Why is it related to Shandong Luneng that the Chinese Super League (football) is not allowed to introduce foreign goalkeepers?

This story has to start with the introduction of a foreign head coach named Slobodan Santraci by Shandong Luneng in 1999.

In 1999, Shandong Luneng Taishan considered changing coaches and finally chose Slobodan Santraci, who had just been named one of the "Top Ten Successful Coaches in the World" by World Football Magazine the previous year. .

Santrazzi had been the national team coach of Yugoslavia before coaching Shandong Luneng. In the 1998 World Cup, he led Yugoslavia all the way to the top 16. Moreover, in the qualifiers of that World Cup, the Yugoslavia national team he coached never lost except for an away defeat to Spain.

Seeing that he was about to go to China to coach, Santrazzi also introduced his national team disciple Sasha Petrovich to the Luneng team. (Goalkeeper)

At that time, it was rare for the Chinese League One to introduce foreign goalkeepers, but fortunately this was the introduction of the new head coach, and the Luneng team also introduced Sasha with the mentality of giving it a try.

The reason why Luneng had the mentality of giving it a try is indeed because Sasha was not well-known in world football at the time. Sasha was 32 years old that year, and had been playing in the Yugoslav domestic league before. Later, he also went to the Korean League and the Spanish Second Division. Overall, his performance was mediocre.

Even in Santraci's Yugoslavia national team, Sasha was only the team's third goalkeeper, an absolute marginal figure. (Only one appearance on behalf of the national team)

But such an ordinary foreign goalkeeper performed a "goalkeeper's arrival" in the first season of the Chinese League One. In 26 games, he conceded 13 goals, averaging only 0.5 goals per game

Regardless of whether his resume is mediocre or not, for the sake of the head coach, he must be given a chance to perform, Sa Sha officially represented Shandong Luneng in the Chinese League One in the 1999 season.

Then, the goalkeeper came to the Chinese League One.

Shandong Luneng played 26 games throughout the season, and the goal guarded by Sasha was only broken 13 times. This also included several goals conceded due to obvious defensive mistakes.

In 26 games, 13 goals were conceded, with an average of only 0.5 goals per game.

Friends who don’t know much about football may have no idea about conceding 0.5 goals per game. Let me give you a few examples for comparison.

In their best season, Guangzhou Evergrande, the seven-time champion of the Chinese Super League, conceded an average of 0.8 goals per game. This was also supported by the league's top defense at the time. (0.8 is also the best record for local goalkeepers in the Chinese League One, including the Chinese Super League)

Last year, "Transfer Market" released a list of the average number of goals conceded per game by the top European teams. Among them Ranking first is Juventus, conceding 0.83 goals per game. (Bayern ranked second with 0.84, and Manchester United and Chelsea ranked third with 0.9)

Although it is not possible to intuitively compare the Chinese Premier League and the Chinese Super League with the top European clubs, it can also be measured by averaging losses per game. The number of goals proves what kind of existence Sasha was to Luneng or the entire league at that time. (It is not an exaggeration to use dimensionality reduction to attack, and this is just a little-known foreign player) To break the balance of the league and affect the development of local goalkeepers, the Football Association has no choice but to issue a ban

It is no exaggeration to say, At that time, Sasha's existence had broken the balance of the league to some extent, which also aroused the "jealousy" of other teams.

After the 1999 Chinese League One season, the head coach of the Tianjin team at the time said bluntly: If we had Sasha, we would also be able to win the championship.

Seeing that foreign goalkeepers are so useful, other teams are also gearing up to sign players.

However, if the league is full of foreign goalkeepers, it will completely restrict the development of local goalkeepers to a large extent. It is estimated that they will not even have a chance to play in a season, which will definitely not be conducive to the development of Chinese football.

In addition, not every team can find a suitable foreign goalkeeper, so teams without foreign goalkeepers must have opinions or even dissatisfaction with this.

Faced with such a problem, the Chinese Football Association finally officially issued a ban at the end of 2000: Starting from the 2001 season, the league prohibits any team from introducing foreign goalkeepers.

Not long after the ban was introduced, Sasha left Shandong Luneng and then announced his retirement. It is said that Sasha wanted to stay in Lun as a goalkeeper coach at the time, but his mentor Santrazzi at the time had a big conflict with the team management. Coupled with other factors, he was ultimately unable to stay in China and start his coaching career.

Judging from the information found on the Internet, Sasha, now 54, serves as an assistant coach for a team in the Serbian domestic league. Conclusion

At this point, it is a simple explanation why the Chinese Super League’s ban on the introduction of foreign goalkeepers has something to do with the Luneng team.

If you look at it from today's perspective, if you want to say how powerful Sasha was at the time and his goal-line skills, it does not seem to count, but he was far away with his solid basic goal-line skills. Far behind the domestic goalkeepers.

I don’t dare to say anything about other sports, but as far as the Chinese men’s football team is concerned, what they really lack is solid basic skills.

This goes back to more than 20 years ago when Shandong Luneng introduced goalkeeper Sasha in the League A. That season, Sasha only conceded 13 goals and was elected the best goalkeeper. In that year, coach Jin Zhiyang once said The famous saying "Give me a Sasha, I can also win the championship" is the greatest praise for Sasha's performance in a season. Starting from the second season, every team began to introduce foreign goalkeepers on a large scale, resulting in the living space of domestic goalkeepers being extremely limited. Therefore, the Football Association issued a policy banning the introduction of foreign goalkeepers, so that the national team goalkeepers now have a situation of "a hundred schools of thought contending", which has continued to this day.

When Luneng introduced Yugoslavian goalkeeper Sasha, his existence without solutions throughout the season triggered various teams to introduce high-level foreign goalkeepers. As a result, domestic goalkeepers have no living space. For this reason, the Football Association stipulates that foreign goalkeepers are not included in the scope of signings.

In 1999, the Shandong Luneng Taishan Football Team, under the leadership of Yugoslav coach Santraci, unprecedentedly won the first double crown in the League A. They conceded 13 goals in the league that year. The records are preserved to this day. Goalkeeper Sasha was the former third goalkeeper of the Yugoslavia national team. It was his heroic performance that made Santraci's magic happen. At that time, Tianjin team coach Jin Zhiyang once said that if you give him a Sasha, he can win the championship. In 2000, all A-A teams began to follow the example of Shandong Luneng Taishan and introduced Yugoslav coaches and foreign goalkeepers, which greatly squeezed the living space of domestic goalkeepers. It was a critical moment for the Chinese team to compete in the 2002 World Cup, so the Chinese Football Association decided to cancel the 2001 season. Foreign goalkeepers, this policy continues to this day.

It was just because Luneng introduced a Yugoslav goalkeeper named Sasha that year. Luneng played 26 games in one season. The goal guarded by Sasha was only broken 13 times. The Chinese Football Association believes that The introduction of foreign goalkeepers by each team has restricted the development balance of domestic goalkeepers, so policies have been introduced to restrict the introduction of foreign goalkeepers!

Sasha, the No. 3 goalkeeper of the Yugoslavia national team, followed Santrac to Luneng and broke the A-level clean sheet record in the first season of the league.

Later, the number of goalkeepers in the country decreased significantly. The Chinese Football Association was worried about affecting the selection of goalkeepers for the national team, so it immediately issued regulations that did not allow the introduction of goalkeepers, which has remained until now.

Judging from the effect of the policy, it was okay. Since then, there has been basically no shortage of masters in goalkeeping.

It’s very simple. That year, Shandong Luneng suddenly emerged and won the A-League and the A-League. The double champion of the Football Association Cup, and this is also the first league championship in the history of Luneng!

Among them, the one who is recognized as having the greatest contribution is the famous coach Santraci, followed by Luneng goalkeeper Sasha. The Shandong Luneng goalkeeper guarded by this guy only conceded 13 goals in 26 games throughout the season. It was the most defensive team in the league that year.

It was precisely because of Sasha's performance that the Football Association reflected on the role of foreign goalkeepers in the league, and soon proposed a rule prohibiting the introduction of foreign goalkeepers!

Because of Sasha’s god-level performance back then! Only conceding 13 goals in a season does not give other teams a way to survive! Sasha, the double champion that season, contributed a lot.

Since that year, the Football Association has stipulated that teams are not allowed to introduce foreign goalkeepers! Moreover, if other teams introduce foreign goalkeepers, where will our Chinese national team choose goalkeepers?

Because in the 1999 season Luneng introduced former Yugoslavia goalkeeper Sasha Petrovic. This guy is quite dedicated. How dedicated is he? In the A-League in the 1999 season, this guy conceded 13 goals in all games in a single season. His record of 13 goals is still the fewest goals conceded in the Chinese Professional Football League, and it has never been broken. My impression is that , I can only operate the goalkeeper in the FIFA ONLINE game. Only top goalkeepers such as Neuer, Casillas, and Buffon can achieve a record of scoring one goal per game and conceding five goals in the season. Back to the main topic, it is precisely because Sasha is comparable to For BUG-level performance, the Chinese Football Association has issued regulations since the 2000 season, prohibiting clubs from introducing foreign goalkeepers. In fact, dialectically speaking, this regulation of the Football Association has created a number of outstanding domestic goalkeepers such as Yan Junling, Wang Dalei, and Zeng Cheng. , without this regulation of the Football Association, it is conceivable that a group of frustrated and capable second goalkeepers such as Ulreich, Cillessen, Reina, Karius and so on will flood into Chinese football. If so, can local goalkeepers still have a chance to succeed?