Although the overall level of soccer in China has yet to be improved, there are always a few players who stand out in the trough and win remarkable honors. Titles such as "Golden Generation", "85 Super Platinum Generation", "93 National Olympic Top Ten Superstars", "974 Little Swans", etc. are testimony to their efforts. The "Golden Generation", "85 Super Platinum Generation", "93 National Olympic Top Ten Superstars", "974 Swan" and other titles are the testimony of their efforts. Today's post will focus on the latest news of the 974 Little Swans, which includes Zhang Yuning, Lin Liangming, Yang Liyu and Hu Jinghang. Compared to others, their starting point is undoubtedly quite high. Zhang Yuning has played for Dutch, Bundesliga and English Premier League clubs, while Lin Liangming was part of the Real Madrid ladder. Yang Liyu trained in Portugal, while Hu Jinghang was a homegrown player at the Genbao base. Now they are 26 years old, yet the 97th grade players represented by them are facing an awkward situation.
1. Zhang Yuning: the most successful player of the 97th class
Zhang Yuning is the only one of the four who has managed to secure a place in the national soccer team, having been a member of the Dutch Vitesse first team at the age of 18, and one of the 93 players in the Olympics at the age of 19. He scored twice against Morocco, and was selected for the national team the same year, and scored a goal.
Zhang Yuning's family conditions are favorable. His father once said that in order to cultivate Zhang Yuning, he did not hesitate to sell off more than a dozen properties in Shanghai. At the time of the prevalence of gold dollar soccer, Zhang Yuning resolutely chose to study abroad, signing for the Netherlands, the Bundesliga and the English Premier League team, but due to the strength limitations, it was difficult for him to participate in the official matches.In 2019, at the age of 22, Zhang Yuning joined the Guoan, catching up with the last wave of the boom of the gold dollar soccer. With his excellent physical qualities and overseas training experience, Zhang Yuning has been successful at both Guoan and the National Football League. He was the most successful player in the 97 class. It seems that success is also inextricably linked to family background.
The twists and turns of last year's revelation that Guoan was owed wages for eight months, and now Zhang Yuning is recuperating from an injury in the Netherlands, are thought-provoking.
2. Lin Liangming: the first Chinese player to join Real Madrid
Lin Liangming was selected for the U19 national youth team led by Li Ming, and participated in the Eight-Nation Youth Championship in Slovakia and the Four-Nation Championship in Lisbon. Li Ming had praised Lin Liangming as very good and said that many top European clubs were watching him. Fittingly, in 2015, at the age of 18, Lin Liangming was invited by Real Madrid to join the Real Madrid ladder and Real Madrid B team Castilla. However, Real Madrid bid 100 million euros for Lin Liangming, making the signing difficult.
After five years of study in Spain and Portugal, Lin Liangming joined Dalian in 2020. Currently, he has become the core of Dalian's offense and the team's top scorer. Dalian is doing its best to keep Lin Liangming. Among the four swans, Lin Liangming's living environment is relatively stable.
3. Yang Liyu: The Luckiest and Most Profitable Class of '97 Players
Yang Liyu was quite lucky; at the age of 17, he was recommended by his agent to study abroad, and then participated in a program with the Song Foundation, playing in a league in Gondomar, Portugal. Gondomar, as it is known, is the equivalent of a Yangcheng Lake, and after working out here, his value increased dramatically.
In 2017, the Chinese Football Association (CFA) began to implement the U23 policy. 20-year-old Yang Liyu immediately returned to China and became one of the beneficiaries of the policy. He made 27 appearances for Tianjin Teda, with an average playing time of 48.4 minutes, scoring 2 goals and contributing 2 assists. Yang Liyu's outstanding performance caught the attention of Evergrande, and he was subsequently transferred to Evergrande at a sky-high price. His annual salary is reportedly as high as 8 million dollars, making him the envy of many international players.
After five years at Evergrande, Yang Liyu moved on a free transfer as Evergrande was relegated and began to lighten its operations. It was reported that he joined Hong Kong along with Wei. It has to be said that Yang Liyu is the luckiest of the 97 class players. The lucky index is second only to Gao Lin. Yang Liyu caught up with the good fortune of making money, while the other three failed to do so.
4. Hu Jinghang: the most frustrated one
Among the four Swans, when the others have gone abroad for further studies and returned to sign high-paying contracts, Hu Jinghang, as a local player, inevitably felt suffocated in his heart. He comes from the Genbao youth training base, often signed with Hong Kong clubs, and is also a fringe player in Hong Kong.In 2017, he was sent to Jianye training course by Shanghai, and won the best newcomer of the Chinese Super League with a bang.Then he was recalled by Shanghai, but he still had difficulty adapting to the rhythm of the strongest team, and he was sent back to Jianye, and he missed the best time to make personal progress.
Seeing that Jianye was no longer developing Hu Jinghang, Shanghai loaned him to Wuhan Zall, who subsequently signed him as one of Zall's mainstays. However, Zall was mired in rumors of wage arrears for 21 and 22 years and eventually disbanded. Hu Jinghang wasted two years for nothing. It is reported that Hu Jinghang has now appeared in Jinan and is expected to sign with Taishan.
Hu Jinghang is probably less than a fifth of Yang Liyu when it comes to making money, so we can understand why many youth players and their home teams (Wei Shihao vs. Luneng, Hu Rui Bao vs. Evergrande, etc.) are contractually bound during youth training. Next time we'll look at the needs of players and youth training bases.
To summarize, the success rate of players in the 97th Olympics is very low. Apart from Zhang Yuning, who managed to get a foothold in the national soccer team, Yang Liyu, Hu Jinghang, Lin Liangming, Huang Zhengyu, Wei Zhen, Chen Wei, Zhou Junchen, Feng Boxuan, Chen Pu, Tong Lei, Duan Liuyu, Chen Binbin, Liu Ruofan, Jiang Shenglong, etc. almost never played in an official match of the national soccer team. We can't count on 26-year-olds, so who else can we count on? Of course, based on the average age of 30 years old in previous national football teams, we should expect them in four years.
