Former Guangzhou Evergrande vice-captain Paulinho was recently interviewed by Brazilian media gremistas. Paulinho revealed that he had been trying to return to China to play during his stay in Brazil last year, even rejecting an invitation from his mentor Scolari. But in the end, the club's severe financial crisis made the legendary star couldn't wait to return to China.
Paulinho said, "At the time I was negotiating with Guangzhou Evergrande and once my contract was terminated I was free to join another team. At first it was Machado who called me and then Scolari, who was the manager of Gremio at the time, called me and said, mate, we really need you. But I was in a moment of sadness, I wanted to go back to China to play soccer and everything seemed to come together. So I said to him that I wanted to take a break before making a decision."
Paulinho also revealed why he didn't join Red Bulls Bragantino on loan: "I trained with Bragantino for about four months, but Guangzhou Evergrande didn't agree to my rental program. Then, when I actually terminated my contract with the club, I started thinking about where I was going to go. In Brazil, only Corinthians and Gremio really reached an agreement."
It's easy to see from Paulinho's words that he really wanted to return to play in China before he officially left Guangzhou Evergrande last season. Unfortunately, at that time, the financial crisis of CSL club started to break out. Evergrande could not continue to afford Paulinho's huge annual salary of more than 10 million euros, and the two sides could only terminate the contract; at the same time, it was difficult for other clubs to bring in such a high-paid foreign aid as Paulinho, so Paulinho could only leave. Paulinho as a generation of legendary foreign aid in the Chinese Super League, left without a happy ending, which is very embarrassing.
