At 4 p.m. local time on January 24, the Chinese men's soccer team held its first training session after arriving in Japan at the saitama stadium, and all 24 team members participated in the training except for Luo Guofu and Alain, who had just arrived in Tokyo in the morning. Although the national football team recruited a total of 4 naturalized players for this expedition, Fernando took a leave of absence from the Football Association due to health problems in Amsterdam when he was transferring to Japan in Amsterdam, and finally returned to Brazil. It is worth mentioning that on the evening of the 24th, the Japanese Football Association said that a security guard staying in the hotel of the national football team was infected with the new crown, but the national football team was not its close contact, and the game arrangement did not change.
Originally, Fernando, Lo Guofu and Alain were supposed to arrive at the national football station on the morning of January 24 to meet the team, but Fernando posted on social media at this time, positioned as São Paulo, Brazil, and wrote: "When I was at Amsterdam Airport, my family had some health problems. I would like to thank the FA for its understanding and release. I wish the team victory in these two matches of the 2022 World Cup qualifiers and thank you again. ”
Subsequently, some media revealed that about 4 hours before the flight to Japan, Fernando contacted the national football coaching team, saying that he received news that his family was infected with the new crown virus, and he did not feel very comfortable. It is reported that Fernando was more emotional when he contacted the national football team. In view of the situation at that time, the national football team agreed to Fernando's return to Brazil. Although Fernando set off for Japan with Luo Guofu and Alain, they were forced to stay in Amsterdam due to the cancellation of the flight, and finally after waiting for more than 20 hours, he still could not report to the national football team.
Born in March 1993, Fernando is still only 28 years old, the youngest of all the non-blood naturalized players. In the summer window of the 2015 season, Chongqing team loaned Fernando from the Portuguese Super League GD Estoril Football Club, he scored 3 goals and gave 3 assists in 14 league games, and gave nickname "little motorcycle" in the Chinese Super League, successfully winning the favor of Chongqing team. At the end of the season, Chongqing bought out Fernando for 1.25 million euros and signed a four-year contract with him, when Fernando was worth only 600,000 euros. In the four years of playing for Chongqing, Fernando is one of the few side horses in the Chinese Super League with strong personal ability, and his speed and breakthrough are the nightmares of many Chinese Super League defenders. In the 102 games he played for the team, he scored 25 goals and contributed 27 assists, and it was with such outstanding performances that he successfully entered the naturalization sequence and also transferred from Chongqing to Guangzhou Evergrande, the then Chinese Super League giants.
Fernando was loaned to Hebei Huaxia Happiness in his first season at Evergrande. At the end of the 2019 season, he returned to Guangzhou, but in early 2020, he suffered a heavy penalty from the club. The club believed that Fernando had seriously violated the "Three Nine" team rules and "returned to the team after neglecting training", and decided to give Fernando a penalty of 3 million yuan for reporting criticism and deducting a fine of 3 million yuan. But it wasn't long after that that that Fernando became a naturalized player and became a Chinese citizen. At that time, he signed a three-year contract with Guangzhou Football Club, which ran from January 2020 to June 2023. According to reports, his annual salary reached 8 million euros after tax, which is about 63 million yuan. In January 2022, Fernando terminated his contract with Guangzhou Football Club. If you exclude cases such as wage arrears and negotiated termination, only from the theory, according to the previous contract, Fernando will receive 16 million euros in wages. In these two seasons, he only made 17 appearances for Guangzhou. Theoretically, the average game can be 940,000 euros, or about 6.72 million yuan.
Due to his excellent individual combat ability, Fernando has always been the most optimistic naturalized player, but in the past two years, he has been called up by the national football team, but he has always been unable to play for the national football team for various reasons. Since returning to Brazil due to injury in May last year, he has not participated in systematic training and competitions, but has posted photos of himself on vacation from time to time. According to the Beijing Youth Daily, it is difficult for the coaching team of the national football team to have a precise grasp of Fernando's physical condition. Under such circumstances, Fernando was recruited, and the coaching staff mainly hoped to make a practical investigation of his physical and ability state. But now, with his return to Brazil, such an expedition has become empty talk, and it has become a question of when Fernando will be able to play for his country, or even whether he will be able to play for the Chinese team.
This time in the World Preliminary Tournament, there is not much controversy surrounding the naturalized players. In addition to Fernando's choice to return to Brazil at the last minute, Axon was also unable to report to the national team due to the new crown virus, which also caused various suspicions from the outside world. In addition, Luo Guofu shelled the FOOTBALL Association on social media because of the cancellation of flights, which also caused a lot of controversy. In fact, due to the suspension of Luo Guofu's accumulated yellow card, only Alan and Jiang Guangtai can play in the match between the Chinese team and the Japanese team, and the forward generals Luo Guofu, Axon and Fernando will not be able to play.
Since several naturalized players except Jiang Guangtai did not participate in the second stage of the Chinese Super League, the outside world does not know how their physical condition is, so they are full of questions about what role they can play in the Chinese men's football team against Japan. But for such a situation, the national football coach Li Xiaopeng may have been prepared for it for a long time. At the debut of the training camp on January 12, Li Xiaopeng said when confronted with the question of naturalized players: "Privately their statements are very good, but there is no written thing, and the exact answer I cannot guarantee whether they will go to Japan, and even if they go, they cannot guarantee their status." ”
Perhaps with such psychological expectations, the national team should be fully prepared for the inability of naturalized players to participate in the competition during this training period. Therefore, when arriving at the first training in Japan, Li Xiaopeng once again expressed his position: "First, their wishes are very good, and they have traveled thousands of miles to come, which is very important. The desire to fight is still very strong. Although there were some small twists and turns in the middle, they were all normal. "For the use of naturalized players, Li Xiaopeng's predecessor Li Tie has provided the most direct example, whether it is used or not, or how to use, it will put yourself in the whirlpool of public opinion, and no choice can become the best choice."
Since the national football team has played two consecutive away games this time, according to the actual situation, in addition to Jiang Guangtai, for naturalized players with unknown status, whether they can reach the team is only a small test. In the end, only if Alain and Luo Guofu meet with the team, the naturalized players will not become the national football team against Japan, and if their status can be guaranteed, against Vietnam is the stage for their performance. More importantly, this journey full of twists and turns is also a test of the attitude of fighting for the country, as for who is worthy of the trust of the national football team in the future, I am afraid that Li Xiaopeng also has the answer in his heart.