Volume 1 Chapter 25 Zheng Xin and Chinese Football
In an apartment in London, Zheng Xin was packing his things, putting the prepared clothes into a suitcase.
He will leave for Paris, France in three days.
Before he knew it, Zheng Xin had been working in London for eight years.
After the 2002 World Cup, he was assigned to work in London. As a sports media practitioner, during his eight years in London, he welcomed batches of Chinese players and watched them leave this land.
Starting with Fan Zhiyi and Sun Jihai, and then to the vigorous development of the planned youth training, the team welcomed players such as Yu Hao and Guo Liang.
Unfortunately, none of them were able to achieve enough success in this land.
Perhaps Sun Jihai, who wore the Manchester City captain's armband in his final farewell match, is the most successful Chinese player in the Premier League.
Think back over the past eight years.
Zheng Xin once shouted "Fan Zhiyi! Awesome!" at Crystal Palace's home stadium, Selhurst Park.
At Manchester City's home stadium, he shouted "China Sun!" with tens of thousands of Manchester City fans.
But these will eventually become memories!
After that, Yu Hao and Guo Liang left the Premier League after just two seasons and joined other teams.
After Guo Liang left West Ham United, Zheng Xin's work in London also came to an end.
He will go to Paris, France, to start a new career as a journalist.
And there, it must be much more exciting than London.
Chinese player Wang Yi is currently playing for Paris Saint-Germain. He scored 20 goals in a single season, helping Paris Saint-Germain to win the French Ligue 1 championship again.
The 23-year-old Wang Yi used his "golden right foot" to kick out the confidence of the Chinese people!
Of course, Wang Yi is not the only Chinese overseas player who has performed well in Europe.
For example, the young Chinese player Chen Man who is currently playing for Porto in the Portuguese Super League.
Although Chen Man's name is slow, he is actually a fast winger. Porto even said that when Chen Man runs at full speed, his speed is no less than that of Tottenham Hotspur's Bale.
It is this quick pace that has enabled the 18-year-old Chen Man to secure a starting position in Porto.
Speaking of which, Chen Man is a product of the third batch of youth training.
The Youth Training Program is a project related to youth football training carried out jointly by the General Administration of Sports and the Chinese Football Association after 2002.
As the market moves closer, the General Administration of Sports and the Chinese Football Association will jointly manage and control the sport.
We use hard indicators to continuously train a large number of young players, who are then sent abroad for further studies after going through layers of screening.
Today's youth training programs are deployed in various European leagues, and these channels also enable a steady stream of Chinese teenagers to enter top professional arenas.
…
On the defensive side, Liu Kairui, who plays for Atletico Madrid in La Liga, announced that he has become a Chinese citizen.
19-year-old Liu Kairui is of mixed race.
His father is Chinese and his mother is Spanish.
Liu Kairui has shown amazing football talent since he was a child. He started in Atletico Madrid's youth training and worked his way up to the first team.
Now at the age of 19, he has become a stable starting player.
What makes people most happy is that when Liu Kairui became an adult at the age of 18, he resolutely chose Chinese nationality and gave up his Spanish nationality.
This also injected a shot in the arm for China's defense line.
Zheng Xin also asked Liu Kairui why he chose Chinese nationality.
In response to this, Liu Kairui's response was very simple. His father hoped that the Chinese team could go further in the World Cup, so he chose Chinese nationality in order to fulfill his father's wish.
After Liu Kairui chose Chinese nationality, the national team contacted him very quickly. Such a strong reinforcement is a shot in the arm for the Chinese team.
Atletico Madrid's iron defender!
This is a hot commodity in the eyes of many teams.
Wang Yi!
Chen Man!
Liu Kairui!
These three people correspond to center, wing and defender respectively!
Can provide great help to the corresponding position.
The only pity is that China has never produced the so-called midfield stalwart!
The appearance of Wang Yi has helped the Chinese team break the problem of lack of striker. A player who is doing well in the French Ligue 1 is capable enough to overcome this dilemma.
It often happens that the midfield cannot keep up with Wang Yi's forward speed.
After all, compared to Wang Yi, a player who is active in European competitions, the pace of games in China's domestic leagues is indeed a bit slower.
Although these players are excellent, they still cannot bring out Wang Yi's strongest side.
In the 2010 World Cup group stage match between China and Denmark, Wang Yi scored two goals, but still failed to turn the tide.
The overall gap cannot be made up by Wang Yi alone.
In this regard, Wang Yi looked extremely sad after the game, and the fans felt distressed when they saw this.
But there is no way!
If the Chinese team wants to break through and enter the knockout stage at this stage, they need many Wang Yis!
What Wang Yi needs is not teammates who only know how to rely on him, but a partner who can fight alongside him!
Therefore, the appearance of Chen Man and Liu Kairui makes many people optimistic about their future.
"It's time to go!"
Zheng Xin stretched lazily. He had lived in London for eight years and suddenly had to leave. He was actually a little reluctant.
Ding ding ding!
The cell phone rings.
Zheng Xin picked up the phone and answered it.
"Lao En, are you here to say goodbye to me?" Zheng Xin said with a smile.
Lawn is a reporter for the London Athletic. Although he works in London, he is a Manchester City fan. They met at the Manchester City Stadium and became good friends.
As fellow media workers, we sometimes exchange information and have a good relationship.
"I don't think you can leave!" Lawn's voice was full of amusement.
In response, Zheng Xin thought the other party was joking and said, "Give me a reason!"
"Maybe there really is a reason!" Lawn laughed and said, "My friend who works at the Labor Bureau told me that a Chinese player passed the hearing of the 'Special Talent Clause' yesterday and officially joined the Arsenal Club!"
Hearing this, Zheng Xin was stunned.
"Are you sure?" Zheng Xin was a little incredulous.
In response, Laun said, "He is a trustworthy friend, and there is no need for him to tell me such a lie. There is no need!"
Zheng Xin's heart was suddenly shaken!
A Chinese player joins Arsenal with a special talent clause!
This is big news!
"wait for me a while!"
After saying that, Zheng Xin held the phone with his head tilted, opened the packed suitcase with both hands, and rummaged through it.
He took out a laptop, quickly opened it, and went to the Arsenal official website.
He began to quickly read the recent news.
If such a thing really happens, the official website will definitely report it.
Sure enough, Zheng Xin found a notice in a corner.
The notice was extremely concise, and if Zheng Xin hadn't been looking for it intentionally, he would not have noticed it at all.
'On July 3, 2011, Arsenal signed a young Chinese player from Sporting CP for 800,000 euros! '
Seeing this, Zheng Xin’s eyes suddenly widened!
it is true!
"I'll call you later, mate!"
After Zheng Xin finished speaking, he hung up the phone.
Then he started typing furiously on the keyboard again.
He first looked for the information of the young Chinese player on Arsenal's official website.
But other than that sentence, there was no information.
This gave Zheng Xin a huge headache.
He could only adopt a roundabout tactic, trace the source, and go to the official website of Sporting CP.
After another round of searching, I finally found the lineup for last season.
Finally, he found it.
This is a young face, looking about seventeen or eighteen years old.
【Name: Lucky】
Age: 17
[Player position: defender/left and right foot]
【Status: Sold】
Zheng Xin stared blankly at the young face in the photo. The player who made Arsenal use the special talent clause was right under his nose, but he almost missed it.
Zheng Xin felt a little annoyed, but also felt a glimmer of hope.
He opened a match statistics website.
Here you can check the performance of all UEFA players in each season.
When he found Lucky, he finally saw Lucky's data.
He participated in a total of 25 games, which means that he was not stable at the beginning of the season, but gradually stabilized his starting position in the later period.
But the next statistic scared him.
80 steals?
What kind of efficiency is this?
Although Sporting CP is indeed a team that is good at defense, 80 steals are somewhat astonishing.
With an average of 3.2 steals per game, it's no wonder Wenger is attracted to him.
"No! I have to watch the game video!"
After saying that, Zheng Xin found the game video of Sporting CP last season. He only watched Lekai's performance on the court.
Just looking at this, a whole night has passed.
