Senegalese striker Demba Ba has completed a transfer from Turkish club Besiktas to Chinese side Shanghai Shenhua.

According to Eurosport, the 30-year-old has ignored potential moves to the English Premier League in order to join the Chinese Super League club.

The attacker was recently linked to a transfer to West Brom in the English top flight, and seemed to be inching closer to the deal, but this weekend saw a sudden U-turn in that regard, and the China move materialised.

The former Chelsea player displayed fantastic form during his year in Turkey, scoring 27 goals in 44 games in all competitions to ensure that he was a hot commodity going into the transfer window period.

The Teranga Lions player joined Besiktas from Chelsea in 2014 for $7.2 million, and reports indicate that Shanghai Shenhua made an offer of $14.4 million to the Turkish club to secure Ba’s signature.

The offer is more than the the estimated $7.8 million that Tony Pullis was prepared to offer Besiktas in order to lure the striker to West Brom.

The Senegalese player’s move to the Chinese club mirrors that of Ivorian Didier Drogba in 2012, when he joined the club and played for them during a short period before returning to Europe with Turkish giants Galatasaray.

Ba did not form part of Alain Giresse’s 2015 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) squad earlier this year, as he was dropped from the provisional side a few weeks before the tournament commenced.