The 27-year-old is back in Australia for a holiday after a happy few months with the Chinese Super League outfit.

Seemingly destined to start the new A-League campaign with North Queensland Fury, the chance of a switch to China arose and Santalab grasped the opportunity.

"I wanted to go and I wanted to prove to myself that I could be a success overseas," he told au.fourfourtwo.com today. "I felt it might be my last chance to go overseas and after a few days trial, I decided to sign.

"No regrets. I am happy I made the decision and feel I have adapted well. I scored nine goals in the second half of the season and from being towards the bottom of the table when I arrived, we ended up finishing seventh.

"Playing regularly is something I wanted and I managed 13 out 15 games in the second half of the season.

"We play a high pressure game and I've played both in attack and wide right during the season."

Santalab credits his (briefly) former employers Fury with laying the foundations of a successful move. "Doing a tough pre-season in the heat with Fury got me super fit and really helped me when I got to China," said Santalab.

A student of the game, Santalab said he always looked to learn from those experienced players around him.

"You learn from someone like Stevie Corica  and Juninho at Sydney FC and at Chengdu I'm playing in the same side as the former Manchester City player  Sun Jihai," he said.

"I think I have learned a lot from the (Chinese) players technically."

Santalab has another year to run on his contract and isn't ruling out an A-League return at the end of that spell.

"There's nothing concrete at the moment and at some stage I will hopefully come back to the A-League," he said.

Santalab is using his holiday to catch up with some of his former teammates at Sydney FC and despite a few recent blips, feels it is a ship geared to success.

He added: "I just think they need to finish teams off but you talk to the players and they're happy."