After last year's World Preliminary Round of 12 fierce battle, China's men's soccer team returned strongly, however, the football association painstakingly managed for several years of naturalization strategy but with a dismal end, marking the end of an attempt to change the soccer.
Even with the addition of naturalized players such as Ackerson, Luo Guofu, Alan and Jiang Guangtai, China's performance remained sluggish, not only failing to recapture the glory of their World Cup run, but even failing to beat traditional Asian underdogs such as Vietnam.
With the conclusion of the preliminaries, the topic of "naturalized players" has gradually faded from the view of fans and the media. At the end of last year's "Li Tie incident" and the recent successive fall of the top executives of the Football Association, attracted widespread public attention, the topic of naturalized players seems to have been temporarily shelved.
But recently, naturalized players have once again come into the spotlight. It is reported that the Football Association (FA) and many Chinese Super League (CSL) clubs are conspiring to bring in at least five naturalized players. Unlike in 2019, this time the FA tends to choose young naturalized players with Chinese ancestry, such as Eckerson, Luo Guofu and Alan.
With the decline of Guangzhou Evergrande (Guangzhou team), Shanghai Shenhua has replaced it as the enforcer of the FA's naturalization strategy. Shenhua is reportedly in talks with American-born Chinese player Yann Xinli, aiming to bring in the Chinese-born defender to assist him in completing his naturalization with Finnish Premier League side Sejnejoki Academy.
Yann Xinli, 28, a third-generation American-born Chinese, attended Duke University and played two seasons with the Blue Devils.In 2017, he landed in the Euroleague, playing in the Croatian, Slovenian and Slovak leagues, before transferring to IFK Helsinki in 2019, where he excelled in the Finnish Premier League.
Yann Xinli is an offensive and defensive right back with outstanding speed and breaking ability, strong body and fierce defense. Last season, he played 21 Finnish Premier League games for IFK Helsinki, scoring one goal and contributing two assists.
It is reported that Shenhua's communication with Yan Xinli is going well, and the hope of bringing in the American player with Chinese roots is quite high, which is the main reason why the club gave up on Chinese naturalized defender Wang Yi.
In addition to Yen Xinli, the FA also plans to naturalize four other Chinese players, and several Chinese Super League clubs have already assisted in the naturalization process.
However, these four players do not stand out and lack experience of working for clubs in Europe's top leagues. They have the advantage of being young, but have relatively little experience in European leagues compared to players such as Alan. In addition, the experience of training and playing in European clubs makes them superior to domestic players in terms of tactical concepts and skills.
The experiences of these five Chinese players are quite similar to the naturalized players such as Jiang Guangtai, Xiao Tao Tao, Li Ke and Hou Yong Yong. At the moment, it seems that only Jiang Guangtai is expected to become a mainstay of the national team. The other three players are either unable to get a foothold in the national soccer team or have no chance at all to be selected for the national soccer team.
Therefore, the FA should be more cautious in restarting the player naturalization program to avoid the situation of paying high placement fees but not being able to utilize the players. Perhaps, after naturalization, these players can continue to play in European leagues instead of playing in the Chinese Super League, which will help them stay in top form...
