On March 26th, the night was low, on the battlefield of Dubai Cup, China's U23 soccer team beat Thailand's U23 with a score of 4-2, and behind this victory, a new star shone on the scene - Fang Hao. This young "little steel gun" scored four goals in the game and became famous, winning the applause of the fans and even being called "Fang Huang". This title is derived from the English legend Lingard's "King Lin" and Shandong Taishan's Wu Xinghan's "King Wu".
Back in 2000, Fang Hao was born in Yangzhong City, Zhenjiang, Jiangsu Province, and in 2008, at the age of 8, he showed amazing physical qualities, and should have joined athletics, but he accidentally stepped into the threshold of soccer. At that time, many soccer boys of his age had already been sweating on the green field.
By chance, Fang Hao represented Yangzhong to participate in the Zhenjiang City Youth Soccer Competition, where he won the best scorer and helped his team to win the championship without ever having touched a soccer ball. This feat attracted the attention of the Zhenjiang City Football Club, and from March 2011, Fang Hao began his "formal" soccer training.
Although Fang Hao got a late start in soccer at the age of 11, he quickly rose through the ranks with his outstanding talent, making the Jiangsu provincial junior team in 2011 and the national junior team for three consecutive years between 2013 and 2015.
In 2015, for better development, Fang Hao joined Luneng Football School and became a member of Luneng Youth Training.
Fang Hao's performance at the Luneng Football School was also outstanding, despite a late start in training, he had a good sense of the ball, strong body, strong confrontation ability, so that the name "small steel cannon". 2017, Fang Hao helped Luneng U18 team to win the national championship, and won the best scorer.
Like Duan Liuyu, Fang Hao is interested in the opportunity to stay in Brazil offered by the Luneng Football School.
The Brazilian strategy of Luneng Football School mainly takes the form that some outstanding players are dispersed to Brazilian clubs for integration training, mainly in Brazilian DB clubs, taking part in U20 matches in São Paulo State as well as the A3 League of São Paulo State (i.e., the third league of São Paulo State). In addition, Luneng Football School will also arrange for the entire U16 team to stay in Brazil for one year.
There are not many Taishan players who can play in Brazilian DB, Chen Pu, Duan Liuyu and Fang Hao are three good players and are the key players to develop. Chen Pu and Duan Liuyu have returned to the Chinese Super League after training, while Fang Hao had to interrupt his overseas program due to the epidemic.
In Fang Hao's diary, released by the official microblog of Luneng Football School, "Luneng Youth Training", he shared his story of how he was forced to end his stay in the world, and how he was touched by the school's careful care, which emphasized the great importance that the school attached to him.
Fang Hao also traveled to Belgium for a trial, which at one point affected his preparation and the first 5 rounds of the A3 League in the state of São Paulo. In the 5 rounds from round 6 to round 10, Fang Hao made 2 starts and 1 substitution, which was a great start, but because of the epidemic, Fang Hao had to return home in August 2020.
After returning to China, Fang Hao has been loaned out. 2020, he played for the Central League team Inner Mongolia, starting 7 games as a substitute for 5 games scored 2 goals, becoming the first of Luneng's youth training 00 players to score goals in the professional league.
In the 2021 season, Fang Hao was on loan to Wuhan, playing under Li Xiaopeng and Li Jinyu. Throughout the season, he made 11 starts and 7 substitutions, with no goals but 1 assist, and in the AFC Cup, Fang Hao scored 1 goal.
Two years of the league and the FA Cup only scored 3 goals, but a U23 warm-up game big four, such a go makes the outside world can not help but wonder: Fang Hao is actually not a good scorer? How strong is the real Fang Hao?
In fact, in the warm-up match against UAE Wahda before the start of the Dubai Cup, Fang Hao hit the goal post with three consecutive passes, and then his teammates added a shot to equalize the score. At that time, Fang Hao's father said that his son needed to strengthen his training in shooting, and after the loss to UAE U23, Fang Hao also said that his ability to seize the moment in front of the goal needed to be further improved.
In the match against Thailand U23, Fang Hao's four goals highlighted the excellent ability to grasp the timing, the first goal was to face the attacking goalkeeper to hit the near corner; the second goal was to calmly get rid of the defender with a light movement and then pushed the goalkeeper to remedy the opposite direction; the third goal was to make up for the shot, which is considered to be normal; and the fourth was to penetrate the crotch. The four goals, with a good sense of orientation, calmness and keen observation, demonstrated the sense of smell and feeling that a scorer should have.
In fact, there are many reasons for his poor performance in the professional league, first of all, Fang Hao never spares his energy in the game, and he consumes too much physical energy in defense, scrambling, and confrontation; moreover, in the professional league, Fang Hao faces seasoned defenders and foreign aiders, and even though his body is strong and his center of gravity is low, he still does not have an advantage; and then there is the position and the team's style of play, in Wuhan, Fang Hao plays as a side forward, and he consumes more energy in the defense; Of course, there is also Fang Hao's own reasons, 2020 season is his first time to play professional league, 2021 season is the first time to play in the Chinese Super League, in fact, Guo Tianyu in the 2019 season on loan to Wuhan team, 7 starting 8 substitutes also did not score a goal, but the next year he the same time (more than 500 minutes) to help Taishan scored 4 goals, 2021 season total goal count rose to 10 goals.
As for the Dubai Cup, in addition to his own efforts, there was also an element of luck, with some of the goals coming from the opponent's mistakes, without too much exertion, and largely improving his ability to seize the moment.
A big four in one game doesn't mean Fang Hao can become a top scorer, there are still a lot of places he has to improve, in the future when he returns to the professional league, he still has to face a lot of good defenders, and, he also has to find a position that suits him better, all of this is a challenge.
