Ex-SIPG striker Evrard moves to Wuhan
Print Edition
FORMER Shanghai SIPG striker Jean Evrard Kouassi has joined China’s second-tier league side Wuhan Zall FC on a five-year contract, the two clubs announced yesterday.
The 22-year-old Ivory Coast winger joined SIPG from the Croatian league in 2015 on a 2-million euro (US$2.14 million) deal, and scored 12 goals in 45 appearances for the Chinese Super League side over the past two years.
“Evrard performed well in his two seasons with SIPG,” the Shanghai club wrote in its statement. “He was nicknamed ‘super sub’ by fans, who often scored crucial goals when sent into tough matches. He was an important player who helped SIPG to rank in the top three in the league for two straight years. The club thanks Evrard for his contribution, and wishes him all the best in the future.”
Wuhan finished 6th in the 16-team Chinese League One in 2016. The club has made its goal for 2017 clear — to get promotion to the top-tier CSL.
Evrard’s chances of playing in Andre Villas-Boas’ SIPG were slim, with four other strikers ahead of him in the pecking order: Oscar, Odil Ahmedov, Hulk and Elkeson. The four are yet to compete for positions in the 18-member playing list for CSL matches under new Chinese Football Association rules, which cut the number of foreign players allowed for each match from four to three.
Having completed its winter training in Doha, Qatar, SIPG will return home today.
Another Shanghai team, Greenland Shenhua, has sent a new player, who was never officially introduced, on loan to the Spanish La Liga for a year. According to a statement by Alaves, Paraguay midfielder Oscar Romero will play for the club for a year on loan, which can be extended by six months.
Romero had been playing for Argentina side Racing Club since 2015. Argentina’s Ole reported earlier that Shenhua paid US$9 million for the 24-year-old, though the CSL club never officially announced the deal. With the arrival of Argentina striker Carlos Tevez, Shenhua has used up its five foreign player registration quota, and decided to let Romero join the European league for a year, Ole said.
Meanwhile, the CFA is set to almost double its spending — to US$98 million — this year to improve the standards of the game in China.
The CFA said at a conference in Wuhan, central China’s Hubei Province, that it plans to spend 670 million yuan (US$98 million), an increase of 45 percent over last year, in 2017 to support the game across the country.
Out of that fund, about US$27 million will be spent on the national teams at all levels while some US$18 million will go to youth training, local media said. The projected revenue for 2017 is 780 million yuan.
As part of a 2020 plan, China has targeted reaching the last four of the 2019 Asian Cup, to be held in the United Arab Emirates. The national team is currently 81st in the FIFA world rankings and reached the quarterfinals of the 2015 edition of the tournament in Australia.
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