Reporter Cheng Shan reported The Super Cup "Shanghai Derby" on February 7 is widely regarded as the opening battle of the new season of the Chinese Super League. The ups and downs of the game and the 3-2 result successfully helped the 2025 Chinese Super League gather popularity. What is more noteworthy is the role of foreign aid in this game, 4 of the 5 goals in this game were scored by foreign aid, proving that the dependence of Chinese Super League teams on foreign aid has not been reduced. Although Shanghai Port lost the game, Gabriel, the new foreign player who scored twice and shined all over the field, also successfully stimulated people's attention to the new foreign players of the 2025 Chinese Super League.

There is still some time before the winter window closes, but the foreign players of each team are basically in place, and so far, 16 teams in this winter window have introduced 32 new foreign players, with a total investment of more than 9.4 million euros. Compared with last year's winter window, the number of new foreign aid introduced by the Chinese Super League has decreased by 18, partly due to the fact that the foreign aid policy has been reduced from "Note 6 on 5" to "Note 5 on 5", and the number of places has reduced the need for reinforcements, and more importantly, it is mainly to continue the trend of pursuing high cost performance. The investment in new foreign aid has increased by nearly 25% compared to last year, and the transfer fee of 2 million US dollars (Dawan, Beijing Guoan) is also comparable to Zeka of Shandong Taishan last year.

Just looking at the value of new foreign aids, Bupenza (3.3 million euros), the most valuable foreign aid in the Chinese Super League this season, is far inferior to Thiago (5 million euros) in Shenzhen Xinpeng City last year; At present, among the top 10 foreign aides in the Chinese Super League, only Bupenza (Zhejiang team), Vital (Shanghai Port), and Omoi Juanfu (Changchun Yatai) are the new foreign aides who have landed in the Chinese Super League.

In this winter window, the introduction of foreign aid in the Chinese Super League is still pursuing high cost performance, and Gabriel, who scored twice for Shanghai Port in the Super Cup, is a typical example. The Brazilian left winger, who is worth only 500,000 euros, joined from the Portuguese Super League on a free transfer, and his annual salary is only in the range of $1 million. In comparison, the transfer fee he replaced for Vargas was 4 million euros that year, and the annual salary was also 3 million euros before tax for foreign aid.

When he joined, Gabriel was questioned by some media and fans for his low value, but his performance in the Super Cup at least proved his value for money. As for midfielder Vital, who replaced Oscar, Shanghai Port paid a transfer cost of $1 million.

Beijing Guoan's midfielder Dawan, signed from the J1 League, is already the king of the winter window for $2 million. In addition to Dawan and Vital, only Mineiro (Shanghai Shenhua), Kiles (Tianjin Jinmen Tigers) and Leonardo, who have a transfer fee of $1 million in the winter window, are three. The transfer fee of Bupenza (Zhejiang team), which is worth 3.3 million euros, is only 800,000 euros, and Vital's transfer fee is less than 40% of his value (2.5 million euros). Changchun Yatai's Omoi Juanfu (1.5 million euros) is only 1/30 of its value.

Serginho, who is worth 1.8 million euros, joined Beijing Guoan as a free agent and became a representative of free foreign aid in the winter window. Free foreign aid worth 1 million euros, as well as Malele (Dalian InBev), Sakarya (Shenzhen Xinpeng City), Cyprian (Changchun Yatai), Gustavo (Wuhan Three Towns). Qingdao Manatee's current Peruvian international Omeño, who was signed, is also a free agent. Among the 32 new foreign players in the winter window, as many as 15 have clearly joined for free, accounting for almost half of the total number of places.

This winter window, the investment of Chinese Super League clubs to sign new foreign players has increased slightly. However, in the context of the market recovery, the clubs are still very cautious, and so far, the four clubs of Henan, Shenzhen Xinpeng City, Qingdao West Coast and Qingdao Manatee have not invested any transfer fees in the introduction of foreign aid.

The investment cost of foreign aid in the winter window is still concentrated in top clubs such as Beijing Guoan, Shanghai Port, Shanghai Shenhua and Shandong Taishan, and Tianjin Jinmen Tiger can enter the top three in the winter window foreign aid investment list with an investment of 1.25 million euros, which is enough to prove the purchasing power of the club.

In addition to the decline in the number of new foreign aid, free foreign aid accounted for nearly half, and another trend of new foreign aid in this winter window is the internal circulation of foreign aid. Leonardo (4 million euros), who is currently the second most valuable in the Chinese Super League, and Serginho, the midfielder who is about to be naturalized, are the internal circulation of foreign players in the winter window. Leonardo has played wonderful goal data on consecutive loans, and finally joined Shanghai Port from Shandong Taishan this year, but the transfer fee is only about 7 million yuan, less than 1/4 of the value, and the cost performance is very high. Serginho joined Beijing Guoan, only to translate the remaining contract with Changchun Yatai, and the free transaction was more cost-effective. Despite this, as one of the best midfielders in the Chinese Super League last season, Serginho was the biggest foreign signing deal of the winter window.

In the past, the internal circulation of foreign aid in the Chinese Super League, the Jinyuan era was represented by Elkeson, who had a transfer fee of more than 15 million euros. But now, the internal circulation price of the top foreign aid in the Chinese Super League is also rapidly becoming rationalized.

In addition, Shanghai Shenhua's Malelai, Beijing Guoan's Traore and Yunnan Yukun's Zakaria have all joined Dalian InBev, and the Chinese Super League promotion team has become the biggest beneficiary of the internal flow of foreign aid in the winter window. Nantong Zhiyun's Issa Caron has joined Chengdu Rongcheng, and Qingdao Manatee has reclaimed Silva, who was loaned out last summer. This is not counting Oscar, who joined Yunnan Yukun last year due to salary arrears from the Cangzhou Lions, who has been semi-unemployed, and Yunnan Yukun who brought in former Wuhan Three Towns attacker Pedro Enrique, who only left the Chinese Super League last summer.