On the evening of March 6, the U20 national football team beat defending champions Saudi Arabia 2-0 in the U20 Asian Cup battle of life and death. In a desperate situation, they saw the light of day to get out of the tournament, and the related entry was ranked first in the hot search last night! In this match, Chengdu Rongcheng's young player Mutalifu shone in front of the crowd. After replacing Hu Huotao of the same club in the second half, he became one of the heroes of his team's three points with a shot and a pass in seven minutes.
For Mutalifu, who is approaching his 19th birthday, the win, goal and assist are definitely milestones in his career. It is little known that Mutalifu almost missed Croatia's U20 national soccer team's overseas training and the U20 Asian Cup because he didn't have a passport before. After Mutalifu hit the ground running, Red Star News interviewed his teacher Tan Bo, the U19 head coach at the Chengdu Football Association's Derry Football Training Center. The latter, while expressing his satisfaction and excitement with Mutalifu's performance, sent a message to his disciples:- "Enjoy last night's goal and victory, face the challenge of good reviews positively and stay humble!"
The Heroes Who Defeated Saudi Arabia
Almost didn't make it to the U20 Asian Cup this time.
Mutalifu made a name for himself in the 2022 season of the Chinese Super League. Last year, he miraculously made the leap from the Chengdu Football Association U17 team to the Chengdu Rongcheng reserve team to the first team of Chengdu Rongcheng. at the age of 18 years and 0112 days, he scored his first individual goal of the Chinese Super League, helping Rongcheng win the first Chinese Super League game in the team's history.
Last season, Mutalifu scored 5 goals as a U21 player in the Chinese Super League (CSL) and the Football Association Cup (F.A.C.A. Cup), becoming a rising star in the CSL together with Hu Huotao. The "Rongcheng Twins" also made it to the training list of the U20 national soccer team. However, surprisingly, when the U20s announced their training list for the UAE, he didn't see Mutalifu's name on it. After all, he is the player who scored the most goals for the U20 national football team in 2022.
At that time, Mutalifu fell off the UAE training list for the U20 national soccer team because he had not traveled abroad before and had not applied for a passport at all. As it was the Chinese New Year, the procedures and processes for Mutalifu to apply for a passport were cumbersome, and no one could guarantee that Mutalifu would get his passport before the start of the current U20 Asian Cup in Uzbekistan. There was a real possibility that he would not be able to participate in the U20 Asian Cup at that time.
According to a Red Star News reporter, the Chengdu Football Association made a great effort to do so, and the main leaders personally applied for Mutalifu's passport before the U20 national soccer team moved to Croatia for training.After the U20 national soccer team arrived in Croatia, Mutalifu was also successfully recruited by the team. Finally, the U20 national soccer team traveled directly from Croatia to Uzbekistan for the U20 Asian Cup after training. Therefore, if the passports had not been processed in time, Mutalifu would not have been able to participate in the training in Croatia, and most of them would have been the "legacy team" of the U20 national soccer team at this year's U20 Asian Cup.
The teacher is a son-in-law from Kashgar, Xinjiang.
Mutalifu is also lucky.
Born in Kashgar, Xinjiang, Mutalifu has loved soccer since elementary school. He went to Beijing with his team to participate in the "Who is the King of the Ball" folk competition. After winning the championship and entering CCTV-5, Mutalifu's family began to support him to play soccer. According to Tan Bo, in 2018, Mutalifu and several other players were recommended by their agents to the Chengdu Football Association for trial training. Through a joint evaluation by the Chengdu Football Association's coaching team, he and three other players were confirmed to be the ones Chengdu Football Association wanted to keep. As a result, Mutalifu became a member of the Chengdu Football Association's Derry Football Training Center's 04 ladder team and started with Tan Bo.
"He impressed me in his first practice and game. He showed a lot of talent in terms of his technical versatility, speed and offense. He is one of the few players who wants to do his best on the pitch, so we had no hesitation in signing him." Tambo told Red Star.
ICphotototo (#17) goal picture
After he became famous, Mutalifu summarized the "code of success" of being away from home - to quickly integrate into the local life and culture, and not to give up when encountering difficulties or homesickness. In these two points, Tan Bo can be said to have done his best for Mutalifu. In order for Mutalifu to better integrate into the Chengdu Football Association (CFA) 04 team, Tan Bo would often arrange for Mutalifu and other Xinjiang players to go to their teammates' homes on weekends, so that they could build friendships with the local children, and the teammates and their parents would often be very enthusiastic about these Xinjiang children. Every holiday, Tambo would take them home or out to eat Xinjiang food to keep them away from home.
With such a warm-hearted coach, Mutalifu has been living happily in Chengdu for the past few years, and has long had the idea of putting down roots in the city. A source told Red Star News that Mutalifu's current wish is to bring his parents to live in Chengdu in the future and open a restaurant specializing in Xinjiang cuisine for them. Although he has just started the professional league, he cannot do that for the time being, but this motivation will push him to keep working hard. Tan Bo added that what impressed him the most was that Mutalifu once told him that he wanted to play the role of a man in the family as soon as possible. "I was surprised to hear a player of that age say whether he was in charge or not."
Mutalipu said he had three wishes.
Now one and a half completed
Tambo is very pleased and excited about Mutalifu's outstanding performance at the U20 Asian Cup. "He provided more options for the team against Saudi Arabia and he is very good at finding space and creating offensive threats between the two lines through his individual ability. Mutalifu also sent me a message after the match saying that it felt very different to score like that."
Mutalifu said he had three dreams before: first, to play for Chengdu Hibiscus; second, to enter the national team and compete for his country; and third, to go to the top five leagues. Now, the first wish has been realized, and the second has been half fulfilled, making an important contribution to the U20 national soccer team. There should be great hope for entering the adult national soccer team in the future. As for the prospect of going to the Big 5, his teacher Tan Bo said: "From last year's promotion to the first team of Chengdu Rongcheng to last night's goal, his performance in different teams is impressive. I believe he can get better as he still has a lot of improvement and progress to make.
Red Star News reporter learned that Mutalifu has actually entered the sights of some European teams after the 2022 Chinese Super League season glowed. During the winter transfer period in Europe this year, a famous team that often appears on the European battlefield contacted Chengdu Rongcheng FC and Mutalifu, asking them if they were willing to stay in Europe. But both the club and themselves considered that they were young, so this might not be the right time to go to Europe. Although they have not landed in the Europa League for the time being, it proves that Mutalifu has been widely recognized in the first season of the Chinese Super League. As Tambo said, if he can finish his skills at this rate, he can.
