Chinese soccer is this bad? FW, '4th place in the world' in 2024, excluding China's shock...The sword went straight to the World Cup
Chinese soccer is this bad? FW, '4th place in the world' in 2024, excluding China's shock...The sword went straight to the World Cup
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China's front-line striker Wu Lei, who scored the fourth-most goals in the world across clubs and national teams in 2024, has been excluded from the Chinese national soccer team list.
According to Chinese media Xinhua News Agency, Wu Lei was not included in the list of 32 players who will participate in the Asian qualifying round for the 2026 FIFA World Cup in North Korea and the U.S. announced by the Chinese Football Association last month due to injury. China will play against Saudi Arabia and Australia without Wu Lei.
Attention is focusing on whether China will be able to reach its dream of advancing to the World Cup finals by beating Saudi Arabia and Australia without a key striker.
That's how important Wu Lei is in the Chinese national soccer team.
Last year, Wu Lei became a hot topic of conversation as he ranked as the fourth striker by scoring the most goals for club and national team in 2024 after Erling Victor Jockeres (Sporting CP), Erling Holan (Manchester City), and Harry Kane (Bayern Munich). Wu Lei confidently ranked fourth, beating over world-class strikers Robert Lewandowski (Barcelona) and Cristiano Ronaldo (Alnasr).
Wu Lei, a Shanghai Sanggang native who emerged as China's top soccer star when he joined Spain's RCD Espanyol in 2019, returned to Shanghai Sanggang in the Chinese Super League in 2022 after playing on the Spanish stage for about three years. Although his record at Espanyol was only 16 goals in 126 games, the expectation for Wu Lei was considerable just because he joined a team from Spain's first division, a soccer developed country, from China, a soccer barren country.
In fact, Wu Lei has been selected for the national team since 2010 and has been in charge of the front line of China. He played in the 2019 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Asian Cup and 2024 AFC Asian Cup in succession, and made an impression on soccer fans by showing strong performance in China's 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifier in Qatar.
Wu Lei was also an important part of China's project to advance to the 2026 North-China World Cup finals, but an unexpected injury prevented him from playing in the two consecutive A matches in March, which could determine whether China will advance to the finals.
In addition to Wu Lei, there are other strikers in China, including Wei Xihao, Wang Yu-dong, and Zhang Yuning, but there are no players in China who show Wu Lei-level presence.
Wu Lei's absence is expected to be filled by Hou Jung-yong, a naturalized Norwegian player, and Behram Abdouweri, a prospect born in 2003.
Hou Jung-yong, a former Norwegian national team player, was selected for the Chinese national team for the first time in January this year after being naturalized as a Chinese national. In the case of Abdouweri, he already played as China's front-line striker in the preliminary round of the U-23 Asian Cup and 2024 Paris Olympics in April last year.
In addition, players from the U-23 national team, including Rio Haofan, Wang Si-chin, Wang Yu-dong, and Liu Chen-gyu, have been newly selected for the national team. 카지노
Coach Branko Ivankovic is in a situation where he has to form a squad with new resources and produce results in the absence of Wu Lei. I wonder if China will be able to get closer to the World Cup finals for the first time in 24 years by performing well against Saudi Arabia and Australia in the two consecutive A matches in March without Wu Lei, the ace of the national team.