Recently, a list of dozens of players has pushed a number of players who have been playing in the lower leagues for a long time to the front pages. Yang Wenji, a central defender who played for Wuxi Wugou in the Chinese League A this season, was punished with a lifetime ban and ended his playing career. After the list was released, Yang Wenji admitted his behavior through social media, but at the same time, he also expressed his sadness about long-term salary arrears and huge life pressure. Yang Wenji has never played in the top flight during his career, and now that he has been banned for life, he will also have to find another way to make a living, saying goodbye to the football he has been doing for many years.
Debut: Debuted in the professional league at the age of 18
Yang Wenji was born in 1993 in Wuhan, Hubei Province, and started his career in Hebei. In 2011, Hebei Zhongji, who formed a team to compete in the professional league for the first time, gathered a group of young players, and Yang Wenji, who was only 18 years old, was among them and officially started his career. According to the statistics of the famous data blogger "FM Dalian Team Investigator" (the player appearance data involved in this article from 2011 to 2017 are all statistics of this blogger), Yang Wenji made 3 appearances in the first season of his career.
Although he did not play much, a report in early 2012 said that he was favored by the then coach of the national youth team, Rick Link, and was selected for the training list of the national youth team together with teammate Mao Shiming. The 1993 age group of the national youth team, with Shi Ke, Wang Tong and many other backline players who became international players in the future, Yang Wenji did not stay in the national youth team for a long time, did not represent the team in the Asian Youth Championship held at the end of 2012.
In the young Hebei Zhongji, Yang Wenji did not get many opportunities to play. In 2014, he briefly switched to Shanghai Shenxin, but soon returned to Hebei Zhongji. It was in this year that Hebei Zhongji began to compete in the Chinese League, the first season, the strength of the team was more average, but in the second year, with the heavy investment of China Happiness Group, the famous coach Antici picked up the whip of the team, Dewey, Yang Cheng, Song Wenjie and other famous generals joined the team, and foreign aid introduced the former Schalke 04 scorer Edu.
However, this luxury division lost to Beijing Institute of Technology in the first game of the Chinese League, stumbling in the first half of the season, Antich also quit the class halfway, and it was the well-known Li Tie who took over the position. After the change of coach, Hebei Huaxia Happiness rebounded and soon came to the top of the standings. On November 1, 2015, in the final round of the Chinese League, Hebei Huaxia Happiness defeated Shenzhen Yuheng 2-0 and successfully promoted to the Chinese Super League. Yang Wenji started the whole game in this game and tried to keep the team's goal intact.
At the beginning of this year, in a CCTV feature film, the behind-the-scenes details of the game were revealed. Before this game, Li Tie instructed assistant coach Zheng Bin to bribe Shenzhen player Li Fei with 6 million yuan, asking him to beat his teammates, and Li Fei swallowed the huge amount of money alone. Li Tie, Zheng Bin and Li Fei are now in prison and are being punished by the law. In this season, Yang Wenji got 13 appearances to help the team soar to success. At that time, he was just a young player about to get his first taste of the top league, and the darkness and trades behind the professional game had nothing to do with him.
Ending: Farewell to the court at the age of 31
After being promoted to the Chinese Super League, Hebei Huaxia Happiness continued to burn money and introduced Gervinho and Ravitch, shocking the world. At the back, the addition of former Turkey international Jurum and rising star Gao Zhunyi further reduced Yang Wenji's playing time. He failed to make his Super League debut, only making his debut in the FA Cup. After Li Tie got out of class, the famous coach Pellegrini took over, Yang Wenji was sent to the reserve team, and at the beginning of the following year, he left Hebei Huaxia Happiness and signed a three-year contract with Meizhou Hakka.
Returning to the Chinese League, Yang Wenji successfully stood firm, and in the first three seasons, he made 29, 28 and 27 appearances for the team, and his attendance rate was very high. As a defender, Yang Wenji even scored in games on occasion. However, in the 2020 and 2021 seasons, his appearances dropped significantly. After helping Meizhou Hakka successfully surpass, Yang Wenji changed his court again and came to the northwest gate of Jiangxi to serve. This transfer changed his life.
In the 2022 season, although the schedule is relatively complete, with a total of 34 rounds of matches, it is still held in the form of a conference system. Players are based in closed areas and several clubs are facing financial difficulties. Yang Wenji's Jiangbei Gate is a team with relatively limited economic strength, the players' salaries are not high, and the team also plays the role of a relegation team all year round. As a player with experience in surpassing, Yang Wenji locked the main position of Jiangbei Gate in the 2022 season, scoring 3 goals in 28 appearances and reaching the peak of his career.
At that time, Yang Wenji, who was 29 years old, ushered in the birth of a child. A monthly salary of 12,000 yuan before tax and a winning bonus of 100,000 yuan are not very generous in the Jinyuan football era, but Yang Wenji is also more content. Unfortunately, Jiangxi Beimen did not fulfill all its promises, and Yang Wenji, who has been owed wages for a long time, violated the law in the FA Cup match against Shanghai Shenhua. A sum of 40,000 yuan temporarily relieved his financial pressure, but it also completely destroyed his career.
After the East Window incident, a number of players from Jiangxi Beimen appeared on the punishment list, and Yang Wenji was punished with a lifetime ban from engaging in football activities in China. At the end of this season, he also left the gate of Jiangbei, and after being unemployed for half a year, he joined another Chinese league team, Wuxi Wugou. This season, Yang Wenji has made 22 appearances for Wuxi Wugou and is still the team's main defender.
Just before the punishment was announced, on September 7, he attended the pre-match press conference of Wuxi Wugou against the Guangzhou team, and stated that he wanted to dedicate a wonderful game to the fans. As the captain of Wuxi Wugou, Yang Wenji failed to prevent the team from losing 1-4 at home, and this game also became his swan song in professional football.
He landed in the professional league at the age of 18, became a Chinese Super League player at the age of 23, and was banned for life at the age of 31. Yang Wenji's 13-year playing career has come to an unsatisfactory end. After expressing his helplessness and sadness through social media, Yang Wenji also began to face his new life calmly, he posted a video of exercising on the treadmill, and wrote: Keep exercising and keep your love.
From now on, the name of Yang Wenji will no longer appear in the Chinese Football Professional League. A punishment list can indeed play a certain deterrent role, but there are still many problems that Chinese football needs to solve.
(Push-ups/Miracles)