Luo Guofu withdraws from Super League tournament
On December 19th, heavy news came out of Guangzhou that 33-year-old naturalized player Luo Guofu announced that he would not participate in the second phase of the current Chinese Super League after communication with the Guangzhou Football Club broke down. Luo Guofu's destination is a mystery, but he has decided to return to Brazil for the time being amidst uncertainty over his career prospects.
This means that only one naturalized player, Jiang Guangtai, remains in the Chinese Super League, which is undoubtedly bad news for the national football team and its new manager, Li Xiaopeng, who still hold out hope of advancing to the Round of 12.
On the evening of December 16, Guangzhou and Hebei drew 1-1 in the 16th round of the Chinese Super League. In addition to the result of the match and Zheng Zhi's first yellow card as Guangzhou's interim manager, naturalized player Jiang Guangtai's return to Guangzhou and his debut drew much attention.
In fact, since the national football team returned home on Nov. 18, questions about the future career plans of several of the team's naturalized players have attracted attention. With Ackerson returning to Brazil and Jiang Guangtai entering the Chinese Super League (CSL) Guangzhou, the answer to the question is becoming clearer. So, after repeatedly publicly stating that he is willing to play for the national soccer team with all his might, where will Luo Guofu's future go?
According to the news from Guangzhou on the 19th, Luo Guofu has given up his plan to participate in the second phase of the Chinese Super League with the Guangzhou team. There is even news that he will leave Guangzhou and go back to his home country on the evening of the 19th at the earliest. From this, it is not difficult to judge two points: First, Luo Guofu and Jiang Guangtai officially released from isolation on the 9th of this month, although returned to Guangzhou, but mainly to negotiate with the club to extend the contract. The fact that Luo Guofu gave up his participation in the Chinese Super League means that his communication with the club did not yield satisfactory results.
On the other hand, the "stay and go" of Jiang Guangtai and Luo Guofu proves that there may be a difference in their future in the Chinese Super League. A well-informed source revealed that there are already Chinese Super League clubs showing willingness to introduce Jiang Guangtai and Alan.
However, it seems that no similar willingness has been shown to the domestic clubs for Luo Guofu and Ackerson. This is because Guangzhou Football Club has recently suffered a serious financial crisis, making it difficult to pay high salaries to first team players, including naturalized players. In this case, if Luo Guofu stays in the country, it means that he needs to spend a lot of money continuously to cope with renting rooms and training. In addition, sources say that there is now no full-time Portuguese interpreter within the Guangzhou club to handle personal matters for Luo Guofu. In this case, leaving Guangzhou and returning to Brazil may be the right choice.
Concerned about a few naturalized international footballers are also the Chinese Football Association (CFA) and the new coach of the national football team, Li Xiaopeng. It is reported that the use of the weekend time, Li Xiaopeng and the relevant parties on the national football team and preparation for a new round of exchanges. Although the detailed content of the exchange is not known, but from the recent injury of a number of international players in the league and a number of naturalized international players to leave the reality of our country, Li Xiaopeng in the future selection of international players on the issue of the problem does encounter certain difficulties. Especially, now the national football team although in the 12 strong competition in the overall passive, but still retains the hope of line. In this case, Li Xiaopeng and the national football team under his command has no reason to give up the efforts to fight for the line, that is to say, the next two rounds of away games against Japan and Vietnam, the national football team is still necessary to do their best. From this point of view, Li Xiaopeng's team is still very much in need of a few naturalized international players to help.
Slightly comforting is that, no matter Ickerson, Luo Guofu, had previously publicly expressed willingness to do their best for the national football team. However, it is certain that the impact of the epidemic, the relevant epidemic prevention policies and the reality of the conditions, several naturalized international players just need to leave our country in the near future, then the probability is that they will not have the opportunity to be in the next year on January 10 or so when the national football team re-centralized in time to the team. Even if they continue to play for the national soccer team, they can only directly rush to Japan to meet the team. The national soccer team will also be tasked to maintain real-time communication with them.
