On December 12, Guangzhou Baiyun Airport was filled with a reluctant atmosphere as the drums beat for the second phase of the Chinese Super League. Many Guangzhou fans gathered on their own initiative to see off Iversen, the striker who has carved a brilliant mark in the history of the national soccer team, on his way home.
Since the National Football League ended its isolation a week ago, the domestic media have speculated that Ickerson will not return to the Guangzhou team, but rather choose to take his family to Brazil for vacation. At this time, the outside world is more concerned about which team will be the new owner of Ickerson at a time when Guangzhou team owes wages for three consecutive months and its operation is in trouble. However, Ickerson's long message through social media platforms to officially bid farewell to the fans makes people realize that this parting may be a "goodbye" to the Chinese Super League.
On social media, Ickerson recalled his nine years in our country, two times to the top of Asia, five times to win the Chinese Super League title, let him say that all this is unforgettable. At the time of parting, Ickerson expressed his sincere gratitude to the clubs he had played for, his teammates and the fans who loved him.
In his long parting message, Ackerson said that despite leaving the Chinese Super League, he is still a Chinese and is always ready to play for the national soccer team. As long as the national soccer team calls, he will not hesitate to return to the team, to play for his country. This also reassures fans who were worried about Ickerson changing his nationality back to Brazil.
He was the invincible Brazilian "Egidio", the jigsaw puzzle of Guangzhou's top team.
On December 24, 2012, Guangzhou signed 23-year-old Brazilian striker Elkeson, who plays for Botafogo, for a transfer fee of 5.7 million euros as the team's Christmas gift to its fans.
Although domestic fans did not know Elkeson at that time, but his first season in Botafogo won the Barclays Premier League assist champion, and in 2011 was rated as "the international football world's top 100 demon" and "the most watched Samba genius". The following season, Elkeson became the main striker of Botafogo, scored 11 league goals, attracted the attention of many European giants, Serie A Juventus even offered 5 million euros. But ultimately, Elkeson chose to come to the Chinese Super League.
On March 8, 2013, Guangzhou faced Shanghai Shenxin in the first round of the Chinese Super League, and Elkeson scored twice in the second half to help the team open a 5-1 victory. A week later against Jiangsu Suntian, Elkeson scored a hat-trick of three goals to help Guangzhou win 3-0. The arrival of Elkeson quickly solved the problem of Guangzhou's lack of a stable and reliable center forward, and the team was invincible in the Super League that season, with 24 wins, 5 draws, and 1 loss in 30 rounds of the league, not only locking up the Super League title, but also setting a new record for single-season scoring in the history of the Super League. Throughout the season, Elkeson wildly bombarded 24 league goals, the first time to win the Chinese Super League scorer king, known as the Chinese Super League of the North and South "Eros".
At the AFC Champions League level, the South American trident of Elkeson, Muric and Konka formed a tacit understanding with a group of peak internationals to form the invincible King's Division. Semi-final home and away to 8-1 score eliminated Kashiwa Sun God, the final of the Elkeson two rounds each scored a goal, can be regarded as the first time in Guangzhou team to win the top of Asia's number one contributor.
In Elkeson's first seven years in the Chinese Super League, he won the league trophy five times, and in the three years after his debut in the National Football Forum, Elkeson helped Guangzhou to reach the top of Asia twice with his superb shooting skills and big hearted performances in the final match.
The first non-blood naturalized, he was once expected to be our country's Exxon
In the summer of 2019, Shanghai seaport and Guangzhou team reached an agreement, Elkeson officially returned to Guangzhou. It is widely believed that naturalization will be officially on the agenda. A month later, Elkeson got his ID card and changed his name to Eckerson, becoming a Chinese and qualified to represent the national soccer team in the Qatar World Cup.
September 10, 2019 is destined to be a day that will go down in the history books of national soccer. In Male, the capital of Maldives, the national soccer team had its first match of the 40-team tournament. Ekson, who was lined up in the starting lineup by then national football manager Lippi, made his national team debut with a brilliant performance of scoring two goals in the last minute of the second half. This also makes the fans full of expectations for the national football team with naturalized players.
However, the national soccer team was caught in the predicament of dropping consecutive points in the subsequent match against the fishbowl Guam. A draw with the Philippines and a defeat against Syria led to Lippi's resignation, and the unproductive Ekson became the target of criticism. When Iverson failed to score a single goal in the entire league season last season, there were questions about his form, and even suggestions that the naturalized player had been "assimilated" after becoming a naturalized player.
However, since this season, the physical state of the obvious improvement of the Eckerson became the front line of the Guangzhou team's top killers, scored 11 league goals, not only become the Super League history of the top scorer, but also expected to compete with Changchun Yatai Junior history of the top scorer. But with Guangzhou in a wage crisis, Ickxon chose to leave.
Naturalized Players "Reverse Stay", Exxon Promises to Return When Called
Li Xiaopeng, the new head coach of the national football team, put forward the "four prohibitions" policy, one of which is "prohibit discrimination against naturalized players, and even more prohibit the naturalized players from being overshadowed." This seems to imply that the naturalized players are being undermined by the domestic players in the field.
Due to naturalization, players such as Ackerson's salary level is much higher than that of other international players, although this is a contract between the naturalized players and the clubs, but it still makes a lot of international players dissatisfied. Despite the fact that the naturalized players contributed a lot of exciting matches in the Top 12, there were a lot of threatening attacks that came from the cooperation between the naturalized players.
In fact, back in 2013, when Iverson was at his peak, some fans said that if the Chinese football team had an Iverson, there would be no worries about the "powerlessness of the striker", but the outsiders overlooked the role of Gao Lin, who was willing to play as a green leaf in the offense and defense of that Guangzhou team. Nowadays, the naturalized players are still the most powerful players in the national football team in both offense and defense, but they lack the helpers like Gao Lin who can act as the green leaf.
Perhaps it is the various encounters during the 12 games and now the Guangzhou team's unpaid salary difficulties, so that in our country for nine years of life in the Eckerson to develop the intention to go. Perhaps the "reverse stay" in the Barclays Premier League will be conducive to the continuation of Ackerson's career, while protecting his due income.
"I will return when called" is the promise that Ickerson left to all the national soccer fans who love him. Although the current domestic severe epidemic situation makes even the Chinese Aixon also need to wait for flights to return home, but because of the next end of January 12, the national football team will successively challenge Japan and Vietnam, so as long as you get Li Xiaopeng's call, Aixon can still be flown from Brazil to the competition with the national football team and meet.
This time Iverson left just the Chinese Super League, perhaps in the near future, we will once again see Iverson wearing the national football uniform, by then, we will have two players to stay in the ocean.
