Chinese foot basket: no big brother

On the night of August 29, 2023, when Yi Jianlian announced the end of his sports career with a microblog, people used all praise to express their respect to the men’s basketball flag star. Among these praises, a more mentioned sentence is: an era is over.

After the United Arab League, there was no united Arab League.

Coincidentally, Zheng Zhi, the former national football captain with a career span of more than 20 years, also officially hanging boots in the midsummer of 2023.

The last big brother in Chinese football, who has been fighting for 21 years, sealed the box with his regretful National team career.

His last national team debut was in the top 8 Asian Cup in 2019, and the Chinese team finally lost to Iran with 0-3. Zheng Zhi, 39, as the captain of the court, played 90 minutes in the position of the back waist. After the game, he covered his face and cried bitterly to vent the hero’s twilight and the pain of being unable to return to the sky.

After all, he will take off the No. 10 shirt, but it is still difficult to find a player worthy of the No. 10 national football team.

Zheng Zhi and Yi Jianlian were selected into the national team at the beginning of the 21th century and completed the last dance in 2019 at the same time.

Although their career actually has many differences, football and basketball are also difficult to talk about, but they are like two curves of entanglement, which have been stretching forward, he has carried the two most important teams of Chinese sports in more than ten years.

As the outside world said, they are not dazzling when they are moving forward.

In the past, I always felt that the 11th of men’s basketball and the 10th of the national football team were far from the predecessors Yao Ming and Fan Zhiyi. Later, we found that when they took off their uniforms, there was already a desolation behind them, and even they had no heir of the same level.

They were not born leaders. At first, they were just ordinary roles and assistants, but they both became the core of the team at the critical juncture. Their departure was naturally a relief. For every athlete, it is a kind of luck and a kind of sorrow to be able to fight until he can’t.

If we have a choice, why should we let the old minister do his best? Looking back on their past, League of Arab League and Zheng Zhi are the epitome and true portrayal of Chinese basketball and Chinese football in the past 20 years.

1. Wind and water

In 2000, Yi Jianlian was selected into the Guangdong youth team. He, who was 13 years old, had grown to a height of 2.2 meters. Two years later, Yi Jianlian took part in the first show in CBA and won the best rookie. His growth was very rapid. From an ordinary rotation, he became the inner core of Guangdong men’s basketball in two years. In the 2004-05 season, Yi Jianlian led the team to win the championship and became the youngest MVP in CBA history. One year later, he helped Guangdong team win the championship.

At this time, he has attracted the attention of many scouts from the other side of the ocean.

Zheng Zhi’s start was not so smooth: before he was 20 years old, he played in the second league of Liaoning youth team and served as the right defender, with few opportunities to play. In 2001, he followed Zhu Guanghu and joined Shenzhen Ping. Under the Enshi, Zheng Zhi changed from a holding player to the core of the midfield and put on the No. 10 jersey. In the coming year, Zheng Zhi won the title of Chinese football player, and he became the youngest Chinese football player. In the next three years, Zheng Zhi won two Super League champions and the double champion King of the season. The data of 21 goals in a single season told him that it was time to go out.

On January 1, 2007, Zheng Zhi joined the Charlton team in the Premier League on loan and put on the No. 9 jersey.

At the same time, Yi Jianlian, a well-known domestic household, went to the United States that year. As the sixth rising star, Yi Jianlian landed in Milwaukee and started his NBA career Bucks team.

The journey of the two people overlapped at this moment. In the year before the Beijing Olympics, they successfully went out, put on their own No. 9 jerseys, and fought alone in strange countries.

Thanks to Yao Ming’s great success, Yi Jianlian was expected to win the first NBA game in his career. He and Yao Ming competed in the Chinese Derby with 0.2 billion people. Yi Jianlian was once elected as the best new show in December 2007, but unexpected injuries disrupted the plan. Yi Jianlian suffered shoulder injuries and knee injuries successively, gradually fading out of the starting lineup.

According to a later teaching assistant, Yi Jianlian suffered much more serious injuries than expected. He could not overcome the injuries and his mentality was greatly affected.

In the summer of 2008, Yi Jianlian was traded to team basketable nets in New Jersey, where he played the most highlight of his career. In the 2009-10 season, the average personal data reached 12 points 7.1 rebounds, but his low shooting efficiency and poor team record greatly reduced his beautiful data. Then he went to Washington and Dallas, and the board seat became the last time that the United Arab League would not recall. The bell of returning home reminded him that it was time to come back.

During the same period, Zheng Zhi had the same highlight as his foreign country, but like a meteor, he flashed.

In the first year of renting to Charlton, Zheng Zhi played 12 games and scored the Premier League debut in the match against Newcastle, which was also the only goal. After the end of the season, Charlton, who was downgraded to the Champions League, officially bought Zheng Zhi for 2 million pounds. He signed a two-year contract with the team. He played 42 championships in the season and contributed 7 goals and 6 assists. However, due to excessive fatigue, Zheng Zhi was in a depressed state in the following year, finally parted ways with Charlton.

In September 2009, Zheng Zhi moved to Su Chao’s elite Celtics to fight side by side with Robby Keane. However, this time, Zheng Zhi failed to integrate into the team, leaving only the data of 16 games and 1 goal. In 2010, Zheng Zhi returned to China freely and joined Guangzhou Evergrande team. In this regard, the evergrande dynasty was founded, with the 8th champion king of the chinese super league and two asian championships in three years. The individual won the asian footballer of the year and won the grand slam in the asian field in the club.

The same is true for the United Arab League. In the first year of returning to Guangdong, the team was led to win the championship, and the individual was elected as the local MVP and the MVP of the finals. From the treble to 2021 in 2019, the United Arab League continued the glory of Guangdong team with the last peak.

2. Return with regret

For China’s men’s basketball fans, Yao Ming failed to reach the world’s top 8 level after his exit in 2008.

It was also after Yao Ming’s injury and retirement that Yi Jianlian, originally as an auxiliary role, seamlessly connected the core position. This is a full 11 years.

In the 2012 London Olympics, facing the wheel battle between Gasol and Ibaka, Yi Jianlian scored 30 points and 12 rebounds, shocking the world. However, two fists were difficult to defeat four hands, and London and Rio China were defeated in five battles men’s basketball.

In the men’s basketball World Cup in 2019, the Chinese team was squeezed out by Iran and lost the Olympic qualification. In the last life-and-death battle against Nigeria, 32-year-old Yi Jianlian scored 27 points and 6 rebounds, and its performance was moving. However, no one could imagine that this had become Yi Jianlian’s curtain call performance in the national team.

At this time, the Chinese men’s football team has missed the World Cup four times in a row, and everyone seems to be surprised. In Qatar in 2017, captain Zheng Zhi exchanged a red card for the only remaining hope of qualifying for the top 12 matches. Unfortunately, I am not the national football team. Two years later, Lippi of the second entrance Palace still regarded Zheng Zhi as an irreplaceable figure, but the Italian coach handed over the skipper’s armband to Ji Junmin.

In the cikers battle of the top 40 in Syria, Zheng Zhi sat on the board seat for 90 minutes, looking at the dazzling 1-2 on the score card. He really wanted to contribute, but found that the team gradually did not need him. After the game, Lippi’s active resignation not only announced the separation between the Italians and the Chinese team, but also became the final footnote of Zheng Zhi’s national team.

He could no longer sacrifice himself with a red card, and could no longer express himself with tears. He could only sit quietly on the bench and watch the next generation continue to chase his unfinished dreams.

Today, four years later, Yi Jianlian told his basketball journey on a microblog. Not everyone knows that in the last few years, Yi Jianlian insisted on fighting with all the injuries, maybe he still has the desire to play the Olympic Games again, but it is not easy to do it now. In the following men’s basketball of China, it was no longer difficult to find a core master who could score 20 points at any time. The familiar three axes of Yi Jianlian became the past, and no one could repeat them.

At the Pike Bay stadium in Dalian, when Zheng Zhi took over the No. 10 commemorative jersey and waved goodbye, he left 108 national team records. From 2002 to 2019, from 22 to 39 years old, there were too many regrets and precious touches. He experienced the ups and downs of Chinese football together with the fans.

After Alian and Zheng Zhi left the court, in order to hold up the two banners of men’s basketball and men’s football, China men’s basketball and Chinese men’s football team chose domestication at the same time since 2019, trying to use naturalized players to survive this period of depression.

The naturalized players of the men’s football team, mainly Elkson, Li Ke and Jiang Guangtai, have proved that a competitive team can not be achieved in one step by simple domestication through a FIFA World Cup qualification test, you can complete the team’s dream of entering the World Cup at once.

The same is true for men’s basketball. Li Keel, who joined the fire line, is not the main commander in the fight. This Chinese men’s basketball can not rely on Li Keel’s energy to stage a miracle straight through Paris. They are indeed very capable, but these naturalized players seem to be a little worse.

Compared with domestication and young people, the dedication, concentration, self-discipline and Honest Hearts shown by these two leaders adhering to the older generation are the greatest wealth at present.

If judging from their long career, Yi Jianlian and Zheng Zhi were not perfect idols, there were many criticized places in their early days, and there were still obvious gaps between them and their predecessors, but this did not hinder their desire for self-restraint and self-improvement.

Yi Jianlian changed from blue-collar basketball player to singles core, and later became the backbone of defense; Zheng Zhi changed from defender to midfield core, and repeatedly played guest center in the national team. There is still a gap between them and the world’s top, but they really keep moving forward in order to become a better self, until they sigh with emotion that the years are heavy and difficult to move forward, then they throw away.

When leaving, Yi Jianlian said, “If you want to define me as a leader, I think it is a failure. In the past seven or eight years, the team has not won the World Series, I still do very poorly in all aspects. I have been thinking about how to win, but I have seen the gap with the strong team……”

Zheng Zhi also said: “It doesn’t make much sense to hit the next (2022) World Cup at my age. Football has its own rules, which should be supported by body and physical fitness. I have played for the national team for 17 years and have given everything I have, but I want to say sorry to the fans and have not brought anything to the national team.”

Now, the two meritorious deeds are officially closed. When we looked around and were extremely poor, we could not see the present and future that could take over the crumbling flag in the dark night? How sad is this.

Where on earth will they be on the road of revival?