Gonzalo Higuain could have made a move to Hebei China Fortune if he wanted to. Or so a report claims, but that isn't what's shocking. It's that he was reportedly offered £800,000-per-week.
That's not a typo.
This club really did (reportedly) offer Higuain £800,000-per-week, which is almost as insane as Higuain saying no to it.
For those of you who don't want to do the math, that's £50 million for the year. Or $65 million. Or €60 million. Or 440 million Yuan. Or ... you get the idea. It's a ton of money.
That's an obscene amont of money and also why it's probably not true. As crazy as the Chinese Super League has been in doling out huge sums of cash to players over the last few years, they haven't been handing out near a million per week. They've been at about half-a-million, which is still absurd and makes pretty good players among the highest paid in the world, but the jump from £300,000, £400,000 and £500,000 to £800,000 is gigantic.
This is a report that should be dismissed out of hand. There's no way it's true. But Chinese clubs have been paying players so much that there is a chance it's true. You don't completely laugh at it. And that's the impact that China has had on the transfer market. Even £800,000-per-week isn't entirely laughable, which boggles the mind. So maybe it is true?
Of course, even if it is true, Higuain may have said no because he doesn't believe he will actually get paid that money. Signing a contract for £800,000-per-week doesn't mean much if you don't actually cash checks for that amount. Remember Didier Drogba left his club in China because he said he wasn't getting paid in full and he hasn't been the only player. When the wages get that high, there's fair reason to believe the checks won't clear.
So what did we learn from all of this? When it comes to Chinese clubs buying players, we don't know a damn thing, except that Higuain is probably not going to a Chinese club that maybe offered him a ton of money that may not actually be real.
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