The number of trainees in the new phase of the national football team set a record The players selected in the big national team mode polished the lineup

On the evening of the 7th, the Chinese Football Association announced the first training list of the national football team in 2022, as many as 52 players were called up, and the luxurious coaching team of 16 people led by head coach Li Xiaopeng, plus the guarantee team, the training team reached 93 people, setting a new record for the national football team.

The first training list of the national football team in 2022. Image source: The official Weibo of the Chinese football team

This is Li Xiaopeng's first training camp since taking office, and 52 players are from 14 Chinese Super League clubs, 1 Chinese League A club, 2 overseas clubs, and 3 free agents. Wu Lei, who plays for Espanyol in La Liga, and Li Lei in the Grasshoppers in Zurich, Switzerland, are the only two players to stay abroad, and Axon, Luo Guofu and Fernando, who are currently free, are selected as naturalized players, and the only player from the Central League is Liu Ruovan of Chengdu Rongcheng.

Although the lineup is huge, the main force basically continues the framework of the past three or four years, and the players selected by the "BIG4" of the Chinese Super League account for 32. The 2021 Chinese Super League champion Shandong Taishan was selected as the first player among the clubs, with a total of 10 players, Guangzhou with 9 players ranking second, Beijing Guoan 7 players ranking third, and Shanghai SIPG 6 players ranking fourth. There are 11 players who have been called up for the first time, except for 32-year-old Hou Sen and 29-year-old Li Shenglong, the others are basically young players in their early 20s.

In addition to Li Xiaopeng, the assistant coaching team has as many as 15 people, and former international players such as Sun Jihai, Zheng Zhi, Zhao Junzhe, Yu Genwei and Shao Jiayi are among them. Some assistant coaches have achieved outstanding results in the player era, and even have a good experience in staying abroad, and have experienced the tempering of major competitions such as the World Cup in Korea and Japan, which may play a role in "passing and helping" to make up for some of the shortcomings of the current group of players.

It should be pointed out that the national football team has such a large lineup, which is a helpless move under the current predicament. Affected by the epidemic, the national football team cannot find a high-level team to warm up, and can only conduct internal confrontation in the mode of the big national team, examine and select players, and run into the team to improve the lineup. It is understood that this training will be held in about 10 days for internal competition selection, and finally select a lineup of no more than 30 people to compete in the 7th and 8th rounds of the World Preliminary Round of 12 in Asia.

According to the schedule, the national football team will play away against Japan and Vietnam in the round of 12 on January 27, 2022 and February 1, 2022 Beijing time. Although from the current group points of the national football team, the promotion situation is not optimistic, but as long as there is a glimmer of hope, it should not be easily given up, come on!