During the 2014 World Cup, Zhao Dayu, who often stayed up all night, was already in poor health, and liked to drink, was unfortunately diagnosed with advanced liver cancer. In order to better treat cancer, he was once admitted to a Japanese hospital, but the results were not good.
In mid-to-late March 2015, 54-year-old Zhao Dayu's condition deteriorated. After discussing with doctors and relatives, Zhao Dayu, who was no longer suitable for surgical treatment, decided to give up medical treatment and go home to spend the last "journey" of his life with his relatives.
The next day, Zhao Dayu, who had not yet reached the age of huajia, died of illness.
When the news of his funeral came out, it immediately caused a huge sensation in the Chinese sports scene, especially everyone in the football world, and they sent their condolences one after another.
Huang Jianxiang, known as a famous mouth in Chinese football, said: Zhao Dayu is a football idol of a generation of Chinese and has excellent football talent. But unfortunately, at the peak of his career, he was unexpectedly kicked off his leg and could only choose to retire, otherwise Chinese could witness the higher achievements belonging to Zhao Dayu.
Huang Jianxiang suggested that before the start of Evergrande's home AFC Champions League match, Zhao Dayu should be silent in silence, on the grounds that Zhao Dayu is a well-deserved predecessor of Guangzhou football and a worthy predecessor of Chinese football.
Liu Jianhong, who is also a sports celebrity, also gave the same advice, saying that Zhao Dayu is a senior in Chinese football, and mourning Zhao Dayu on the field of the Chinese Super League is a kind of football culture inheritance.
Zhao Dayu's former partner Li Hui said in a telephone interview with the media that he was leading the team to train when he learned of Zhao Dayu's funeral and was very shocked.
I still remember that the last time he and Zhao Dayu got together was the year before last, when Zhao Dayu's body looked okay. Later, Zhao Dayu fell ill, Li Hui didn't know, he still felt that Zhao Dayu "left" too fast, too early! In Li Hui's heart, Zhao Dayu will always be the extremely talented football player Zhao Dayu.
Peng Weiguo was one of the representatives of Guangzhou football during the Chinese professional league period. He told reporters that in his heart, Zhao Dayu, who is about 10 years older than him, was first his idol when he was a child, and his senior brother was the latter.
Today, Zhao Dayu has "left", but Zhao Dayu's contribution and inheritance to Guangzhou football will not fade. He hoped that the seniors and peers of Chinese football would take more care of their bodies and truly regard their bodies as the capital of the revolution.
Zhao Dayu's student, Chen Zhizhao, who was playing football in Beijing Guoan at the time, recalled the time when he trained at Zhao Dayu Football School, saying that the school had many classes, each class had its own coach, and Zhao Dayu did not have many opportunities to lead them, but every time he led a class, Zhao Dayu was very serious and patiently corrected their technical movements.
Later, he became a professional player, and every holiday, Chen Zhizhao went back to school to participate in friendly matches, and would chat with Zhao Dayu about the latest situation. Zhao Dayu is his unforgettable mentor and friend in this life, and he will remember Zhao Dayu for the rest of his life.
On the 23rd of the same month, Zhao Dayu's memorial service was held in Guangzhou. Zhao Dayu came to see off Zhao Dayu not only his friends, relatives and more than 1,000 fans before his death, but also Xu Ruisheng, who was the vice governor of Guangdong Province at the time, and Chinese football celebrities Rong Zhixing, Chen Yiming and others.
And the pair of ties hanging high at the memorial service is the truest portrayal of Zhao Dayu's dedication to China's football cause throughout his life. Zhao Dayu is gone, but Zhao Dayu's football spirit is still there, and it still affects every latecomer!
01. He has also been repeatedly "rejected": because he is too short, he has been rejected by the provincial team several times
Born in 1961, Zhao Dayu has an ordinary family, and his father is an ordinary bus driver and a standard fan. When I was young, I was very sociable, so I knew many football coaches of Guangdong provincial teams, and often took advantage of the break time to take my son around to watch the game.
After a long time, Zhao Dayu still remembers that once, the Hong Kong Discovery Garden team came to Guangzhou to play, and the venue was set at Yuexiu Mountain Stadium, and the Guangzhou people who had little entertainment at that time forced their curiosity about Hong Kong to create a lively scene of thousands of empty alleys.
Zhao Dayu has long forgotten the result of that game, but he always remembers the lively scene so much that when he grew up, he still relishes it and is unforgettable. That may have been one of the sources of Zhao's initial interest in football.
Under the influence of his father, Zhao Dayu slowly fell in love with football at a young age. Every day when he came back from school, he would go to an open field with his friends, set up a goal with his school bag, and play soccer for a while.
Zhao Dayu is not tall, but according to his younger brother Zhao Daxin, his football talent has been outstanding since he was a child, and he can often dribble the ball alone from the feet of several tall peers. At that time, Zhao Dayu would make many technical moves that his peers could not complete, and was a football "genius" in the eyes of his peers.
He started to contact football at the age of 6, was selected for the Guangzhou municipal children's team at the age of 8, and entered the Guangzhou Central Sports School in the sixth grade of primary school to receive more professional and systematic football training. Zhao Dayu did not disappoint his old father's expectations of him, grew up very quickly, and improved rapidly.
However, his short stature has become the most powerful "roadblock" at the beginning of his football career, hindering Zhao Dayu's further development.
Several setbacks rejected by the provincial team left Zhao Dayu confused, and his father could not bear his son's loss of confidence, hid his worries about his son, told Zhao Dayu stories about lying on his salary and trying his guts, told the deeds of the little football player Hu Denghui, and encouraged his son to regain his strength and continue to work hard.
Zhao Dayu thanked his father for his support and slowly understood a truth: as long as he becomes stronger than others, someone will definitely "see" him!
Zhao Dayu, who rekindled his faith, became more diligent, waking up an hour earlier than others every day, tying a 10-kilogram sandbag and insisting on jumping rope, just to exercise bouncing power.
And it turned out that his efforts were not in vain, and Luo Rongman, who had just formed the Guangzhou team and came to the sports school to recruit team members, witnessed Zhao Dayu's hard work and talent, and included him in the provincial team.
In 1975, Zhao Dayu stepped into the national youth competition as he wished. But without waiting to enjoy the happiness brought to him by a bigger stage, fate once again gave Zhao Dayu "tempering", and when the news of his father's serious illness and hospitalization came, Zhao Dayu's heart suddenly panicked.
He didn't know if he should give up his unknown future and go home to take care of his father. It was Zhao Dayu's father who once again turned into a "beacon" and pointed out the direction for his son.
Lying on the hospital bed, he repeatedly advised Zhao Dayu: Don't give up football, don't delay training, and watching his son become a football player is the only wish of the old father.
Zhao Dayu nodded solemnly and promised his father: he would not disappoint his father.
02, also showed "amazing style" on the stadium: his style on the football field is still talked about by fans
In 1982, Zhao Dayu, who gradually emerged in Chinese football, was selected by Su Yongshun and got the opportunity to enter the national team. In the same year, in the match between China and Morocco, Zhao Dayu, who only made his debut in the last five minutes, miraculously recovered two points, equalizing the game and winning the honor of the best player of the entire competition, shocking China.
However, soon after, Su Yongshun's withdrawal made the Chinese team, which had always been unoptimistic about short men, also choose Xuezang Zhao Dayu, who was not selected for the new national team team formed by Zeng Xuelin in 1983.
However, Zhao Dayu, who never admits defeat, is destined to impress Zeng Xuelin. That year, he led Guangdong to win the southern division championship of the First Division by an overwhelming margin, creating a nine-game winning streak, forcing Zeng Xuelin to re-recruit him into the national team.
At the end of the year, the Chinese football team was tired and assembled, and under the leadership of Zeng Xuelin, who accidentally misunderstood the schedule regulations, went abroad to participate in the Olympic football qualifiers.
The most crucial match with the Thai team, coinciding with heavy rain, the score has been maintained at 0:0, Zeng Xuelin made a wrong move for a while, replaced the two forwards, gave the Thai team a bold attack, and finally broke the Chinese team's goal.
Zeng Xuelin, who was sitting in the rain for the whole scene, was annoyed by the mistake while wondering why he didn't bring Zhao Dayu, who was better at fighting in the rain!
It was also from this time that the football coaches of the national team, Fang, began to slowly realize how outstanding Zhao Dayu's football talent was.
1984 was Zhao Dayu's most exciting period in the national team, and among them, his game that is still talked about today is the Nehru Gold Cup that he participated in in India with the team in January of that year.
Years later, Zhao Dayu still remembered his decisive goal, he said: "At that time, Li Hui got the ball in the midfield, I stood in the center position, after receiving back, Li Hui ran to the right, Lin Qiang leaned up to pick up my return pass, just when an Argentine central defender stared at me, I couldn't turn around, I could only pass back to Lin Qiang."
It just so happened that Li Hui ran to a better position, Lin Qiang seized the opportunity, directly blocked the ball to Li Hui on the right, Li Hui crossed from the bottom, I ran to the center penalty area, Lin Qiang was a little behind me, caught the ball, passed it to me again, I subconsciously shot.
I remember I was playing with my left foot, and the Argentine goalkeeper didn't seem to expect me to hit the goal with that tricky angle, and there was no reaction at all, and the ball went in. Afterwards, Argentina also thought we scored a great goal! ”
This goal is what fans unanimously recognize, the most famous battle of Zhao Dayu's career: "upside down golden hook".
Li Hui, as Zhao Dayu's partner, was also impressed by the Nehru Gold Cup. He said that he and Zhao Dayu have a tacit understanding and live in the same room in India, so they can cooperate seamlessly without verbal communication on the field.
In the same year, the Chinese team went to Singapore to play, and Zhao Dayu shared a room with Li Hui. On the night of the Chinese team's semi-final victory over Kuwait and advance to the final, both of them were so excited that they lost sleep and chatted until about 4 a.m.
The interviewer asked Li Hui, what are they talking about? Li Hui replied: "Cooperation, how to cooperate this way, how to cooperate like that, how to pass the ball better... In those days, we were all very simple, all focused on football, and the rest did not care at all. ”
However, it is such a talented Zhao Dayu who loves football and seems to have a promising future, but in 1986 a training match accidentally broke the shin and ribs of his left leg, causing his football career to end since then, and he was forced to "hang up his boots".
03, to the death love football love "bone blood": he wanted to introduce the Japanese football youth training model to China, but it did not happen, but he has regretted leaving
No one knows what Zhao Dayu, who made the decision to leave the court, thinks in his heart, people only see that not long after bidding farewell to the field and his football career, he appeared on the sidelines again, this time, Zhao Dayu is the coach of Guangzhou 3 team.
At the same time, Zhao Dayu and his younger brother Zhao Daxin partnered to establish a company selling sports-related goods.
Just when the world thought that Zhao Dayu would continue down this "route", Zhao Dayu, who had just been married, made a surprising decision: he wanted to develop in Japan with his wife.
It was the summer of 1988, when Japanese football had not yet been professionalized, and the teams in the First Division were basically "controlled" by enterprises, and Zhao Tatsuyu joined the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries football team. The dedication and courtesy of Japanese players have had a great influence on his football philosophy.
Until his death, Zhao Dayu always insisted on establishing a state-owned brand that belongs exclusively to Chinese football, enhancing the economic effect of football on the nation, thereby attracting more outstanding domestic and foreign coaches to coach youth training. And that's what he learned from Japanese football.
Two years later, Zhao Dayu's legs affected the state of the court more and more, and he simply announced his retirement again; Subsequently, Zhao Dayu accepted the club's invitation to stay in Japan as a youth coach. In order to facilitate his work, he became a Japanese citizen and changed his name to "Tatsuhiro Matsuki".
But even so, Zhao Dayu is still concerned about the development of Chinese football.
In 1993, Zhao Dayu brought several Japanese youth players back to China to participate in the selection of the then newly established A club, which promoted the addition of two Japanese players; In 1998, seeing the increasing prosperity of the domestic football professional league, Zhao Dayu decided to give up Japan's favorable environment and return to China to contribute to the development of Chinese football.
This move unsurprisingly made Zhao Dayu questioned and criticized by some people.
In 1999, Zhao Dayu issued a special statement on the nationality issue. He said: "Although I obtained the right of abode in Japan, I still have the imprint of the descendants of the dragon in my bones and have always retained my Chinese nationality. Last year, I passed the senior coach training course jointly organized by the AFC and the Chinese Football Association, and obtained the coaching certificate jointly issued by both parties Chinese. ”
In the same year, Zhao Dayu founded the "Yida Football School" in Guangzhou, and his past reputation helped him a little. Many parents of Jackie Chan have come to send their children, and Zhao Dayu has not betrayed everyone's trust, cultivating players with the same outstanding abilities such as Chen Zhizhao.
In 2010, Zhao Dayu was interviewed by the media, saying that Hainan's football foundation is very good and the audience is high, but due to financial and other reasons, it is a pity that there is no professional team belonging to them.
However, Hainan should not be discouraged and can move towards futsal and beach soccer first. The former has low requirements for the field, the investment will not be too large, and the Hainan people's foot technology is flexible, which is very suitable for futsal football.
In 2011, NetEase Sports also interviewed Zhao Dayu to discuss with Zhao Dayu on issues such as Japanese football youth training and Chinese football youth training.
Zhao Dayu said frankly: Japanese football youth training has a lot of references for Chinese football youth training, if you want the future development of Chinese football to be better, you must start from children.
Teaching children to play football is not only about teaching technology, but also about teaching them how to "behave", such as respecting every opponent and learning from others with an open mind. If you want to play well, you must first learn to be a person and develop good morality.
It can be said that Zhao Dayu's heart for Chinese football is extremely sincere, he loves Chinese football, and hopes to the death that Chinese football can become better.
Now it's 2022, 7 years since Zhao Dayu left the world, not only fans often miss him, but his relatives also miss him very much.
Zhao Daxin said: "Life is still going on, although my relatives and I have slowly relieved, but whenever I sit in the office, I still feel from time to time that my brother's figure is walking by the corridor outside the door, he seems to be greeting everyone as before, and occasionally, I will recall the scene of playing football with my brother." Memorable and happy, but not sad. ”
Zhao Dayu's football "legend" is over, but the football spirit left by Zhao Dayu will not dissipate.
Resources:
"Zhao Dayu "folded feet" dwarf tiger, never left football"
"Interview with Zhao Dayu: The Football Association's 40 million youth training funding is very empty"
"Farewell! The "dwarf tiger" who stands tall He has inspired generations"