian countries send their players to Europe, China is big on buying from Europe, and is moving farther away from the center of the world's most popular sport.

If the clubs cannot curb their overseas buying craze and do not divert their resources to youth academies, even if China performs well in the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, with a number of naturalized players, it will still be nowhere in world soccer.