Premier League clubs may have concluded their transfer business for the season (free agents aside) but that’s not the case everywhere.
Plenty of countries still have a bit of time to go in their transfer windows, with China among them, and Super League team Guangzhou Evergrande have put the rest of the world in the shade.
Until this morning, the biggest fee paid by any club in 2016 was the reported £18.3m Stoke City forked out on record buy Giannelli Imbula from Porto.
But Guangzhou have spent a whole lot more to secure the services of another former Porto man – Jackson Martinez – who has arrived from Atletico Madrid for a fee of €42m (£31.7m)
BREAKING: @JacksonMartinez signs his contract with Guangzhou Evergrande. €42m fee. (via @diarioas) pic.twitter.com/Zuf1tmfGlt
— ATLETICOFANS (@AtleticoFans) February 2, 2016
Martinez, who played for Colombia at the 2014 World Cup, had only joined Atletico last summer for €35m.
The 29-year-old will fill the gap left by Robinho, who is pursuing Premier League football after agreeing to cut short his contract with the Chinese team.
He will join up with another high-profile South American, former Tottenham midfielder Paulinho, who made a £10m move to Guangzhou in the summer, and former Chelsea and Brazil boss Luiz Felipe Scolari.
