As many soccer fans are perhaps well aware, the most pressing need in our soccer world is the emergence of outstanding homegrown midfielders. For a long time, the league has used foreign players as the backbone of the league, and in the last decade, the development of local midfielders has stagnated with the same scarcity of appearances as strikers. This situation quickly spread to the national team level, the lack of organizational power and creativity in the midfield, the national team in the middle of the attack to form a threat. The lack of offense has led to a decrease in the number of goals scored, and the national team's performance has declined in recent years.
However, in the last two seasons, the golden dollar era of the Chinese Super League has come to an end, with many big-name foreign aiders leaving the game. Most of our clubs can no longer afford to bring in big-name foreign midfielders, and local players have thus been given more stages to showcase themselves. With more matches to sharpen their skills, some local midfielders have emerged and brought us a ray of light.
This includes 24-year-old midfield star Xu Haoyang, now playing for Shanghai Shenhua. The player, born in 1999, is one of the outstanding results of the Genbao Soccer School, and is also one of the leading players in the 99-00 team. Coach Xu Genbao once jokingly called him "Little Qi Hong". He has a strong aura, unique technology, outstanding awareness, has long become the core of the 99-00 team, a technical midfielder, and has been selected for the National Youth Football League many times. Subsequently, Shanghai Shenhua acquired the 99-00 team of Genbao Soccer School, and Xu Haoyang joined Shenhua smoothly.
Due to Shenhua's lack of opportunities at the time, he was loaned out for workouts.In 2020, he joined Beijing Beijing Sports University of China A, where he played 14 games, including 9 starts and 2 goals.In the 2021 season, Xu Haoyang joined Wuhan Sanzhen on loan and quickly became the team's main midfielder. This season, he played 30 games for Wuhan Sanzhen in China A, starting 28 of them, scoring 1 goal and dishing out 4 assists, becoming a key player in the team's championship run.
Xu Haoyang continued his loan to Wuhan Sanzhen in the 2022 season, the first season of his career. This season, Wuhan Three Town brought in a large number of international players, but they did not shake Xu Haoyang's starting position. He played 26 matches for Wuhan Sanzhen, including 16 starts, scored 1 goal and delivered 4 assists. In addition, he also received high praise from Wuhan Sanzhen's foreign aid Stan Qiu. Stanciu said that Xu Haoyang is his most impressive Chinese player, his ability and characteristics are very outstanding, and he likes to play with him very much. Xu Haoyang became the hero of Wuhan Sanzhen's Super League victory that season.
Thanks to the performance of Wuhan Sanzhen, Shanghai Shenhua ended Xu Haoyang's loan and let him return to the first team to wear the Shenhua uniform. However, Xu Haoyang continued to perform well despite the intense schedule this season. He played 27 games for the team each season, starting 17 of them, scoring 1 goal and dishing out 4 assists. Especially in the 21st round of the Chinese Super League, he precisely guided and helped his team to score.
The match was Shanghai Shenhua's home match against Shenzhen. In the 28th minute of the match, Shenhua won a free kick in front of the field, which was taken by Xu Haoyang. His pass accurately found foreigner Malelai, who was ambushed in the penalty area. Malelai's penalty kick was attached to Shenzhen, and Shanghai Shenhua took a 1-0 lead. As we all know, Malelai is not a foreigner who is good at scoring goals, but through Xu Haoyang's precise guidance, he managed to put the ball into the net. At that moment, did you feel the shadow of Qi Hong?
Of course, Xu Haoyang still has some deficiencies at the moment. I believe he will grow faster with the accumulation of more matches. We also expect Xu Haoyang to grow into the next Qi Hong, injecting new vitality into the midfield of our national team. Do you like Xu Haoyang?
