6 famous footballers we can't believe are currently playing in China

The Chinese Super League doesn’t quite have the stars of a decade ago, but there are still several forgotten faces playing out there in 2025.

In a bid for China to become a global power in football – and possibly a wider context – Xi Jinping and his government pumped money into the game and encouraged businesses to do the same.

Several big names – including Oscar, Carlos Tevez and Marouane Fellaini – have been and gone, but here are six recognisable faces who remain in China today.

Wesley

Aston Villa paid £22million for Wesley in 2019, hoping the Brazilian striker would help establish them as a Premier League force after promotion.

That didn’t happen; Wesley scored five goals before a severe cruciate knee ligament injury effectively ended his time at Villa Park.

Still only 28, Wesley has made his way to Shenzhen Peng City via spells at Stoke and Turkish club Fatih Karagumruk.

He has scored nine goals in 10 matches since his July 2025 move.

Joao Carlos Teixeira

Once dubbed ‘the new Deco’, Teixeira had every Liverpool fan brimming with hope-filled excitement.

The club spent £830,000 to purchase him as a teenager from Sporting CP in 2013 and the midfielder impressed with his performances in their youth ranks.

After a series of loan spells with Brentford and Brighton, Liverpool let him go four years after signing him to Porto.

These days, he is playing for Shanghai Shenhua.

Tyias Browning

Born in Liverpool, Browning joined Everton at the age of 10 before eventually going on to play for the first team and on loan throughout the EFL in the late 2010s.

While he hadn’t quite kicked on as expected as an England under-21, he still looked more than capable of a solid Championship career.

However, in February 2019, he left English football behind and made a move to Guangzhou Evergrande, but faced difficulties due to the changing foreign player rules.

That wasn’t an issue for the defender, though, who is now a naturalised Chinese citizen and has played 26 times for China’s national team. Browning’s maternal grandfather was Cantonese and emigrated from China to England.

A wild career arc for the 31-year-old, who is now at Shanghai Port as a three-time Chinese Super League winner.

Wellington Silva

After being repeatedly shipped off on loan, Silva returned to his native Brazil with Fluminense in 2016 having never made a competitive appearance for Arsenal.

The Gunners looked set to activate his buy-back clause before selling him to Bordeaux for a small profit in 2017 but the deal collapsed when he failed his medical with the Ligue 1 side.

He spent time back in Brazil, Japan and Saudi Arabia before moving to his current club, Qingdao Hainiu, in 2024.

Frank Acheampong

Ghanaian forward Acheampong is best known for his four-year association with Anderlecht, featuring in the Champions League for the Belgian club in the height of his spell.

Capped 23 times for his national team, he left European football behind in 2017 to sign for Tianjin TEDA, initially on loan before a permanent deal was agreed.

He’s remained in China ever since, moving to Shenzen in 2021, but signing for Henan at the beginning of 2024 after Shenzen dissolved following their relegation from the top flight.

Nico Yennaris

Yennaris captained Arsenal’s under-18s to the Premier Academy League title back in 2009-10, but left in 2014 after making just four senior appearances for the club.

He’d go on to establish himself at Brentford from 2014 to 2019, but left the Bees in January 2019 – shortly before their rise to the Premier League – to sign for Chinese Super League side Beijing Guoan, where he remains today.

Yennaris actually missed two years of action due to an ongoing injury, which required surgery and extensive rehabilitation back at Arsenal, but he’s now back fit and firing for the side.

He has also been capped 13 times for China after switching international allegiance thanks to his mother.

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