Chinese international Li Tie has signed a three-year contract with Premiership side Everton. The transfer fee is not immediately known.
Li, a defensive midfielder of Everton and Chinese national team, spent his last year with Everton on loan from China's Liaoning Bird. The loan contract has finished in June before a bumpy transfer talk finally leads Li to a permanent transfer.
The transfer fee gaps has always been the biggest factor that hindered the widely expected move as Li's mother club, Liaoning Bird, proposed a price at 1,500,000 pounds while Everton would pay no more than 700,000 for 26-year-old.
Li's transfer fee is not been immediately released, but reports from Chinese media say that it may be less than 1,000,000 pounds and part of the fee that Everton paid to Liaoning would be borrowed from a Chinese media company as the premiership club said they temporarily don't have enough money for the transfer market.
With Manchester City's right back Sun Jihai, Li Tie is among the first two Chinese internationals landing successfully at the Premiership last year. However, Li lost his position in first-eleven since the middle of last season and was labelled weeks ago by manager David Moyes not worth 1,000,000 pounds.
Li's loan contract, which brought him to England last year, was also backed up with a sponsership deal, which enabled China's electronic giant Kejian to be a major sponsor for Everton.
(China Daily August 12, 2003)
