I'm sure many fans already know that what Chinese soccer lacks most is good homegrown midfielders. Because the league is basically centered around foreigners, the local midfielders have lacked enough game opportunities and hardly grown in the last decade, just like our local strikers. This effect quickly rises to the level of the national soccer team, where our midfield lacks organized and creative players, and the national soccer team struggles to create threatening attacks in the middle of the pitch. Because of the poor offense, the national soccer team scored fewer goals and their results have dropped quite a bit over the years.
However, in the last two seasons, the golden dollar era of the Chinese Super League has ended and many big name foreigners have left the league. Most of our clubs don't have the strength to invite big name foreign midfielders anymore, so our local midfielders are getting more opportunities. After more matches, some local midfielders started to emerge, which gave us a glimmer of hope.
These include 24-year-old midfielder Xu Haoyang, who currently plays for Shanghai Shenhua. Born in 1999, Xu Haoyang is a youth trainer at the Genbao Soccer School and one of the top players in the 99-00 ladder. He was once jokingly called "Little Qi Hong" by coach Xu Genbao. His aura, technical characteristics and awareness of outstanding, has long become the core of the 99-00 ladder team in the midfield, become a technical midfielder, many times selected for the National Youth. Later, Shanghai Shenhua acquired the 99-00 team of Genbao Soccer School, and Xu Haoyang successfully joined Shanghai Shenhua.
He was also rented out by Shenhua to work out because Shenhua did not have a chance at the time.In 2020, he joined the Beijing Beijing Sports University team in China A. He played 14 games in China A, with 2 goals in 9 starts.In the 2021 season, Xu Hao Yang joined Wuhan Sancheng on loan, and quickly became the team's starting midfielder. This season, he played 30 games for Wuhan Sanzhen in China A, including 28 starts, 1 goal and 4 assists, and became the hero of China A's title-winning transcendence.
Xu Haoyang continues his loan at Wuhan Sanzhen in the 2022 season, which is also the first season of his career. This season, Wuhan Sanzhen brought in a lot of players who were international players. However, they did not shake Xu Haoyang's starting position. Xu Haoyang made 26 appearances for Wuhan Sanzhen, including 16 starts, 1 goal and 4 assists. In addition, he was praised by Wuhan Sanzhen's foreign aid Stanciu. He said bluntly that Xu Haoyang is the Chinese player he is most impressed by, his ability and characteristics are very outstanding, and he likes playing with him very much. Xu Haoyang also became the hero of Wuhan Sanzhen's Chinese Super League title win that season.
Due to the outstanding performance of Wuhan Sanzhen, Shanghai Shenhua also ended Xu Haoyang's loan, allowing him to return to the first team of Shenhua and wear the Shenhua shirt. But this season, with a very intensive schedule, Xu Haoyang still performed very well. Each season, he played 27 games for the team, including 17 starts, 1 goal and 4 assists. Especially in the 21st round of the Chinese Super League, he had precise guidance and directly changed a foreigner who played happily.
The match was Shanghai Shenhua's home match against Shenzhen. It was the 28th minute of the match. Shenhua took a free kick in front of the field, which was taken by Xu Haoyang. His pass accurately found foreigner Malelai who was ambushed in the penalty area. Malelai's penalty point is attached to Shenzhen, Shanghai Shenhua 1-0. As we all know, Malelai is a foreigner who is not very good at scoring goals, but through Xu Haoyang's precise guidance, he didn't want to score. The ball was passed too well. At that moment, did you see Qi Hong's shadow?
Of course, Xu Haoyang still has some deficiencies at the moment. I believe he will grow faster with more game experience. We also expect Xu Haoyang to really grow into the next Qi Hong, so that the midfield of the national soccer team will be saved. Do you like Xu Haoyang?
