The Shanghai Harbour Card Club of the Chinese Super League officially announced the transfer of Senegalese centre forward Chelif Ndiaye of the Turkish Super League Club of Goztabi today.
Since yesterday was the closing day of the first international transfer window of the Chinese Super League this year, after signing the 26-year-old high school striker, the harbor team's foreign support for this season has been fully determined.
Compared with the final stage of last season, only one change was made: Croatian centre-back Mystrovic, who joined the team at the beginning of last year but did not play a game for the team due to a serious injury before the season, will leave the team, and this vacancy is just for Ndiaye.
Harbour's five foreign players for 2022 are captain and attacking core Oscar, centre Ndiaye, two Brazilian attackers Paulinho and López, and Australian international midfielder Mooy.
Under the tactical system of head coach Lecco, the ideal configuration should be Oscar with Ndiaye and Paulinho to form a frontcourt attack trident, and the midfield is dominated by the controlling Mooy, with Lopez as the fifth foreign aid.
In cases where the attack needs to be stepped up, The Harbours can even put all four foreign aid spots on the pitch in front, with Oscar organising the attack, Ndiaye bursting forward, and López and Paulinho acting as left and right wingers.
Of course, this is only in an ideal state, and the current situation of the harbor team is just not ideal - only two of the five foreign aides are in China, and the timing of the entry of the other three is full of uncertainty.
Moreover, even if Oscar, who has been in Shanghai and paulinho who has been released from quarantine from Guangzhou, stays in the local area, due to the long period of normal training, how much state can be maintained is not optimistic.
The other three are also foreign aides with their own difficulties. Of course, the fastest to reach the team is the new signing Ndiaye. As long as he can successfully get a work visa in Europe, he does not have to enter from Shanghai, and there are still flight options.
Brazilian foreign aid López is more troublesome, after all, first to fly from Brazil to Europe to transfer, because he does not have an EU passport like teammate Paulinho, so once the flight has a problem, it can only fly back to Brazil and wait for the next opportunity.
López, who had already encountered a "man on the road" when he transferred to Zurich, Switzerland, at the end of last month, can only stay in Brazil to train on his own to maintain his form.
The most complicated is Thaty, who was infected with COVID-19 in March, first of all, had physical indicators that needed to meet the requirements for entry into China. And as the main player of the Australian national team, Mooy will also play in the play-off of the World Cup qualifiers in June, and he is likely to return to Harbour after ending the national team game. This means that with the current quarantine policy unchanged, Moi will not be able to participate in the club's matches until July at the earliest.
Perhaps at the beginning of the new season, it is already fortunate that the Harbor team can bring together oscar, Paulinho and Ndiaye.
Of course, after the international transfer deadline, the transfer window for domestic players has not yet closed. In addition to the return of the old Zhang Linpeng, Shanghai Harbor Club is also fighting for several local players at the international level to join the team to further strengthen the team.