In last week's Serie A, a 19-year-old North Korean face shocked world football. In the final stages of Cagliari's match against Torino, North Korea's Koe Han Kwang-song broke England international Hart's 10-finger pass with a header.
While saving face for the team, he also made history for himself - he became the first North Korean player to score in Serie A. And in just one week, Han Guangsong once again ushered in a major improvement in his career.
On April 14, Beijing time, Serie A powerhouse Cagliari officially announced that it officially signed its first professional contract with Han Kwang-song, which will not expire until the summer of 2022. Because North Korea is clearly unable to bring any commercial returns to Cagliari, Han Kwang-song was able to secure the contract apparently because his on-pitch performance had completely conquered the club.
Han Guangsong, who was born in 1999, is 1.78 meters tall, and he will be Zhang Yuning's lifelong opponent in the national team in the future. In this year's winter transfer window, Han Kwang-song officially entered the Serie A league, and in just one week, he scored in his second appearance in Serie A.
Han Guangsong's official signing of the Serie A team also made Chinese fans sigh, not only Japan, South Korea, Iran, but now the level of North Korean players staying abroad is ahead of us. Resentment over the 2002 World Cup has made it difficult for South Koreans to play in Serie A, but Japanese and Iranian players have had success here.
Especially Japanese players, such as Hidetoshi Nakata, and now Keisuke Honda and Yuto Nagatomo, who are now Milan duo, although now the two Japanese internationals of Milan City are no longer the main force of the team. But Honda has worn Milan's number 10, while Nagatomo has long occupied Inter's main right-back and even wore the captain's armband.
Of course, there have also been Chinese players in Serie A. In 2000, Ma Mingyu, the captain of the national football team, joined the Serie A Perugia team, but he sat in the stands for a whole year, pay attention to the stands not the bench! It shows that he has not even entered the list of 18 people. As the best golden left foot in the history of the national football team, Ma'er's Serie A journey was quite disappointing.
In addition to Ma Mingyu, there are also some Chinese players who regret passing by the Serie A league. For example, Wang Dalei and Zhang Wenzhao, who had tried out Inter, caused a sensation in Italy at that time. Wang Dalei was called "Chinese Buffon" by Inter Milan boss Materazzi. Unfortunately, neither of them was able to stay at Inter after the trial.
Chen Tao, one of the best No. 10 in the former national football team, also almost joined Serie A, and when he and Novara FC had reached an agreement, the Serie A owner gave him a transfer fee of 1 million euros, which was already very considerable. But unfortunately, TEDA insisted on not letting go, and Chen Tao also suffered an injury and finally regretted the failure to stay abroad.
The most regrettable thing is now Evergrande's national football player Zhang Linpeng. In 2015, he had an affair with Inter, Inter Milan intended to introduce Zhang Linpeng to replace Japanese international player Yuto Nagatomo, but Evergrande offered 8 million euros to make the financially strapped Serie A giants retreat. In the end, Zhang Linpeng also missed the best opportunity to stay abroad in his career.
Now with the decline in the strength of the national football team, it is indeed difficult for national football players to land in Serie A with their strength like Han Guangsong. However, as we all know, now both Serie A Milan and Milan have become teams controlled by Chinese capital. Perhaps, Chinese players are not far from landing in Serie A, and I hope that Zhang Yuning can play in Serie A with the help of Lippi in the future to improve himself.