Didier Drogba joined Chinese team Shanghai Shenhua this week on a two-and-a-half-year contract worth $16 million a year. In Shanghai, he will team up with his former Chelsea colleague Nicolas Anelka and together they will be the attacking force for the club. But, are the million dollar signings the right for Chinese football?
Most Asian, as well as the American league, has a history of signing elder European superstars or South American players with no profile in Europe. This is helping the leagues develop, in some sense, but it also kills the potential of their own national players. The American MLS signed some of the world’s biggest stars in the 1970’s with New York Cosmos as the most prominent club. Players as Pelé, Giogio Chinaglia and Franz Beckenbauer contributed to the development of football (soccer) in the U.S and made the American league entertaining for the whole world. However, as the superstars retired or left the league, the interest fell, both in USA and Europe. For several years, American soccer had been ignored, until the league started signing European stars again and especially when David Beckham joined L.A. Galaxy. However, meanwhile some of the domestic American players has made a name of themselves and have had a career in Europe. Suddenly, the MLS is not all about elder stars but also about the American players. Suddenly, the European clubs started looking for talents in America. This is what China is hoping for now.
The signings of Nicolas Anelka and Didier Drogba can and probably will bring some attention and hopefully some quality to the Chinese league. However, the enormous salaries given to players as the two former Chelsea forwards can kill the talent work in the country. An article from goal.com reveals that an average foreign player earns around $863.000 a year while the average domestic player earns $246.000 a year. When the Chinese clubs are buying their way to glory, rather than developing their domestic players the Chinese national team will suffer. One of the main problems is that most of the stars from European football is in their dying years of their career and is really just looking for a pay check. When they have signed with an Asian club there is no way back, and the motivation might have gone.
Another problem is the media coverage of the Chinese League. Many of the players signing with a Chinese or another Asian team will often be forgotten by the European audience. With USA as a part of the Western society, the MLS is followed by the European football. The play style in USA is also more alike the European than the Asian. More and more young European players are trying their luck in the American League, because they can create a name for themselves and return to Europa. The Western Media coverage of the Asian leagues is close to zero, and as long as it stays this way no young players will join the leagues to develop. Bringing Drogba to the Chinese League will bring some attention to China at the moment, but soon we will have forgotten all about it.
China has not qualified for the World Cup since 2002, and this is not going to change as long as the clubs keep signing 'over the hill stars from Europe. Most of the Asian players who makes a breakthrough is brought to European or American football clubs. This once again lowers the quality of the domestic league. Instead of spending a large amount of money on one of the 'Old-boys superstars' the clubs should focus on signing their own stars and keep them in the domestic league. This will, without a doubt, help tournaments develop and thereby help the national teams. If the national teams becomes better, so does the media coverage from the rest of the world. That said, it is important to get some more or less, well known names to China. However, spending $16 million a year on a single player, does not seem as the right move.
