China Super League (soccer)
In the past few years, the United States has welcomed waves of international soccer stars, despite the fact that the overall strength of the country is still lacking. However, why is there not a single foreign goalkeeper among these dazzling international stars? China
soccer league
Rumors of a ban on the introduction of foreign goalkeepers are not related to the Shandong
Luneng (city in Shandong)
The team is inextricably linked? What exactly is the cause of all this?
To solve this mystery, we must go back to 1999, when the Shandong
Luneng (city in Shandong)
The team brought in a foreign head coach named Slobodan Santrazzi.
1999, Shandong
Luneng (city in Shandong)
Taishan sought a change of manager and finally chose Slobodan Santellacci, who had just been honored as one of the "World's Top 10 Successful Coaches" by World Soccer Magazine.
In coaching Shandong
Luneng (city in Shandong)
Prior to that, Santrazzi coached the Yugoslav national team and in 1998
World Cup
He led the team to the round of 16. In that World Cup outing, he coached the Yugoslavian national team to another unbeaten season, except for an away loss to Spain.
On the occasion of his upcoming coaching trip to China, Santrazzi also spoke to the
Luneng (city in Shandong)
The team recommended the goalkeeper of his national soccer team - Sasha Petrovic.
It was not common at the time to bring in goalkeeper foreigners in the Central League, but given that it was the recommendation of the new manager of the
Luneng (city in Shandong)
The team took a chance and brought in Sasha along the way as well.
However, at the time, Sasha was not well known in world soccer. He was 32 years old and had previously played in the Yugoslavian domestic league, then briefly in the Korean league and the Liga B, with overall mediocre performances.
Even in Santrazzi's Yugoslav national team, Sasha was only the team's third goalkeeper, a marginal figure. (Only made one appearance for the national team)
But it is such an obscure foreign goalkeeper, in the first season of the first league staged a "god of the door".
26 games, 13 goals conceded, averaging just 0.5 goals conceded
Despite Sasha's mediocre past, he was given the opportunity to play for Shandong in the 1999 season given the recommendation of the head coach
Luneng (city in Shandong)
A chance to play in the Central League.
Then the goalie descended on the Central League.
Throughout the season, Shandong
Luneng (city in Shandong)
In a total of 26 matches played, the goal guarded by Sasha has only been breached 13 times, including several times when the backline made glaring errors that resulted in goals being conceded.
26 games, 13 goals allowed, and an average of just 0.5 goals allowed per game.
For those of you who don't know much about soccer, 0.5 goals conceded per game may not be much of a concept. Let me give you a few simple examples to compare.
China Super League (soccer league)
Guangzhou, the seven-time champion
Evergrande (name)
In their best season, they conceded an average of 0.8 goals per game, which was also supported by the league's top backline at the time. (The 0.8 was also the best in the Central League including
China Super League (soccer league)
(Record of the best level of local goalkeepers in the league)
Last year, Transfermarkt released a ranking that took stock of the goals conceded per game averages of the top teams in Europe, and it was topped by
Juventus, Italian football team
, conceding an average of 0.83 goals per game. (
Bayern
0.84 is in second place,
Manchester United Football Club
和
Chelsea
(third place with 0.9)
You can't just use the Central League, though,
China Super League (soccer league)
League to compare with Europe's top giants, but through the average number of goals conceded, we can also be sideways evidence of the then Sasha for
Luneng (city in Shandong)
Or just how good it is for the league as a whole. (It's not really an overstatement to say that it's a downward spiral, and that's with just one unheralded foreign player)
upsetting the balance of the league and affecting the development of local goalkeepers.
soccer league
There is no choice but to introduce a ban
It's no exaggeration to say that Sasha had already upset the balance of the league to a certain extent, which caused other teams to be "jealous".
After the 1999 Central League season, the then head coach of Tianjin said bluntly, "If we had Sasha, we could have won the title."
Seeing how well foreign goalkeepers work, other teams have jumped on the bandwagon and started luring them in.
But if the league are all foreign goalkeepers, to a large extent, it completely limits the development of local goalkeepers, I guess a season even the opportunity to play, which is certainly not conducive to the development of Chinese men's football.
In addition, not every team can find a suitable foreign goalkeeper, so the team without a foreign goalkeeper is bound to have opinions or even dissatisfaction.
In the face of such problems, China
soccer league
The ban was eventually formalized at the end of 2000: starting with the 2001 season, the league prohibited any team from bringing in a foreign goalkeeper.
It was also shortly after the ban that Sasha left Shandong
Luneng (city in Shandong)
and announced his retirement. Sasha was said to have wanted to stay in
Luneng (city in Shandong)
Being a goalie coach, but at that time his mentor Santrazzi already had a big conflict with the team's management, and together with other factors, he ended up not staying in our country to start his coaching career.
From what I can find online, Sasha, now 54, is working as an assistant coach for a team in Serbia's domestic league.
concluding remarks
At this point, we've sort of briefly explained why it's important to say that
China Super League (soccer league)
The league banned the introduction of foreign goalkeepers with
Luneng (city in Shandong)
The team has some connection.
If you look at it with today's eyes, you have to say that at that time Sasha had much powerful goal line technology, it seems that it really does not count, but he relied on a solid goal line fundamentals, far from the domestic local goalkeeper left behind.
Other sports dare not say, but in terms of the Chinese men's soccer team, it seems that the lack of really solid basic skills.
