A ‘foreign XI’ to power China football team soon?
SHANGHAI: A Brazilian, a Norwegian, a Portuguese, an English – all playing for one team, not a club but for a country. If Chinese football authorities’ plans materialise, their national team could soon see an amalgamation of such ‘foreign’ players.
On Wednesday, Brazil-born striker Elkeson became the first player without Chinese heritage to be named in the national squad, as China attempts to reach the World Cup for a second time. According to authorities, nine foreign footballers have switched allegiance to be naturalised Chinese citizens.
While in football such mass naturalisation may be rare, it has been practised in cricket for long particularly by England. Their 2019 World Cup-winning captain Eoin Morgan started his international career with Ireland. Their two most important players Ben Stokes and JOfra Archer were born and brought up in New Zealand and Barbados respectively.
The 30-year-old Elkeson is poised to make his debut next month in a 2022 World Cup qualifier in the Maldives, where London-born Nico Yennaris—who is half-Chinese—will likely win a third cap. “We want to go to Qatar (2022 World Cup),” Chen Xuyuan, new president of the Chinese Football Association (CFA), was quoted as saying by state media. “Naturalised players can be helpful in order to achieve the national team’s short-term goals.
“Up to now, clubs have registered nine naturalised players with or without Chinese heritage at the CFA in total, some of them are still going through the naturalisation process.”
Chen, named to the top post in Chinese football on Thursday, said that more naturalised players will likely represent China as qualification for 2022 progresses. “But it will never be a long-term policy of the CFA and the numbers will be very limited,” Xinhua news agency quoted him as saying. Several Brazilian attacking players from the Chinese Super League are reportedly among those being naturalised, as is English-born defender Tyias Browning.
China have played the World Cup only once, in 2002, but left without a point or scoring a goal.