Some worry that a footballer’s move to a league less prestigious than its European counterparts represents the beginning of the end of a career, holding out in the twilight years for one last big contract.
That has traditionally been the case for most foreign signings in the Chinese Super League, though that trend appears to be changing.
Brazil midfielder Oscar, for example, left Chelsea for Shanghai SIPG when he was 25, while his countryman, ex-Tottenham midfielder Paulinho, moved to Barcelona from Guangzhou Evergrande in 2017, albeit returning to the Chinese club a year later.
Those two career paths would suggest the Chinese Super League is more than the lucrative retirement home it might once have been.
Wales may also take encouragement from Marek Hamsik, Napoli’s all-time leading goalscorer who joined Dalian Yifang earlier this year but remains as influential as ever as Slovakia’s captain.
The 31-year-old midfielder is his country’s record cap holder and goalscorer and, when Slovakia faced Wales in a Euro 2020 qualifier in March, there were no indications that his move to China had diminished his ability.
Beckham is another who continued his international career after leaving European club football, winning 19 of his 115 England caps after making his LA Galaxy debut aged 32.
One contributing factor to Beckham’s prolonged England career was the fact he had two loan spells at AC Milan during his five years at LA Galaxy.
The dates of the MLS season overlapped with European leagues in a way which allowed Beckham to play for both clubs over the course of a year, even if it angered some Galaxy fans who questioned his commitment to the club.
In theory, Bale could do something similar. The Chinese Super League runs between March and December, creating a potential window of opportunity to play in Europe during the winter.
So if Bale felt he needed to be playing at the highest level to keep himself sharp for Wales, could this be a way of doing so in Europe while still accumulating great wealth in China?
Like Beckham, that could be in Milan.
Bale’s purported suitors in China, Jiangsu Suning, are owned by Suning Group, which owns the majority of shares in Inter Milan.
Bale’s agent, Jonathan Barnett, has dismissed the suggestion of a permanent transfer to Inter this summer but, should a move to China materialise, a subsequent loan to the San Siro might not be beyond the realms of possibility.
For the time being Barnett remains coy about the Wales forward’s potential destinations, though he has told BBC Sport Wales he is “working on a few things” given Bale’s increasingly likely departure from Real Madrid.
There may be some who have reservations about a move to China but, as Beckham and others have shown, exploring new footballing worlds may not be a harbinger of the end but the dawn of a new era.
