5 brilliant players who are simply too good to be playing in the Chinese Super League
The Chinese Super League isn’t quite the big-name magnet it was during the mid-2010s, but there are still plenty of players knocking around who could feasibly be playing at a higher level.
Restricted finances and other priorities means the days of signing Carlos Tevez, Oscar and Marouane Fellaini are over for Chinese clubs, but the league remains one of the most competitive in Asia.
Here are five stars who are surely too good to be playing in China these days.
Matias Vargas
The highest-valued player in the Chinese Super League according to Transfermarkt, Vargas is a 27-year-old Argentinian winger who has had the division on strings this season.
With 12 goals and 14 assists in the 2024 campaign, Vargas is clearly a cut above his peers and has been linked with a host of clubs in both Turkey and his homeland. We are not surprised.
Frank Acheampong
Ghanaian forward Acheampong is best known for his four-year association with Anderlecht, featuring in the Champions League for the Belgian club at the height of his spell.
Capped 23 times for his national team, he left European football behind in 2017 to sign for Tianjin TEDA, initially on loan before a permanent deal was agreed.
He’s remained in China ever since, moving to Shenzen in 2021 but signing for Henan at the beginning of 2024 after Shenzen dissolved following their relegation from the top flight.
Tim Chow
Wigan-born Chinese Tapei international Chow started his career with childhood club Wigan Athletic, debuting in 2012 and staying with the club until 2016, when he moved north to sign for Scottish Premiership side Ross County.
By 2018 he was in Serbia and by 2019 he’d moved again, this time to China, where he has finally settled for the first time since Wigan.
Thanks to his grandfather being from Zhejang and living in Taiwan before moving to England after the Second World War, Chow was able to obtain a Republic of China passport in 2017.
He’s been capped once for Chinese Tapei and doesn’t seem desperate to return to Greater Manchester anytime soon; a shame for the clubs in the region, but perhaps understandable.
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Tyias Browning
Browning was born in Liverpool and joined Everton at the age of 10, before eventually going on to play for the first team and on loan throughout the EFL in the late 2010s.
While he hadn’t quite kicked on as expected as an England under-21, he still looked more than capable of a solid Championship career.
However, in February 2019, he left English football behind and made a move to Guangzhou Evergrande, but faced difficulties due to the changing foreign player rules.
That wasn’t an issue for the defender, though, who is now a naturalised Chinese citizen and has played 32 times for China’s national team. Browning’s maternal grandfather was Cantonese and emigrated from China to England.
A wild career arc for the 30-year-old, who is now at Shanghai Port as a three-time Chinese Super League winner. Fair play.
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Nico Yennaris
Yennaris captained Arsenal’s under-18s to the Premier Academy League title back in 2009-10, but left in 2014 after making just four senior appearances for the club.
He’d go on to establish himself at Brentford from 2014 to 2019, but left the Bees in January 2019 – shortly before their rise to the Premier League – to sign for Chinese Super League side Beijing Guoan, where he remains today.
Yennaris actually missed two years of action due to an ongoing injury which required surgery and extensive rehabilitation back at Arsenal, but he’s now back fit and firing for the side.
He has also been capped 13 times for China after switching international allegiance thanks to his mother.