Following Huang Bowen not long ago, another former international player of the Guangzhou team, Mei Fang, also announced a few days ago that he would choose to retire due to injuries. For a defender, the 32-year-old doesn't seem to be in a hurry, and behind The May's decision to hang up his boots, is injury the only reason?
The 32-year-old Mei Fang debuted in the Wuhan football team, went to strasbourg in France in 2008 for a trial training, and after returning to China, played for Wuhan Zhuoer and served as the captain of the team, with his excellent performance in Wuhan Zhuoer, he was selected by the Silver Fox Lippi in the 2014 season and transferred to Guangzhou Evergrande. After coming to Guangzhou, Mei Fang gradually sat in the main center-back position, and in the same year, he was also called by the national team. In the 2015 Asian Cup, under the leadership of then coach Perrin, the national football team connected Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan and North Korea in the group stage, and the Three Games Mei side was the absolute main force of the national football team. After Lippi took charge of the national football team, Mei Fang was still an indispensable member of the national football team, and he and Zhang Linpeng formed a main center-back combination and competed in the Top 40 and 12 of the Asian Qualifiers of the Russian World Cup.
However, in the rising period of his career, Mei Fang has suffered serious injuries one after another. In the summer of 2017, he first had a cruciate ligament tear, recovered for half a year, and then in the middle of the 2018 season, he injured his knee again and rested for another year. Two major injuries in three years have hit Mei Fang's career very hard, and in his retirement speech, Mei Fang said that the knee injury made it impossible for him to return to the past level of competition and psychological state, so he had to say goodbye to the national team and player career.
Of course, Mei Fang resolutely chose to turn around, I am afraid that not only because of injuries, the current domestic football environment is not optimistic, perhaps also another reason for his decision to retire. A simple calculation of an account, to the national football cap of 5 million yuan calculation, the peak of the Mei side's annual number of games between 25 and 35 games, the average income per game is more than 150,000 yuan, now the Guangzhou team set the maximum salary at 600,000 a year, and only a small number of players can get, the average income per game shrank nearly ten times, continue to play for the Guangzhou team is a very low cost performance.
In fact, with Mei Fang's ability, it is not difficult to find another job, and it is reported that many teams, including his hometown team Wuhan, have issued invitations to him. But the problem is that in the case of the FA's salary limit and most teams are experiencing financial difficulties, it is not easy to find a job that satisfies you in all aspects and does not owe wages. Of course, what is more difficult to bridge is the psychological gap of a sharp plunge in income, wei Shihao, Yang Liyu and other young people can not be counted, like Mei Fang, Huang Bowen, such as The veterans who have received soft annual salaries and bonuses in Evergrande, do not care and do not want to serve a new boss for two or three million. Therefore, it is better to seize the opportunity to make a career transition and prepare for a career as a professional football coach.