Former New York Red Bulls striker Tim Cahill, now playing for Chinese Super League squad Shanghai Greenland Shenhua FC, said that the China top flight's current massive investments on expensive foreign players could be costly to the development of the country's national team.

Xinhuanet indicated that the 36-year-old Australia international had also predicted that CSL teams "will soon smash through the 70 million U.S. dollar (€62.6 million) transfer barrier", but that it could also come with a cost, especially on the China PR squad.

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This year's winter transfer window had been the busiest and richest ever in the history of Chinese football, particularly in terms of acquiring international players. The Chinese transfer record had been broken four times this season in just a span of two weeks.

It began with Shanghai SIPG's €18.5 million acquisition of Brazilian Elkeson from reigning CSL champions Guangzhou Evergrande Taobao FC on Jan. 21 then Jiangsu Suning's €28 million signing of Brazilian Ramires from English Premier League club Chelsea FC six days later.

After that, Guangzhou Evergrande snagged Colombian striker Jackson Martinez from Italian Serie A club Atletico Madrid for €42 million on Feb. 3, and finally, the most recent big-time Chinese signing was that of Jiangsu Suning again, collaring Alex Teixeira from Ukrainian Premier League team FC Shakhtar Donetsk for a mind-boggling €50 million transfer fee two days later.

"Choices now players are making, it's not about football like it was in my day, it's purely about personal gains. Is (going to China) going to help players? No. Is it going to be big for the country? Yes," Cahill said in a football panel television show, as reported by ESPN.

"You won't see me going to Liaoning. You see Troisi and players like that, I don't think they really look at what they're doing before they sign," he said, referring to Socceroo teammates

James Troisi and Michael Thwaite who were recently signed by CSL team Liaoning Whowin.

"I didn't go there blind. I live in Shanghai, it's a big city, some of the other areas it's a bit tough and we'll see how long they last," he added.

Aside from Cahill, Troisi, and Thwaite, other former and present Australia internationals playing in the CSL this upcoming 2016 season are Trent Sainsbury for Jiangsu Suning and Ryan McGowan for Henan Jianye.

"This sort of investment in players is a catch 22," Cahill said, via Xinhuanet. "Does it help the Chinese? To a certain extent no. When you sign players like this, everything in the final third (of the field) is up to us (international strikers), if we don't deliver, it doesn't happen."

Cahill was simply saying that the influx of big-name international stars might take away the opportunities for Chinese strikers and wingers as the foreigners will be the first option of a team's offense before them.

TagsFootball News & Rumors, Tim Cahill, China national football team, Shanghai Greenland Shenhua FC, Australia national football team