Football club Guangzhou Evergrande said that it wants to become an "all-Chinese" team by 2020.
A different direction
According to club head and real estate tycoon Xu Jianyin, Evergrande is planning to phase out foreign players by the end of the decade, The Sun reported. Xu added that the team's focus from here on is to develop homegrown talents who would fill in the shoes of foreign players.
Evergrande currently has five foreign players in its roster: Jackson Martinez from Colombia, Paulinho, Alan, and Ricardo Goulart from Brazil, and Kim Young-Gwon from South Korea.
The team has heavily banked on several of these players to clinch the Chinese Super League (CSL) title for the last six seasons, as well as the AFC Champions League cup in 2013 and 2015.
The surprise move came in just weeks after Guangzhou bought Martinez for nearly $39 million.
Big budget spending has become one of the trends in Chinese football clubs in the last few years, as teams try to lure in top talent from overseas to strengthen their ranks.
Argentine forward Carlos Tevez became the highest paid player in the world after signing up with Shanghai Shenhua for a reported $89 million. He has since then been joined by others like Oscar and Hulk in securing mega-deals to play in China.
However, Chinese football authorities have earlier announced that they will be tightening regulations with regards to these major transfers, saying that they will be limiting the allowable transfer fees, as well putting caps on the salaries of foreign players.
More Work Needed
Xu said that the move is also to help the development of the Chinese national team, Sky Sports reported. He added that they would also be pooling more of their resources toward the training of young players, instead of making big foreign purchases.
He also said that they will be taking a more stringent approach team finances, saying that they need to increase earnings being generated from ticket sales.