Chinese club Guangzhou Evergrande made quite the splash this week when they signed Fluminense's Argentine midfielder Dario Conca to a deal reportedly worth £23.6 million over two and a half years, making him the world's third-highest paid player behind superstars Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.
Pretty impressive for a footballer who is nearing his thirties and has never been capped by his country, nor played in Europe.
Admittedly, there is some uncertainty about the finer details of the agreement, but it is still massive money. Conca's Fluminense boss Abel Braga made that clear when he said: “This offer will put him in the top 10 highest-paid players in the world.”
Well, for starters, this is a club from China's third-largest city with an urban population of some 12 million. The city itself is a key transport hub in China's south, just 100-odd kilometres north of Hong Kong and Macau.
As for the club, Guangzhou Evergrande are the current leaders of China's Super League, holding a seven-point advantage from second-placed Beijing Guoan after 14 matches in the 30-game campaign. They look certainties to, at least, qualify for the 2012 AFC Champions League and are the clear favourites for the 2011 title.
Not bad for a club that 12 months ago were in China's second-tier League One.
However, their rapid rise isn't down to luck, rather the influence of the deep pockets of the club's wealthy owners Evergrande Real Estate Group (hence the latter half of the club's name), who took over following their relegation in 2009. Evergrande are one of the biggest real estate companies in China and their chairman Xu Jiayin is one of the richest men in the country, too, ranked 200 in the 2011 Forbes Global Wealthiest List.
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