This January saw Premier League clubs spend a huge £190m on new players, but somehow that wasn’t the main talking point.
That’s because the Chinese Super League truly announced itself, with an outlay of a quarter of a billion in the winter window.
Clubs in China began beating English rivals to players like Alex Teixeira and Ezequiel Lavezzi, while the lure of Yuan has taken the likes of Ramires and Paulinho over from the Premier League in the last 12 months.
With the Chinese transfer window shutting on Friday, Bwin has drawn up this infographic comparing Asia’s newest emerging league with some of the more established European top flights.
It shows that, in addition to the huge outlay, Chinese clubs have been attracting experienced players with – on average – more international caps than those on the move elsewhere in Europe.
The players are more decorated, too, with an average of three major trophies each, and their average age is 27 (higher than the average age of players moving to Premier League or La Liga clubs in January).
Click on the image below to enlarge and see how China compares to elsewhere in the world.
