Fresh off signing a new 12-month contract with Bayern Munich, Arjen Robben has taken aim at young footballers who have followed the money and left European football for the Chinese Super League.
Axel Witsel, Oscar and John Obi Mikel are among those young enough to reach their primes in Europe who have instead opted to accept offers from CSL clubs, with Diego Costa's head, too, supposedly turned by Tianjin Quanjian.
89-cap Dutch international Robben has also received monumental offers from China, but he told Dutch station Radio 538 that 'you only get one career', and that moving to China amounts to retirement - from top-level football at least.
In a tremendous takedown of money's grip on football (although, to be fair, Robben does earn 11 million bob a year at Bayern), Robben told 538:
I am having a great time here at Bayern and I am playing at one of the best clubs in the world. I would not know where to move at my age.
A transfer to China would be something else entirely. That is basically acknowledging your career is over. I want to keep playing at the highest level as long as possible.
I do not understand players going to China at the age of 27 or 28. Those guys are at the peak of their career. That is a waste, really. You only get one career. I sort of understand players who are already in their 30s.
It is all about a certain madness that is ongoing in China right now. They are offering some crazy figures. I also got some offers. The money on show is so crazy that you at least have to consider it.
They are offering maybe four, five or six times the amounts you get at a big club. But money has never driven me. That is why I have had such a great career. It is about football for me.
Robben has scored an incredible 121 goals in 232 games for Bayern since his move from Real Madrid in 2009.
He turns 33 next week, but it doesn't seem he's tempted by the astronomical offers which have lured numerous talents to the Far East in recent seasons.
The whole Chinese Super League situation is, of course, mental, but as daft as offering John Obi Mikel a metric crap-ton of cash may seem, it will never be weirder than a prospective move for another Premier League star - which may yet happen.
[Quotes transcribed by The Mirror]
