Sun is hoping to become the latest Chinese player to make his name in Great Britain, with Sun Jihai at Manchester City for the last three and a half years, while Du Wei arrived at Celtic in August from Shenhua.

“I think it’s every Chinese player’s dream to play abroad at some point in his career,” said Sun on the Asian Football Confederation’s official website.

“My national team-mates have told me about the life at professional clubs abroad.

“They said these clubs have a completely different type of management when compared to Chinese clubs and that players in China are more strictly supervised.

“They told me that in clubs abroad players know what they can do and what they can’t do, so they don’t need the club to strictly supervise their life. There’s more professionalism.”

Current Wigan midfielder Jimmy Bullard, meanwhile, is leaving the door open for an international call-up with either England or Germany.

Bullard is currently attracting considerable attention with his all-action, energetic performances, resulting in Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger describing him as “a marathon man” after Saturday’s 3-2 victory at the JJB Stadium.

The 27-year-old, who extended his club record run of consecutive league appearances to 121 at the weekend, is also being touted as a future England international.

Bullard is taking the situation with a pinch of salt, but the opportunities do exist for him to one day play for either England, or even Germany.

“My nan’s German, and my agent said that because I’m in the Premiership now I might as well get my nan’s passport just in case anything comes up,” said Bullard.

“He put the word about and it’s since exploded.

“I’m English and I’m German, so I can play for either. It all depends on who comes and gets me first!”