China "is fast becoming the new destination for some of Brazil's best players, rather than the English Premier League, Spain's La Liga or the Bundesliga in Germany," according to Tales Azzoni of the AP. Thanks to hefty investments to boost football in the Asian country, Chinese teams "have become much more attractive to Brazilian and South American players, making high salary offers that overshadow the players' desire to move to better clubs in Europe." China "was the country that has spent the most on transfers from Brazilian clubs so far this year," topping almost $40M in the signing of nine South American players, including two from Brazil's national team. Brazilian sports consultancy firm Pluri Head Fernando Ferreira said, "China is trying to become a global player in the sport, it wants to become relevant internationally." China "has been steadily ramping up investments on foreign players" and is the third country with the highest spending on int'l transfers in '15, behind Germany ($118M) and England ($174M). FIFA said that Chinese clubs spent more than $85M on the int'l market through March 17, "more than five times what it spent in 2013." They have already spent nearly $7M more this year than in all of '14. Ferreira said, "Players worth €3 or €4 million to teams in Europe now are being signed for about 10 million in China." Striker Diego Tardelli this year "became the first player from a Chinese club to be picked for Brazil's national team." Before accepting the transfer, Tardelli said that "he called Dunga to ask if he would risk losing his place in the national team by going to a country that lacks football tradition."
With Brazilian clubs struggling financially, it is "difficult for players to reject big transfer fees" and monthly salaries of about $350,000, "nearly three times more than local clubs can afford to pay their top players." However, established players such as Neymar "still make a lot more in the top European clubs, especially including earnings with sponsors and other endorsements" (AP, 4/10).
