Norwegian player Johan Ho Seit, who just turned 21 in February 2019, set a record when he received his temporary Beijing identity card, becoming the first foreign player to obtain Chinese nationality, and the naturalization policy that caused a stir in domestic football began with his joining.
Five years later, when a group of veterans such as Exxon and Fernando are still working hard in the national team, Hou Yongyong, who is only 26 years old, is gradually moving away, and last year he did not get his contract extension with Guoan and chose to join the Norwegian team Lanheim, and his Chinese story has ended.
Ironically, the first naturalized player in Chinese football was also one of the first players to "escape" from China, earning 20 million yuan from Guoan in four years, only to leave a poor record of 28 appearances. In other words, the national security will pay him 710,000 every time he plays.
Hou Yongyong has high hopes not only in China, but also in his birthplace of Norway.
Start: 16-year-old youngest player in the Norwegian league
Hou Yongyong was born in Norway in 1998, his mother is called Hou Yurong from Luoyang, Henan, more than 20 years ago Hou Yurong met the Norwegian Seth during his doctoral studies in Japan, and later started a family, his parents are doctors, and his wealthy family background has exposed him to a lot of things that children can't get since he was a child.
In addition to football, his childhood memories include violin, piano and chess, and his piano skills have even reached the level of being able to play in a concert hall with thousands of people, Hou Yurong said that without football he would have become a household name in Norway.
"Learning piano and playing soccer are very time-consuming, so when it comes to choosing between the two, I still prefer football and feel that I am more talented in football. In the end, he chose to become a footballer.
Hou Yongyong was a child of "someone else's family" since he was a child, and at the age of 5 he joined an amateur club in the local Norwegian community for basic training, and nine years later the Norwegian giant Rosenborg threw an olive branch to him. The road ahead of Hou Yongyong is extremely clear, starting from Rosenborg to win the championship for the team, then going to the Champions League to make a name for himself and get the attention of scouts from the big five leagues, and finally joining his favorite club Manchester United.
Because Norway's greatest star, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, came from there, and before Haaland, Babyface was almost the only idol of all Norwegian footballers.
At the age of 16, Hou Yongyong embarked on the first steps of his great journey, becoming the youngest league player in the club's history and receiving the Norwegian Football Association's Talented Junior Award.
At the age of 17, he represented the team in the UEFA Cup, while Norway had three talents shining in their own right: aura midfielder Odegaard, tall defender Aye and the young Hou Yongyong, who together supported the future of Norwegian football, and the media at the time called them the "Norwegian Three".
Years later, Odegaard and Aye are still important forces in the Norwegian national team, with only Hou Yongyong left behind.
But in fact, Hou Yongyong's initial performance was no worse than them, he was selected for the Norwegian national youth team at all levels, and he was also the captain of the team.
But life is always full of twists and turns, and the road from Rosenborg to Manchester is still unexpected.
Disillusioned: Unable to cash in on talent at the age of 18 due to injury
Hou Yongyong's memories of Manchester United were planted very early, in 2008 at the age of 10, he participated in the Manchester United Football School Tournament, when more than 20,000 teenagers from all over the world gathered at the Carrington training base, and Hou Yongyong finally won the second place in the competition.
Red Devils legend Sir Bobby Charlton personally presented the award at Old Trafford, who looked childish in his Manchester United shirt.
It was here that he met Ole Gunnar Solskjaer for the first time, saying: "Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is a player I have always admired, and playing at Manchester United is not just every Norwegian kid's dream, I think it's the same all over the world. When Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was linked with Manchester United, it fueled our dreams even further. ”
However, only two years after joining Rosenborg, Hou Yongyong had a heart disease, similar to the plot of Mitsugi Jun in "Football Player", handsome but with heart problems, and he is extremely persistent in football.
His heart rate would rise as soon as he did high-intensity training and competitions, and the doctor advised him to take a break to recover before returning to the football field.
For the next six months, at the age of 18, he had to take a break from football. "It's a painful choice, of course, but it can't be helped, every athlete doesn't want an injury. ”
The age of 18 was also a turning point in his career, and they had to fight injuries at the age when they needed to get the ball up the most, but heart problems are very innate, and sometimes the harder you try, the more sad you get, especially for geniuses.
Rosenborg can accommodate him less and less time to grow, he needs a lot of games to improve his ability, and finally he joined the middle and lower reaches of the Norwegian league team Starbeck, he is still the main force of the national youth team at all levels but on a bigger stage, compared to Odegaard and Aye, who went abroad to play early, Hou Yongyong has been trapped in Norway, in Starbeck he can not be seen by more people, and his performance is not as expected.
The door of the national team has not been able to open for him for a long time, and in the blink of an eye, in 2019, 21-year-old Hou Yongyong stands at a crossroads in his life.
That road to Old Trafford has been closed and where is he going to make his dream come true if his football career is going on.
Turnaround: At the age of 21, he became the first naturalized player in Chinese football
When he was a child, his mother would take Hou Yongyong and his sister back to his hometown in Luoyang every summer, China is not a strange homeland for him, but his other half of the motherland, Hou Yurong also attaches great importance to his son's Chinese cultural training, although he is in Norway, but whenever she has the opportunity to cook Chinese food for the whole family, Hou Yongyong is no stranger to Chinese food, he can say kung pao chicken, buns, dumplings, hot pot in Chinese, and also said that he also likes to eat spicy things.
Compared with many naturalized bloodlines who do not know anything about Chinese, Hou Yongyong can basically communicate in Chinese for simple purposes.
Advice about Chinese football appeared in Hou Yongyong's life, and it all started with that simple dinner.
Hou Yongyong, who was only 20 years old in 2018, experienced three years as a professional footballer, but he played for three teams in these three years, and his parent club Rosenborg loaned him to the second league for training, but he did not win a contract extension after the contract expired, and as the main player and captain of the former national youth team, he was swept away by the team.
That night, he had dinner with his family, during which Hou Yurong passed him some information.
"They want me to change my Chinese passport or something crazy. For me, it was really exciting, to meet a whole new culture, to be a new player, and I was only 20 years old" The idea of moving to China first came to his mind.
His meteoric career needed a fresh start, and nine months later he met Li Ming, the general manager of Beijing Guoan, in Oslo, and they talked a lot about naturalization.
"It's a great honor for my family. "He is half Chinese, it is very attractive for him to play there, it will be very fulfilling, his biggest wish is to be selected for the national team to participate in the World Cup, if the door of Norway is closed, at this time he must seize the window opened by Chinese football.
Guoan directly gave him a contract with an annual salary of 5 million yuan for 4 years, and everything was not so difficult, Yu Qing This is his other half of his home country, Yu Li went to China to play football and earn more, and at the same time there was hope to continue to participate in the World Cup.
On January 31, 2019, 10 days after his 21st birthday, Beijing Guoan officially announced that Hou Yongyong joined his nationality as China, but the first thing he noticed when he came to the Chinese Super League was not his football skills and his former halo, but his appearance.
Hou Yongyong has inherited almost all the high-quality genes of Sino-European mixed blood, and this handsome face can also attract countless fans even if he is put in the entertainment industry, and many people are looking forward to his better development in the future and become the face of the national football team. However, he prefers to focus on his performance on the pitch, "After all, I came here to be a professional footballer. ”
Hou Yongyong became the first naturalized player in Chinese football to obtain citizenship, at that time, the group of Brazilian naturalized players were generally over 30 years old, Hou Yongyong is young and handsome and in line with the U23 policy of the Chinese Super League, he is one of the few naturalized players who invest in the future.
Less than a month later, in the Super Cup with SIPG, he came on as a substitute for 20 minutes in the 71st minute, which was a milestone for Chinese football, and the first naturalized man made his debut, and when the player entered, he sang the national anthem on the bench, which surprised the club staff.
These are not pretentious, he will celebrate the birthday of the motherland on social media on National Day, this year's FA Cup, he scored his first goal in Guoan, everything is developing in the direction that people expected, but no one expected that this would become one of the few highlights in the next four years.
The words that come up most on his social media are "full recovery" and "miss the game", he only played 8 league games for Guoan in the 2020 season, many times as a substitute, and the cumulative playing time was less than 300 minutes, and in 2021, he was directly reimbursed for the season due to injury, and the genius who came from afar not only did not show his magic but consumed everyone's patience.
Ending: At the age of 25, he got a salary of 20 million and returned to Norway
On August 19, 2022, he finally returned to the field after a 707-day hiatus, his first and last appearance of the entire season.
In addition to injuries and strength, Hou Yongyong did not show a level higher than other domestic aids.
It took 246 days for him to make his first start, and four minutes later he scored his first Super League goal, but before he could celebrate wildly, he was forgotten in the blink of an eye.
"Do you have any dreams when you come to China?" a reporter asked him in 2019.
Hou Yongyong said: "I hope to improve my level in the league and one day I can enter the Chinese national team and represent the national team...... It's a joy to win three titles in one season. ”
Now, one of his two wishes is to play for the country, one is to win the championship for the country, and the other has not been fulfilled.
No one expected that the Chinese Football Association naturalized a glass man, compared to Li Ke, Hou Yongyong's help to Guoan and the national football team was very small both on and off the field.
The annual salary of 5 million given by the team is almost a waste, and his only gain may be that he has become rich.
Previously, he had no interest in famous watches, but when he saw the love of the players in the Beijing Guoan team for watches, he also bought a watch worth more than 250,000 yuan, which was his salary in Norway for more than half a year.
Later, Hou Yongyong was also owed millions of wages by the club, and he hired a lawyer to start recovering the arrears. "If I had a Norwegian passport, I would have been more likely to receive this unpaid salary, but as a Chinese player it's more difficult, and you don't have a chance to appeal to FIFA. If you want to deal with this further, you have to contact the Chinese Football Association, but will they help you or the club? If you are Chinese, it is really not so easy to get back the salary arrears".
At this time, his relationship with the club has broken down, from Norway to China, Hou Yongyong has brought hope to people again and again, leaving only disappointment, some people call him "the most failed naturalization", he can not help the club and even more unable to help the national team, and he has consumed his talent in injury after injury.
Hou Yongyong, who is only 25 years old in March 2023, joined Norwegian second-division side Lanheim, and the information shows that he has changed back to Norwegian nationality, and his four-year Super League resume may not give him extra points, "This is a new start for me, everything will be new in Lanheim." I've just turned 25, so I'm not too old, so there's still time."
Maybe his only gain is the salary of 20 million, whether it is Norwegian player Johan Ho Seit, or Chinese player Hou Yongyong, his football experience has not been brilliant, we have seen too many geniuses fall, Hou Yongyong will not be the first and will not be the last.
His peculiarity lies in the fact that he once had the opportunity to become a milestone figure in the great changes in the national football team, which is particularly precious in the lack of talented national football team, and the first naturalized player in Chinese football has left nothing, and he may not be reconciled.