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Tebas: Best players in La Liga not tempted by China move

China's cash-rich Super League needs to work on improving local talent as well as dipping into its deep pockets to attract top foreign players, the Spanish La Liga chief said yesterday.

Javier Tebas told AFP he was "not worried at all" about the best La Liga players being tempted by lucrative salary offers as the level of competition in Spain was already a strong incentive for them to stay on.

"Before they become really attractive for Spanish football players, the Chinese league needs to grow up a little bit," said Tebas on the sidelines of the launch of La Liga's regional hub office in Singapore.

"You have so many good players of high level in Spain to keep (top players) playing there," he added.

"They (China) not only need to buy players from outside, but they need to grow the level of the local players."

"There are so many players, with so many stars that keep on playing in Spanish football. They are not tempted."

Despite an official crackdown on transfer fees and wages and a cut in the number of foreign players allowed, Chinese Super League clubs spent a record 396 million euros (S$600m) in the January-February transfer window.

This is 16 times the spending by La Liga, according to the BBC. Among the players who took the plunge into China were Argentinian Carlos Tevez and Brazilian Oscar. - AFP