China

The player goes where the heart (or the multimillion-dollar investment) is.

This year we have seen a surge in Chinese soccer investments, both in China and Europe. Chinese billionaires have been buying up European clubs and, more interestingly, they have been buying top players to take home.

President Xi Jinping has set out to revamp China's football development system, which includes the goal of having over 100,000 new players by 2017.