Chinese Super League Has Outspent Serie A, La Liga and Bundesliga in 2015 Window

The Chinese Super League has outspent every major league on transfer deals except the Premier League in 2015, according to data from Transfermarkt.

The results might initially sound surprising, but China's increasing economic power and the decline of divisions like Serie A perhaps place it in a little context.

La Liga did spend heavily in the summer, but a considerable amount of the outlay in Spain can be attributed to the big two clubs—Real Madrid and Barcelona. The latter are banned from transfer activity in 2015, while the former was quiet, picking up only Lucas Silva.

Purchases from Brazil are extremely common in China at present, as this list of the major deals from 2015 show:

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Chinese Super League transfer window spending: £102m Serie A: £103m Premier League: £179m (via @Transfermarkt) pic.twitter.com/nLxmFW66vT

— Eurosport.com (@EurosportCom_EN) February 27, 2015"

The likes of Ricardo Goulart and Alan, both of whom ended up at Guangzhou Evergrande, might easily have turned up in Europe in seasons gone by.

Different rules on the transfer windows mean that the deadline for completing deals in China is at the end of this month—in the Premier League, the window closed on February 2.

[Transfermarkt]