Conca on Flamengo loan to make way for Oscar
Print Edition
SHANGHAI SIPG icon Dario Conca has been sent on loan to Brazilian club Flamengo until the end of 2017, the Chinese Super League side announced through its official Weibo account yesterday.
“In his past two seasons with SIPG, Conca put on great performances, acting as the core player of the team,” said the statement. “Last season, Conca picked up an injury during the home match against Shijiazhuang Ever Bright (on August 19), and missed the remaining matches of the year. Considering the club’s goal in the new season, while showing respect to Conca’s own will, we’ll send him on loan to the Brazilian Serie A league temporarily. We look forward to an early recovery and comeback of our core midfielder.”
Andre Villas-Boas’ SIPG sealed a 60-million euro (US$62.44 million) deal with Chelsea before Christmas for Brazilian international Oscar to replace Conca.
SIPG club general manager Sui Guoyang described Conca as “the most important player for SIPG and the soul of the team” when the club signed a two-year contract extension with the 33-year-old last May to keep him with the club until the end of 2018. However, after Conca’s injury, the ambitious club was finding it hard to keep aside one foreign player quota for the Argentine, who is expected to return to the pitch only in April or May.
SIPG, a third-place finisher in last year’s CSL, will play its AFC Champions League qualifier next month before the 2017 CSL kicks off in March.
According to Brazilian media reports, the majority of Conca’s salary would still be covered by SIPG during his loan to Flamengo, which finished third in the 20-team Brazilian Serie A last year.
Conca contributed nine goals and eight assists in his 29 appearances for SIPG in 2015. In 2016, he scored six goals in 25 appearances for the club in both CSL and ACL matches.
Meanwhile, two of SIPG’s key players — striker Wu Lei and goalie Yan Junling — have been “excused” from Marcello Lippi’s national team, which was to gather this week for the 2017 China Cup, a commercial tournament to be held in Guangxi’s Nanning City on January 10-15.
Previously, SIPG and city rival Shanghai Greenland Shenhua each had four players chosen for Lippi’s team, ostensibly because the two clubs started winter training early compared to other teams, like last year’s top-2 CSL finishers, Guangzhou Evergrande and Jiangsu Suning. However, both Shanghai clubs were reluctant to let go their key players who would then miss the teams’ overseas training ahead for the ACL qualifiers in early February.
Following SIPG’s negotiations with the Chinese Football Association, Wu and Yan were dropped from the squad, according to the national team entry list issued yesterday afternoon. Cai Huikang and Fu Huan are still on the list.
The four players from Greenland Shenhua — Cao Yunding, Bai Jiajun, Li Jianbin and Mao Jianqing — would be allowed to leave the national team early after China’s first China Cup match against Iceland on January 10.
The other two teams participating in the tournament are Chile and Croatia.
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