I'm afraid it's the Cangzhou Lions who explain the problem better. In the first stage of the league, Cangzhou, Hebei, Guangzhou, Guangzhou and other almost belong to the brothers, the results are quite unsatisfactory. In addition, the center back of the foreign aid Suzu injured, relying on Oscar in the front line, the effect is not good. "Second turn" during this period, the music department from the Kazakh League dug out new foreigners such as Kanter, Zhukov and Owusu. As a result, Kanter made his first start and took three points from leaders Wuhan Sanzhen, a huge boost to the team's morale and morale. In the end, Kanter ranked sixth with 14 goals, initially relied on by the team as a forward scoring focus Oscar joined Kanter and others to become the team's king of assists, a total of eight assists in the past season, Guoan Zhang Xizhe, Meizhou Kosovic tied for seventh on the assists list, and the role of the foreigners can be said to be an immediate success.
Foreigners dominate champions and runners-up
Look at the title fight between Sanzhen and Taishan, precisely because the foreigners of both teams were relatively tidy at the beginning of the season and gradually came into their roles after a period of time, playing a key role in the team.
Throughout the season, Sanzhen and Taishan were the two teams that scored the most goals. The former scored 91 goals, excluding the 3-0 and 88 goals scored in the final round of Tianjin forfeits, and Malcolm scored 27 goals to become the season's top scorer; Davidson was fourth on the scorer's list with 18 goals; Edmilson also scored 11 goals; and Stanchu scored 10 goals. The four center-forward wide receivers totaled 66 goals. If we add the goals scored by center back Wallace, Sanzhen foreigners totaled 67 goals in the past season. Aside from Sanzhen and Taishan, Zhejiang has scored the most goals in the 2022 Chinese Super League standings, with a total of 64 goals. (That's 61 goals if you don't count opponent forfeits.) In other words, the total number of goals scored by Sanzhen's four foreigners alone exceeds that of the other 16 Chinese Super League teams, which is an unprecedented phenomenon.
Shandong scored 87 total goals this season, excluding two games that were awarded 3-0 wins due to opponent forfeits, and actually scored 81 goals. Among them, newly-introduced Brazilian striker Cressan ranked second in the Chinese Super League's top scorers list with 25 goals; Brazilian Moises tied for seventh in the top scorers list with 13 goals, but ranked first in the assists list. The three foreigners, Fellaini, Son Jungho and Jadson, have had their ups and downs due to injuries or representing South Korea in the World Cup, and the trio have totaled only eight goals. This also prevented the team from seizing the opportunity to defend the title beyond Samjin. But even so, the 46 goals scored by these foreigners accounted for more than half of the team's total goals.
It should be noted that in the second stage of the league, Tri-Town suffered consecutive unexpected losses, creating conditions for Taishan to catch up. In the first stage, Tri-Town won 9 and drew 1, and was way ahead in terms of points. However, the second stage coincided with the FIFA-designated national team match day, and Romanian international Stanciu had to recall his national team to play in the Europa League. In addition, foreigners such as Malcolm and Wallace were injured, and Taishan narrowed Tri-Town's lead to one point. This just goes to show the importance of foreigners in Tri-Town's miracle of promotion.
Zhejiang could also explain this. The other horse in the race for promotion, Zhejiang secured the best league position in the club's history this past season and returned to the AFC Champions League after 12 years, and that was not without the role of their foreigners. Although center back Lucas returned home due to injury and missed the second half of the league, the four midfield and forward foreigners, including Matthews, Frank, Mu Xiekui and Evolo, performed equally well, with the five foreigners scoring a total of 46 goals this season, on par with Taishan. Among them, Mu Xiekui with 18 goals and Davidson tied for fourth in the Chinese Super League scorer list.
As a promoted team, Chengdu Rongcheng ended up in the top five, which may be attributed to the key role of foreign players. Romulo scored 12 of the team's 49 goals and ranked 10th on the Chinese Super League's top scorers list, while Felipe, previously known as the "waterboy", was seen as more of a back-up in the second half of the league, scoring seven goals after the field, setting a record for the most goals scored by a substitute in a single Chinese Super League season. Together with Jin You's 4 goals, Saldaña's 3 goals and center back Wendy Bichler's 1 goal, the total number of goals scored by foreigners was 27, which accounted for more than half of the total number of goals scored by the whole team.
Henan Songshan Dragons ranked third in the league in the first phase of last season, scoring 23 goals in the first 10 rounds. Needless to say, this had a lot to do with the outstanding performance of foreigners such as Dorado, Karanga and Adrian. However, after resuming the home and away system in the second stage, the ban was penalized due to Dorado's nonchalance and nonsense to the referee. Although the team brought in new Spanish foreigners Pina and Argentine striker Carrillo, the tacit understanding with Karanga no longer existed, and the attacking power suffered greatly as the team slipped from third to sixth in the rankings. In the final stage, although the team's performance improved, it still failed to seize the opportunity for the club to make a new breakthrough in the league.
As for the new season before the seaport team was considered the most likely to compete with Taishan, in the absence of the biggest Oscar in the Chinese Super League, the entire team's offense obviously can not find the feeling. Despite the "second turn" during this period, Argentina into the Argentine Vargas, Caron and other new foreign aid, coupled with the return of Wu Lei and Jiang Guangtai's help, but this is actually equal to the team to start all over again. Although the final and Zhejiang team with the same points, but due to the goal difference is less, still ranked fourth, has not yet locked the qualification for next season's AFC Champions League.
Another giants, Guoan, also did not perform well in the 2022 season, especially on the 30th anniversary of the club's founding, and the team could not even qualify for the AFC Champions League play-offs, which I'm afraid is also related to the failure of the foreign aid at the beginning of the season. Adeben Lo came to Guoan from Sweden, obviously not suit the soil, injury plagued, and the expectations of the beginning of the season is far from. Croatian striker Daburo is more like a "water goods" in any case, it is difficult to believe that this is a nearly 2 million euros worth of foreign aid striker. On the contrary, Zhang Yuning is more like a foreigner, scoring 19 goals in the whole season, ranking third in the list of Chinese Super League scorers.
Cleaning up middlemen cleans up soccer
Those who get foreign aid win the world. This is actually an irreversible phenomenon since the development of China's professional soccer league. in the 1990s, the old A era, the role of foreign aid was not particularly obvious. However, as the league developed and team investment increased, the Chinese Super League's reliance on foreign aid became more and more serious.
It is not a sin for the Chinese Super League to rely on foreign aid, not only in the Chinese Super League, but also more noticeably on the intercontinental level. Especially in the AFC Champions League, in recent years, with the West Asian forces more and more in control of the discourse, the AFC broke the restrictions on foreign aid to the West Asian powerhouses. In the 2023-24 season of the AFC Champions League, foreign aid will be from the current "3+1" to "5+1"; by the 2024-25 season, the AFC Champions League will completely liberalize foreign aid restrictions. This is also destined. "AFC Champions League rely on foreign aid" phenomenon will be more prominent.
Therefore, I am afraid that the decline of the Chinese Super League simply attributed to "gold dollar soccer" is not comprehensive enough, because it is impossible to engage in professional soccer without spending money. Moreover, if the Chinese Super League wants to reorganize the flag, it is impossible not to spend money. The question is how to spend money?
What's really scary about the golden age isn't the money burned on signings, it's the fact that it's so hard for the middlemen to make the difference. Normally, a slightly better foreign aid costs two or three million dollars or euros, but the actual transaction price can exceed 10 million dollars or euros. Why? The stakeholders have to get a piece of the action. In the end, the owners spend money on the team, but in the end, they don't know where the money goes. If Chinese soccer does not know these "middlemen" Chinese professional league and even the whole Chinese soccer is very difficult to turn around!
