Ma Mingyu Becomes First Chinese to Join Italian Serie A

Ma Mingyu Becomes First Chinese to Join Italian Serie A

Ma Mingyu became the first Chinese player to join Italian Serie A as his Sichuan Quanxing club and the Perugia signed a contract on his move Tuesday in Chengdu.

But both sides refused to reveal how much money the contract involves, citing it was "a secret".

Talks between the two clubs fell through on August 3 because there were "unbridgeable gap in three major principles".

The Perugia official who came to China for the talks claimed that they just wanted to "loan" Ma and would not pay any transfer fee to Quanxing. It irritated the Sichuan club and the negotiation broke down.

But the official said later that Perugia's president demanded he take a "more flexible attitude" in future talks with Quanxing, which was believed to have played a key role for Ma's successful move.

Perugia showed their interest in the 30-year-old Chinese international after Quanxing launched their pre-season training camp in Italy. The Italian club sent a fax early in June to start the talk.