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"Luo Guofu apologized", which was on Weibo's hot search early this morning.
In the 4th round of the 2022 World Cup Qualifiers for the Asian Zone Round of 12, which ended in the early morning, Saudi Arabia defeated China 3:2. After the game, Luo Guofu, a naturalized player who scored a goal, said: "It is still a pity that I mishandled that single knife ball, and apologized to the millions of fans in front of the TV. ”
For this apology of Luo Guofu, netizens have left messages, "You don't need to apologize", "You have performed very well", "Thank you"...
The mood of the fans is easy to understand. This time against Saudi Arabia, few people held out hope. Lo Kwok-fu came on as a substitute in the second half and quickly contributed a beautiful draw. The performance of the naturalized players gave the fans a glimmer of victory, and after the final loss, it turned into a widespread question - why not let the naturalized players play sooner? Many people shouted out "Li Tie is out of class" almost reflexively.
Luo Guofu's apology pierced his heart and made the fans feel mixed. There is also a huge controversy here, that is, how to view naturalized players? Imagine if the stadium represented China was represented by foreigners like Luo Guofu, even if the victory was won, what was the meaning and weight of this victory? Can we accept with peace of mind that a naturalized athlete who is not black hair and yellow skin will fight for glory for China?
As far as football is concerned, it carries the feelings of the Chinese people too strongly: disappointment, hope, disappointment, hope again, repeated reincarnation, this drastic transformation, is undoubtedly a torture for the Chinese people. The national football team needs a hearty victory to prove itself, but china's strength, do we still need the victory of the national football team to prove it? What kind of way can we accept such a victory?
In a special way, Luo Guofu put these unpleasant problems in front of us.
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Luo Guofu, the name first appeared in public in February last year. Aloisio posted his Chinese passport on social media, and the boarding pass showed the name "LUO GUOFU".
Chinese fans are more familiar with "Aloisio".
In 2014, Shandong Luneng hired Brazilian coach Kuka to start the team's "Brazilianization" strategy. The team's three new signings are all from South America: Montillo is from Argentina, and Aloisio and Uso are from Brazil.
Aloisio, who was 26 at the time, was the top scorer of the Brazilian team São Paulo and the team's relegation hero in the Brazilian League.
However, compared to the former Brazilian international Lowe in the Luneng team at the time, fans were not cold to Aloisio, an unknown player. Aloisio is considered by many fans to be Lowe's substitute, or even a foil.
Aloisio's performance seems to confirm this as well.
In the first season of 2014, Aloisio's performance was relatively mediocre. Throughout the season, he scored 10 goals in 27 appearances. Of those, only four goals were scored in the first 21 league rounds. Aloisio was once labeled a "parallel cargo", and even because he had the most shots on goal in the whole team, some people jokingly called him "the king of wave shots".
By the 2015 season, With Lowe's departure, Aloisio had more room to play. He is still the player with the most shots on goal, but this season, Aloisio won the Golden Boot in the Chinese Super League with 22 goals. It also became his "highlight moment" in China.
Also in Luneng, because of his strong body, tough style and rough technique, fans gave him a nickname called "Bison".
In July 2016, Aloisio joined Hebei Huaxia Happiness. In Huaxia Happiness, Aloisio made 37 appearances and scored 20 goals. It is worth mentioning that the coach of the team at that time was Li Tie, the current head coach of the Chinese men's football team. Just over a month later, Li Tie was "dismissed" and the two spent a short time together.
Since then, with the addition of the Chinese League A team in 2018, Aloisio has gradually faded from people's vision.
Until the summer of 2019, some media exposed that Aloisio was about to join Guangzhou Evergrande, and the news of related naturalization continued to come out, and he returned to the spotlight of the media again.
In April 2020, the officially naturalized Aloisio was selected for the Chinese national team under the name of "Luo Guofu". But in the 29th minute of the warm-up match more than a month later, in the absence of confrontation, he strained his muscles and missed the game.
Questions about his naturalization grew.
It is said that Luo Guofu is old. At the age of 33, he has indeed passed the golden age of a professional player.
It is said that Luo Guofu is too fat, from "bison" to "fat cow". Even though it has lost 20 pounds from its peak, it is still 14 pounds heavier than before, almost "carrying 14 pounds of sandbags" running.
Some say that Luo Guofu has fallen to the middle of the first division, or simply accused that Luo Guofu has been in China for 7 years, and will not say Chinese, "it can be seen that there is no feeling for China."
But after the battle against Saudi Arabia, netizens generally questioned "why didn't you let Luo Guofu play sooner."
On the pitch, the goal is the most telling. Even though Luo Guofu is old and fat, he is conscientious and diligent on the field, just like he said himself, "Be serious and do yourself well."
Therefore, after Luo Guofu came on as a substitute, his active dedication to the fight changed the spirit of the entire team, and there was also a new look in the second half of the national football team.
In the latest national football 23-man roster, in addition to Luo Guofu, there are three naturalized players: Jiang Guangtai (born in the United Kingdom), Axon (born in Brazil) and Alain (born in Brazil).
The use of these naturalized players has been a source of attention and controversy.
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In fact, how to view "naturalized" players is a difficult problem in various countries.
European soccer powers such as Germany and France are beneficiaries of "naturalization", but there are also problems such as identity.
The Germans were resistant to naturalized players for a long time. It wasn't until the 2000 World Cup and the humiliating elimination of Portugal's Euro 2004 that Germany began to recruit and use naturalized players.
Moreover, Germany's use of naturalized players is placed under the national youth system. People like Gundogan, Emre-Jan (of Turkish origin), Boateng (of Ghanaian origin), Mustafi (Albanian), etc. were all selected in this way and became the backbone of the German national team's honors in the future.
Among the naturalized players in Germany, most of them are of Turkish descent. Most of them are descendants of Turkish immigrants born in Germany, and by virtue of the principle of German citizenship, they automatically become German citizens, but because Germany and Turkey are countries that recognize dual citizenship, they also have Turkish citizenship. Whether they are naturalized players or not is somewhat debatable.
This also leads to a crisis of identity, are these players Germans or Turks?
Among the European football powers, the French national team is also a "bloodless naturalization" household. The French national football team is even known as the "African team".
At the 2018 FIFA World Cup, which won the title, 14 of France's 23 players were of African descent and only 6 were pure white Europeans. This is partly because of the increasing number and proportion of blacks in France; on the other hand, France's "naturalization" strategy is to go to Africa and select gifted children to bring back to clubs.
The current staffing of the French football team is partly a reflection of the current demographics and immigration in the country, but the attitude towards "naturalized" players in France is still controversial.
For example, Benzema's imitation of Zidane, a famous man of Algerian descent, who did not sing "Marseillaise" during the national team competition, received a lot of criticism in France, and some people thought that this may be one of the potential reasons for his eventual expulsion from the French team.
Despite all the controversies, in Europe, where football competition is very strong, the use of "naturalized" players is still a strategy that countries are reluctant to give up when they compete for power.
Still, there are few examples of a team relying entirely on naturalized players suddenly getting stronger. No one will think that the strength of Football in Germany, France and other countries is brought about by naturalized players.
In recent years, the phenomenon of "naturalization" has also gradually increased among Asian national teams.
At least 17 of the 24 teams participating in the 2019 Asian Cup have naturalized players, and even more than 90% of the players in the Philippines are naturalized players. Qatar, Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, the United Arab Emirates and Iraq in Western Asia are all supported by "naturalized" players.
On the contrary, Asian football powers such as Japan and South Korea are still cautious on the issue of naturalization.
In fact, among Asian countries, it is Japan that uses naturalized players earlier. In the past 30 years, the naturalization trend represented by Ramos, LüBisu and Santo lords has contributed to Japanese football. However, when it comes to naturalized players, Japan has always been cautious and has placed more emphasis on their "utility".
Our other close neighbour, South Korea, has not yet "naturalized" players join the national team.
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Back to China.
Domestic debates about naturalized players are equally fierce.
One voice believes that as long as you put on our national team jersey, you are your own person.
A veteran sports journalist told The Supplementary Knife that naturalization is a common international practice. Many other countries have done this, and we can do the same, as long as the five-star red flag is raised at the end.
But some disagree, arguing that the requisition of foreign players is unacceptable because it would diminish the national pride generated by winning. If the chinese players on the court are all foreign faces such as Luo Guofu and Alain, how meaningful and weight will the Chinese team have even if they win?
One cultural scholar said that this entangled mentality reflects the complex feelings of Chinese for national football.
In the past few decades, China's GDP has jumped to the second place in the world, the field of technological innovation has been continuously stepped up to a new level, and it can even be said that in most aspects of the comprehensive national strength, we have achieved remarkable achievements. Logically, China's rise no longer needs a victory or strength of the Chinese men's football team to prove.
However, the men's football team carries too much emotion from Chinese fans and even the whole society.
Many people can't let go of an obsession in their hearts: football, especially men's football self-improvement, should be the "standard" of a big country like us.
The debate over "should we naturalize players" will continue, with some supporting and certainly others opposing. But at present, whether to use it or not is no longer a question that the Chinese men's football team needs to answer.
How to use naturalized players well is.
The senior sports journalist mentioned above suggested that when it comes to naturalized players, since we have worked hard to solve the problem of their identity and nationality, there is no need to let them sit on the bench and do it.
Finally, I would like to say that I should still be grateful to naturalized players like Lo Guofu and Alain. At least in the early hours of this morning against saudi arabia, their performance in the second half really ignited a glimmer of hope among the fans.
What naturalized players can bring to the national football team and even Chinese football as a whole, naturalization is only a stopgap measure or will continue for a longer period of time, can only be seen while walking.
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