a few years ago, the legendary french club saint etienne tried to attract asian audiences
they got a japanese sponsor:
and bought a japanese player, matsui
he turned out to be one of the biggest flop in the club's history and was sold after only 1 season
then my city's club was bought by japanese investors, and they also bought matsui in 2009, he was the 4th japanese players bought by "my" club after the club was bought by the japanese
the jersey with japanese sponsor:
the club was relegated to 5th division after 2 seasons, with one of the worst seasons in french soccer history in 2009 (actually they have the record for the biggest number of straight losses in any top european league)
matsui is a big player in japan, japanese international
from this example, i think it's pretty obvious that although asians are not said to be "naturally gifted" like blacks and arabs, they in most cases don't deserve to play in european clubs as foreign star players (like european and south americans do) but they are here to appeal to asian audiences
this is often acknowledged by the media, while at the same time they will say they are still talented and deserve their place (no they don't, by definition if they are a marketing player they take another more deserving player's place) unlike the arab/muslim marketing players, that the media has never or almost never acknowledged
