Beijing time on July 15, a heavy news about the soccer transfer market, the former Portuguese Mafra Salon player Chen Yi officially landed in the Central League Heilongjiang Bingcheng team, marking his six years of overseas training after the homecoming trip. This is not only a major turnaround in his career, but also an exclamation point in the soccer landscape.
Perhaps you are not familiar with the name Chen Yi, but his story is quite a twisted one. According to a report by German spinning Zhu Yi, Chen Yi, 24, was once a hopeful in Changchun Yatai's reserve team, and went to Portugal's Mafra Salon in 2014 to seek development. During that time, he moved through a number of Portuguese teams such as Dolezins and Malveira, but never managed to break through the threshold of the second division.It was only in the 2018-19 season that he got a chance to make a valuable appearance.
Last July, Chen Yi became a free agent. From 2014 to 2020, he will make only one appearance in the Portuguese sub-division, a statistic that makes people stare in disbelief. Undoubtedly, this is a typical example of "going out for gold and coming back for gold".
However, the current Chinese soccer market has imposed restrictions on high salaries, and those "returnees" who have gone overseas for gold may have to re-examine their dreams. Meanwhile, the phenomenon of "export to domestic sales" has become commonplace in Chinese soccer. The Chinese Football Association (CFA) is promoting the program of players staying in the ocean, but the reality seems to be not as good as imagined. If you want to stay in the ocean, you must have the strength; otherwise, not only will it add to the confidence blow, but it may also be utilized by unscrupulous brokers, which will do no good to the growth of young players.
The Chinese soccer world is in dire need of more players like Wu Lei, but it was only with the honor of the Golden Boot of the Chinese Super League that he managed to stay abroad and attracted the favor of the Spaniards. Without strength, staying abroad is just empty talk. Therefore, the key is to improve the strength of Chinese players.
