THE UYGHUR WHO MADE HISTORY

Oscar remains the Chinese Super League’s record buy – but the Brazilian schemer has been sharing the field with another history maker.

Shanghai Port team- mate Mirahmetjan Muzepper was the first Uyghur ever to play for China when he debuted against Qatar in 2018, giving representation to an ethnic group increasingly maltreated in recent times.

Two years ago, Mesut Özil incurred the wrath of China’s government when he spoke out about the widely reported deployment of forced labour camps for Uyghurs in Xinjiang province, in the far north- west of the country. The Arsenal man was swiftly deleted from video games in China, and an Arsenal match was axed from television schedules.

Özil’s divisive social media post was accompanied by the flag of East Turkistan, the Uyghur name for the Xinjiang region – one that is banned in China but was also displayed by a protester during their 3- 0 defeat to Turkey at the 2002 World Cup, to ensure it was seen on state TV. Unconfirmed reports claimed 20 Uyghurs were arrested in Xinjiang that day after cheering every goal for Turkey, a nation who share their Muslim faith.

The region has never had a Chinese Super League team but are currently represented in the second tier by Xinjiang Tianshan Leopard, a diverse side who have been perennial strugglers – they only avoided relegation to the third division because of financial issues at other clubs. Their opening 25 matches of 2021 brought just a single victory and 19 losses, including a 7- 0 shellacking at home to Chengdu Rongcheng.