Sun Jihai, who spent seven seasons at Manchester City, became the first Chinese to appear in the Premier League, setting records for goals and appearances, and was inducted into the English Football Hall of Fame, making him the poster boy for staying abroad. Meanwhile, Fan Zhiyi became a rare foreign captain in the history of Crystal Palace, Zheng Zhi helped Charlton to achieve 9 goals and 6 assists in 2007, Sun Xiang was the first Chinese to enter the Champions League, and Xie Hui scored 14 goals in the 2000-2001 Bundesliga B, ranking second in the top scorer list. The brilliant moments of these European internationals seem like yesterday, making people feel a lot of emotions.
Sun Jihai they were the top stars of Asian soccer, able to hold up the flag of the national football team to stay in the ocean, on the one hand, thanks to the national football team to reach the final round of the World Cup in South Korea and Japan after the advantage, on the other hand, is because of their hard level of athleticism. However, the return of the honor of traveling to Europe is, after all, a small number of players, Du Wei, Ma Mingyu, Li Weifeng, Li Jinyu, Zhang Xunzhe, Zhou Haibin, Dong Fangzhuo and other successors in the European field of play most of the performance of the short-lived, sadly left the field.
One of the reasons for this is that the early stay-at-sea destinations generally have a high starting point and are highly competitive. For example, Zhou Haibin joined Dutch giants Eindhoven, where there were so many midfielders in the team that it was difficult for him to stand out from the competition within the team. And Dewey's failure at Celtic is similar, in the Soviet Premier League, known for physical confrontation, he simply can not control the ball. The second reason is poor communication. The language barrier is the key to understanding the coach's intentions and communicating with teammates. Yang Chen once had a strained relationship with coach Magath due to the language barrier. Artemisia Junmin also made a lot of mistakes in defense because she couldn't communicate with her teammates on the field. The third reason is the lack of soccer IQ and late efforts, which eventually eliminated them from the Euroleague. Dong Fangzhuo is a typical example. Alex Ferguson once commented that his "lower body is world-class", but he can't use his brain to play soccer, which is the common problem of Chinese players.
Status quo: Using third- and fourth-tier European teams as "springboards"
In the past, the players who stayed in the domestic league or the national team are the best, under the operation of the brokerage team to land in the mainstream European leagues, there is a certain transfer fee, but there is also a "gold-plated" component. Now, with the decline of Chinese men's football in the Asian football world, the past two decades repeatedly with the World Cup final round no chance, Chinese players in the international transfer market, no one asked for, to stay in the way and the path of sea has undergone a radical change.
According to statistics, there are currently 54 men's and 4 women's soccer players playing overseas in the world soccer world, with a combined total of 33 goals scored in the season just ended. Among them, only Wu Lei of Spaniards and Tang Jiali of Tottenham Hotspur women's team are playing in the top five leagues, with Wu Lei scoring 1 goal in 18 appearances and Tang Jiali delivering 1 goal in 9 games.
In addition to Wu Lei and Tang Jiali, there are six other people playing in the mainstream European leagues, namely Guo Tianyu, who plays in the Portuguese Premier League Vizela, Liu Shao Ziyang, who plays in Klagenfurt of the Austrian League, and Li Lei, who plays in Grasshopper of the Swiss Premier League, but the three of them do not play a lot of times. In addition, the women's soccer Shen Mengyu played in the Scottish Premier League Celtic, Yang Shuhui played in the French Ligue 1 Charente Suavao, Shen Menglu played in the Portuguese Premier League Auréntico.
In this list, most of the players are playing in the lower leagues, as many as 32 players in the ninth Spanish league, Portugal's fifth league, South Korea's fourth league and Japan's third league, and the players are all born after 2000. Obviously, the distribution, age stratification and league output direction of Chinese players staying in the world has fundamentally changed. More young European players need to stay overseas for a long time in the lower leagues, and step by step, they will be able to use this as a "springboard" to the mainstream leagues.
Role Models: Lessons from Japan's Soccer Takeoff
In the past two decades, the national football team has learned Brazil, Germany, Holland, Italy, in the end to draw a tiger, the level of soccer does not advance but retreat, watching the near neighboring Japanese team gradually cross into the ranks of soccer powerhouse.2019, the National Football Association proposed to learn from the Japanese team. In this regard, Guangzhou Sports Institute Associate Professor Guo Huiyi agreed, "We do not need to learn any country in Europe now, only need to carefully study how Japanese soccer took off."
The take-off of Japanese soccer comes from the rapid growth of the soccer population under the dual-track promotion of the school system and the youth training system, which in turn sends a batch of young players to Europe for training. In addition to decades of fruitful youth training, the JFA has also provided support services for players who stay in Europe. For example, the JFA purchased the Bundesliga team St. Tilden as a "springboard" to Europe, and during this period, it successfully promoted Endo Air, Tomiyasu Kenyo, and Kamata Daiichi to the top five leagues. With more and more young players traveling to Europe, how to ensure the psychological state of the players has become an important issue, the JFA sent specialists to provide psychological counseling for players traveling to Europe. In addition, the JFA plans to establish a permanent training base in Germany to provide more assistance to Japanese players traveling to Europe.
In fact, Sun Jihai, Yang Chen, Li Tie and other players have more than once expressed to the outside world to travel to Europe career is not easy, especially the need to re-integrate into a completely unfamiliar social environment, accept a completely different culture and daily life, but also to adapt to the past than the higher intensity of the training and the game, any of which is not a simple test, the players face the high pressure of the more need for psychological guidance and solace.
According to statistics, the number of Japanese players in Europe in 2021 has reached 451, of which there are as many as 250 Japanese players in all levels of the German league, and if we add the players in the South Korean K-League, the Australian Premier League and the Mexican league, the number of overseas players has exceeded 500. In front of the huge base, a long time in the European league high level, fast-paced atmosphere, the overall strength of Japanese soccer will be improved, the formation of two or even three full travel European players of the national team naturally not a problem.
From the path of the rise of Japanese soccer, the same experience initially by Hidetoshi Nakata, Miura Chira, Shunsuke Nakamura and other top domestic stars, to young players at all levels in Europe blossomed in Europe's European trajectory, which coincides with the current Chinese young players in the European low-level leagues, "to play to refine the level of", is not a way to enhance the overall level of soccer! The overall level of the channel.
Expert: 13-16 years old is the golden age to stay in foreign countries
Talking about the Chinese men's soccer team and the Japanese team's strength gap is getting bigger and bigger, engaged in soccer work for nearly 50 years Guo Huiyi doubly heartbreaking and helpless, "it is no exaggeration to say that in the 1980s, I represent the Guangdong team to play games with the Japanese team, let them two goals can easily take. The development of soccer boils down to starting with the children, and must follow the laws of soccer and grasp the youth training".
Wu Lei and Sun Xingyu are the flagship characters of Chinese and South Korean soccer, starting from a similar point, but there is a difference in subsequent development. Guo Huiyi believes that "in the end, it is still not as good as others, the two seem to have the same starting point, but in terms of basic soccer skills, understanding of soccer and soccer IQ, Sun Xingyu is close to the world's top level. In Guo Huiyi's view, the biggest problem of the current Chinese men's football is that the players do not have characteristics, "like a group of old stars in Guangdong, Gu Guangming that is an old 'loach', fast speed, breakthrough strong, good with the brain to play football; Zhao Dayu although short, but the body is superb, and comprehensive technology. If you look at the current international players, there are very few players with distinctive characteristics. Wu Lei can stand firm in the top five leagues, not only because of excellent running ability, but also has a similar sense of smell in front of the goal with Inzaghi, his sense of grabbing points in the penalty area is a big advantage."
Guo Huiyi told the Yangcheng Evening News reporter, distinctive players are based on the European League "pass", and the premise of all this must be the basic skills of the youth period to first reach the standard. "From a soccer player's growth trajectory, to the age of twenty soccer level and cultivation has been basically qualitative, to the European more is the accumulation of experience in the competition after the maturity of the mentality, which is also the Wu Lei back to the national team after self-confidence and shooting efficiency to improve the main reason."
For the growth of young players, Guo Huiyi believes that the age of 13-16 years old is the golden period to stay in the ocean. "Before the age of 13, it is the polishing of the basic skills of soccer, completely without the need to instill technical and tactical, and 13-16 years old is the key period of growth of the players, this time to go to the European league in the 'Dye House' in the training, the advanced concepts of European soccer, the mechanism of competition up and the culture of soccer will be The advanced concept of European football, the mechanism of competition and upward mobility, as well as the culture of football, will all change the players' understanding of soccer in a subtle way." Guo Huiyi repeatedly emphasized with the reporter, "this kind of travel to Europe is not the year's 'Jianlibao' model, that and in the domestic 'captive' practicing almost no difference, must let a single young player really into the European league clubs system, and European players eat, sleep, practice and play with the same, so that is the real meaning of the travel to Europe. Like Zhang Yuning at the age of 16 has followed the Dutch Vitesse's ladder team training games, which is the main reason for its rapid growth. See now so many children go to Europe's low-level league a little bit of grinding, I think this way is at least in line with the laws of soccer, but also in line with the growth of the players, worth encouraging and insisting on, of course, all this is still to be the test of time."
The future: better to retreat from the abyss and weave a net than to envy the fish
Undeniably, see Sun Xingyu lifted the English Premier League Golden Boot, see Nanno Takumi with Liverpool to get the English League Cup and FA Cup Championship, see Furuhashi Henwu, Maeda Dairen, flag hand Renyou and Idekuchi Yosuke in Celtic won the Scottish Premier League Championship, Chinese fans in addition to the envy, but only the heartbroken. For the national soccer team, it is better to retreat from the abyss and tie the net. Japanese soccer travel to Europe's success stories, has verified that the young players all over the European league to sharpen is a wise move.
Explaining the reason for his enduring success in the entertainment industry, Stephen Chow once said, "If you want to become a king of the sky, you must start out as a drag queen." The same guideline applies to staying in the game.
Although it seems that the growth cycle is long, but the process of success is full of gold, only in the European league waves, a hundred refined into steel, stay in the player can really integrate into the European league, long-term, stable survival in the European league, shine. This is definitely beneficial for the national football team in adversity. Only in accordance with the laws of soccer, unswervingly implement the implementation of the overall program of reform and development of the national football team, do a good job in the short and medium term to continue to sit on the bench, the national football team may be able to come back to life, quantitative change triggered by qualitative change, and ushered in the new life completely.
