Earlier this morning, the Brazilian media broke the news that La Liga giants Barcelona FC intends to bring in Oscar, the captain of Shanghai Harbour. The two sides have had preliminary contacts after New Year’s Day.
In the just-concluded 2021 Chinese Super League and FA Cup, the Haigang team was not the runner-up to Shandong Taishan. The competitive Oscar is definitely not satisfied with this result. After such powerful teammates as Wu Lei and Hulk left one after another, the Haigang team relied on Oscar for independent support to ensure that the team was at least still in the championship group. But this season can still be seen in Oscar’s physical and mental exhaustion and alone.
Although Barcelona has had a very bleak season after Messi left the team, Barcelona is Barcelona after all, and it is the top giant in the world. Oscar, who is full of love for football, has such an opportunity to join, and it is normal to have waves in his heart.
And Oscar himself said more than once in an interview that the next stop in his career is to return to Europe, and now such an opportunity is placed in front of the 31-year-old Brazilian star.
First of all, his contract with the Shanghai Seaport Club will not end until the end of 2024, which means that the two sides still have a contract of up to 3 years. Whether it is a normal transfer or negotiated termination of the contract, as long as the Harbour Club does not let go, Oscar will definitely not be able to leave.
In addition, if Oscar leaves this winter transfer period, the loss will be the high salary of the next three years in the harbor. In terms of Barcelona’s current poor financial situation, even if Oscar can join, referring to the Dutch star Depay introduced before this season, the annual salary offered will not exceed 10 million euros at most, or even lower. Compared with Oscar’s current annual salary of more than 20 million euros, leaving three years early will cost nearly 40 million euros.
Since he came to the Chinese Super League when he was a teenager, the economic factor was Oscar’s most important consideration at the beginning; then whether to leave the Chinese Super League early now, the economic factor will also be the main consideration for Oscar.
Of course, from 2017 to 2021, Oscar has enjoyed the top salary of the world‘s top football players in the Chinese Super League for 5 years. Except for the superstars like Messi and Ronaldo, it is already far above the average. Being able to play in high-level leagues, with the addition of Barcelona’s golden signature, and the fact that he really intends to return to Europe, the possibility of Oscar, who is over 30 years old, accepting a pay cut does exist.
In life, although Oscar is very happy in Shanghai, he is still a foreigner. For the benefit of the team, he and his family have not returned to Brazil for nearly two years. Under the current epidemic prevention policy, this is indeed a tricky thing.
Transfer fee is the most realistic problem
The contact between Oscar and Barcelona shows that he has at least such an idea, so the key to whether he can join Barcelona in the end is the attitude of the two clubs Shanghai Haigang and Barcelona.
The first is whether to agree on a transfer fee.
Oscar is now worth around 18 million euros, and Harbour spent 60 million euros when he signed him from Chelsea. It is worth mentioning that when Barcelona introduced Paulinho from Guangzhou Evergrande, the transfer fee was 40 million euros. Considering that Oscar is not an active Brazilian international, but still has a long contract period, a reasonable transfer fee should be around 20 million euros.
But the problem is that Barcelona has just dropped 55 million euros in this winter window to bring Ferran Torres from Manchester City. Unless they cash out by selling the players in the existing team, they should not even be able to get 10 million euros.
It is also completely impossible for the Harbour team to allow a player of Oscar’s level to leave the team by free transfer with three years left on the contract. Even if Arnautovic went to Serie A Bologna last summer, the other party paid at least 3 million euros for the transfer fee.
The Chinese Super League’s investment limit has become a driving force
Secondly, if Barcelona can meet the requirements of the transfer fee, will the Harbour Club really let people go?
If the goal of the future Haigang team is the championship, Oscar is definitely an indispensable core. The idea of building the team must be to match the lineup around Oscar.
However, it is difficult to ignore that the Chinese Super League clubs must now consider the changes in the entire Chinese football environment. After the ebb of “Golden Yuan Football”, there are strict restrictions on the investment of each club. One of them is that the total investment of Chinese Super League clubs cannot exceed 300 million yuan per season.
Although judging from the previous regulations, for contracts like Oscar before 2020, the overspending part is not included in the total investment, but the period is only until 2023. This means that in the final year of Oscar’s contract with the Harbor team, his entire salary will be included in the total investment for that year. After conversion, Oscar’s annual salary is almost half of the total investment.
Therefore, Oscar’s departure from the team is inevitable, it is a matter of time. If they leave now and can sell at a good price, the performance of the Harbour Club will definitely be greatly affected, but the economic situation of the club will be greatly improved.
Will the last super foreign player in the Chinese Super League leave this winter? One is his personal will. Since he has contact with Barcelona, he can also have contact with other European clubs; the other is the team building ideas and business philosophy of Shanghai Harbour Club in the future.
Source: Thoughtful Shanghai Author: Yu JiongReturn to Sohu, see more
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