Mixed-race players have become common in football. Regarding the entry of mixed-race players into the national team, fans have formed two tit-for-tat views. One argues that it is difficult to accept players of foreign ancestry playing in the jerseys of their own national team because they are already "impure"; the other believes that as long as they are culturally recognized and have strength, they are completely acceptable.
Yang Chen's U17 national football team recently announced the new training list, which appeared Huang Shenghao's name, which attracted the attention of many fans. Huang Shenghao is a Chinese-African mixed race player, and his father is reported to be from Nigeria and his mother is from China. Born in the summer of 2007, Huang Shenghao is now a native of Guangzhou and has a Guangzhou hukou. The player's career began at Guangzhou Dongshan Sports School, and was later discovered and recruited into the echelon by the Chinese Super League powerhouse Guangzhou City. In recent years, Guangzhou City and Guangzhou have trained more than one mixed-race player with African ancestry, including Su Yuliang, Wang Mu, etc., some of which have now emerged.
Huang Shenghao, who plays as a defender, has won a number of youth competitions, including the U12 World Challenge Cup held in Japan in 2019, in addition to various domestic invitational competitions such as the Gothic Cup. In the final of the Challenge Cup, Guangzhou City's U12 echelon lost to Nigeria and was the runner-up, while Huang Shenghao, who represented Guangzhou City, was equivalent to facing a team from his father's hometown. The excellent on-field performance made Huang Shenghao favored by Yang Chen's coaching staff. Generally speaking, the U17 national football team should recruit players around the age of 17, while Huang Shenghao, who is currently only 14 years old and has not yet reached the age of 15, is equivalent to jumping into the selection. If he can gain a firm foothold in the national team and clubs, Huang Shenghao is expected to enter the national brand of a higher age group in the future, and even an adult national football team.
African players generally have advantages in terms of strength, endurance, explosiveness, etc., so Chinese and African mixed-race players with African ancestry can often achieve excellent performances after entering teams dominated by Chinese players, thus quickly standing out. However, due to the influence of self-discipline, growth rules and other factors, many African players will experience a decline in competitive status and level when they are not old. Therefore, it remains to be seen what height Huang Shenghao, who is currently optimistic about the outside world, can reach in the future.
In recent years, there have been many mixed-race players active in Chinese football, including Li Ke and Hou Yongyong of Beijing Guoan, Eddie and Qian Jiezhi of Shanghai Shenhua, many of whom have become the main force of the Chinese Super League and even been selected for the national team. If you are a culturally identified and genuinely patriotic mixed-race player, you should perhaps be tolerant and accepting of them. In addition to vigorously cultivating local youth players, Chinese football with weak strength also needs to recruit young talents and let more potential high-quality talents be used for their own use.
In some short-board areas, the rational introduction of high-level mixed-race or even naturalized athletes can achieve unexpected positive results. Gu Ailing, a mixed-race skier who won 2 gold and 1 silver at the Beijing Winter Olympics, successfully brought about the "ski fever" in the mainland, allowing more teenagers to participate in skiing, thus providing more high-quality resources for the selection of talents in China's skiing. Of course, the introduction of mixed-race and naturalized athletes must also be well grasped, and the actual situation cannot be disregarded, otherwise it will follow in the footsteps of the national football team.
I don't know if the future level of mixed-race players such as Huang Shenghao can represent the national football team.