On May 2, Guangzhou announced the first team list for the new season, and among the "Five Tiger Generals", Jiang Guangtai, Wei Shihao, Yan Dinghao and Yang Liyu were all on the list, but only one person was missing, that is, Zhang Xiuwei. Speaking of Zhang Xiuwei, many Tianjin fans still have deep memories, although he is not very old, but his career has happened a lot of stories.
Born in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, Zhang Xiuwei signed for Ligue Lyon in 2014 as a junior captain in Ligue 1, but after a two-year reserve career, he chose to return to China in 2015. Because of his body, hairstyle and even playing style, he had the style of a star Modric, so Zhang Xiuwei also had the nickname of "Chinese Magic Flute" at that time. In that season, Zhang Xiuwei gradually grew up under Cannavaro and slowly proved himself, eventually helping the team to rush to the Chinese Super League. At that time, Zhang Xiuwei was a widely regarded new star, not only playing well in the league, but also playing the main force in the U23 national team.
But the flowers and applause gradually intoxicated the minds of young people. On August 15, 2017, Zhang Xiuwei encountered a major setback in his life, due to a drunken driving accident, resulting in the damage to 7 motor vehicles, fortunately no casualties. Subsequently, he was criminally detained by the police on suspicion of dangerous driving. In the end, the court pronounced a verdict in accordance with the law, and Zhang Xiuwei was sentenced to three months' detention, suspended for three months, and fined 8,000 yuan for the crime of dangerous driving. Not only that, in this incident, Zhang Xiuwei was also found to be suspected of age fraud, which led to the investigation of the Chinese Football Association, and finally he was banned from participating in the official competitions held by the Chinese Football Association for 9 months, and was suspended by the club for six months.
The drunk driving violation gave Zhang Xiuwei a blow, and after facing up to his mistakes, he spent a long time to find his original intention of playing football, and finally returned to the field in the middle of the 2018 season, and was even selected by Lippi to enter the national team and complete the national team debut. In the past few years, after the club changed its name to Tianhai, Zhang Xiuwei was acquired by Guangzhou Evergrande along with a number of young internationals. After coming to Evergrande, Zhang Xiuwei reunited with Cannavaro and was quickly reused, making 29 appearances and contributing 2 assists throughout the 2019 season, and even playing more than 80 minutes in the friendly match between China and Uzbekistan in March. However, regardless of ability or experience, young midfielders such as Zhang Xiuwei and He Chao have never been able to replace veterans such as Zheng Zhi and Huang Bowen, and in the end they have not been able to succeed.
Last season, Zhang Xiuwei played 15 games for Guangzhou, including 10 starts and 1 assist. As the former local tycoon Guangzhou team also fell into a survival dilemma, Zhang Xiuwei was also faced with a choice. He can give up the previous Evergrande salary arrears like Zhong Yihao, He Chao, Deng Hanwen and other peers in exchange for ending the contract early, so as to switch to his team as a free body, and he can also accept a huge salary cut like Wei Shihao, Yang Liyu, Yan Dinghao and other young people to continue to play for the Guangzhou team, thus retaining the right to recourse for the salary arrears, but Zhang Xiuwei and teammate Li Xuepeng have taken another path. Now, they are most likely not going to give up Evergrande's salary arrears, nor do they take the small salary to continue to play for the Guangzhou team, and finally the players and the club collapsed, and the result is that Evergrande does not register the two, and the two face no kicking in the new season. Compared with Li Xuepeng, who is injured and 34 years old, zhang Xiuwei, who is only 26 years old, has a brighter future, but in order to recover his legitimate income, whether it is worth it to catch his two years of youth is worth it.
Zhang Xiuwei updated social media after the list was announced
Not only Zhang Xiuwei, after the first transfer window of the Chinese Super League was closed, the whereabouts of other veterans of Jinmen also attracted the attention of fans. For example, Li Songyi, the main defensive force of Jinmen Tigers last season, will join the Chinese First Division team Kunshan FC to start a new journey in his career.
When he joined Jinmen Tigers on loan last season, Li Songyi, who lost his position in both Shandong and Guangzhou City, was at the trough of his career. However, the Jinmen Tiger coaching team headed by Yu Genwei gave Li Songyi full trust and made him the absolute main force of the team's three-centre-back system. In the 17 Chinese Super League games for jinmen tigers, Li Songyi started all of them, with 1502 minutes of playing time and 0.6 average blocks of shots per game, and the average number of clearances of 5.5 times per game was second only to foreign center-back Kadar. In particular, in the relegation group competition in the second stage of the Chinese Super League, after The 17th round of Kadar's match against Qingdao was reimbursed due to injury, Li Songyi started in five consecutive games since the 18th round, and he led the Jinmen Tigers' defense as a center-back to complete the clean sheet against the opponent in four of them. It can be said that Yu Genwei's good knowledge gave Li Songyi the opportunity to regain his new life, and he also repaid the trust of the coaching staff with his outstanding performance and became the mainstay of the team's relegation road.
Regrettably, although after ending the loan contract with Jinmen Tiger, Li Songyi's work contract with his old owner Shandong Taishan also officially expired, shandong had no intention of retaining, and Li Songyi officially became a free agent. Although the situation is exactly the same as Patton, Li Songyi has made a different choice than Barton, and for many reasons, including to complete his studies at Tongji University, he has linked his future to Shanghai Shenhua. However, people are not as good as the sky, the Shanghai epidemic and FIFA punished Shenhua caused Li Songyi and Shi Xiaotian, who had completed the transfer procedures, to face the situation that they could not register in Shenhua in the new season and may not be able to play, and finally Shi Xiaotian joined Chongqing and continued to compete in the Chinese Super League, and Li Songyi would rather retreat to the second choice to sign a contract with Kunshan to play in the Chinese First Division, but it is still closer to Shanghai, presumably, for him who is not yet 30 years old and has the ability to play the starting center-back in the Chinese Super League, the temporary commitment to the Chinese First Division is probably only a temporary measure. In the future, we will return to the Chinese Super League, and for such a player who has made great contributions to Tianjin football, we also hope that Li Songyi will be all right.
Among the other departing players, Kadar moved to Hungary's Nova Pest FC. Magno is currently a member of the Northwest Gate of the River. Ilocchi failed in his trial training with Dalian, and there was no new owner. Jin Yangyang and Cong Zhen were recalled by Shenhua, Chen Kerui returned to Taishan, Shandong, and Fan Xuyang joined the Hubei Youth Star Club. In addition, Park Taoyu transferred to Chongqing Liangjiang Athletic, and Nie Tao, Yang Lichun and Sun Zixuan joined the Tianjin local league team. Teng Shangkun, Zhou Qiming, Li Xiang, Yang Wanshun, Lan Jingxuan, Hu Haoran and Li Haoran have not yet made progress in joining other professional teams.