On November 9, 2013, Guangzhou Evergrande won the first AFC Champions League title in the team's history and the first AFC Champions League title won by the Chinese Super League since the reform of the AFC Champions League. Since then, the Guangzhou Evergrande dynasty and the Chinese Super League began for nearly a decade. The AFC Champions League is now in its tenth anniversary year. Although there was no commemorative ceremony held by the Guangzhou team today, those who won the title with the team back then basically sent messages to celebrate. Rong Hao showed commemorative videos of Zheng Zhi, Paulinho, Ackerson, Zeng Cheng and other main players from that year, which made the Chinese Super League fans fall into fond memories.
However, on this day of commemorating the Guangzhou team, a lot of accusing and humiliating voices appeared. Some media people even listed many crimes for Guangzhou Evergrande, accusing Guangzhou Evergrande of being the real murderer of the regression of Chinese soccer. First of all, it is undeniable that Guangzhou Evergrande brought prosperity to the domestic league at that time, but this prosperity was fake. They used heavy money to poach and concentrate a large number of international players on one team, and then smashed a group of high-level foreign aiders with heavy money. In this way, an ultra-high level team was set up, triggering years of irrational behavior of teams burning money.
In addition, gold-dollar soccer has a great impact on youth training. Although Evergrande Football School has made outstanding contributions to youth training, the introduction of big-name players has seriously squeezed the survival space of youth trainers. In those years, there was nothing for our young national brands to take. In the final analysis, the disadvantages of gold dollar soccer far outweigh the advantages. As you can see from the current state of Chinese soccer after 10 years, there has been a massive regression, especially in the league. Evergrande's introduction of gold-dollar soccer has sapped a decade of vitality from Chinese soccer, leaving only a memory and two AFC Champions League trophies.
To be honest, I am afraid that the Guangzhou Evergrande boss had selfish motives when he was engaging in gold-dollar soccer. Combined with the current situation of the owner, let's look back. So much money invested in the club at that time was actually not from the group or the owner himself, but from other people. Without this staggering debt today, Guangzhou Evergrande might not be blamed by many people, but now the owner has been controlled and some of the mistakes he made have been given to soccer. In this way, the golden dollar soccer has become a tool for him to make mistakes.
Of course, we should look at Guangzhou Evergrande and today's Guangzhou team separately. There is nothing wrong with the club itself and there is nothing wrong with today's Guangzhou team. The current Guangzhou team is more pure and sees only soccer as its essence without any interests. Moreover, the club and the soccer school basically do not need to be controlled by the group, and they can realize self-financing and self-sufficiency, and put all their energy into the soccer itself. In fact, this is more worthy of respect. Nowadays, it may take a long time for the domestic league to be revitalized. It is hoped that clubs will pay more attention to soccer itself when investing.
