Chinese international Li Tie has signed a three-year contract with Premiership, Everton side. The transfer fee is not immediately known.

Li Tie celebrated his goal in a friendly with Celtics.

Li, an Everton and Chinese national team defensive midfielder, spent his last year with Everton on loan from China's Liaoning Bird. The loan contract has expired in June before a bumpy transfer talk finally led Li to a permanent transfer. 

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 of 1.5 million pounds while Everton would pay no more than 700,000 for the 26-year-old.

Reports from Chinese media say the unknown fee may be less than 1 million pounds and part of it, which Everton paid to Liaoning, would be borrowed from a Chinese media company. The Premiership club said it temporarily did not have enough money for the transfer market.

With Manchester City's right back Sun Jihai, Li Tie is among the first two Chinese internationals to land successfully at the Premiership last year. However, Li lost his position in first-eleven since the middle of last season and was labeled about a month ago by manager David Moyes as “not worth 1 million 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.

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