On the night of June 20 in Beijing, Guangzhou FC officially announced that it had reached a "breakup" with Paulinho, the team's core foreign aid, who also released a farewell video through his personal social media platform, expressing his gratitude to Guangzhou and China. Just a month ago, the Guangzhou club officially announced that another foreign aid Talisker successfully joined the Saudi Lazard team, but the specific details of the transfer were not publicly disclosed. It is reported that the Lazard team paid a transfer fee of 8 million euros for Talisca, while Paulinho left the team this time because of the impact of the epidemic, unable to fulfill the contract, the two sides finally reached an agreement to formally terminate the contract.
The departure of Paulinho and Talisca marks the official farewell to the era of big-name foreign aid in the Chinese Super League. In this season's Chinese Super League, the only foreign aid player known as the "big leg" level is Oscar, the captain of the harbor. According to the current anti-epidemic policy and the relevant regulations of the Chinese Super League, it will be difficult to see the return of big-name foreign aiders in the coming years.
Paulinho, a legend in the Chinese Super League
It's no exaggeration to call Paulinho the first man in the Chinese Super League. Since first joining Evergrande in 2015, the Brazilian has fit in perfectly with Guangzhou soccer, representing the team in 176 games, scoring 74 goals and contributing 29 assists. Evergrande was able to win its second AFC Champions League title, and Paulinho deserves a lot of credit for that. For Guangzhou soccer, the most trustworthy player in difficult times is Paulinho. In addition, Paulinho's personal ability and professionalism has also conquered other clubs in the Chinese Super League. In the era of the prevalence of gold dollar soccer, many clubs will refer to Paulinho as the first benchmark when importing foreign aid. Having an all-round midfielder like Paulinho means having the capital to compete with Evergrande. In the view of many coaches, the reason why Guangzhou Evergrande is scary lies in Paulinho, "other foreign aid can not be on, as long as Paulinho on, Evergrande is still that Evergrande."
Even in the world transfer market, Paulinho is the most marketable star.In 2017, Barcelona, in desperate need of a player, paid €40 million directly to take Paulinho away from Guangzhou Evergrande in the form of triggering his release clause after several fruitless offers. The two sides then signed a four-year deal, with Paulinho earning €5 million a year. The fact that a player from a non-mainstream league can be so recognized by the world's top giants, Barcelona, is unique in the world of football. The reality also proves that Barcelona's vision is unique. Paulinho definitely has the level of galloping in the La Liga and even the Champions League, and then in the 34 games played in Barcelona, Paulinho contributed 9 goals and 2 assists, in filling the vacancies of Barcelona's midfielders, but also for the Premier League to play a technical endorsement role.
In Barcelona "gold plating" more than a season later, Evergrande spent 7.5 million euros to 47.5 million euros of the sky repurchase Paulinho, and Paulinho's personal annual salary and the first time to join the Evergrande 7 million euros compared to the realization of the double. In addition, Evergrande in order to introduce Paulinho also paid 200 million yuan to the CFA adjustment fee. Although the transfer ended in a bloody loss for Evergrande, Guangzhou eventually recovered their old captain and under his leadership, also won the league title in the 2019 season.
Guangzhou saves 100 million yuan by terminating Paulinho's contract
Evergrande lost the 2020 season's Chinese Super League final, after which Paulinho bid farewell to the team and returned to Brazil to visit his family, and did not play with the team in the AFC Champions League. News of his and Talisca's impending departures then continued unabated. Paulinho has been unable to get a visa to return to China from Brazil due to the epidemic. According to a related report from Brazil's Globo Sport, he has made four attempts to return to China, but has been unsuccessful. "Paulinho for this reason also once flew from Brazil to Frankfurt, Germany to wait, hoping to take Frankfurt to fly back to Shanghai, but ultimately can not enter the country, in Frankfurt after waiting for several days, the Brazilian can only choose to return."
Paulinho's contract with Guangzhou Evergrande expires in July 2022, and if all goes well, he should remain in Guangzhou for another year and a half. Paulinho had previously been interested in extending his contract with Guangzhou, but negotiations did not go well.
In the process, a number of clubs, including those in the Premier League, Portuguese Premier League and the Saudi League, hoped to take Paulinho on loan, but no agreement was reached. One of the closest to become a line is to take Talisman's Riyadh success, their offer is to join Paulinho half a season on loan, and bear 70% of his salary in Guangzhou for the whole year, about 10 million euros after tax, this offer for Evergrande is quite tempting, but ultimately, because of Paulinho's personal and not intended to go to Saudi Arabia, the final is still not happy to break up.
The termination of the contract of both sides did not release the relevant details. But according to Brazilian media reports, the two sides of the termination of the contract negotiations "is very friendly", "Paulinho hopes to be able to determine to leave Evergrande, and then look for a new club." Previously, the two sides of the obstacles to the termination of the contract lies in the Paulinho hope to get full pay, and after a series of twists and turns back to the negotiation table, Paulinho is likely to choose to give up at least half a season of personal income, in exchange for as soon as possible to get the free agency. For the Guangzhou club, it is undoubtedly a good business to be able to successfully break up with the foreigner who is still unable to arrive at 15 million euros a year after tax. Paulinho's salary for half a season is as high as 7.5 million euros, plus personal income tax, Guangzhou Evergrande chose to terminate its contract, at least it can save nearly 100 million yuan in expenses.
Paulinho's personal goal is to return to Europe or Brazil to play, and after regaining his free agency, he has become the meat and potatoes in the eyes of a number of European clubs, according to the latest reports in the Brazilian media, including Atletico Madrid, Benfica, and a number of clubs in the Turkish league are very interested in him and are ready to offer him a new contract.
Chinese Super League "thigh" level foreign aid only one left Oscar
After the departure of Paulinho, the Chinese Super League can be called the "thigh" level of foreign aid is only left in the harbor captain Oscar. Guoan's foreign aid Augusto has been delayed in returning to the team, and is expected to leave the team only sooner or later. Harbor's other foreign aid Arnautovic is now playing in the European Cup, he left the Chinese Super League to return to Europe news is also clamoring. Considering that the Austrian national team will also be playing in the World Cup in the second half of the season, under the current anti-epidemic policy, it is unlikely that Arnautovic will be able to travel back and forth between Europe and Asia, and it is unlikely that Arnaut will be able to leave the team in this summer's transfer window.
This season's Chinese Super League has been completely starlight dim, foreign aid transfers in the Chinese Super League between the clubs to carry out "internal transfer", or in Japan and South Korea in the league gold, Europe and the United States mainstream foreign aid is almost difficult to find traces. The introduction of this season's biggest foreign aid is the Shenzhen team's Jinteiro, officially revealed its price of 5.9 million euros, compared to Paulinho's peak price of up to 42 million euros, this price is still the European transfer market assessment of the price, has been filtered out of the intermediary of the "water". As of the first half of this year, the 32-year-old Paulinho's value is still as high as 9.5 million euros.
There are multiple reasons for the dimming of the starlight of the Chinese Super League, first of all, the Football Association's salary restriction order restricts big-name foreign aid to join, the pre-tax salary cap of 3 million euros for foreign aid, so that the Chinese Super League clubs can no longer bring in the big-name foreign aid.
Secondly, affected by the epidemic, many big-name foreign aiders, even if they agree to join the Chinese Super League, it is difficult to get the relevant work visa. This is also the reason why the transfer of foreign aid this season is mostly based on internal activities. Some insiders told reporters, now the Chinese super to buy foreign aid, the first is not to ask how the ability, how much money you want, but for there is no Chinese visa, with a Chinese visa we then talk down, no Chinese visa, do not have to talk down.
In addition, due to the impact of various factors, investors' enthusiasm for investing in soccer has been greatly reduced, and it is unlikely that they will spend a lot of money on bringing in big-name football players in the short term. The league was affected by the epidemic, changed to the tournament system, the second half of the World Cup kicked off, the league is likely to fall into a few months of suspension, all of these investors have a certain impact on the enthusiasm for investment. Many insiders believe that perhaps within the next few years, the golden dollar Chinese Super League has been completely drawn to a close, perhaps it is difficult to see the figure of big-name foreign aid in the next few years. (Sohu Sports Pei Li)
