Recently, the TaiShan team has officially begun its winter training schedule for the new season of the Chinese Super League. Due to the fact that many national-level players from the TaiShan team will be called up for training, head coach Choi Kang-hee will fully delegate the opportunity for second-team players to take on major roles in the first team. Among them, Zhang Yingkai, the main defender of the TaiShan team, is expected to become a dark horse in the team and become a new favorite of coach Choi Kang-hee by registering for the first team.
Zhang Yingkai is an outstanding product of Luneng's 04 youth training program, alongside Buwalang and He Xiaoke. At that time, Luneng was affected by special reasons and was unable to send its first team to participate in the AFC Champions League. After comprehensive consideration, Luneng sent out its youth team to play in the competition. Zhang Yingkai played as the team's main defender, facing off against many Asian giants. Zhang Yingkai demonstrated the spirit of a young bull not afraid of tigers in the game, earning recognition.
It is worth mentioning that Zhang Yingkai's tackle statistics ranked first in that season's AFC Champions League, becoming a true AFC Champions League tackle king. Therefore, after many Luneng fans participated in the AFC Champions League, they could enter the first team to take on major roles. Unfortunately, Zhang Yingkai never met his mentor. Hao Wei did not give this AFC Champions League tackle king the opportunity to enter the first team, which made him feel very frustrated.
Coach Choi Kang-hee, on the other hand, let Zhang Yingkai start playing in the China League Two with the second team, and it turned out that the old coach's choice was also correct. Because Zhang Yingkai had remarkable performances when playing in the China League Two with the Luneng second team. In addition, Zhang Yingkai also became a versatile player in the team, capable of playing as a left-back and center-back. It should be noted that the left-back position of Luneng has always been short of personnel, especially Liu Yang, who did not perform well in last season's Chinese Super League and national team matches.
Therefore, the left-back position of Luneng needs to be reinforced through recruitment. So, Luneng fans think that signing a new contract with Zhang Yingkai should be a good choice. They hope that Zhang Yingkai, this 21-year-old versatile defender, if he can enter the TaiShan first team next season, he can take on major roles and truly become a reliable left-back for the team in the future, without disappointing the fans and the club.