Soccer Market is Turned on Its Head

The international football transfer market, in which top clubs spend millions on foreign players, has been turned upside down by the Chinese, who have paid a Spanish club to sign one of their players.

Cash-strapped Second Division Xerez, which is struggling to pay the salaries of its other players, received €60,000 (£41,000) from a mysterious "personal sponsor" to sign midfielder Shang Yi, club officials told El País newspaper yesterday.

The 24-year-old Chinese international, who impressed fans at his debut match against Terrassa at the weekend, has not asked to be paid a salary.

The unidentified "personal sponsor" is also paying for a Chinese translator to travel everywhere with the player.

"He is the only professional footballer who has paid to play in Spain," said El País.

The newspaper explained that Shang Yi, the first Chinese player in Spain, was part of an elite group of sportsmen and sportswomen being groomed by Chinese authorities in preparation for the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008.

He had been sent to Brazil for several years as a teenager to learn the game before returning to play for Beijing's Guo An team.

He has since played four times for the Chinese national team.

Beijing has agreed to cede him to Xerez, which plays in the south-western, sherry-producing town of Jerez de la Frontera, for the rest of the season in return for nothing. The club has the option of keeping the Olympic hopeful for another year.

"It is an honour to wear the blue and white shirt. Up with Xerez!" he declared on his arrival.

At the weekend he played for the final 22 minutes of a match which Xerez lost 0-1 and managed to provoke a penalty which a team-mate then missed.

"Technically he is a good player and what he does not know about tactics he will learn," the club's sporting director, Hipólito Rincón, said.

Club officials were not available for comment yesterday.