The return of the Chinese men's soccer team in last year's World Preliminary 12 means that the naturalization program, which the Football Association had been preparing for several years, has officially failed.
Despite having a few naturalized players such as Eckerson, Luo Guofu, Alan and Jiang Guangtai, China's performance was still very dismal. Not only have they failed to realize their dream of making it to the World Cup again, but they can't even beat former Asian fish out of water teams, such as Vietnam.
After the preliminaries, "naturalized players" is no longer a hot topic among fans and media. The "Li Tie Incident" that broke out at the end of last year and the recent fall of several FA executives have attracted a lot of attention, making the naturalization of players gradually forgotten by fans.
However, recently, naturalized players have been on the hot list again. It is reported that the Football Association (FA) and many clubs in the Chinese Super League (CSL) are mulling over bringing in at least five naturalized players. Unlike 2019, this time the FA is considering naturalization of naturalized players with Chinese blood, much younger than Ekson, Luo Guofu, and Alan.
With Guangzhou Evergrande (Guangzhou) now in complete decline, the enforcer of this FA naturalization has been replaced by veteran Chinese Super League powerhouse Shanghai Shenhua. It is reported that Shenhua club is currently communicating with American-born Chinese player Yann Xinli, hoping to bring in the Chinese defender to help him complete the naturalization process for this year's Finnish Premier League team, Sejnejoki Academy.
Yann Xinli, 28, is a third-generation American-born Chinese. Before going pro, he studied at the prestigious Duke University, where he spent two seasons with the Duke Blue Devils.
In 2017, Yann Xinli landed in the Euroleague, joining Istria in the Croatian League. Since then, he has played for a number of teams in the Slovenian and Slovak leagues.In 2019, he moved to IFK Helsinki, where he is in the Finnish Premier League. In January this year, he just transferred to another Finnish Premier League team, Sejnejoki Academy.
Yann Xinli plays as a right back on the field and can also play as a right forward and center back. Yann Xinli is a well-balanced defender with speed, breakout ability, strong body and ferocious defense. Last season, he played 21 Finnish Premier League games for IFK Helsinki, scoring 1 goal and assisting 2 times.
It is reported that Shenhua's communication with Yan Xinli has been relatively smooth, and the introduction of the American player with Chinese ancestry is very promising, which is the fundamental reason why the club left the team's Chinese naturalized defender Wang Yi for free.
In addition to Yen Xinli, the FA also intends to naturalize four other Chinese players, and several Chinese Super League clubs have already helped them with the naturalization process.
However, these four players are not too strong. None of them have worked for a club in Europe's top leagues. Their strength is mainly their youth, unlike Alan who had rich experience in European wars before joining the Chinese Super League. In addition, the training and playing experience in European clubs makes their tactical concepts and skills much higher than those of domestic players.
The experiences of these five Chinese players are very similar to the naturalized players such as Jiang Guangtai, Xiao Tao Tao, Li Ke and Hou Yong Yong. From the current situation, only Jiang Guangtai is capable of being the main player of the national team. Due to various problems, the other three players either can't get a foothold in the national soccer team or have no chance at all to be selected for the national soccer team.
Therefore, the FA should be more careful in re-launching the naturalization program for players to avoid the situation of paying a large settlement fee to convince them to naturalize but not to be used by the national team. Perhaps, after naturalization, these players can continue to play in European leagues instead of playing in the Chinese Super League, which could help them stay in top form...
