Despite on-pitch disappointments and off-pitch corruption, China's soccer market remains a gold mine.
That was further proved on Monday after Guangzhou Evergrande, a second division outfit, announced their signing of China international Zheng Zhi, also known as China's ZZ, for a reported sum of about 5 million yuan ($736,000).
On Sept 1, 2009, Zheng became the second Chinese player, after Du Wei, to sign for Glasgow Celtic after penning a two-year contract. One more season and the Chinese captain would have been eligible to become a British citizen and many believed he would do that.
But an annual salary of 5 million and a possible contract term of three years made up his mind to adopt a "best way to contribute to China's soccer development" strategy, as it was termed by Liu Yongzhuo, president of Evergrande Football Club, which took over the club earlier this year and vowed to invest 100 million yuan ($14.6 million) to revive the side.
It is true that internationals returning to play in the domestic leagues will help the sport in the aspects of experience and advanced skills and knowledge as they are the pioneers of Chinese players going abroad.
However, it is a double-edged sword.
Most of the time, the overseas clubs sign the Chinese mainly because they are targeting the China market, instead of the actual abilities of the players.
From Su Maozhen at Manchester United to Fan Zhiyi at Crystal Palace, from Zhou Haibin and Sun Xiang at PSV Eindhoven and to Zheng at the Celtic, most of the time they sat on the bench and had few impressive displays.
What they did most for the club was to bring a large number of fans to their respective teams and that could very well be the outcome the club managers loved to see.
In China, soccer investors are not taking it as an industry but mainly as a means of corporate brand management and a strategy of winning support from society and the government.
Besides adopting a bona-fide professional way of running the clubs, the investors should make building up young soccer talents and professional ethics the core of our soccer culture.
Soccer can easily establish a company's or a person's fame, as long as you have money. Investing in a second division club has shot Evergrande's name sky high.
More fan will come to the sport here if Brazilian great Ronaldo signs with Evergrande, as has been reported. His simple presence would be a coup for the real estate development company, let alone the goals he would score.
By the way, don't let Ronaldo live in a posh hotel. Put him in a local residential quarter. The developer could make millions.
