This season, Beijing Guoan absorbed former Guangzhou Evergrande talent Yang Liyu, whose position was in competition with Cao Yongjing. In the face of this situation, Cao Yongjing was rented by Guoan to Changchun Yatai. In Yatai, he finally got the stage to prove himself, and has kept his competitive status high in the last six rounds of the Chinese Super League.
In this round of the league, Yatai once fell behind 0-2 when challenging Chengdu Rongcheng away from home. However, Cao Yongjing came on as a substitute in the 83rd minute and scored a brilliant goal to pull a point back for his team. Lennardo, who is also on loan from Shandong Taishan, scored another goal late in the game to help his team draw 2-2 and return home safely.
Lennardo's talent has not been fully displayed since joining Shandong Taishan in the 2021 season due to a lack of good passers. After half a season, he was loaned to Hebei. Last season, he was loaned to South Korea's Ulsan Hyundai, where he took to the game like a fish to water, scoring 13 goals in the league and helping the team win the championship.
Despite his brilliant record in Korea, Leonardo failed to win the favor of manager Hao Wei, and this season he was loaned back to Changchun Yatai. In Yatai, he scored goals in four consecutive league matches, making him the team's top scorer.
The outstanding performance of Cao Yongjing and Lennardo at Yatai has raised questions among fans about the poor performance of Guoan and Taishan teams this season and their failure to reuse good players. The reason for this is that the clubs' personnel arrangements are flawed. Powerful players are marginalized while mediocre performers occupy starting positions.
This phenomenon also exposes the incompetence of Li Ming and Wu Zhidong, the managers of Guoan and Taishan. In recent years, their "alternative operations" have thrown the teams into disarray, which explains why the two former Chinese Super League giants have been slipping down the pecking order this season.
