On February 27, 2023, Beijing time, after the official of the Chinese Football Association announced that Kovic was appointed as the manager of the national football team, the training list of the Chinese men's football team finally ushered in the official announcement. As analyzed by many media before, due to the lack of domestic players, the U24 national youth team has to prepare for the Hangzhou Asian Games in September this year, so the national football team is difficult to complete the replacement of new and old this year, and the training list will also focus on selecting players who performed well in last year's league, to put it bluntly, it is mainly veterans. But even so, the training list, where the average age of players is over 30, has caused considerable controversy.
In this 24-man squad, last season's Chinese Super League champion Wuhan Sanzhen became the exporter of international footballers, and Ren Hang, Xie Pengfei, Deng Hanwen, He Chao, Liu Yiming and Liu Dianzuo, who performed well last season, were all selected, which is also in line with the principle that the selection of those who performed well in the league last season will be selected. Shanghai Port, which ranked 4th in the league last season, was selected with 7 people, although the league performance is not good, but because Wu Lei, Yan Junling, Zhang Linpeng, Jiang Guangtai 4 people are irreplaceable in domestic football, it is reasonable to become a major exporter of international football. However, it is really difficult to figure out that Li Shuai, who has only made one start and six substitute appearances last season, can still be shortlisted. Even in these 7 appearances, Li Shuai did not show a superior competitive level. Without mentioning others, let's say that Dalian Renren's plan B after losing Li Shuai and Sun Guowen, who transferred to Shandong Taishan in the new season, have better reasons to be selected.
In addition, Zhejiang, who finished in the top three in the league and runners-up in the FA Cup last season, and Beijing Guoan, the traditional giants of the Chinese Super League, were not selected. After the test of last season's competition, Zhejiang's Zhang Jiaqi, Cheng Jin, Yue Xin, Dong Yu and others are fully qualified to be selected for the national team, and some players in the squad who are in the same position as these four may not be able to beat them. And Zhang Xizhe, Chi Zhongguo and others of Beijing Guoan are not invulnerable, after all, the replacement of the old and new national team is difficult to complete for the time being. With the round of 32 in November and the Asian Cup in January approaching, what is most needed now is the immediate strength of a veteran of fame. It is wise to wait for the end of the Asian Games cycle to consider the replacement of old and new. Competitive sports are kings and losers, and it is meaningless to "focus on the future" without achievements. However, for these two clubs aiming for the new season, it is also good that the players do not have to be distracted by the national team.
In terms of naturalized players, in addition to the above-mentioned Jiang Guangtai, Axon, who will wear the Chengdu Rongcheng shirt in the new season, has also been called. Under the rendering of many media in the previous paragraph, Axon once again became the so-called "patriotic representative" and had countless fans. But recruiting Axon seems to go against Jankovic's own philosophy, and from Axon's recent photos, his body fat percentage does not look at all below 10%, and Exxon's current state is unknown. The other three naturalized players who had clearly stated that they wanted to return to the national football team, Luo Guofu, Alan and Li Ke, were not called. It seems that even if Li Tie and Chen Jiayuan are taken away, the living space of naturalized players in the national football team has not changed, at least from the list of the first training session.
Although there are various controversies about the long-lost national football training list, it must be said that the list does not represent the whole picture during this period. After all, these 24 people were mainly selected by the Chinese management team "assisting" Jankovic. If there is no "invisible hand" in the future national team, Jankovic will inevitably make some adjustments to the personnel in the future, and Jankovic may have some different ideas about the use of naturalized players. After nearly a year, the adult national football team has reappeared, and she must also be given a certain margin for error. Next, the national football team will complete the assembly in Haikou on March 1, and after completing the first phase of training, it will also fly to Oceania with the U24 Asian Games team in late March to complete the first official match of 2023 with the New Zealand national team. The new team and new atmosphere, I still wish our national football team good luck.