22/31: Shanghai’s Soccer Teams
If you follow football I’m pretty sure you have recently heard a lot of things about the Chinese Super League, the highest soccer division in mainland China.
The country isn’t popular for having a big soccer fan base, but lately the Chinese Super League has been under the reflectors of international media, mainly because of its huge salaries and bringing players to this side of the world. The best paid soccer player in the world plays in this league, the Argentinian Carlos Tévez plays for Shanghai Greenland Shenhua. He’s not the only one who has been attracted to the league, big names like the Hulk, Oscar, Lavezzi, Pellè, Fredy Guarín and Ricardo Carvalho are foreigner players playing in the league. Chinese soccer not only attracts players, big managers like the ex coach of Brazil’s National Team Luis Felipe Scolari works currently for the Guangzhou Evergrande, other foreigner managers like Manuel Pellegrini, André Villas-Boas, Fabio Cannavaro and Gus Poyet work as managers for Chinese teams.
High salaries, good benefits and being the local heroes, are some of the things Chinese owners can offer the foreigner players. The league has a top of only four foreigners per team, but the teams know how to use their spots to attract give names.
The league has increased its competitive due to this, Chinese teams are now a big contender on the AFC Champions League and watching games are a good way of spending your evening.
The city of Shanghai hosts two teams, which aren’t the top ones but slowly are gaining their spot in the high ranks.
Shanghai SIPG. The Red Eagles play in Shanghai Stadium, where almost 57 thousand people can go and enjoy a game, but that rarely happens. They have three Brazilian players, Hulk, Oscar and Elkesson and the Portuguese Rafael Carvalho. Their head coach is André Villas-Boas. They are currently in the fight for the first place and they are currently in the quarter finals of the 2017 AFC Champions League.
Shanghai Greenland Shenhua. The Flower of Shanghai is known for being the team of the town. While their stadium, Hongkou Football Stadium is smaller with only 33 thousand seats, they usually attract more people to their games, they are also the team with the strongest fans in the city. With the hiring of Tévez, who comes to sum up with the Colombians Giovanni Moreno and Freddy Marín, and the Nigerian Obafemi Martins; they are the ones who are investing the most in their foreigner players. Their manager is the ex Chelsea head coach Gus Poyet. The team is known for being one of the fiercest ones in the league. They are currently in the fight for the top places of the league but out of the AFC Champions League.
Their derby is one of the most popular in the country, the Shanghai Derby usually sees the most attendance for both teams during the regular league. Getting tickets is hard and it can be expensive. Prices in the last derby, played at Shenhua’s stadium that currently burnt in an accident, were ¥700 (~100 USD) which is more than three times the normal price.
The National Team, on the other hand, has only one participation in the World Cup in all its history, in 2002 (when two AFC teams qualified directly to the WC for being hosts), where it only reached group stage and did nothing else.
Chinese Football Association stated that they want to host the 2030 World Cup and not only that, they want to be world champions. That’s why they are trying to increase the level of their league and they are bringing schools from all over the world to improve their local players.
While the games are a good entertainment, it’s easy to see that the Chinese Super League has a lot of wat yo go in order to be compared with the leagues from other continents like UEFA, CONCACAF or CONMEBOL, but the plan to improve it is there and it’s taking a good shape. Let’s see if the Chinese Super League can beat the expectations and become the Premiere League of Asia.
This story is part of my 31/31 challenge. Following a friend’s idea I will publish at least one story every day for the next month.
If you see any error please let me know, the idea is to stop over-reviewing my stories before publishing them.
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