West Ham forward Nikica Jelavic has signed a contract with Chinese second division side Beijing Renhe, with the Hammers receiving around 2 million pounds in compensation. The Croatian international, aged 30, has been out of favour under current boss Slaven Bilic, making just one Premier League start this season.
His name is added to an already impressive list of big transfers for Chinese clubs, including Chelsea's Ramires and Atletico Madrid striker Jackson Martinez. Ramires joined Jiangsu Suning for 25 million pounds while Martinez broke the Asian transfer record with a fee of 31 million pounds, paid by Guangzhou Evergrande.
Jelavic had joined West Ham last summer for 3 million pounds from Hull, but only managed to score one league goal in 13 appearances (12 of them from the bench). He has previously played for Everton for two and a half seasons, scoring 15 league goals in 58 appearances.
West Ham are currently 7th in the Premier League table, just one point behind fifth-placed Manchester United. They are 5/1 at Bet365 to finish inside the top six this season.
sharpe
8 years ago
The Chinese economic is no doubtfully the strongest in the world and obviously part of the companies funds will be available for the football teams in the country. It's a little bit strange that it happens so extremely this season but if a second division club could afford Jelavic's services than we could expect even bigger...
The Chinese economic is no doubtfully the strongest in the world and obviously part of the companies funds will be available for the football teams in the country. It's a little bit strange that it happens so extremely this season but if a second division club could afford Jelavic's services than we could expect even bigger names to go in that direction in the next seasons, and why not if it's useful for all sides involved.
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Cobra69 8 years ago
Great transfer for West Ham, they have signed Emmanuel Emenike, great player and they didn't needed Nikica any more. He is solid player, but nothing special, I wish him best luck in China, he is surely overpaid, but football today is just business, so good job for West Ham and Jelavic, not so good for Beiijing Renhe :)
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galata86 8 years ago
That is a good transfer for West Ham, because Nikica did not put good performance in last two years. In this transfer period was too many transfers to China, but in my opinion this transfer is overpaid, like some others.
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qwerty962_115928
8 years ago
The Chinese league goes crazy for some reason to pay such big money
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