As a meritorious player in the history of Guangzhou Evergrande, 35-year-old veteran Huang Bowen, this time he also waved goodbye to the team. According to domestic media disclosures, Huang Bowen has confirmed retirement and has joined the national youth coaching team. Previously, despite the salary cut order issued by Evergrande Club, Huang Bowen was still believed to remain in the team to continue to play. Now it seems obviously wishful thinking.
And with Huang Bowen waving goodbye, a more sad fact is that the 18 players who helped Evergrande win the 2013 AFC Champions League championship and are hailed as the "strongest in history" Evergrande team have all left the team. In a way, this means that a classic era has finally become history completely.
In the 2013 AFC Champions League final, Guangzhou Evergrande defeated South Korea's Seoul FC through a two-legged competition, winning the AFC Champions League for the first time in history, thus beginning a glorious period of dominating Asian football. In the match against Seoul, Evergrande's starting 11 players were Zeng Cheng, Zhang Linpeng, Kim Young-kuen, Feng Xiaoting, Sun Xiang, Zheng Zhi, Huang Bowen, Kong Ka, Gao Lin, Elkeson and Muric; the substitutes were Zhao Peng, Feng Junyan, Qin Sheng, Yang Ultrasound, Zhao Xuri, Rong Hao and Li Shuai.
Although Evergrande later won the AFC Champions League for the second time in 2015, the team led by Lippi in 2013 is still considered to be the "peak" that Evergrande could not surpass later.
However, this classic team has completely disintegrated: Zeng Cheng and Feng Xiaoting, who are the main players, are now playing for Shanghai Shenhua, Zhang Linpeng is about to switch to Shanghai Harbor, Gao Lin has become the captain of Shenzhen and is expected to be reunited with Zheng Zhi in Shenzhen; meritorious foreign aid Jin Yingquan and Muric left Evergrande for many years, and Elkeson also terminated his contract with the team at the end of last year after changing his name to "Axon". The substitute players are also doing "birds and beasts scattered", and have long disappeared from the Evergrande team.
In addition, 6 players have confirmed the end of their careers, they are Li Shuai, Feng Junyan, Kong Ka, Zhao Peng, Sun Xiang, and Huang Bowen, who has just joined the coaching staff of the National Youth.
For some Chinese fans, in 2013, Guangzhou Evergrande dominated Asia and became the first Chinese Super League team to win the crown after the AFC Champions League reform, which is the "starting point" for many fans to start paying attention to Chinese football. But just as the so-called feast is unbroken in the world, with the complete disintegration of the original invincible division, the classic memories left by the past are ultimately invincible to the cold winter of Chinese football today.