With a brilliant shot from Gen Wei, the Chinese men's soccer team beat Oman 1-0, locking up a spot in the 2002 Korea-Japan World Cup two rounds ahead of schedule. It was not only an unprecedented honor for the national soccer team, but also the only moment of glory.
Time flies, when the Qatar World Cup fire, the Chinese team once again reduced to spectators. And whenever the soccer carnival is staged again, we might as well look back at the Chinese men's soccer team that braved the World Cup in 2002.
Dreaming of the World Cup, focusing on 2022, remembering 2002.
-- In Wu Chengying's eyes, those brilliant titles have become a thing of the past, according to Zheng Hao, a reporter for the popular network - Poster News. Although fans are still hotly debating who is the best left back since the professionalization of Chinese soccer between Sun Jihai and Wu Chengying, Wu Chengying still maintains a low-key nature. So what is the story behind this low-key left back?
Wu Chengying: The Desperate Guardian
In the 2002 World Cup in Korea and Japan, although the Chinese national team had 23 players with the team, but only a few of the real main players. Milo's goal was to "win a game, draw a game, and score a goal", and he chose different types of players to start a "bloodbath" with the opponents.
Wu Chengying is the exception. The Chinese left back, who can play both offense and defense, played the entire game against Costa Rica and Brazil. In the third game against Turkey, Wu Chengying was replaced by Shao Jiayi at half time. Perhaps fate was playing a joke. Shao Jiayi, who replaced Wu Chengying, was sent off for a foul after only 10 minutes on the pitch.
Facing strong opponents, the Chinese men's soccer team failed to break through the embarrassing situation of zero goals in that World Cup. However, Wu Chengying became one of the few starters to represent the Chinese men's soccer team.
The low-profile king who keeps to himself
In those days when Shanghai was fighting for supremacy, a price tag of 10 million was mind-boggling. Even if a player's transfer fee reaches tens of millions, it can be a shocking event in the soccer world - tens of millions in this case refers to RMB.
Prior to 2010, there was only one player in Chinese football who was worth more than 10 million RMB, and that was Wu Chengying, who was acquired by Shanghai International for a whopping 13 million RMB from Shenhua in 2003, whereas at the time, the red-hot Qi Hong joined the club for a transfer fee of 9.5 million RMB.
Nowadays, a transfer fee of 13 million RMB may only buy a "left corridor" player, but at the time, Wu Chengying became the center of attention. However, his low-profile character soon made him disappear from the public eye, leaving behind only the comments of his teammates and the speculations of the fans. At the time, his teammates generally regarded Wu Chengying as a quiet and desperate player, while fans had mixed feelings about him, with some accusing him of faking the game and others praising him as a real hero.
At that time, Shanghai International purchased the "Four Kings" of Shanghai Bund at a high price, of which Wu Chengying was known as the "King" and the other three players were Qi Hong, Shen Si and Jiang Jin. The other three players were Qi Hong, Shen Si and Jiang Jin. These three players were later turned from heroes to prisoners, while Wu Chengying was unharmed.
Rarely seen in public and rarely contacted by members of the media, this made Oh Sung-Young, who retired in 2007, the subject of discussion during the soccer crackdown. However, in 2010, Wu Chengying made an appearance at a golf tournament to quell the furor.
Perhaps it was Wu Chengying's solitary nature that prevented him from being caught in the storm.
In 2017, Oh Seung Young attended a fan event
