HONG KONG, Feb 27 (AFP): A double blow of the coronavirus and a new salary cap has seen the bottom fall out of Chinese football's transfer market, while Odion Ighalo led what could become an exodus of foreign stars.
Shanghai SIPG smashed the Asian transfer record when they signed Oscar from Chelsea three years ago for EUR60 million, with Hulk, Marouane Fellaini, Javier Mascherano and Carlos Tevez all moving to China in recent years.
Their arrivals put Chinese football on the map and provoked consternation in Europe's major leagues that Chinese clubs were distorting the transfer market with world-leading wages.
But with wages now capped at EUR3 million a year, and the Chinese Super League on hold over the coronavirus outbreak, China isn't the destination it once was.
China's winter transfer window looks poised to close with a whimper on Friday, with Chinese Super League clubs spending just EUR28 million so far, the lowest since 2011.
There were two notable departures with striker Ighalo joining Manchester United on loan from Shanghai Shenhua and Belgian winger Yannick Carrasco returning to Atletico Madrid from Dalian.
China's domestic football is indefinitely suspended because of the virus outbreak, which has killed nearly 2,800 people in the country and has now spread around the world.
Harry Belford Spencer, co-founder of First Pick Group, a Shanghai-based sports advisory company, said the uncertainty caused by the coronavirus had put off prospective foreign signings and dissuaded Chinese clubs from doing business.
"You are not going to invest a lot of money as a club if you don't really know what's happening," said the Briton, who is involved in the Chinese transfer scene.
"You are signing these players with the intention of them playing earlier (from the start of the season in February), and there's now this delay.
"You don't want to build up a big wage bill and that's probably why you see a guy like Ighalo joining United because why would Shanghai Shenhua want him on their books paying a salary when they're not playing football?"
Even before now, China's transfer market had begun to cool after the Chinese Football Association brought in measures to encourage clubs to develop youth players.
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