Reporter Han Bing's coverage of Gu Ailing and the women's ice hockey team at the Winter Olympics has once again sparked a heated discussion about China's naturalized athletes. In fact, if it were not for the lack of naturalization time and just missed the Winter Olympics, the non-blood Korean naturalized player Lin Xiaowei, who won the short track speed skating men's individual all-around, 1000 meters, 1500 meters, super 3000 meters, and 5000 meters relay gold medals at the 2019 World Championships, may bring public opinion effects comparable to Gu Ailing.
Similar to the public opinion blowout effect produced by the women's football team winning the Asian Cup, the naturalized athletes who performed well in the Winter Olympics also reminded many people of the naturalization "project" that the Chinese men's football team did not achieve the expected effect of the outside world.
But in fact, when people compare the status of naturalized players in the Chinese men's football team, they often ignore the most critical point: that is, compared with the ice and snow project, the Chinese men's football team wants to naturalize top players like Gu Ailing, Lin Xiaoxiao, and Miller, regardless of the operation process or the actual selection range, it is much more difficult.
Gu Ailing, who has become the number one celebrity in the Chinese sports circle by taking the Winter Olympics, belongs to a rare world-class "talented athlete" even in winter sports, which can be encountered but not sought. In addition to Gu Ailing and South Korea's short track speed skating World Championships "all-around king" Lin Xiaowei, who failed to catch up with the Winter Olympics, the most common naturalization of Chinese Winter Olympic teams is the men's and women's ice hockey teams.
Of the 25 men's ice hockey teams, 15 are naturalized players, and 13 of the women's hockey teams are 23 naturalized players, including 6 non-blood naturalized players in total. The women's ice hockey team that started the tournament defeated Denmark and Japan, the strongest teams in Asia, and won the Winter Olympics again in 24 years after 1998, with 4 wins, 2 wins and 2 losses, and the overall result was better than that year. Although it is regrettable that it failed to enter the top 8, it is a huge breakthrough for the performance of the previous 5 Winter Olympic Games that failed to qualify 3 times, and only got 1 point at the bottom of the group 2 times.
Almost all of the 13 naturalized players in women's ice hockey play in the North American Collegiate League, second only to the professional league. Chinese and Canadian mixed-race defender Wang Yuting and The Winter Olympic goalkeeper Zhou Jiaying were selected for the Canadian women's youth ice hockey team, Wang Yuting was the draft winner of the Canadian Women's Ice Hockey League, and Zhou Jiaying won the World Junior Championship for Canada to beat the United States. Mixed-race forward Linney has won the Canadian and American Women's Ice Hockey League, and non-blood naturalized striker Miller has twice won the U18 World Hockey Championship for Canada, and this time she scored the winning goal against Japan.
The naturalized players of the men's ice hockey team also include Ye Jinguang, Fu Jiang, Kelios, Sprawl, and goalkeeper Smith who have a major North American hockey league (NHL) resume, Osipov has played in the Russian KHL League for 12 years, and most of the other naturalized players also have North American professional hockey secondary and college league resumes. What's more, in recent years, the Chinese men's and women's ice hockey teams have been participating in the Russian KHL and WHL ice hockey leagues at the top level in Europe as Kunlun Hongxing Club, and the women's ice hockey team has also won the 2019/20 WHL League championship.
Compared with the blank or short-board projects of China's ice and snow sports, the personal abilities of naturalized athletes are almost all world-class or much higher than the Asian level of "dimensionality reduction and strike" standards. Before her naturalization, Gu Ailing was already known as a talented girl who swept through the American youth competition, and Lin Xiaoxiao's world championship dominance in short track speed skating was also obvious to all. The strength and resume of the naturalized players of the men's and women's ice hockey teams are also much higher than those in Asia.
But in football, it is much more difficult for the Chinese Football Association to naturalize naturalized players with world-class standards or much higher than the top level in Asia, which is much more difficult than in winter sports.
Winter events can naturalize world champion players such as Gu AiLing and Lin Xiaoxiao, as well as men's and women's ice hockey teams can naturalize players who have played in the world-class ice hockey leagues NHL and KNL, and even form a separate team to participate in the KHL and WHL "training" in Europe's top ice hockey leagues. However, the naturalization of the Chinese men's football team is simply impossible to achieve the effect of winter events from the perspective of rules and realistic choices, which is a reality that Chinese football has to accept.
Lim Hyo-so, who won the "all-around king" of the short track speed skating world championships for South Korea, only needs to wait 3 years to play for the Chinese team, and his predecessor Ahn Hyun-so won 3 gold medals at the Sochi Winter Olympics after naturalizing Russia for 3 years. But in the world of football, such naturalization is completely impossible.
It is impossible to change nationality once for an official appearance for the adult national team, and there are strict rules for non-blood naturalization and 5 years of residence in the naturalized country. This means that non-blood naturalization can only be selected from foreign aides who have been working in the Chinese Super League for a long time, and can only be foreign aides who have not played in the official matches of the original national team.
The 5-year long-term living conditions greatly limit the competitive status of naturalized foreign aid, and the national team's appearance conditions directly reduce the competitive level of naturalized foreign aid. Both can meet the standard of foreign aid, almost all of them are over 30 years old, the competitive status began to decline, the quality of themselves has been greatly reduced. As for the various constraints in the operation process, even the discounted naturalization has not been "able to return", and giving full trust and support to naturalized players like the winter project is a common problem in the field of football.
At the same time, the blood-related naturalized players who play in the world's top leagues of men's football have a very limited choice itself. Fans of Jiang Guangtai, Li Ke and Hou Yongyong's professional resumes are well aware that they are completely different from Gu Ailing, Zhou Jiaying and Ye Jinguang. Because the commercial value of football itself is much higher than that of ice and snow projects, the cost of naturalized players is also an order of magnitude pressure. It is precisely for this reason that since the naturalization wave of Chinese men's football, countless agents have exhausted their efforts to find naturalized players, who have little advantage in blood-related strength, are not related to each other and are expensive, and also do not have the ability to "reduce dimensions" like winter projects.
It is not uncommon for the national football team to rely on naturalized players to achieve great success, but Algeria relies on naturalized players who grew up in France and received youth training and professional baptism in the five major leagues. However, in the field of football, there are almost no Chinese players who can receive high-level training and foothold in the five major leagues, and can only retreat to the second place. The Philippines and the United Arab Emirates and the Chinese men's soccer team can not make full use of naturalized players, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and other West Asian teams are also scavenging for naturalized players, but still can not solve the two major problems of real strength level advantage and competitive status.
Axon, Luo Guofu, Alan, Fernando, as well as the missed Gaulat, and even Teixeira, Ivo, who were once close to naturalization, compared with Asia's top Japanese, South Korean, Iranian, Australian players, the advantage is not very prominent, not to mention that Gu Ailing can only rely on personal talent and hard work to achieve breakthrough achievements, Zhou Jiaying and teammates only need 6 people to play, football as an 11-player team sport, for the overall level of the team put forward higher requirements.
Ice and snow sports rely on naturalized athletes to make breakthroughs, with natural choices and naturalization conditions. In the field of football, it is difficult to find the same or even similar naturalization conditions, which is also the fundamental basis for the impossible qualitative leap in China's football strength and achievements overnight. Men's and women's ice hockey teams can participate in the first-class ice hockey league to run in and improve the state, while the national youth can only barely participate in the German fourth division of the year, and the gap is self-evident.
Without looking at the specific naturalization conditions and optional aspects, simply and rudely comparing the naturalization of winter sports with the naturalization of Chinese football is neither objective nor rational in itself.