Chelsea’s Brazilian winger Willian could become the next former Shakhtar Donetsk player to move to the Chinese Super League. As transfermarkt.de reported on Friday April 29, Guangzhou Evergrande has made a sizeable offer for the services of the right winger.
Bleacher Report further disclosed that Guangzhou are willing to pay €64 million for Willian. The 27-year-old Brazilian has a deal until 2018 at Stanford Bridge, and Chelsea are currently in negotiation to extend the contract with Willian, and have offered him a €150,000 a week deal.
But according to Darren Lewis of the Mirror, Guangzhou “are one of several clubs in China ready to double [his salary]” the deal offered by Chelsea. Guangzhou already made a significant splash on the transfer market last winter when they signed Paulinho from Tottenham for €14 million, and Jackson Martínez from Atlético Madrid for €42 million. Evergrande, which are coached by former Brazilian national team coach Luiz Felipe Scolari, are now at the forefront of the clubs that are trying to land Willian from Chelsea.
The transfer would indeed make sense, as Guangzhou have a history of signing Brazilian players and, also, Willian is no stranger to choosing money over sporting success. In January 2013, for example, Willian chose to leave Shakhtar Donetsk—a Champions League contender—to move to Russia to Anzhi Makhachkala in a controversial big money transfer. Furthermore, Chelsea have been known to take big money from China—the club sold the Brazilian Ramires to Jiangsu Suning for €28 million this January.
The club, which is owned by the Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich, has worked hard to stay out of a potential Financial Fair Play investigation by UEFA, by being extremely astute on the transfer market in the last two years. Hence, the €64 million received by a potential Willian transfer would allow Chelsea significant investments in a squad that desperately needs a change after a disappointing Premier League season.
Guangzhou Evergrande’s interest in signing Willian also signals that the club has given up on landing Zenit Saint Petersburg’s Hulk, who has received several offers from Guangzhou in recent months. Zenit have, in the past, heavily criticized the transfer strategy of the Chinese Super League clubs, and it now appears that Zenit have fought off any possible interest from China in their star player.
COMMENTS
There is a big issue here, the CSL only allows for 4 non-Asian foreigners per side. Martinez just arrived and the team relies on Goulart. Alan has come on strong lately and they paid a ton for Paulinho, so it kind of makes me wonder who would be going. A lot of CSL rumors are pure BS, agents either using “offers” for leverage or agents/reporters mixing up Chinese club names etc. It’s not impossible that they may dump one of the 3 Brazilians currently in the side when the window opens, but this seems unlikely.