German football star Lukas Podolski opines that the Chinese Super League would never join the elite leagues in the world due to the activities that happen behind the scenes.


The player was believed would join a Chinese Super League side and feature for a year or two before he calls time on his career. However, after exiting Turkish side Galatasaray the World Cup winner opted to move to Japan.

Podolski recently moved to J-League side Vissel Kobe on a two year deal. He would receive around €10 million annually for his services. He admits that he could have made more money had he agreed to a move to China but adds that he did not like the way business was handled there.

“Sure, it’s tempting to hear you could earn €15 million to €20 million in China, but the way of negotiating – with eight, nine agents sometimes interfering in the ends, it will be significantly less given all the dark channels involved,” the player revealed.

Podolski then proceeded to declare that the Chinese Super League “will never achieve their goal to become the best league.”

The player admitted that he liked China and got many fans there but that their way of doing things is limiting the brand of the league.

“Just looking at what happens behind the scenes, it’s about anything but football,” he said on an endnote.

The CSL has attracted some of the best football talents in the world to the Far East as it dreams of competing with top European leagues. A lot of high profile stars have moved to China and it is almost a norm now for top football stars to retire in the CSL while earning mouth-watering salaries.