On the 15th of this month, the 2001 Chinese Olympic team moved from Croatia to Belgium to continue training and preparation. Due to the injury of a number of local club players who were part of the training team, they were temporarily unable to join the team, and the coaching staff of the Olympic team had to recruit some new talents from overseas clubs to meet the needs of training and warm-up.
According to the new training notice of the National Olympic Team announced by the Chinese Football Association in early March this year, a total of 3 players should participate in the preparation of the next team and the European training trip, but Huang Zihao, Liang Shaowen, Liu Zhurun, Tao Qianglong, Abdu Rousuli and Abbra Khan 30 players were seconded by the 6 men's Asian Games team to participate in the warm-up match with the New Zealand U1999 team in late March. By March 3, when the Olympic team gathered in Shanghai, only 22 players had registered for duty. In addition, goalkeeper Ji Tao was left in China by his new owner Chengdu Rongcheng Club to prepare for the Chinese Super League. As a result, when the Olympic team arrived in Croatia, there were fewer than 3 players.
In this case, the coaching staff of the National Olympic Team had to recruit new players such as central defender Liu Haofan, midfielder Mu Talipu and goalkeeper Yu Jinyong from the U20 national football team that ended the U20 Asian Cup competition, as for Hu Hetao, Efelding, Bai Lamu and other players were originally players in the national Olympic team's squad, so the national Olympic team's employment crisis was temporarily alleviated. However, Efelding had to leave the club temporarily in early April due to a move to the Swiss Super League.
The National Olympic Team also faces another difficult problem, that is, the domestic clubs to which many players belong are affected by the competitive pressure of professional leagues at all levels in the new season, and are unwilling to let their players participate in the long-term preparation of the National Olympic Team. For example, the Nanjing City Club of the Chinese League One, where goalkeeper Huang Zihao plays, said that it would reuse the young goalkeeper in the new season. Chinese Super League champions Wuhan Three Towns Club intends to reuse Tao Qianglong in the new season of the Chinese Super League. In addition, Abra Khan and Liu Zhurun were both plagued by injuries before. It is reported that in the early days of the Olympic team's training in Croatia, it was difficult to put together even two sets of relatively complete internal competition lineups, and even in the goalkeeper position, only one person was available for a while.
In an emergency, the coaching staff of the Olympic team "loaned" Liu Shao Ziyang, the former goalkeeper of the U20 national football training team and currently playing in Europe, to participate in training and warm-up matches, until Yu Jinyong and several other U20 national youth players arrived in Zagreb, Liu Shao Ziyang returned to the club he played for in Austria. It is reported that the coaching staff of the National Olympic Team has previously proposed to recruit other players to the team, but the clubs to which these players belong have not been allowed to go.
In this case, the coaching staff of the National Olympic Team had to target overseas clubs. For example, Li Haoran, a 1999 player who currently plays for Croatia's third-tier club Sesvet, was recently called up to Belgium by the Olympic team. However, due to the shortage of personnel in the team's back line, Li Haoran, who was originally a wing raider, was temporarily transformed into a defender by the coaching staff of the National Olympic Team.
Another full-back who joined Croatia's international club this winter is Cheng Ka-shing, who moved to Croatia's international Zaprešić from Belgium. In the last minute of the national Olympic team's match against Belgium's St. Giros United U19 team on the 23th local time, Zheng Jiacheng made his first substitute appearance for the team.
Li Xiancheng and Wang Bowen, who play for Germany's Werder Bremen U23 team, traveled to Croatia earlier this month to join the Olympic team, but they mainly play the role of "sparring", and when the Olympic team Belgium training is over, the two of them will return to Germany and will not continue to participate in the training with the Olympic team.
It should be noted that the National Olympic Team's recruitment of some overseas club players is just an emergency move. In terms of technical level and experience, these players do not yet have the absolute strength to impact the main team or the main substitute of the national Olympic team. Until the Olympic team enters the Olympic preliminary competition in the second half of this year, the main players will return to the team.
Text/Reporter Xiao Zhao