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Cash-rich Chinese clubs eye Asia
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CHINA’S megabucks teams will set their sights on continental glory when defending champion Guangzhou Evergrande and big-spending Jiangsu Suning embark on their AFC Champions League campaigns this week.
After a spending spree which has made the football world sit up and take notice, Chinese teams will want to make good on their investment with an immediate impact in the Asian competition.
Chinese clubs have smashed the national transfer record four times in recent weeks and outstripped spending in the English Premier League, highlighted by Alex Teixeira’s 50-million-euro (US$55.3 million) move to Jiangsu.
The club formerly known as Jiangsu Sainty also splashed out 28 million euros on another Brazilian midfielder, Ramires from Chelsea, as it bids to challenge Luiz Felipe Scolari’s Evergrande.
Evergrande, the Chinese and Asian title-holders, has brandished the check book, too, with a 42-million-euro swoop for Atletico Madrid’s Colombian striker Jackson Martinez.
But it also offloaded Brazilian marksman Elkeson, who scored a brilliant winner in last year’s final against al-Ahli, meaning it will be a new-look attack in tomorrow’s opener against Pohang Steelers.
Evergrande will also be without its red-shirted fans after it was ordered to play its first game behind closed doors for filming a closed al-Ahli training session, holding an unauthorized post-final ceremony and infringing on the commercial rights of AFC sponsors.
Sven-Goran Eriksson’s Shanghai SIPG, which snapped up Elkeson from Evergrande, also represents China in this year’s competition along with Shandong Luneng, led by ex-Brazil boss Mano Menezes.
Sydney FC and Japan’s Urawa Reds, as well as the Steelers, are Evergrande’s obstacles in Group H, while Jiangsu’s main Group E rivals shape up as 2006 winner Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors and FC Tokyo.
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