The 2018 World Preliminary Asian Zone 12 folded, the following year, the Asian Cup Quarter-final 0:3 against Iran, Lippi sadly dismissed, many media people wailed: Chinese soccer is feared to usher in a decade-long trough.
However, veteran Fan Zhiyi does not share this pessimistic view, he firmly believe that at most five more years, Chinese soccer will be able to return to the top ranks of Asia.
Even so, five years is undoubtedly a drop in the bucket for the impact of the 2022 World Cup proper. Compared to the golden age of Fan Zhiyi, the current national soccer team seems to be depleted of talent, and key positions in the local league are often occupied by foreign aid. In the high-level league, only Wu Lei is alone, and he is still struggling in the Spanish second division last season, with very few opportunities to play.
Shortly after, Lippi returned to the national football team, and some believe that there may be a shortcut to try to get back into the World Cup proper: naturalization.
According to FIFA's regulations, naturalization can be for people of Chinese descent within three generations or for foreign players who have played in the Chinese Super League for five consecutive years.
Lippi also seems to be looking forward to this as he begins preparations for the 2022 World Cup qualifiers.
However, soon, Lippi found that even with naturalized players is not everything. The main front line, Ekerson, is no longer the same as the Elkeson who swept the Chinese Super League and Asian Championships at Evergrande back in the day.
In the match against Syria, Exxon had a mediocre performance and the national soccer team ended up losing 1:2 unfortunately.
"Our players look fearful when they go on the field, lack the fighting spirit, desire and guts to bring out what they have been trained to do ......" uttered Lippi, who once again resigned.
Li Tie then took over the national soccer team, winning four straight matches and advancing strongly to the Round of 12, even winning a 3:1 reverse against Syria.
Li Tie has called up five naturalized players since he took over, after having only one naturalized player, Ickerson, during Lippi's time. Looking back at Li Tie's four consecutive victories, it was not the naturalized players that were decisive, but the local players.
After consecutive victories over weak teams such as Guam, the Philippines and Maldives, the most convincing is undoubtedly the battle against Syria, which has nothing to do with the big picture of the lineup.
In the starting lineup, there were only two naturalized players, Jiang Guangtai and Eckerson, and two others on the bench, Alan and Li Ke, but did not get a chance to play.
Zhang Xizhe scored in the 42nd minute with an assist from Wu Lei. Shortly after the start of the second half, it was Zhang Linpeng again! Attention is not focused on the leakage, was Syria equalized the score. But the mistake is not only Zhang Linpeng a person, but the national football team "defense group" collective error. In the 66th minute, Wu Lei made a penalty kick, and then scored a penalty, the score exceeded again. In the 92nd minute, Artemisia Junmin kicked a pass to plan the attack, Yin Hongbo down the bottom of the inverted triangle knock back, replace Eckerson on the field of Zhang Yuning shot to score, locking the score to 3:1.
There's no denying Jiang Guangtai's aggressiveness in the backline and Ackerson's involvement up front, but without the duo on the pitch, I'm afraid a win for the national team against Syria wouldn't be out of the question.
The three local players who scored have all had experience of staying abroad. Only Wu Lei is really still staying in the ocean. Zhang Xizhe had stayed in Bundesliga Wolfsburg for a year and a half, but did not get a minute of playing time. Zhang Yuning was also loaned out to Bundesliga side Werder Bremen for a year, but also didn't play a single official game.
Naturalization is only a stopgap measure, but staying in the ocean is the long-term solution. As Li Tie said: for players like Wu Lei who insist on staying in the ocean even when they are playing on the bench in the Western B, we should encourage such people. If we can have 20 players playing in the top five leagues, what do we have to worry about?
It is worth mentioning that the Wuhan Football Association Shangwen Youth Training has launched a study abroad program in Barcelona, Spain, since 2015, starting from the 02-03 age group, each year 20 outstanding seedlings graduating from elementary school are selected to go to Barcelona for a five-year study abroad. In time, if some of these young players can enter the La Liga team like Wu Lei, the future of Chinese soccer can be expected!
