On the second day after the interview, the Xiamen Ludao Club, the China Second Division team that Wang Zihao played for, spread the news that he would no longer participate in the new season league.

　　This is the fourth time in his career that he has encountered such a dilemma.

Wang Zihao (second from right) in the game.

Image credit: Osports All Sports Photo Agency

　　For Wang Zihao, who has not received wages for 10 months, the situation is more severe this time.

　　Wang Zihao said that the team owes him more than 200,000 yuan without any whereabouts.

Now that he has to pay several thousand yuan for a trial training, it is not easy for him to find a suitable next home.

　　Having been unable to make ends meet for a long time, Wang Zihao had to borrow money to live.

His monthly expenditure is controlled at more than 1,000 yuan.

　　Because he likes football, Wang Zihao has been screened many times since he was a child before embarking on the path of being a professional player.

　　He caught up with the "Golden and Yuan Era" of Chinese football, but as an ordinary player, not only did he not receive dividends, but he had to worry about survival.

　　Wang Zihao sometimes wonders: Is it lucky or unfortunate to engage in professional football?

Xiamen Ludao, which Wang Zihao played for, faced the fate of disbanding only one year after rushing into the Chinese League Two.

Photo courtesy of the interviewee

The following is Wang Zihao's own statement-

Unlucky or lucky?

　　My name is Wang Zihao, and I am an ordinary Chinese football player.

　　When I've been at home lately, I've been wondering, is it lucky or unlucky to be in football?

Sometimes, I get really frustrated with football.

　　But I think I am lucky, at least I have realized my childhood dream and engaged in a career I like.

The teammates around me, including my teammates, chose to take this path only because they liked football since childhood.

　　I am a player in the 1993 age group, born in Dalian, the "football city", a city where many people love football.

My parents and grandpa were fans.

I was able to embark on the path of professional football without the influence of my family and the city.

Wang Zihao was in the echelon period.

Photo courtesy of the interviewee

　　I consider myself pretty lucky on the road to professional football.

　　Before the fourth grade of elementary school, I played football every weekend, two hours a day.

Coincidentally, it was the father of former Dalian player Wang Peng who took me to practice ball.

There are about a dozen children with me, all for free.

　　When it comes to this topic, many people do not believe it.

But I didn't really spend any money on the way I practiced.

Not just me, but a lot of players of my age.

Moreover, our family is an ordinary family, and if I spend money, I can't support me on this road.

　　When I was in the fifth grade, the Dalian Shide team just wanted to recruit a group of players of my age. Maybe they saw me as having training value, so they recruited me into the team.

After joining the Dalian team, not only do they not need to spend money themselves, but they will also distribute most of the training equipment.

　　I remember that among the dozen or so people who practiced with me at that time, I only recruited 2 people.

Among those who were not recruited, some might not be strong enough to play professional football.

　　But there are still a few very talented players, because the football prospects were not very good at that time, and the parents were not very supportive, and finally chose to give up.

　　Our house is fine.

Because they like football very much, they also respect my hobbies and choices, and I didn't expect me to make a lot of money playing football at the time.

Wang Zihao (right) in the game.

Image credit: Osports All Sports Photo Agency

money

　　There are many people who say that Chinese players have high wages.

Every industry has a "tip of the pyramid", which is an unattainable height for most players.

　　Frankly speaking, among us ordinary players, there are really not many of us who have enjoyed the dividends of Chinese football's "Golden Yuan Era".

　　There was an U23 policy before (each team must have players under the age of 23 in the game), maybe in addition to the players at the "top of the pyramid", these young players also received some bonuses, but our group of players did not catch up.

　　Let's start with when I first entered the reserve team.

　　In Dalian Shide, there are more than 30 players in our 1993 age group.

After continuous elimination, there were only a dozen people left in the reserve team.

Wang Zihao represented Liaoning and won the third runner-up in the 2009 National Games football competition.

Photo courtesy of the interviewee

　　In 2010, I signed my first professional contract, 1,000 yuan a month.

A year later, in order to have more chances to play, I joined the second team Fushun Hanwang on loan for a year, 3,000 yuan a month.

　　After returning to the Dalian team, my luck was a little bit bad. I seriously injured my ACL during winter training.

Players are most afraid of this, especially when it was the pre-match preparation stage of the entire season, and I was a young player and was at the point of going up.

Because of this injury, my entire season was "abandoned", and it also had an impact on my subsequent career to some extent.

　　After my leg injury fully recovered, the Dalian Shide team was about to be disbanded. I followed most of the players in the team and merged into another Chinese Super League team, Dalian Albin.

After that, the salary has risen a little, to 5,000 yuan per month.

　　But the combination of players from both teams has also increased the competition.

Considering that I didn't have many chances to stay in the reserve team, I transferred to the China Second Division team Anhui Litian (predecessor of Heilongjiang Bingcheng) in 2014 and started a "wandering journey".

Wang Zihao was in Litian period in Anhui (the predecessor of Heilongjiang Bingcheng, a Chinese League One team)

　　After playing in Anhui Litian for half a year, I was injured again, and I didn’t play for the next six months.

In addition, my family was sick and I couldn't take care of me playing football, so I returned to Dalian to work the next year and left professional football.

　　At that time, the monthly salary was only about 4,000 yuan, which was not much different from the football I used to play.

It's stable, but it's not really the life I want.

　　A year later, I returned to professional football and entered the reserve team of Beijing Beijing Enterprises, a Chinese League One team.

At that time, it was at the peak of Chinese football's Jinyuan era.

Wang Zihao was playing for the Yinchuan team.

　　Then it was a relatively stable phase in my career.

In the 2018 season, he joined the China Second Team Yinchuan and played for two years, and almost succeeded in hitting the China League One.

　　2018 is the stage when Chinese football Jinyuan era begins to go down.

At that time, my one-year salary plus winning bonus could reach more than 600,000 before tax.

But in 2019, it started to owe wages.

That year, I only got one month and 10 days' salary.

　　After the team was disbanded, I transferred again and joined Lhasa City Investments.

But in 2020, due to the epidemic, the league was postponed, and the team was disbanded before the start of the game.

　　I went to Xiamen Ludao, which was in Zhongguan at the time, and it was 300,000 yuan a year before tax.

This relatively good day is still short-lived. By the middle of 2021, the team will start to owe wages, and it has been 10 months without wages.

　　Later, the team said that if they wanted to leave the team freely, they would only be given two months’ wages, and the remaining wages in the second half of the year would not be paid.

I didn't accept it at the time. After all, it was a black-and-white contract, which was more than a hundred thousand yuan less than what I should have received.

　　But later, if you want to leave the team freely, the team will not give you a penny.

Data map: Yinchuan home fans.

Image credit: Osports All Sports Photo Agency.

feelings

　　In the current market, the next home is not easy to find.

Now the team will ask you, is it free?

Only when you are free can you go to trial training or have space to talk, otherwise you won't even talk.

　　You have to pay a trial fee.

The second team is generally 350 to 400 yuan a day, and the trial training lasts at least a week, plus the round-trip air ticket, this trip costs more than 5,000 yuan.

The money can only be returned if the trial is passed.

　　But let’s be honest, how much money can we China B players earn?

　　Among young players in their early 20s, three or four thousand yuan a month is considered high.

For most of the players in China Second Division, getting 10,000 yuan a month before tax is considered a high salary, and this may not necessarily be issued.

　　We don't have five insurances and one housing fund, we just pay three insurances according to the minimum standard, which is considered a good thing in the second team.

　　I went from June last year to April this year, almost a year without any income.

I'm not one of those "top-of-the-pyramid" players who make millions a year.

All I have is this money, and I have to pay the mortgage.

Prince Howe.

Photo courtesy of the interviewee

　　Professional football career just a few years.

I am 28 years old, and it is the golden age of professional players. I will not be able to eat this bowl of rice for a few years in the future.

　　Now I'm basically two o'clock and one line, at home, or go to play football with friends, go to the gym to exercise, and maintain my state.

I've rarely been shopping or going out to eat.

　　I figured it out, and now it costs more than 1,000 yuan a month.

I have borrowed more than 30,000 yuan from a credit card, and my parents’ pension is also helping to repay the mortgage. I also eat at my parents’ house.

I have been worrying about this year, and several white hairs have grown out.

　　I'm thinking, should I play football?

　　But what can you do after you retire?

Since I was a child, I have been playing football, and after that, I just learned a coaching certificate and taught children to play football.

　　But as far as this situation is concerned, if I retire, I think it's better to stay away from the football circle.

Not only me, but many players around me have this idea.

　　Because for most of our ordinary players, after the end of the "Golden Yuan Era" in Chinese football, it is not a matter of living from extravagance to thrift, but it is even worse than before the "Golden Yuan Era".

　　Even if there are feelings, there is really not much left to support.

　　How should we go in the future?

I haven't made up my mind yet.

　　Let's get the money back first.

(Author Bian Liqun)

　　(Note: Regarding the arrears of wages, the reporter has tried to contact the club. As of press time, the player's club has not responded to this.)