The Chinese Football Association (CFA) held a grand press conference on the morning of March 29 to officially unveil the entry list for the new professional league season. This announcement not only determines the fate of some of the "unknown" teams, but also provides a key point for those stable clubs to accelerate reinforcements and prepare for the new season. With this, the news of new signings by various clubs was like a volcanic eruption, instantly sweeping the entire soccer circle.
Just a day before the list was announced, Shanghai Jiading Huilong Football Club announced that former Guangzhou Evergrande players Zhang Aokai and Wang Jinze officially joined the team. These two players, who have played for the "Eight Champions" Guangzhou Evergrande, have now become the new force of Huilong. Among them, Zhang Aokai is the outstanding representative of Evergrande Soccer School, who came on as a substitute in the last round of the 2016 Chinese Super League, becoming the first student in the history of the school to appear in the Chinese Super League, and took over Zheng Zhi's captain's armband, becoming the youngest captain in the history of Guangzhou Evergrande at the age of 16 years and 8 months, and is regarded as the hopeful star of soccer. Zhang Aokai, a 1.75-meter tall teenager born in 2000 in Xianyang, Shaanxi Province, affectionately known as "Zhang OK" by fans, entered the Evergrande Soccer School in 2012, and was then sent to the Real Madrid Youth Training Camp in Spain to receive training. After returning home, he was selected for the national junior team. However, his career did not go smoothly. After a disagreement with Guangzhou Evergrande, he went abroad for a second time to study and joined the Spanish youth team.In the 2019 season, he joined Olta in the Western C, but had few chances to play.In the 2020 season, he returned to his home country to return to the league. After returning to China, Zhang Aokai had joined Cangzhou Lions, but failed to get a chance to play, and his career development was once in the doldrums. The Jiangxi Black Horse youth team could only play in the second division last season, and Zhang Aokai made 13 appearances in one season, scoring four goals. Despite this, he still maintains solid fundamentals, which earned him the opportunity to challenge for a higher level in the Central League. According to Zhang Okai's former coach, he is a highly disciplined player with outstanding lower-body strength, but lacks communication with his teammates. Zhang Aokai said he hopes to join Shanghai Jiading Huilong as an opportunity to correct his deficiencies and integrate into his new team as soon as possible. Although he is not young at 23, he still has a chance to return to the Chinese Super League if he works hard to get his career back on track.
