With the bursting of the gold dollar soccer bubble, the naturalization program for national football players has officially ended. Most of the naturalized players who were naturalized four years ago have already left China, with Xiao Tao Tao and Gaolat currently going through the process of naturalization. If all goes well, I believe they should be able to revert to their original nationality this year.
Of course, not every naturalized player is eager to revert back to their original nationality after making money from China, like Xiao Tao-tao and Gaolat. The first non-blooded naturalized player of the national football team, Eckerson, returned to the Chinese Super League this season. Recently, he returned to China to officially join Chinese Super League newcomer Chengdu Rongcheng.
According to the latest news from Brazilian sports media, another naturalized player, Alan, also plans to return to the Chinese Super League this year. He is currently communicating with a Chinese Super League club about a transfer.
The 34-year-old Allan made his debut with Barcelona giants Fluminense, and in 2010, at the age of 21, he landed in Europe with Austrian Superliga powerhouse Red Bull Salzburg. In his first season with the Red Bulls, Allan scored 10 goals and added three assists.
Two seasons later, Allan became the team's striker, and his front three with Soriano and Mane terrorized all opponents against the Red Bulls. This season, Allan scored 26 goals and assisted 8 times in the Olympic Super League, winning the Silver Boot award. In the following 2014-15 season, Allan scored 8 goals in the Europa League to win the Golden Boot award.
In the 2015 season, Allan joined league juggernaut Guangzhou Evergrande for a transfer value of €11 million, but shortly after joining the team, Allan suffered a serious injury of torn cruciate ligaments in the group stage of the AFC Champions League, and as a result, missed more than a year of the competition.
After coming back from injury, Alan's form is obviously not as good as before. Although Evergrande scored a lot of goals every season, he could no longer find the peak form of the Red Bulls. Even so, Evergrande went through the naturalization process for Allan in 2019, completing his naturalization at the end of the year and becoming a Chinese player.
Having lost his place at Evergrande, Alan, who became a naturalized player, joined Beijing Guoan on loan for the 2020 season. Although not the mainstay of Guoan's strikers, Allan still scored 11 goals for Guoan in various matches this season, showing the ability of an efficient scorer.
Because of his love for Chinese culture, Alan's Chinese language is the best among all naturalized players, both blood and non-blood, which makes him very friendly with his Guoan teammates and wins him the favor of many Beijing fans. Many fans hope that Guoan can buy out Alan's contract from Evergrande and make him officially a Guoan player.
However, due to Alan's age and previous serious injuries, Guoan gave up plans to bring in Alan. after the 2020 season, Alan returned to Evergrande. Due to the club's financial chain, Alan terminated his contract with Evergrande early last year and returned to the Barclays Premier League.
Last summer, Allan joined his old club Fluminense, but due to a long period of unsystematic training, he only got a chance to play after three months. This season, Allan still hasn't regained his form and his playing time in the team is very limited, so he also plans to return to the Chinese Super League.
Although Allan's contract with Fluminense expires next summer, he is ready to terminate his contract with the club early. It is reported that Allan's agent has recently communicated with the Chinese Super League club, which did not perform well in the league last season. If the negotiations go well, Allan is expected to return to the Chinese Super League to join the club next month.
For now, Alan is still Chinese. If he performs well in the league, he may be called up to the national team again. Here, we also hope that Alan will return to the Chinese Super League as soon as possible and represent the Chinese team on the green field of international matches
