Sports Betting Articles
English Football Clubs Prefer African Players
By Stephen Lars
Although Asia is the strongest financial supplier in sponsorship for the English Premier clubs, when it comes to search for new talent and excellent players the wealthiest football teams start with the African first and second divisions where many players are bought and transferred to England.
On the other hand, the Asian players are still in a transition process regarding international football despite their solid performance during the South Korea and Japan World Cup in 2002. The European clubs still believe Asia to be a market more for promotional purposes rather than for the recruiting of players.
For the new football season in England both giants Chelsea and Arsenal will have their teams’ uniforms stamped with Asian sponsors while there are already seven African players who have already been listed in these teams’ rosters. Up to this point very few Asian players have played in the English football and for this season no one appears to be in their priority record to be transferred or even for an English team to start a negotiation.
Manchester United’s Asian player Park Ji-sung has been with the team and other European leagues for nearly three years but he was out for some time due to two very serious injuries. For the season’s first game against Newcastle he was not able to participate but the South Korean seems to have fully recovered and to be ready for the next game in a few days.
Another two players we can mention are the Old Trafford forward the Chinese Dong Fangzhuo who was transferred back in 2004 but has so far only played one game in the Premier league and he has spent most of his time as a backup player for the Royal Antwerp in Belgium. The South Korean backward Lee Young-pyo has played two good seasons with the Tottenham Hotspurs but his future with the team is still uncertain, as it could be possible that he returns to play for the PSV Eindhoven of Holland
The Tottenham Hotspurs also transferred another Asian player Lee Dong-guk as the forward had not scored one single goal in more than 18 months and he is now backing in the Korean League.
There is also the Manchester City Chinese player Sun Jihai who had a contract with the team until this summer, he will now begin the new season as part of the Sheffield United of the second division.
With the departure of Hidetoshi Nakata and Junichi Inamoto from Bolton and West Bromwich respectively there are no more Japanese football players in the English First Division although the two clubs have not mentioned their definite loss of interest to acquire new Asian talents. Bolton, on the other hand, has one of the best Asian goalkeepers, Ali Al Habsi who is at the moment substituting Jussi Jaaskelainen whose contract will also expire soon has been linked to a couple of football groups such as: the Bayern Munich and Galatasaray.
Additionally, the South Korean player Kim Do-heon will be the only one to arrive for the new season next January as a loan to West Brom.
About the Author
Stephen Lars has been a prominent writer on regular English Premier League games, sports news and the online betting industry for many exceptional sports web sites. You may reprint this article in its full content, please note no modifications to it are accepted.
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