Patriotic goal

CHINESE demand for the world’s commodities may be sputtering, but not for the most vital ingredient of football: its players. In recent weeks, the country’s football clubs have been on their biggest ever spending spree, signing up foreign talent for sums which, by Asian standards, have been jaw-dropping. One local newspaper in China said anyone who paid attention to Chinese football would conclude that the clubs had “gone mad”.

Jiangsu Suning, a club owned by an eponymous retail chain, broke a record on January 27th when it paid £25m ($35m) for Ramires, a Brazilian midfielder (known only by his forename) who had been playing for Chelsea, an English team. That was the most an Asian club had spent on a footballer. Seven days later Guangzhou Evergrande Taobao took Jackson Martínez from Atlético Madrid, a big Spanish team, for $45m. Within a couple of days Jiangsu had smashed the record again, paying a Ukrainian team, Shakhtar Donetsk, $53m for Alex Teixeira, another Brazilian midfielder.