Oscar Leaves Chinese Super League After 8 Years: Ex-Chelsea star Oscar will be leaving his current club, Shanghai Port, after eight years as he leaves the Chinese Super League behind. At the age of 33, he might be retiring from the sport altogether.
Like many Brazilian stars, he made his name in club football in his own country before making a big move to a European club. In his case, it was Chelsea in 2012. The club had recently won the UEFA Champions League but had a very old core that needed replacing.
In attacking midfield, somewhat similar to club legend Frank Lampard, the Brazilian impressed massively during his time in England. Making the Brazil national team, he was an integral part of the team that played the 2014 FIFA World Cup at home. It can be argued that he was the team’s second-best player after Neymar.
But as his career started declining with the Blues around 2016-17, rather than moving to a lower-tier European club or even returning to South America, Oscar made an unexpected career move and signed with Shanghai Port in the Chinese Super League in 2017.
The move, which was worth 60 million Euros, was derided by several football fans and experts. At just the age of 25, which is widely considered the start of the prime years of a footballer, Oscar was leaving for a league that, in terms of football quality, is far below the big European tournaments.
However, the Chinese club knew that it would not be easy to bring a promising young footballer to their shores, so they proposed to make him one of the highest-paid footballers in the world. His estimated salary while playing for Shanghai was around 24 million Euros.
Watch: Oscar Leaves Chinese Super League After 8 Years in Tears
Now, after almost eight years with Shanghai Port, for whom he has played 248 games, scored 77, and assisted 141 goals, Oscar leaves the side as a club legend after the recent 1-1 draw against Gwangju in the AFC Champions League.
The Brazilian arrived in the league during an influx of big-name stars like John Obi Mikel and Carlos Tevez, similar to the recent talent influx to the Saudi Pro League, but had outstayed all of them in the league.
But now, Oscar has left the league. He shared the reason for his departure from Shanghai Port.
“It’s just too far away from home for us. We can’t stay here forever. My mom is getting older; my sisters are having babies. We want to be closer to home,” he said.
This statement suggests that he might return to Brazil. While he might have left the Chinese League, Oscar has not announced his retirement. And at the age of 33, he still has a few years of football in him.
His former club Internacional, where he first made his name, might be interested in bringing back the midfielder. Club manager Eduardo Coudet recently said, “I want to bring in Oscar.”
While a return to European football is not likely, Oscar is likely to play at the biggest level in South American football for some time to come.
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