AS the most successful Chinese Super League club with six successive domestic titles under its belt, Guangzhou Evergrande is aiming to set a trend for the entire league: decreasing the number of foreign players signed while aiming to build an all-Chinese team by 2020.

    Evergrande boss Xu Jiayin, a leading property development tycoon in China, announced the goal for his club in the new season at a pre-season motivational conference Monday. The club aims to win quadruple titles in 2017, including trophies in the Asian Champions League and the Chinese Super League, and to build a competitive all-Chinese squad by 2020.

    “Guangzhou Evergrande needs to be ambitious in the 2017 season, setting its sights on four titles, namely the Chinese Super League, Asian Champions League, CFA Cup and the Super Cup. For the players in Evergrande, I want you to keep in mind that you’re all professional players, you need to have strict self-discipline in living, hard training on the pitch, make concerted and all-out efforts during matches and never lose your morale,” said Xu in stipulating the targets for the 2017 season.

    Xu explained that the club’s plan for foreign player signings next year is to hire less, not more. Evergrande has five foreign players this season, including Colombian forward Jackson Martinez, Brazilian midfielder Paulinho, Brazilian strikers Ricardo Goulart and Alan, and South Korean defender Kim Young-gwon.

    “In my view, the ideal all-Chinese squad for Evergrande is composed of a world top manager and all native players. We still have four years in the transition process. Meanwhile the all-Chinese lineup for Evergrande should be capable of winning titles, retaining the status quo,” said Xu, adding that “Our purpose... is to contribute to the development of Chinese soccer and all our work needs to be focused on this.”

    The Chinese Football Association published a new policy for domestic leagues last month, allowing a maximum of three foreign players and at least two U23 Chinese players in the match-day roster, in order to bring down the massive amount of spending on non-Chinese stars and give more chances to local players.

    Previously, four non-Chinese players could take the field at one time, including one from an Asian Football Confederation country.

    Evergrande will also expand its rewards mechanism for players. Three million yuan (US$440,000) will be awarded to the team for winning one match in the AFC Champions League and a 2 million yuan prize will be awarded for a Chinese league match victory.(Xinhua)