Brazilian-born player retires, Chinese national team's naturalization plan suffers bitter consequences

On the night of April 9, Elkeson posted on his personal page a message about hanging up his boots, ending nearly 2 decades of professional playing. The player born in 1989 thanked the fans who have been with him throughout the years. The reason for this decision was probably because Elkeson had been suffering from a persistent injury for a year, causing him to not be noticed by any team.

This striker scored 59 goals in 72 matches for Guangzhou Evergrande, 37 goals in 72 matches for Shanghai Port. His performance helped him gain Chinese citizenship and become one of the first players without bloodline to play for the Chinese national team alongside Fernando and Alan.

But in the red shirt, Elkeson played quite sluggishly. After 19 matches, he only scored 4 goals. Poor performance made Elkeson lose his image in the eyes of domestic clubs, especially when he always asked for high salaries. This player was forced to return to Brazil to play for 1 year before returning to play for Chengdu. He suffered an injury last year, leaving the 35-year-old player unemployed.

Elkeson played well for his club but was lackluster for the national team.

With Elkeson's decision to leave, it can be said that the first generation of naturalized Chinese football is fading into oblivion. These players carry a lot of expectations because they have glossy CVs, some even played for Brazil U20, but when wearing the red shirt, they play poorly.

Elkeson, Fernando, Alan… when wearing the Chinese national team jersey are far inferior to their counterparts when wearing the club jersey. That is probably also the reason why fans of the billion-people country do not miss these "mercenaries" in the past 2 years. Sina newspaper commented on Elkeson's farewell: "After many years of receiving a salary of millions of euros, Elkeson seems to be not used to wearing the jersey of teams that are not financially strong.

This player is the clearest embodiment of our football's hasty and ineffective import policy. Besides him, Fernando and Alan are also in a state of 'hanging up their boots', meaning they are unemployed for a long time because they are not being noticed by clubs."

Currently, the Chinese team has no longer called up these players. In the 2026 World Cup qualifiers, they put their faith in the second generation of naturalized players with Fernandinho, Serginho... But the effectiveness is still a big question mark.

Dang Lai

Source: https://tienphong.vn/brazilian-player-experts-in-the-opening-of-chinese-tuyen-ngam-trai-dang-post1732367.tpo