On July 3, the Chinese Super League (CSL) powerhouse Wuhan officially announced that it had successfully brought in Anderson Lopes, a 28-year-old Brazilian shot-stopper formerly of Japan's J1 League side Gonzaga Sapporo. The summer transfer window for the Chinese Super League, Chinese League A and Chinese League B opened between July 1 and 30, according to a notice from the Chinese Football Association at the beginning of the year. However, due to the impact of the epidemic, clubs' restrictions on attracting reinforcements and the tight schedule of the Chinese Super League, it is difficult to see a big deal in this transfer window, and transfer cases like Lopes' are rare, so the transfer market in the domestic soccer world will remain calm.
Rumors of Lopez arriving in China and undergoing quarantine spread back at the end of last month. Wuhan were said to have been planning the transfer for a long time. Due to the team's struggles in the forward line last season due to Rafael's injury and other reasons, Akin's strength in the center seems to be insufficient despite Evra and Baptiste's excellent performance on the side. With Rafael unable to return to the team, the club finally facilitated the transfer of Lopez to strengthen the team's center forward strength.
Lopes, who is about to turn 28 years old, stands at 1.85 meters tall and comes from the Brazilian Avaí youth system.In July 2016, he landed in Asian soccer and was loaned to Sanfrecce Hiroshima in the J1 League in Japan. In half a season, he made 48 appearances and scored 13 goals.In February 2018, Lopes was loaned to South Korea's Seoul FC in the K1 League, contributing seven goals and five assists in 31 appearances over the course of the year.
In January 2019, López joined Japanese J1 League side Hokkaido Gonzaga Sapporo, scoring 25 goals and contributing 6 assists in 59 appearances in his first two seasons. This season, he has made 14 appearances in the J-League, scoring 12 goals, which places him at the top of the scoring charts, and contributing two goals in two cup matches.
From the actual data and information, Lopez is exactly the master that Wuhan team needs to introduce urgently. In the context of the FA's strict implementation of the club's attraction limit, players limit salary policy, Lopez's transfer fee will never exceed the budget, and may even be far lower than the club's previous introduction of strong foreign aid.
Nonetheless, most Chinese Super League clubs have struggled to find cost-effective foreign aid in this transfer window. The reasons are obvious. On the one hand, the impact of the epidemic, global travel conditions are restricted, the world and domestic epidemic isolation rules are strict, domestic professional soccer is far less attractive to foreign aid than before. From the Talisker, Paulinho left the Chinese Super League, Arnautovic returned to Europe, Augusto, Bakambu delayed return to the team and so on, some of the Chinese Super League clubs are not only difficult to introduce new foreign aid, and even face the loss of the original quality foreign aid.
Another reason why the domestic professional soccer, especially the Chinese Super League (CSL) transfer market is destined to be cold this summer is that the fragmentation of the CSL this season is a foregone conclusion after the Chinese team advanced to the Qatar World Preliminary Asian Round of 12. The league, after playing the remaining nine rounds of the first phase in ultra-high density from July to August, will be temporarily suspended in September, October and November to support the national soccer team's preparation for, and participation in, the 12-team tournament. And apart from Asia, the World Qualifiers in the other WFC continental divisions will also enter a crucial phase. European players like Arnautovic, all want to represent their national team to hit the World Cup, they are reluctant to return to the Chinese Super League also makes sense. From another point of view, the Chinese Super League for two consecutive seasons to adopt the centralized system and greatly reduce the schedule, in fact, including the clubs and other parties to bring a greater loss, the brand image of the league has also had a negative impact. In addition to competing for the title and relegation, most of the Chinese Super League clubs at this point in time, the general mentality is to be able to smoothly play this season of the Chinese Super League matches, even if it is a success. They are naturally not willing to make more meaningless inputs and increase their own burden.
It is worth noting that three clubs, Guangzhou, Beijing Guoan and Shanghai Harbor, have all sent young or substitute lineups to play in this season's AFC Champions League. Although the poor performance of each team will have a negative impact on the next Chinese Super League to compete for the qualification of AFC Champions League in the coming seasons, these clubs are not able to cope with the multiple fronts in the face of such a difficult season. In terms of the AFC Champions League qualification and group stage process, Seaport was knocked out of the competition early, while Beijing and Guangzhou lost all their matches except for Guoan, who barely managed to draw with United City of the Philippines in the first round, leaving the group stage out of the competition almost without a doubt.
For these clubs, to the existing strength to play the Super League, the FA Cup, this season even more successful. There is also a point, by the national football team to fight in the 12 strong match, this season of the Chinese super league is facing the end of the year, if this is really the case, the clubs will also have to face with the internal and external player exchanges "overdue" cooperation matters. After all, most of the players of the single season cooperation period are to the end of the year for the time node. From this point of view, it is difficult for clubs to bring in more new recruits, asking for trouble.
This season, the Chinese Football Association (CFA) and the Preparatory Group of Professional League (PGPL), in order to activate the flow of local talents, have purposely relaxed the rules of limiting the number of quotas for the introduction of players in the three tiers of professional leagues. Among them, each team in the Chinese Super League can bring in a total of 8 general local players throughout the season, and there is no limit on the number of U21 local players that can be brought in. The Chinese A and B leagues can introduce local players without quota. However, so far, the three salons transfer market, only the B Qingdao Hainiu introduction of former international player Xiao Zhi is more visible. However, from the perspective of this year's soccer environment, similar transfers will not be too many. In the context of the league's "turmoil", clubs may pay more attention to internal excavation and exercise young players promoted by their own clubs at the right time.
