Remember the foreign exchange stays you went on as a teenager.
When the time came for exchange students to come over to the UK from overseas, who didn’t secretly hope that the one who joined your class would be brilliant at football?
Of course, if they were more Stephane Guivarc’h than Eric Cantona you were still stuck with your new teammates classmates, and that’s sort of like what’s happening in the Portuguese second tier.
Crazy. Chinese multinational Ledman sponsor Portuguese 2nd tier. Mandatory inclusion of Chinese players in 10 teams. pic.twitter.com/8dLGWjI7Fq
— Tom Kundert (@PortuGoal1) January 26, 2016
The league is now sponsored by Ledman, an LED manufacturer which is also behind ‘Chinese Players Overseas Study Plan’.
If you haven’t twigged, that means clubs in Portugal will be required, under the terms of the sponsorship deal, to include at least one Chinese player in their squad.
In total, 10 players will travel to the European country, with one being assigned to each of the top 10 clubs in the Segunda Liga (there are 24 clubs in the division in total).
