Oscar confirms mega money move from Chelsea to China is ’90 per cent done’
Brazilian star says his move to Shanghai SIPG is complete apart from some bureaucratic details
OSCAR has confirmed he will move from Chelsea to Shanghai SIPG in January.
The attacking midfielder says that only a few "bureaucratic details" need to be sorted before he officially makes the switch from West London to China.
He told Brazilian network Globo: “It’s 90 per cent right. It just depends on some bureaucratic details.”
Having failed to start him in any league games since September, Antonio Conte has accepted a £60m bid, which will make Oscar the 16th most expensive player in history and top David Luiz's £50m move to PSG as Chelsea's most expensive ever sale.
This season has been very different from Oscar's early years at Stamford Bridge when he was a key man under bosses Rafa Benitez and Jose Mourinho.
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The move would represent the second big piece of business Chelsea have done with a Chinese club in a year.
In January last season, Ramires made a surprise £20m move to Jiangsu Suning, where he was joined by Atletico Madrid striker Jackson Martinez and former Liverpool target Alex Teixeira.
Oscar will see a familiar face in Shanghai with Brazil teammate Hulk already at Shanghai SIPG, along with striker Elkeson.
And across the city at rivals Shanghai Greenland Shenhua, his former Chelsea teammate Demba Ba plays up front with Obafemi Martins.
Last month Sven-Goran Eriksson was sacked as manager of Shanghai SIPG and replaced with former Stamford Bridge chief Andre Villas-Boas.
Chelsea are looking for a new centre-back and the money from Shanghai could finance a move for Juventus' Leonardo Bonucci in January.
But with the Blues top of the Premier League and their squad gelling under Conte, they are more likely to keep the money in the bank ready for a summer spending spree which could feature big name signings such as Alexis Sanchez, if he fails to agree terms with Arsenal.
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Although Shanghai SIPG themselves are also interested in Sanchez and have reportedly offered a bumper £400,000 per week deal to land the Chilean.
Despite the astronomical wages, a move to China still has some challenges for foreign players.
SunSport travelled to the country this season and revealed a poor quality league, played in front of empty stadiums with seething resentment from underpaid local players who see their teammates from overseas earn up to fifteen times more than them.