In 2011, with the promotion of Guangzhou Evergrande to the Chinese Super League, the domestic golden dollar football era also officially began. The team building model created by Evergrande Club has made the team achieve great success in the past 10 years.
8 Chinese Super League champions and 2 AFC Champions League titles, such a success has made many clubs envious. Therefore, many Chinese Super League clubs have also begun to follow the Evergrande model, not hesitating to invest heavily to poach high-quality players from other clubs. Jiangsu Suning, Tianjin Quanjian and Hebei Huaxia Happiness at that time were all good examples.
Under such circumstances, not only the value of foreign aid who came to the Chinese Super League to pan for gold has doubled, but even the transfer value of local players has also shown a geometric growth, and many local "billion yuan" Mr. Yuan in the Chinese Super League were born, and Zhang Chenglin, a defender who moved from Beijing to Guangzhou Evergrande, is one of them.
In the 2017 season, the 30-year-old Zhang Chenglin was favored by Evergrande and was poached back to Guangzhou. According to reports, Evergrande paid a price of 100 million yuan to get Zhang Chenglin at that time, in addition to the transfer fee of 80 million yuan, there was also a signing fee of 20 million yuan. Although Zhang Chenglin was an international player at the time, the amount of 100 million yuan was still a bit staggeringly high for a 30-year-old veteran.
However, after joining Evergrande, Zhang Chenglin did not become the main force of the team, in the 2 seasons of playing for Evergrande, he only played in 17 Games in the Chinese Super League for the team, except for 1 goal, he did not make much contribution to the team.
In the 2019 season, the 32-year-old Zhang Chenglin left Evergrande to start his Chinese Super League drifting career, after which he has joined Tianjin Tianhai and Wuhan Zhuoer in the form of loans. Last season, Zhang Chenglin, who was already unable to gain a foothold in the Chinese Super League, also joined the Chinese First Division team Kunshan FC.
This season, Zhang Chenglin, who still has a contract with Guangzhou, returned to the team. Obviously, Zhang Chenglin, who is now 35 years old, simply cannot find his place in the Guangzhou team. Moreover, now the Guangzhou team only has 15 million operating expenses in 1 year, and the maximum salary is only 600,000, where is the spare money to feed a veteran like Zhang Chenglin who has almost reached retirement age?
In fact, Zhang Chenglin also hoped to find a new home for himself in the new season, but now the domestic leagues at all levels are very sluggish, and even the active international football team is not as easy as before, let alone the 35-year-old veteran?
Therefore, although Zhang Chenglin is still nominally a player of the Guangzhou team, he has basically been abandoned by the club. In the recent list of 35 players in the first team released by Guangzhou Club, Zhang Chenglin's name did not appear, and li Xuepeng and Zhang Xiuwei were also suffering from the same disease.
Judging from the current situation, Zhang Chenglin, Li Xuepeng and Zhang Xiuwei are likely to face the embarrassment of not having the ball to play this season. In fact, these 3 players still have the ability to play in the Chinese Super League, but now the bad environment of domestic football makes it difficult for them to play.
For Zhang Chenglin, choosing to retire now may become his last choice. The thought of this former Chinese Super League "billion yuan" gentleman ended up in such a situation really made many fans feel sad...