Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Nanjing: The Asian transfer record was broken for a second time in three days after Chinese Super League outfit and AFC Champions League hopefuls Jiangsu FC completed a move for Shakhtar Donetsk striker Alex Teixeira.
Ukrainian giants Shakhtar confirmed on their official website that “all the necessary formalities for the transfer” had been finalised, with the fee revealed to be a staggering €50million.
Chinese football had already garnered the headlines in the past week after Brazil international Ramires left Chelsea to join Jiangsu for a fee of €32m last Thursday, before Guangzhou Evergrande completed a €42m transfer for Colombian striker Jackson Martinez from Atletico Madrid two days ago.
However, both deals have now been eclipsed by the arrival of Jiangsu’s latest Brazilian star, who spent the whole of last month being linked with a move to English giants Liverpool.
In the end, the Reds were unable to agree terms with Shakhtar but, while they were rumoured to be weighing up another bid in the summer, Jiangsu have now put paid to that prospect by securing the services of the 26-year-old.
Teixeira, who joined the Miners from Vasco da Gama in 2009, won five Ukrainian Premier League titles and three Ukrainian Cups in his six years at the Donbass Arena.
In total, he scored 89 goals in 223 appearances in all competition for Shakhtar, but will now turn his attentions to leading ambitious Jiangsu to the summit of Chinese, and Asian, football.
The Nanjing-based outfit, who are managed by Romanian legend Dan Petrescu, have yet to win the Chinese Super League and finished ninth out of 16 teams last season.
Nonetheless, after splashing the cash in the off-season to bring in the likes of Teixeira and Ramires, they are shaping up as genuine challengers to defending champions Guangzhou Evergrande in 2016.
[Jiangsu will also be playing in the AFC Champions League this year after qualifying as winners of the Chinese FA Cup and have been drawn in Group E](http://Click here for AFC Champions League match schedule), where they will meet Korea Republic giants Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors, Binh Duong of Vietnam, and either Japan’s FC Tokyo of Thai outfit Chonburi, who meet next Tuesday’s in a qualifying playoff.
Photo: AFP