🇨🇳 The unbeaten title race between Shanghai's two clubs and why their rivalry matters

Shanghai Port and Shanghai Shenhua are unbeaten in the Chinese Super League!

There was a time not so long ago when Chinese football was going to take over the world.

Hundreds of millions were spent on luring big names to the Chinese Super League. Carlos Tevez, Oscar, Hulk, Ezequiel Lavezzi and Jackson Martinez, to name a few, played in the country as the sport’s landscape shifted.

Gareth Bale even came close to going there on a contract that would have been worth a reported £1m a week.

After the boom, though, came the bust as China’s government imposed a series of financial sanctions that restricted how much clubs could spend. The big name players left as quickly as they had arrived. Some clubs disappeared completely.

Shanghai’s two biggest clubs remained, however, and their rivalry has never been fiercer than it is now. The Chinese Super League deserves your attention again.