On this international match day, Chinese fans are faced with three hot words: China Cup , Cristiano Ronaldo, Messi .
The China Cup is the first major event for Chinese football in 2019. Especially in 2019, Chinese football is facing many huge changes. Evergrande has transformed into the national team, Cannavaro has transformed into the national football coach and started to take charge of the 2022 World Cup, and there will be expansion in 2022. Hope, the hope of the national football team to enter the World Cup has soared. The Cup of China is the first training of the new national football team. The ugly daughter-in-law always has to meet her parents-in-law. How effective the "national training team" is, it has to be shown to the fans, especially the leaders. After all, the "national training team" "It was the leader's decision. If it weren't for the quick thinking of the leaders, and the angry crowds outside the national team playing in the Chinese Super League, who would have come up with such a tricky idea as the "Evergrande National Training Team" to save the country?
At the same time, Ronaldo and Messi both returned to the national team, and Portugal and Argentina needed two people to save them.
C Luo lives up to his promise. Last year, he, Juventus and Portugal agreed that Ronaldo would not play in the UEFA Nations League and would rest for half a year. Now the European Cup qualifiers are on. Portugal is in the same group as Ukraine and Serbia. This is not a child's play in the "European League". Without Ronaldo, Portugal is really not sure of qualifying. Although Messi's return is reasonable, it is more eye-catching than Ronaldo. After withdrawing from the World Cup last year, the world believes that Messi will return as the king. It is only a matter of time. Now that he has returned, the organizers of the America's Cup and the Argentine Football Association are relieved, because this means that Messi will play in the America's Cup. The appeal of the event and Sponsorship is guaranteed.
Moreover, from a purely competitive perspective, Argentina is indeed indispensable for Messi - without Cristiano Ronaldo, Portugal still ranked first in the UEFA Champions League group and reached the semi-finals, but without Messi, Argentina had trouble even qualifying for the World Cup the year before last! That shot against Ecuador in the last game was so important!
What’s interesting is that while Cristiano Ronaldo and Messi have made a high-profile return, the China Cup is missing a protagonist - Wu Lei.
It stands to reason that the China Cup is a "national team event". It is only natural that China's number one star plays for the national team. You see, Ronaldo and Messi have both returned. In this regard, Wu Lei's card is actually bigger than Ronaldo and Messi.
But on this point, although Chinese football is still criticized, it seems to be in line with international standards. He has just established a foothold in Espanyol. At this time, it is not necessary to send him back to play in the China Cup, and it is not conducive to his success in the game. The Spaniards continued to put down roots.
The pioneers of Japanese and Korean football in Europe in the early years- Hidetoshi Nakata and Ahn Jung-hwan, but did not have this treatment. After Nakata and Ahn Jung-hwan "established" in Serie A, they faced conflicts between individuals and the national team. , Of course they want to play in the 2002 World Cup, but after finally opening up in Serie A, they don't want the national team to take them back for general warm-ups, because this will definitely affect their status and the club's main status. But Japan and South Korea are the host countries of the 2002 World Cup. There are no qualifiers, so what else can they play besides warm-up matches? Therefore, there were conflicts between Hidetoshi Nakata and Troussier, and Ahn Jung-hwan and Hiddink.
In the 2002 World Cup, Hidetoshi Nakata actually didn’t have many highlights. He only added one goal in the game against Tunisia. This was quite inconsistent with his status as the No. 1 brother in Japan (perhaps the No. 1 brother in Asia) at the time. Maybe he had been in Serie A for a long time and was not in line with the special team. Roussier's Japanese team did not call; as for Ahn Jung-hwan, he was not even selected for the 2001 Confederations Cup squad. In the World Cup, Hiddink wavered between him and Huang Shanhong. Initially, Huang was the main player and Ahn was the substitute, but However, the effect of the appearance was that Ahn was better than Huang. Hiddink had to rank Ahn Jung-hwan before Huang Shanhong, and then he had the one to overpower Maldini.
Not to mention Japan and South Korea, the traditional Western football countries, the contradiction between clubs and national teams has always existed. The more powerful the person, the deeper the contradiction. On the one hand, they hope to have a solid seat in the national team to ensure their status in the World Cup and European Cup ; on the other hand, the intensive club competitions allow them to push away ordinary national team competitions as much as possible.
This was the case for Totti back then. Of course he played in the European Cup and World Cup qualifiers, but he refused to play in the general warm-up due to injury. When Italy won the 2006 World Cup, Totti reached the peak of his life. He felt relieved and began to be ambiguous about the national team. The then Italian coach Donadoni happened to be a weak and inexperienced coach. Big stars refused to play, and young coaches had no choice but to play.
In the end, Italy still qualified despite Totti's absence from the entire European Cup qualifiers. Donadoni completed the "transition without Totti". After realizing that Donadoni's wings were hard, Totti simply stayed. In his early 30s, he announced his retirement from the national team.
Even better than Totti is former Dalian Yifang coach Schuster. In 1980, when he was only 21 years old, he won the European Cup with West Germany as the main force. However, after World Cup Qualifiers West Germany faced Albania, he was a loser anyway. The team won all the small games no matter what, it didn't matter whether he made it or not. Schuster refused to report for the birth of his youngest son. He had conflicts with coach De Waal and the German Football Association, and was expelled. He simply broke the pot and quit in the end. Even the 1982 World Cup didn’t matter.
1984 European Cup West Germany team failed in the group, de Waal dismissed get out of class, Beckenbauer came on stage, publicly said that Schuster was immature, the great man did not care who you are in a rage, Beckenbauer did not give face , simply quit the national team permanently.
In the 2016 Centennial America's Cup, Messi also withdrew from the national team once after losing in the final. At that time, he was extremely dissatisfied with the Argentine Football Association, which led to a general outbreak - the corruption problem of the Argentine Football Association had seriously affected the national team. The acting chairman of the Football Association embezzled the TV broadcast funds of the Argentine League, and the coach Martino was owed wages. The competition prize money was misappropriated, the national team did not book a hotel in advance for the America's Cup, and the traditional team training for the Argentina team was cut off... However, the Football Association organized a group to watch the America's Cup, but there were a large number of unrelated royal relatives, which became Messi's withdrawal from the de facto tour group only represents the anger of the core members of the national team towards the Football Association.
Wu Lei is different. At this moment, he enjoys unique treatment in the entire Chinese sports world. The number one star can be "exempted from military service". Let alone Chinese football, the entire Chinese sports world is a special case. It reflects the transcendent status of Chinese football in today's Chinese sports world.
Players studying abroad do not return to play in their home countries. This is a precedent in Europe and the United States, and Chinese sports are no exception. Small frictions have turned into big contradictions and conflicts. The most serious one is Wang Zhizhi - Wang Zhizhi hoped to continue to stay in the United States to play in the summer league and integrate into the team as soon as possible. , and finally officially signed the contract, but the Chinese Basketball Association wanted him to return to China to prepare for the Asian Games, which would inevitably affect Wang Zhizhi's economic interests. In the end, the two sides communicated to no avail and broke up. Wang Zhizhi refused to report to the national team. The Chinese Basketball Association announced that Wang Zhizhi would be expelled. This is the most serious refusal to return in the history of Chinese sports.
The Wang Zhizhi incident is still controversial from different perspectives. Some fans believe that this is a "personal struggle system", while the official statement of the Chinese Basketball Association believes that he values personal interests above all else and ignores national training. It is impossible to believe that he will serve the country selflessly.
Today's Wu Lei is much happier than Wang Zhizhi. Wang Zhizhi was alone in the NBA, but behind Wu Lei was the entire Shanghai SIPG Group, the Xinghui Group behind the Spaniard, and even the entire Chinese Football Association. , is a national project. Wu Lei's transfer fee, salary, and SIPG's straightforward attitude of releasing players are not normal behavior of the professional football free market at all, but have a strong flavor of planned economy and planned football. After all, it is part of the entire national football team's plan to hit the World Cup for overseas players to open up opportunities and improve themselves through top mainstream leagues. Such a package of projects is far more important than the national team playing a few warm-up matches. In this regard, perhaps the Chinese Football Association is more open than the Basketball Association back then.
Of course, from another perspective, Wu Lei was born in SIPG, and the national training team belongs to Evergrande. No matter how good the national training team is, Wu Lei can't do it.The national training team of the Evergrande team has no say in how Wu Lei is used, because it depends on the struggle between the two major groups, Evergrande and SIPG.
Therefore, whether Wu Lei should be used by the national team and the national training team, what games, and when Wu Lei should be used has become a delicate topic. Wu Lei will definitely return to China to participate in the World Cup qualifiers. This is absolutely no problem. The problem is that the team lineup does not leave a vacancy for anyone in advance. When he comes back, he will naturally fill it. He needs to practice together, run in, and integrate... ....The lineup for the world preliminaries is determined by the series of warm-up matches on weekdays. If you don't play small games, you may not be able to win the big games.
The China Cup does not need to be played. Then, the East Asian Cup at the end of the year is not a particularly important game. It will be held in South Korea from December 9th to 18th. That is when La Liga is in full swing. Will Wu Lei come back to play?
