The matchday 2 of the 10th round of the Chinese Super League will take place on 28 May. According to the reporter of Beijing Youth Daily, Chinese men's football coach Jankovic and several foreign assistants will appear at the Shenzhen Universiade Center Stadium that night to watch the Shenzhen team's home match against Meizhou Hakka. Subsequently, the coaching staff will preliminarily circle a list of about 24 international players based on the inspection of candidate players in the first 10 rounds of the Chinese Super League to prepare for the new national football training and two international A warm-up matches in June.
The Beiqing News reporter learned that compared with the "Yankovic Phase I" training lineup in March this year, the overall training lineup of the national football team in June has not changed much. As is customary, Yankovic will have two candidates for each field position, so even if some players are in the top 1/3 of the Super League this season, if there are many candidates in the same position, then the coaching staff will not use too many newcomers. Considering that the national football team needs to grind through the warm-up matches in June, September and October for the 2026 World Preliminary Round of 36 and the 2023 Asian Cup, Wu Lei, Jiang Guangtai and other players who were originally included in the candidate lineup of the men's Asian Games team will probably still participate in the training and warm-up of the national football team in June.
Influenced by the international football competition year this year, the first stage of the 2023 Chinese Super League season is very close. To this end, the national football coaching staff, with Jankovic as the main coach, frequently travels to various competition cities to scout candidate international players through the league, and each team has to examine at least two matches. Jankovic does not want to "miss" any capable player in the selection process.
Before arriving in Shenzhen, Jankovic had already inspected a number of Chinese Super League matches in Shanghai, Beijing, Wuhan, Tianjin, Dalian and other regions in the past week or so, with an average of three league games per round. During this period, he also conducted a field visit to the new Barracuda Bay Professional Stadium in Dalian on the 25th, which will host the two warm-up matches of the national football team in June. According to the plan, after returning to Beijing on the 29th, the coaching staff members will finalize a preliminary selection list for June training as soon as possible.
In the first 10 rounds of the new season, there are some players who have performed well, including some newcomers, and the outside world has gradually called for them to be selected for the national football team. However, on the issue of selection, Jankovic still adheres to the principle of two players in one field position, so the overall change in the training lineup of the national football team in June is not much.
Another factor that will have an impact on the selection of the national football team's training lineup for this period will be the preparation of the men's Asian Games team. Prior to this, the Chinese Football Association and the coaching staff of the two teams had reached a consensus that before the start of the Hangzhou Asian Games football match, the national team would take care of the men's Asian Games team in terms of personnel recruitment. Considering that the Hangzhou Asian Games will open in September this year, the men's Asian Games team is very much in need of training in June and two warm-up matches with the South Korean Asian Games team to grind the main lineup, so three candidates will be recruited for over-age internationals. Judging from the current situation, Zhang Yuning, Wu Xi, Zhang Linpeng, who were once selected for the over-age international squad candidate team, are plagued by injuries and other factors, and there is a high probability that they will not participate in the training and competition of the men's Asian Games team in June.
Although Wu Lei, Jiang Guangtai and other players are also among the candidates for the Asian Games team, considering that the preparation tasks of the national football world preliminary round and the Asian Cup are also arduous, the national football team also needs to further grind the lineup through the warm-up match in June, so the two of them are left in the national football team is almost a foregone conclusion. As for which over-aged international players will participate in the men's Asian Games team's training camp and warm-up games in June, the coaching staff of the two teams will have to study it carefully.
Text/Beiqing Sports Xiao Zhao