On a hot summer afternoon, a soccer feast for the future is about to kick off in Beijing. The Chinese Football Association (CFA) released the latest training list for the national team preparing for the 2026 USA+Mexico World Cup Asian qualifiers and the 2023 Qatar Asian Cup at dusk on August 30th, with 24 foreign stars on the list. Among them, Shanghai Port FC, who just returned from the AFC Champions League play-offs in defeat, surprisingly had eight players stand out, a ratio as high as one-third of the national team squad.
The announcement of this list immediately sparked a furor among Chinese fans and media circles. The skepticism about the new list came like a tidal wave, mainly centered around the following three focuses.
First of all, how can Zhang Linpeng and Wang Shenchao, the veterans of Shanghai Port's defense line, who are in their prime but in low form, still join hands to be shortlisted for the national football team? As we all know, Shanghai Port has not won a single match in four consecutive matches in the AFC Champions League play-offs, and these two players, as the pillars of the team's defense, have a direct impact on the team's performance. Yankovic's choice to bet on these two veterans in low form seems to ignore the actual performance of the players, which is elusive.
Secondly, Beijing Guoan's three foreign players Li Ke, Li Lei and Wang Ziming have also sparked controversy. While the selection of naturalized player Li Ke is not in doubt, the selection of Li Lei and Wang Ziming seems a bit far-fetched. Although Li Lei is a strong player, he has been injured recently and has performed very little on the field, while Wang Ziming has been in unstable form recently, so the selection of these two players seems to be against the norm. Meanwhile, Zhang Xizhe, the core of Guoan's midfield, has been in blistering form recently, but failed to find favor with Jankovic, a puzzling choice.
In the end, Shandong Luneng's Wang Dalei and Chen Pu were uncontested selections, but Sun Guowen's inclusion was particularly abrupt. Sun Guowen has been in poor form recently and has had few opportunities to play for Luneng, so his inclusion is puzzling. Meanwhile, Luneng midfielder Li Yuanyi, who has been in impressive form recently, has not been included in the list, a situation that has raised questions about Jankovic's selection criteria.
To summarize, after carefully reading this latest training list of the national team, many fans are disappointed and have thought that Jankovic's choices seem a bit confusing. The prospect of such a lineup playing in the upcoming world qualifiers is not promising.
