Fans familiar with Guangzhou Evergrande should remember an Italian foreign player. He is the Italian international midfielder Diamanti, who was brought in by Lippi in the 2014 season. How is he doing today?
After many years away from Evergrande, he has reached the age of 38 and has now ushered in another spring of his career in the Australian Premier League team Western United.
In the just-concluded Australian Premier League season, the former Evergrande veteran contributed 9 assists and eventually won the award of the Australian Premier League assist king this season. It is worth mentioning that in the last Australian Premier League season, he also won the award of the Most Valuable Player in the Australian Premier League. In just two seasons, the 38-year-old Italian has won the MVP and assist king awards in the Australian Premier League, which is really an old man, and the older he gets, the more demon he gets.
According to statistics, in the past two seasons, Diamanti has contributed a total of 9 goals and 16 assists to the Australian Premier League Western United, which is equivalent to one person making 25 goals for the team. Under his high-profile leadership, the Australian Premier League New Army Western United has also entered the top three of the Australian Premier League from a team that is not optimistic about the outside world. There is no doubt that the Italian veteran has become an indispensable thigh-level figure for the team.
Mention of Diamanti, it is inevitable to think of a period of his past history at Evergrande. Overall, Diamanti's performance at Evergrande can be described as high and low. In the first AFC Champions League game after joining Evergrande, Diamanti can be described as a blockbuster. Facing the Australian team Melbourne Victory, in the case of Evergrande conceding two goals first, he played the role of a superstar, staged a double, two world wave goals are simply a technical surprise, and finally led Evergrande to turn the tide, 4:2 to achieve a big reversal. After this plug-and-play highlight game, Diamanti was highly recognized by Evergrande fans, and was even praised by the outside world as evergrande's "new celestial king", which was close to the most successful foreign aid In the history of the team, Conca.
However, after a brief highlight, Diamanti soon fell into a slump, and repeated shots became the deepest memories he left for Evergrande fans. Throughout the 2014 season, he played 24 games for Evergrande and only scored 4 goals, but contributed 9 assists, which did not meet Evergrande's expectations for him, and was purged by Evergrande. Because of his poor performance, Lippi, who led the introduction of him, was also criticized by the outside world and eventually left the Evergrande coaching position. In fact, looking back now, if Evergrande had more patience with Diamanti that year, with his ability, once he adapted to the Chinese Super League, he was entirely likely to perform like his compatriot Pele. Unfortunately, there are no ifs in this world.