Zheng Zhi finally sat in the coaching bench of the Guangzhou team, saying that the expectations of the public may be exaggerated, but at least it is the desire of the people in the team.
Wu Lei returned from staying in The West, Vargas and Jiang Guangtai joined, and Shanghai Harbor became the most luxurious team on paper.
In the past, the dialogue between the two teams was the Battle of Tianwangshan in the Chinese Super League, and now the strength of the two teams is no longer the same. In the future, the two teams meet again (there is no chance in the league this season), and Zheng Zhi looks at Wu Lei, who has returned from staying in the field, and is bound to remember his career in Yang.
(Photo) Zheng Zhi and Xie Hui, two former heroes who stayed in the west, have become coaches of Chinese Super League teams
01 War in Britain, when the core, see the prime minister
18 March 2007, Valley Course, Greenwich, England.
In the 30th round of the Premier League, Charlton played at home against rivals Newcastle United, and Chinese player Zheng Zhi started for the first time.
In the second half, Darren Bent took a free kick and hit the lintel, and Zheng Zhiji's police header scored his first goal in the Premier League; The Chinese midfielder was then brought down in the penalty area after cleverly cooperating to create penalties for the team. The core of the national football team won the victory for the team almost single-handedly, and the nickname "ZZ" resounded throughout the valley stadium.
On this day, the valley stadium resounded with Zheng Zhi's name, writing a new chapter in the stay of Chinese players in the ocean.
Zheng Zhi's wonderful performance in the Premier League continues. Twenty days later, Charlton took on Manchester City away, and Zheng Zhi vs. Sun Jihai's "China Derby" was staged.
In this game, Sun Jihai was placed in the defensive midfield position, and Zheng Zhi was entrusted with the heavy responsibility of organizing the team's attack. "China Sun" shows its great style in defense, and the future "Captain China" is also actively interspersed in the front court to create many opportunities. The two have had many head-to-head duels on the field, and the steadiness brought by Sun Jihai to the team and the inspiration brought by Zheng Zhi to the team have made the audience very addicted.
At that time, the commentator on the scene said: "Maybe the 0-0 score is not wonderful, but Sun Jihai and Zheng Zhi appeared at the Manchester City Stadium at the same time, proving that they deserve this stage." ”
15 years of white colt gap, this classic contest turned out to be the last "Chinese derby" staged in the Uk so far, how not to make people sigh?
There are more wonderful regrets, Zheng Zhi's Premier League career is only half a season, his wonderful performance is not enough to change the current situation of Charlton's problems, with a high price of 2 million pounds (2007) after the full transfer to Charlton, Zheng Zhi began to follow the team to compete in the Championship.
In the 2007-08 season, the "Chinese captain" fully burned his own small universe, became the super golden oil of the Cod Army, under the command of the mentor Padu, the Chinese Footballer of the Year in the front, back, full-back, full-back and many other positions can help the team, most of the time as the main player, in fact became the organizational core of the team, but also wore the captain's armband many times. Although he eventually failed to lead the team to overtake, Zheng Zhi ranked second in the selection of the best player at the end of the season and ranked fifth in the official championship best player selection.
In January 2008, Zheng Zhi and Dong Fangzhuo were cordially received by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, and the laughter in front of 10 Downing Street became the highlight of Chinese football in the past two decades. Although Zheng Zhi has a short time and few games in the top european leagues, he is indeed an extremely rare Chinese all-round midfielder who can gain a foothold in the Premier League and be the core of the Championship.
When this legend of merit sits on the coaching bench, we look back at his glory years in England, which will always be compared with the lack of football talent in China today. So, what can the experience of "Captain Charlton" successfully staying in the ocean bring us?
02 Self-discipline sets him free
"Zheng Zhi's physical condition is applauded! When I was in the national Olympic team, the position of full-back could not be played by me at all, and Horton only let me play at the center back, because I wanted to give Zheng Zhi the position of full-back. Sun Jihai highly praised Zheng Zhi's physical condition in the interview.
And excellent physical condition is the foundation of Zheng Zhi's long career. In 1999, the 19-year-old Zheng Zhi was selected for the national Olympic team led by Horton with good basic conditions.
(Photo) 1999 National Olympic Team, Zheng Zhi in the front row second from the right
At that time, Horton's national Olympic team was known as the "strongest national Olympic Team", it was based on the 77-year-old "Jianlibao" players and the A-League popular demon star as a team, zheng Zhi was the youngest and least experienced one in the team at that time, and even because of the club's problems, there was no ball to play in the middle B, and this "ugly duckling" was far from the future soaring.
Horton, who is well versed in the concept of English football, knows that the youngster Zheng Zhi's excellent physical fitness, super physical reserves and age-inappropriate ball quotient are very suitable for his specific requirements for full-backs to "fly up and down, can attack and defend".
(Pictured) Horton when he coached the national Olympic team
There are many young players with good physical conditions, but very few can stay for twenty years. After the Shenzhen team soared to win the first year of the Chinese Super League championship and followed the national team to win the Asian Cup runner-up at home, the absolute main force of the team, Zheng Zhigong, became famous and became the first person in Chinese football, and countless temptations came to him, and it was particularly important to stick to the original intention.
After joining Shandong Luneng at a high price, Zheng Zhi came up with a better report card, which is inseparable from Zheng Zhi's ascetic self-discipline.
According to Teacher Yin Bo, an old reporter in Jinan, "Zheng Zhi's professional self-discipline is from the heart, so many years, he has never smoked or drunk, and it is almost impossible for people outside to invite him out to gather at night." Zheng Zhi has always drunk white water when eating, not drinking drinks. What he eats, how much he eats is very exquisite, how many calories he needs in a day must be calculated, not much to eat, and not a lot to eat, because this is the guarantee of his physical fitness. ”
(Pictured) The 2004 Asian Cup was the highlight of Zheng Zhi's national team career
After staying in Yangyang, Zheng Zhi, who saw a higher level of football, did not dare to relax his requirements for himself: he devoted himself to the training ground, took every action and detail seriously, in order to maintain his physical state, he slept early every day, and everything in the nightlife was insulated from him. Zheng Zhi regards football as his whole, and he puts the rhythm of play, training and recovery in the most important position, even to the point where nothing can be affected.
Strong as Zheng Zhi must rely on self-discipline to maintain the state, and the latecomers must be used as an example!
(Pictured) The 40-year-old Zheng Zhi is still a model for professional players
03 The attitude of staying in the West needs to be correct
When Zheng Zhi was still playing in the Championship, I read an article that is still impressive, called "Chinese Style staying in the West needs the spirit of stalls".
As mentioned in the article, at that time, China's manufacturing was not as strong as it is now, mainly in the world's top brand OF products, to create the world's famous brand there are still many ways to go. However, Chinese football's plan to stay abroad is too "grand", and the "four major leagues" are taken as the preferred goal at the beginning of professional football, but there are few successful people.
On the contrary, some players who are "committed" to the sub-league are more beautiful, and they also play an effect of training and improving their strength. For example, Fan Zhiyi, who played for Crystal Palace in the second division of England that year, Xie Hui, who played in the Bundesweg Aachen, is more commendable zheng zhi who wore the captain's armband in Charlton.
Therefore, China's stay in the west needs the spirit of "going into the city to set up a stall", choose the team to stay in the west according to their own reality, and do not blindly pursue the top league.
We have changed the context to now, the current Chinese manufacturing on the basis of high cost performance is more and more high-end, and even in some areas to become the world's top products. However, the level of Chinese players has regressed significantly, although there are many foreign players, but the quality is lackluster, and there are no Chinese players in the five major leagues after Wu Lei returned to China.
(Pictured) Wu Lei's Espanyol career has come to an end
Therefore, Chinese players should have the courage to start from scratch, not to love the name, and learn the experience of Japanese football in foreign countries, as long as they can be higher than the level of domestic leagues, it is a good place to go. Fortunately, the golden age of Chinese football has passed, and the dismal performance of the national team has also strengthened the confidence of the Football Association to promote the stay in the Ocean, which has cleared the obstacles for players to go out in business and policy.
Liu Shaoziyang joined Bayern on loan, Li Lei stayed in Zurich at the age of thirty to start a second business, and Guo Tianyu also worked hard to integrate into Vizela in order to hone his skills...
(Pictured) Li Lei experienced the rhythm of European football in the grasshopper zurich
The news of these Chinese players staying in foreign countries may not make us excited, but at least the road of Chinese football to stay in the west is a lot more pragmatic, when more Chinese players can emerge in the European league, can play the main role in the second-rate league and even the third-rate league, Chinese football will no longer be the current situation.
04 What are the characteristics of Chinese players staying in the West?
Zheng Zhi showed great versatility during his time at Charlton. Under Dupa's absolute trust, the "Chinese top card" can create a threat in the forward position, be good at commanding in the position of the central defender, complete the tandem and defense in the back position, and in individual cases can also play shadow strikers and wingers.
But for Chinese players who aspire to stay in the ocean, Zheng Zhi's template is too "perfect", in fact, the attributes of Chinese players only need to meet the basic needs of European clubs.
What characteristics do Chinese players rely on when traveling in Europe? What are the basic needs of European clubs? Or why can Chinese players play in Europe?
Compared to players of other races, East Asian players are at a disadvantage in terms of strength, technique, absolute speed, etc., while agility is a racial talent. The styles of players in China, Japan and South Korea may be different, but agility must be a basic attribute based on Europe, even if it is as strong as Son Heung-min and its core competitiveness is still agility.
From the tide of staying in the ocean that year, we can conclude that China's more successful foreign players are generally based on agility, coupled with personal characteristics to be based on Europe, such as zheng zhi and Sun Jihai's comprehensiveness, Yang Chen's speed, Li Tie's physical fitness, Shao Jiayi's footwork, Wu Lei's running position (and Fan Zhiyi, Zhang Enhua is very close to the physical quality of Europeans, Dong Fangzhuo's high growth ceiling), in the case of low prices and technical guarantees, China's excellent players are more suitable for some European teams to introduce.
(Photo) Yang Chen is an iconic figure in China's stay in the Ocean
It can be concluded that in the future, the template for Chinese players to stay in the West should be: there is a certain agility advantage, with distinctive characteristics, and the more advanced version is that it can also play multiple positions, with a certain growth space and high cost performance.
From this point of view, Captain Charlton is really one of the ceilings of Chinese players and one of the peaks of staying in Europe for a short time.
(Pictured) Zheng Zhi, wearing Captain Charlton's armband
05 Leaving in the year of confusion makes Chinese football more confused
In 2010, Zheng Zhi ended his stay in The Yang and returned to China to join Guangzhou Evergrande, which had recently become an army, opening a new legend. After winning the Chinese Super League championship consecutively, winning the Asian Champions League twice, and winning the 2013 Asian Footballer of the Year, after experiencing the rise and fall of golden dollar football, he sat in the position of manager in a confused year.
His successful retreat has made Chinese football even more confused, where is his qualified successor? When will Chinese players be able to become the core of the Championship team again? Zheng Zhi ended his own era, and the burden of later generations is not light.