Currently, the performance of China's soccer overseas legion is not dazzling, in addition to Wu Shao Cong in the Turkish Super League team Istanbul Basaksehir put on the main defender's No. 4 jersey, the national youth U20 captain Efirdin Eskal study abroad career hastily ended; Li Ming's son, Li Si Rong, waiting for the opportunity to be in the European lower league; and by Bayern loaned to the Austrian team, but in the sub-league, rarely appear Liu Shao Ziyang and many other players ......
However, in the face of the opportunities and challenges of the new era, it seems that the post-00s players are interested in breaking the traditional concepts, advocating pragmatism, and emphasizing that "being able to play football is more important than where you play." In the arduous journey of many overseas players, the life experience of Jabo Diem in Croatia, who is under 20 years old, makes him stand out.
"Studying abroad is not easy, but it's not really that hard if you can endure the loneliness and integrate into the local culture."
01 A Small Suitcase in Europe
U15 National Championship scored 17 goals in one go; at the age of 16 on the Chinese Super League, becoming the youngest player in the history of Shanghai Harbour Club; at the age of 18 to open the overseas career, playing in the Croatian second division soon to sit in the main force, and won the MVP ......
From the national youth to the national youth, national Olympic Games, Jia Boyan in the 20 years before the age of rise as if hanging. Many people began to regard him as "Wu Lei's successor".
"But I don't want to be anyone but myself."
He has the unique boldness and self-confidence after 00, but no arrogance, "I also have ambitions, but only to go to that step by myself, enough is ambition, if not even the opportunity, it is just delusional."
The 13-year-old set out from Luoyang to the bustling city of Shanghai with a love of soccer. Enlightened parents gave him the right to make his own life choices, "My parents said the most to me is: support." Although he is not yet 20 years old, Jia Boyan is already used to making choices for his own life.
From the Shanghai Lucky Stars youth training team to the Harbor first team, Jia Bo Yan always gives his teammates a feeling of "alien". "Sometimes it's hard to take a day off, everyone is ready to go out to play, to see him carry a pair of shoes and run to the training ground, we think we have to combine work and rest, so maybe teammates will feel that he is a little bit out of the group." Familiar with Jia Bo Yan's coach joked:
"The kid is a ball buster."
At that time, Jia Bo Yan where the youth team base is located in Shanghai's westernmost Oriental Oasis, for him as a teenager, this is indeed a side of the soccer oasis, "the turf is particularly good, the conditions of the entire base is also very good, from the training ground is very close to basically get up and go to training, finished back to the canteen to eat, will not be because of the delay in the road.
There is no such environment in most clubs abroad." Talent, hard work and dedication are the keys to a player's success, and Jabo Diem has an added obsession, "Playing even when I'm happy, playing even when I'm not happy, as if there's nothing else I can do to relax except playing soccer."
Ja Bo Diem Interviewed by Northwestern Watchtower
"You know, the Eastern Oasis soccer practice field is the most beautiful in the evening. Sometimes I'm by myself, a big field, a bunch of balls, a goal. The sun is setting, coloring the whole sky that near-golden red, and there's a green grass under my feet, which makes all my fatigue dissipate, and my whole being let go."
This picture accompanied Jabo Diem for a long time until the Harbour Club sent a contract for a first-team player. "I didn't seem to be very surprised at the time, and in my mind I probably expected that the contract would be my own sooner or later."
With the contract came a sizable salary bonus, and friends and family suggested he could buy a car.
"I've thought about it for a while, but I'm not interested in cars in the slightest, not as fast as the subway."
At the age of 18, through the cooperation between Fosun Sports and Seaport Football Club, Jia Boyan was fortunate enough to embark on the road to stay abroad.
Used to subtract to life, he departed from home to Croatia, only with a very small box, "two sets of clothes enough on the line, the team jacket will be issued, enough to wear. I go wherever so, eat with the local actually have, many people will bring some may not be able to buy food locally, but I do not have too high requirements for food, life is also no special needs, if just a short-term outing, I basically a backpack on the handle."
At that time, it was as if the saying: Dreams are heavy, so the traveling bag is light.
02 Living a running account in the loneliest of winters
At the beginning of 2022, Jabo Diem joined Swiss side Grasshoppers as a free agent and traveled to Croatian second division side Dubrava on loan. However, it was not until the end of August 2022 that he officially joined Dubrava due to visa and other reasons.
Here, Jabo Diem started from the U19 team, gradually gained a firm foothold, and made his way to the first team. Everything seems to be going well, but in this period of time, he has gone through all the processes that players who stay in the world must go through.
First arrived in Croatia, this scenic, lazy and happy country to Jabo Diem exudes its own unique charm, "a small cup of espresso, you can sit on the street for a day; the sea over there is blue like a jewel, and the whole coastline is so long that you can sit there all the time to daze ...... "
But none of this belongs to this 19-year-old, "I often think that they are really laid back." Despite envy, the goal-oriented and extremely self-disciplined Jia Bo Yan always sticks to his two points - from the rented house to the training ground.
Having just arrived on the team, not being able to play as a starter was expected, and for a long time, Jabo Diem couldn't even touch the door of the league, playing only a few cup matches.
Time quickly came to December, the Croatian winter, the league break. Teammates have gone home and family reunion, due to the team vacation, Jabo Diem two point one line life was forced to suspend, stay in their own rented house, "that period of time is particularly impressive, outside the cold, the house also feel cold, other people are all together as a family, that is not lonely really unlikely."
But even when the team isn't practicing, every morning Jabo Diem insists on waking up at a regular time, making himself a breakfast, then cleaning up the house to go to the training ground, then coming back to make another lunch and take a lunch break. Due to the time difference, the time for video chatting with his family is only a little bit in the afternoon. Watch another live European soccer game or some highlights, and then it's time to make dinner, eat and then clean up the room again, "a clean living environment, will make me feel more comfortable." Fortunately, this period of time like a running gag, bring is not demoralization.
Jia Boyan used to put a small notebook in his room at the head of the bed, before going to bed he would give himself a summary of the day, "memory is not good, just use paper notes. Doing so, the next day I woke up to know what I should do this day to improve, what aspects need to be maintained, I will feel more motivated this day."
03 Opening new horizons with inclusion
In the quiet days, Jabo Diem also learned the local language and slowly began to observe the people and things around him in order to better integrate into the Croatian soccer atmosphere.
Unlike the regular soccer atmosphere in China, European players and coaches are more accustomed to separating soccer from their lives.
"The second I lose I fail, but it doesn't mean I can't experience joy the next second, and the next time I win back, I get that joy back. If the whole day is spent reflecting, then I've wasted half a day enjoying joy."
Characteristically, Jabo Diem admits that he likes the atmosphere, and his coach constantly encourages him: don't be afraid of failure, go up there and just enjoy the process, and completely allow mistakes. "Another example is that I think there is something wrong with this tactic, we will boldly go to communicate, and it is not what happens when you say it is not good."
Due to the long time backwardness of our country's soccer, not many people go out of the country, in the advanced countries of soccer players for China also know very little, stay in the ocean players have to face some social problems, "for example, they will joke and ask me, you are a Chinese, in your country is not a lot of strange things will be used to eat?"
In response to such an uncomfortable-sounding question, Jabo Diem simply responded with a jocular comment that yes, you are welcome to come to China sometime to try it, "Anyway, these words don't hurt you, they can understand, so they understand, and if they can't understand, forget about it. Because one day, they will come to China, they will experience the vastness and modernization of China."
After a long period of hibernation, gradually, Jabo Diem's performance in the team became better and better, and his league appearances became more and more frequent, and he gained the trust of the head coach and his teammates.
What's more - seeing those fans in the stands holding five dollars a ticket and a glass of beer to celebrate, even if the language barrier, can bring themselves great joy and motivation, getting 300 euros can make him and his teammates excited for a long time, and even a victory after a losing streak, the whole team is crazy enough to "smashed the locker room"...... He realized that he began to really enjoy the joy of soccer, which is the love of the sport he always wanted to have the feeling.
04 "Think the 00s are young players and you've lost."
The outside world is accustomed to the young players who stay in the ocean after 00, as the hope of the future of Chinese soccer.
But Jabo Diem, who is under 20 years old, always said that he is not a young player, because he found that in his own team, five or six starters are all nineteen or twenty years old, and then turned his head to see the physical maturity of the 05, 06 year old players came to the first team to compete.
"When you think you're a young player, you actually lose.
Because you feel from the bottom of your heart, I'm a young player, I go with the older players to compare, just afraid of these people, in front of them to be coy ...... On the other hand, the young players may have an excuse to make mistakes, but you just blame it on the 'young age', you will never be able to change that mistake."
Speaking of the majority of people after 00 "fierce", Jia Boyan also concerned about a period of time ago a Messi fans in Beijing rushed into the stadium to embrace the idol of the thing, "there are such strange scenes overseas, maybe for me, my attention is not on it, maybe something like this, will not affect me. affect me."
Keeping being himself at all times is his credo.
The same Messi fans, but he has never wanted to become a player like Messi, he has a clear positioning of himself, "I want to be a teammates and coaches, and all the fans think you are able to give all the player. Attacking and defending, doing everything that needs to be done, a player who is like a soldier, who can do the dirty work and the fine work, who can score goals and assist. That's what I like."
Jia Boyan described soccer as his antidote, he gave this "antidote" a lot of explanations, is to go out to play, crazy to bring a sense of fulfillment, but also a little bit of small achievements of the sense of satisfaction, but also on behalf of the national team to go out to hear the national anthem of the sense of honor ......
After a season of staying in the ocean life, through the most difficult period of adaptation, Jia Bo Yan also has a clearer plan.
Next, Fosun Sports will continue to fully support overseas players, and Jabo Diem will continue to stay in Croatia to pursue his soccer dream; and nowadays, the support of national teams and coaches for overseas players has also made the 00s overseas players feel more at ease.
Jia Boyan said that he has no particularly ambitious goals, a step is a step, but the confidence in his eyes, but also time to tell the onlookers that the 00 players are ready to stand on the stage of history.
