IVORIAN STRIKER Didier Drogba has becomes the latest big name to join China’s Super League after he signed a 2½-year deal with Shanghai Shenhua FC. The former Chelsea star hopes to join the Chinese club in July.
At Shenhua, the 34-year-old will link up with his former Chelsea team-mate Nicolas Anelka.
The arrival of big names such as Drogba, Anelka and former Italy coach Marcello Lippi, who is coaching Guangzhou Evergrande, has done much to boost the game’s profile, especially as its reputation has been badly tarnished by years of corruption.
In a bid to shore up the reputation of the game, the Chinese FA has put together an independent professional league council that will try to reform the game in China and work on developing the sport.
This season, 4.2 million fans have attended Chinese Super League matches, the best figures since the league began in 2004.
And clubs have been spending money, too. Champions Guangzhou Evergrande have spent nearly €40 million on boosting their team in the past year, including €8 million to bring Argentina’s Dario Conca from Fluminense in Brazil.
“I am looking forward to a new challenge and to experiencing a new culture, and I am excited about the new developments in the Chinese Super League. When Chelsea went to China last year, we had a great time and I met some amazing fans,” Drogba said on his website.
The posting had no details of his contract, but he looks set to earn a reported €250,000 a week.
Shanghai Shenhua is 12th in the 16-club Chinese Super League, although they hopes their fortunes will turn around under new coach, former Argentina manager Sergio Batista.
“I hope to help promote Chinese football around the world and further improve the links between China and Africa,” said Anelka, who scored 157 goals for Chelsea after joining from Marseilles in 2004.
Earlier this month, two former football chiefs and a number of ex-national team players were jailed for corruption as part of a clampdown on graft in China.
Nan Yong, ex-head of the Chinese FA, was given 10½ years for taking bribes worth more than 1.48 million yuan (€185,000).
His predecessor Xie Yalong was given the same sentence and fined for taking bribes. Former China captain Wei Shaohui was also given 10½ years and fined for taking bribes.
Former internationals Shen Si, Qi Hong, Jiang Jin and Li Ming were each jailed for up to six years for match-fixing.
Football is popular in China but it has suffered from a number of match-fixing scandals and fans are frustrated at the referees, or “black whistles”, prompting many to switch to basketball.
The international game is also in the doldrums, and revelations that players were paying to make sure they were picked for the international squad didn’t help.
China were knocked out early in the qualifying rounds for the 2014 World Cup, despite the presence of former Spain coach José Antonio Camacho.
China made it to the World Cup only once – in 2002 in Korea and Japan – failed to score in the first round, and were knocked out.
There has also been an alarming drop in the number of people playing the game.
It had been widely anticipated that Drogba would head to China, especially after he announced his decision in May to leave Chelsea after eight years at the club.
One of his last actions in a Chelsea shirt was to lift the Champions League trophy, after he scored the equaliser against Bayern Munich in the Champions League final, before shooting the winning penalty in the shoot-out.
