The Pain of Eight Champions: A Sad Story of Shifting Identities
Pace Chen once said that the nature of comedy often lurks in sadness. Zheng Zhi, the leader of the Guangzhou team, whose career experience mirrors the sadness of the eight champions, was reported on November 25th to be facing financial difficulties: at Zheng's suggestion, the team organized training on their own initiative; even more shockingly, the training base only provides mineral water to replenish energy, the team's cafeteria is closed, and the majority of the players are in arrears with their salaries for more than three months.
When a team needs to rely on a player, captain, former general manager and other multi-status leaders, personal charisma to drive forward, this undoubtedly reveals the team, club, league and even the entire soccer environment of helplessness and sadness. Zheng Zhi, no matter how much controversy he has caused in his career as a player, is worthy of the title of "professional".
At the beginning of the year, when the club announced that Zheng Zhi would no longer hold the position of general manager, it had vowed: "Evergrande Group and the club will always give full trust and support to Zheng Zhi, and continue to support him to maintain a high level of competitive status, improve his all-round management and coaching ability, and grow up from an excellent soccer player to an excellent professional coach and club manager, and make a longterm contribution to the long-term development of Guangzhou Football Continuously contribute to the long-term development of Guangzhou soccer." However, the reality is that Zheng Zhi is still there, while the club has been completely changed.
At the end of the first phase of the league, Guangzhou accumulated 30 points with 9 wins, 3 draws and 2 losses, only 3 points behind Shandong Taishan in the second place. However, there is no need to repeat the turmoil in Guangzhou soccer from the management down to the players. With Golat out of contract to return to the Barclays Premier League, Allan and Ackerson confirmed to be back on vacation in Brazil, and two current naturalized internationals, Luo Guofu and Jiang Guangtai, doubtful to play, Zheng Zhi's team will be facing an intensive schedule. 41 year old veteran may still have a chance to set a new record on the field, but is this not a tragedy for the Guangzhou team, and for Chinese soccer?
