The Chinese men's soccer team is approaching the World Qualifier, but suffered a major loss even before the official tournament began, as star defender Jiang Guangtai was confirmed to be unavailable for the match against Thailand due to a knee injury. To fill the gap, the national team urgently chose Shenzhen defender Xu Haofeng to join them. However, this decision has aroused skepticism from the outside world. It is understood that Xu Haofeng has not only worked with Jankovic many times, but also has a rumor of gambling addiction. Therefore, many people do not understand on what basis Yankovic selected such a controversial player.
Xu Haofeng was one of the main defenders for Shenzhen in this season's Chinese Super League, appearing in 24 matches. However, his performances have not been as good as he would have liked, and there are many players who have performed better than him, both in the center back and right back positions. However, Xu Haofeng has a certain affinity with Jankovic, which is an advantage that other players do not have. As we all know, before coaching the Chinese national soccer team, Jankovic was the head coach of the Chinese national youth soccer team and the Olympic soccer team. At that time, Xu Haofeng was chosen by Yankovic to be on the list of the national Olympic soccer team, becoming a "national" player.
Not only that, last year when Jankovic was the interim head coach of the national soccer team, he led the team to participate in the East Asian Cup, and Xu Haofeng was also included in the list of participants. Although he is not the core player in Yankovic's mind, it is obvious that Xu Haofeng is one of the "spare players" in Yankovic's mind as long as he has the opportunity. With Jiang Guangtai's sudden injury and departure from the team, it's only natural that Jankovic would think of the players he has trained in the past. After all, many coaches have the principle of "use the familiar, not the unfamiliar".
However, not only is Xu Haofeng mediocre, he has also traveled a very difficult road. Last year, he was exposed for his alleged involvement in online gambling. According to reports, he was extremely addicted to gambling and even gambled all night. For a professional player, this is an extremely dangerous sign, there is no doubt about it.
As you can see from this, the decision to choose a player of questionable skill and quality like Xu Haofeng to replace Jiang Guangtai in the national team to prepare for such an important world qualifier has caused the expected controversy. Now we can only wait and see if Yankovic used someone without suspicion or just hired a relative.
