The Guangzhou team lineup is fully loaded and ready to go, however, what was left of that bubble feast back then is today's pain.
With players earning a maximum annual salary of only 600,000 RMB before tax, and the total annual salary of the whole team only amounting to 15 million RMB, Guangzhou has brought the salary standard of the top league back to that of 20 years ago, which is not even as good as that of the team that was fighting for relegation back in those years. It's clear that this once-glorious team is about to face a challenging season, and it's no surprise that they may be fighting relegation for the entire season.
The loss of stars due to drastic salary cuts has left the Guangzhou team in shambles. After years of cultivation, Evergrande's football school has begun to produce adult-level players, but even in La Masia, where soccer youth training is well developed, not every player in every age group can become a pillar of the future. Not to mention that in China, where the foundation of youth training is weak, expecting a fledgling soccer school to immediately produce stars is like a fantasy.
The famous line - "You can't win anything with a bunch of kids" - had Alan Hansen eating out of his hand. It's no coincidence that the class of '92 United players were a rare product of the era's high-quality youth training, and the Red Devils' squad that year also boasted established stars such as Cantona, Keane, Pallister, Erwin, Schmeichel and many more. In soccer, it is not easy to rely on a group of children to gain a foothold in the adult professional game.
Guangzhou's plight is not an isolated case. With clubs' shareholding reforms stalled and investors' business conditions deteriorating, the entire soccer market has been fading fast in the past two years. Compared to three or four years ago, major clubs have cut back on expenses, and what used to be one person's salary now has to support a dozen or even twenty people.
However, what is even sadder is the future. Even if the overall strength of Guangzhou's first-team players has declined compared to before, the players who can get the club's top salary at least proves that they are ranked in the top 200 of today's national soccer team. But look at the new version of the CFA's salary limit, the top salary of each team is only 3 million yuan, and how many people can get this figure? Which industry in China ranks in the top 100 elites and can't get that figure? The elimination rate of most industries is much lower than that of soccer and has a more ladder-like feel. The top 100, the top 1,000, the top 10,000, and even the median, all have their reasonable value, whereas in soccer? The top 200 players even have people with white knuckles begging for their paychecks.
Money is not everything. The profligacy of the bubble era taught us this plain truth. Similarly, no money is not everything. Chinese soccer is already facing the problem of talent fault, in the face of this fact, how many children still have the motivation to continue on the road of professional soccer? Love, and can not generate electricity.
