On the evening of September 8, Beijing time, Paulinho, a former Brazil international who has played in the Chinese Super League for many years, officially announced his retirement decision in the video.
As an "old friend of Chinese fans", the Brazil midfielder is not only the best foreign aid in the history of Chinese football, but also the banner figure of the "Golden Yuan Football" era. In addition to winning 1 AFC Champions League, 4 Chinese Super League, 1 FA Cup and 2 Super Cup championships in China, from the ignorant youth who broke into the Lithuania league that year to the guests who were dug by Barça to terminate the contract, Paulinho's football career is full of inspiration and legend.
The farewell of the deceased is really a bit of "the past can only be recalled" for Chinese football, which has just suffered a heavy setback in the world preliminaries. Paulinho in the era of the Chinese Super League, the national football team can still have contacts with Korea in the World Preliminary Round; And when those famous players who smell the breath of Jinyuan football either leave or retire, Chinese football, which has repeatedly bottomed out, has been a matter of people in just a few years.
Riddled with injuries and reluctantly quitting
From the midfielder introduced by Barcelona to the lonely retirement after no one cared about it, Paulinho actually only took 7 years.
From any point of view, Paulinho's arrival at Barcelona in the summer window of 2017 is a milestone moment for the player himself and the Chinese Super League. The Brazil midfielder, who was considered to be "sick and rushed to the hospital", became the hero of Barca's La Liga crown that season with his humble and unpretentious performance, and even almost completed the goal in the "battle of the century".
The transfer fee of 40 million euros is still the most valuable player sold in the Chinese Super League. At that time, the "Golden Yuan Era" of the Chinese Super League not only made the world's staggering large-scale investment, but also "fed" the European league and even the giants in another way.
Although Barcelona's career was only a short season, for Paulinho, it was a freeze frame of career height. Despite participating in the 2014 and 2018 World Cups and winning the 2013 Confederations Cup, apart from his two Premier League seasons at Tottenham, the Brazil's resume has been mostly filled by the Chinese Super League and the Brazilian Liga.
More importantly, Paulinho's "second entry into the palace" and even his departure in the Chinese Super League are of special significance: when he switched from Tottenham to Evergrande in the summer of 2015, the Brazil international, who was worth "only" 14 million euros, was certainly sensational in the Chinese Super League at that time, but compared with the big names that have come since then, it is simply a "conscience price".
When Paulinho returned on loan in 2018 and was redeemed by Evergrande to 42 million euros the following year, the Chinese Super League has already reached the point where there is no foreign aid worth tens of millions in the team, and they are embarrassed to greet their peers. At that time, the Chinese Super League was the real king of money burning outside the five major leagues, although it was not as "inhumane" as the Saudi league today, but it could also be called the "front wave" of the latter.
However, the once extraordinarily gorgeous soap bubble came to an abrupt end in 2021. With the termination of Paulinho's contract, the value of foreign aid in the Chinese Super League has fallen off a cliff year by year, and in the last two transfer windows, there has been a miracle that he can become the king of the standard with a value of less than one million US dollars.
After leaving the Chinese Super League, Paulinho no longer seems to be the omnipotent "violent bird": he first signed a contract with Jeddah National, but only stayed in Saudi Arabia for 2 months, and then suddenly terminated the contract and returned home due to family reasons. But even back to Corinthians, the place of fame, the "water reversal" has always lingered.
At Corinthians, Paulinho has been plagued by injuries.
In his first season with Corinthians, Paulinho suffered a serious knee ligament injury and was out of action for more than half a year. In May 2023, Paulinho suffered another serious knee ligament injury, and only returned in April 2024, in other words, in the past two years, Paulinho, who has rarely been injured, has spent half of his time in the physiotherapy room.
At the end of May this year, Paulinho was terminated by Corinthians as soon as the Brazilian Liga ended, and although there were rumors that Gremio was interested in signing him, Paulinho was unable to find a job until the summer window closed. His value also fell from 42 million euros at his peak to 300,000 euros, and in the end, he had no choice but to retire gloomily.
On the same day that Paulinho retired, Guangzhou, who had been relegated to the Central League, defeated Wuxi Wugou 4-1 away, only five points away from the promotion zone. This team, which can only rely on itself after the departure of foreign stars and internationals, has also ushered in long-lost foreign aid this season.
It's a pity that compared to Paulinho, the fame and strength of Beniarosa and Alegria, who scored in this game, are too far behind. The era that belonged to Paulinho and Guangzhou Evergrande had already turned the page.
Retirement, not only "violent birds"
In the era of Jinyuan football, the Chinese Super League prefers to play famous and plug-and-play "mature men", and many foreign aides are holding the mentality of taking the Super League as the last stop of their careers, and they will leave after earning a vote, or even retire directly. And even if you can continue to play football after leaving the Chinese Super League, your performance is still a cliff-like decline.
Conca
As the "king of celestial bodies" before Paulinho, Conca joined Evergrande for $10 million in 2011, and his form deteriorated after leaving Guangzhou in 2013, and it was difficult to say success in Fluminense and Flamengo, and the last stop of his career United States team Austin was only a second-tier team, playing less than 8 months, and then announced his retirement after being terminated, just like Paulinho's career twilight.
Compared to Conca, Muric, who can be called the beginning of "Golden Yuan Football", the wandering trajectory of the twilight of his career is more obvious, during his two spells with Evergrande, he moved non-stop in Qatar Saad, J-League FC Tokyo and Bajia Vasco da Gama, and after playing for Meixian Tiehan and Shijiazhuang Yongchang, he stayed briefly in three Brazil league teams, almost every season to change a new jersey.
Of course, not all the elderly foreign aides of Jinyuan Football are "old and yellow" after leaving the Chinese Super League. Hamsik, who appeared in the Slovakia coach's box at this summer's European Championship, was criticized for his team's record and personal attitude when he played for Dalian, but when he played for Trabzonspor in the last leg of his career, he won the league title for the first time in his career, and even with two other Chinese Super League veterans Gervinho and Evra, he is truly legendary.
Compared with the frequent "re-employment" of the above-mentioned people, Pelle and Fellaini, who are destined to have a place in the Shandong Football Hall of Fame, have different trajectories.
The "Italy Cannon" returned to the Apennines, but was terminated after scoring only one goal in 13 games in Serie B Parma, and although he has never officially announced his retirement, he has been out of work for 3 years, and he has been idle for too long.
Fellaini
"Pengpengtou" did not choose to renew his contract with Taishan after the end of the Chinese Super League last year, and directly announced his retirement in February this year, ending his 18-year career as a player.
Compared with the different retirement trajectories of the above-mentioned super-sized foreign aids, perhaps the most uncommentable is the historical champion of the Chinese Super League - Jackson · Martinez. In February 2016, "Mr. 42 million euros" joined Evergrande, shocking the entire winter window, and the transfer fee of the Colombia striker was as high as 302 million yuan at the exchange rate at the time.
However, in the two years of playing in the Chinese Super League, Martinez, who only scored 4 goals, was far from meeting the team's expectations, and 2 ankle surgeries made the three-time Portuguese Super League Golden Boot winner Jianghe go down, and in April 2020, "J Ma" announced his retirement at the age of 34, and then, he is more famous as a singer.
Jackson · Martinez
From 2020 to 2022, Jackson · Martinez blossomed on the music scene at an astonishing rate, releasing 13 solo singles in two years, which surpassed the number of goals he scored on the football field.
The incarnation of the super standard king as a "singer-songwriter striker" is really magical.
Talisca
Leaving Jin Yuan, the world is wider?
In the era of big-name foreign aid, Chinese football, which is drunk with money, has "raised many balloon stars with high salaries", but not everyone has lost themselves in high salaries, and more "smart people" have found new owners in the Middle East after seeing the ebb tide of the gold yuan.
The most typical examples are Talisca and Carrasco. In the past few seasons with Paulinho, the statistics of "Canton Tower" were once more impressive than the latter, but when it was discovered that the Saudi league was about to open the purchase mode, the Brazil striker joined Riyadh Victory as soon as possible, which was really "prescient".
And Carrasco's "freedom to come and go" at Atletico is equally breathtaking. Although in the two seasons of the Chinese Super League, the Belgium winger contributed more than goals and assists, but with the high-level, manager, teammates everywhere conflict, but this did not affect his participation in all the major competitions of the Belgium team, and last year he signed Riyadh Youngsters and earned the biggest contract in his life.
Of course, if you choose to continue to be with Jinyuan Football, you will have to suffer the backlash. In the star-studded Riyadh victory, Talisca was not only forced to give up the penalty to Ronaldo, but also repeatedly on the team purge list; Carrasco certainly got the high salary he coveted, but he was twice selected by Barcelona, and the possibility of this becoming a powerhouse is very slim.
Another striker known for his violent aesthetics, Hulk, is now 38 years old, even 2 years older than Paulinho, who has just retired, but in Atletico Mineiro, the Brazil veteran, who has been criticized for his "unreasonable" playing style for many years, is still an irreplaceable presence for the team, and he has just renewed his contract with the team for 2 years, and he is just around the corner to play until he is 40 years old.
Compared with Hulk's old age and strength, Teixeira, who is "only" 34 years old, is a little "premature". The former Jiangsu Suning star joined Besiktas in August 2021, but he returned to Vasco da Gama after a season. After unsuccessfully signing a contract with Yunnan Yukun, he has been in and out of his old club three times, and almost every time he terminates and signs a contract, it is a farce.
As a record crusher in the Jinyuan football era, Shenfeng, who is 37 years old this year, is still on his thighs everywhere after leaving the Chinese Super League. In Eindhoven, the Israel not only won the Golden Boot with 29 goals in the first season, but also scored the 6,000th goal in Eredivisie history; In last season's UEFA Europa League scorer list, Zahavi was also inseparable from another veteran of the Chinese Super League, Caebi.
Not to mention that in the five major leagues, there are many former abandoners of the Chinese Super League: Witsel and Goodley are not the top foreign players in the Chinese Super League, but the two performed remarkably in Atletico Madrid and Sevilla last season, and they both played a worthy performance at the age when they could have retired.
Kim Min-jae (right)
And the existence of Kim Min-jae is enough to make the Super League embarrassed. Although the Korean became the protagonist of various online jokes when he played for Guoan, from Fenerbahce to Napoli to Bayern, he has long been beyond the reach of Chinese football after three major steps in three years.
The embers of Jinyuan football may still be burning, but that era of crazy money burning can never go back.
(Supine Push-ups/Yang Jian)
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