Exactly one year ago, after having played for Manchester United for five-and-a-half-year, Marouane Fellaini, realized a transfer to the ambitious Chinese Super League side Shandong Luneng.
Having earned over 80 caps for Belgium, his retirement from international football followed shortly after in March 2019.
Although the previous 2019 campaign his club Luneng was soon left out of the title race, Cannavaro`s Guangzhou Evergrande has been crowned the new champion, Big Fella can look back on a successful first season in China with 8 goals in 22 league appearances. He made the winning goal on his debut and scored 4 times in the Asian Champions League.
When Mourinho returned to coaching and was appointed as Tottenham’s new manager in November last year rumors reported the former United boss was targeting a reunion with Fellaini at Spurs. However, the tall midfielder denied these messages and is said to feel very happy in China. To date, Chinese media were full of praise of the Belgians attitude and performances.
Van der Velde`s opinion on (i) Fellainis transfer and (ii) Belgian players, active in the Chinese Super League at the start of the 2019 football season (both articles in the Dutch language)
https://sporza.be/nl/2019/01/31/over-fellaini-en-china/
https://sporza.be/nl/2019/03/01/chinese-competitie-voorbeschouwing/