The truth behind China’s failed experiment with naturalized players, how Exxon and others got away

On August 29, 2019, the Chinese Football Association officially announced that Exon was naturalized in China, becoming the first non-blood naturalized player in the history of the Chinese men’s football team. Exon, formerly known as Elkeson, is a Brazilian former Guangzhou Evergrande forward. According to FIFA rules, he can represent the Chinese team after playing in China for 5 consecutive years.

Exxon is just the beginning. From 2019 to 2021, the Chinese men's football team signed many naturalized players such as Exon, Luo Guofu, Alan, Fernando, Jiang Guangtai, Li Ke, Hou Yongyong, etc. This naturalization experiment cost about 500 million yuan, but the result was that the Chinese men's football team still failed to qualify for the 2022 Qatar World Cup. The naturalized players left China one after another, leaving a lot of chicken feathers behind.

Why naturalize?

The Chinese Football Association launched naturalization in 2019 for the 2022 World Cup Asian Top 12. The judgment at the time was that Chinese local players were not strong enough to qualify for the World Cup, and naturalizing several Brazilian forwards could quickly improve the offensive line.

The logic of this judgment is correct but the execution is problematic. Naturalized players need a running-in period of at least 6 months to a year before they can integrate into the national team's tactical system. The Chinese Football Association's naturalization timetable is too tight, and most naturalized players do not have enough time to adjust before joining the national team.

Exxon's tragedy

Exon is the earliest of the five non-blood naturalized players. In September 2019, he represented the Chinese team for the first time in the World Cup preliminaries against the Maldives and scored two goals. This is his highlight moment and peak after naturalization.

Exxon's form continued to decline in the next two years. In 2020, he scored 0 goals on behalf of the Chinese team, and in 2021, he scored 1 goal in the top 12 matches. This situation makes the Chinese Football Association doubt the naturalization policy. Exon will return to Brazil to play for Brazilian clubs again in 2022 and officially retire in 2024. Naturalization left almost no trace on his career.

Luo Guofu’s violent temper

Luo Guofu is another Brazilian naturalized player. His bad temper and straightforward personality are well-known in Chinese football circles. After losing 1-3 against Vietnam in the 2021 World Cup preliminaries, Luo Guofu went into a rage in the locker room and scolded the Chinese players for not working hard.

This recording was circulated to the media and caused huge controversy. Some fans feel that Luo Guofu told the truth, while others feel that as a naturalized player, he is not qualified to criticize local Chinese players. Luo Guofu returned to Brazil after his contract expired in 2022 and never returned to China. His violent temper became a typical symbol of the failure of naturalization.

Alain and Fernando's marginalization

Alan was a former Brazilian Olympic player. After naturalizing in China in 2020, he only played 3 games for the national team. Fernando has only played 2 games for the national team after naturalizing in 2021. The naturalization of both men was an almost complete failure.

The main reason is that Alan and Fernando were already past their prime when they were naturalized. The two's condition after joining the Chinese team was far inferior to that of Brazil. This strategy of naturalizing outdated players is a waste of money for the Football Association. Alan will return to Brazil in 2023, and Fernando will join the Qatar League in 2022. Neither of them has really contributed to the Chinese team.

Jiang Guangtai’s relative success

Jiang Guangtai, whose English name is Tyias Browning, is a British-born Chinese defender with a quarter of Chinese ancestry. After being naturalized in 2019, he became the core of the Chinese men's football team's defense.

Jiang Guangtai is a relatively successful one among the five naturalized players. He played many games in the world preliminaries and performed stably. Jiang Guangtai is willing to learn Chinese, get married and have children in China, and is a naturalized player who has truly integrated into Chinese life. But his success cannot offset the failure of the other four. Jiang Guangtai will still play for the Guangzhou team in 2024 and is the only naturalized player that year who is still playing in China.

The naturalization of Li Ke and Hou Yongyong’s blood relationship

Li Ke's English name is Nico Yennaris, a British-born Chinese midfielder. After being naturalized in 2019, he became the first naturalized player of the Chinese men's football team to represent the Chinese team. He was earlier than Exxon.

Hou Yongyong is a British-born Chinese midfielder. He was naturalized in 2019 but only played 2 games for the national team. Both of them are naturalized players with Chinese ancestry. In theory, it should be easier for them to integrate into China than naturalize in Brazil, but the actual effect is not ideal either. Li Ke will return to the UK in 2022, and Hou Yongyong will return to Norway in 2021.

where did the money go

The total investment in naturalization of RMB 500 million is divided into two parts. First, the player’s naturalization signing fee is about 50 million to 100 million yuan per player. Second, the players’ national team salary is hundreds of thousands per month. The source of this money is the finance of the Chinese Football Association plus sponsorship from clubs such as Evergrande and China Fortune Land Development.

What is the actual effect after the money is spent? In the top 12 of the 2022 World Preliminaries, the Chinese team was eliminated in fifth place in the group, and the naturalization policy was declared a failure. Many naturalized players left China immediately after their contracts ended, leaving no technical accumulation or youth training impact on Chinese football. This is the most intuitive return assessment of RMB 500 million.

Divided attitudes among fans

The naturalization policy has deeply divided Chinese fans. One group supports naturalization and believes that this is a common operation in Asian football. Japan and Qatar have naturalized players. Another group opposes naturalization and believes that the Chinese men's football team should rely on local players to prove themselves.

The representative view of the supporters is that as long as the rules allow, the rules should be maximized. The representative view of the opposition is that naturalization is equivalent to mercenary football, causing the national team to lose its national symbolic significance. This dispute has yet to be concluded. But after the naturalization failed, opposition voices clearly gained the upper hand.

Tightening of FIFA rules

In 2020, FIFA began to tighten the naturalization rules, requiring players to have lived in the country for at least 5 consecutive years before they can represent the national team. This rule prevents the Chinese Football Association from quickly naturalizing overseas Chinese players.

This tightening of rules makes naturalization policies uneconomical. It takes five years to naturalize a player, and five years is enough time to train a group of local players. The Chinese Football Association officially abandoned the naturalization policy in 2022 and did not sign any new naturalized players.

What did the naturalization experiments leave behind?

The lesson learned from spending 500 million yuan on the naturalization experiment is that money cannot solve football problems in the short term. The Chinese Football Association realizes that only youth training and institutional reform are the real way out, but this awareness has not been translated into effective actions.

The stories of some naturalized players have been left in the memory of Chinese football. Luo Guofu's locker room roar, Exxon's two goals, and Jiang Guangtai's solid defense, these moments together constitute the complex legacy of the naturalization experiment. This experiment is the biggest directional gamble in Chinese football. As a result, not only money is lost, but also time.