From January 9th, Beijing time, the Chinese men's football team has been in a state of harmony during their winter training. Under the leadership of head coach Ivan Kozlovic, the team has achieved unprecedented unity, and they are all confident about the prospects of the national team's World Cup qualifying campaign. As Wei Shihao said, the national team is very hopeful to achieve the goal of qualifying for the World Cup.
It is worth mentioning that in recent days of training, Wei Shihao has surprisingly become Ivan's favorite. According to reports from many domestic media, Ivan praised Wei Shihao in a recent media interview, almost praising him like a flower. Ivan praised Wei Shihao as an older brother in the national team, capable of playing an important role in passing on skills and experience. Wei Shihao also showed enough respect and support for Ivan Kozlovic, believing that he has the ability to lead the national team to qualify for the World Cup finals.
Fans familiar with Wei Shihao know that such a situation was almost impossible in the past national team. In the eyes of previous national team coaches, Wei Shihao was not only a player who didn't talk much but also a rebellious problem youth. He not only disobeyed the coach's management but also often "fought bravely" in games, digging pits for the national team and becoming a big trouble for the team. He was known as the "thorn" of the national team. Therefore, whether it was Marcello Lippi before or his successor Li Tie, they didn't like Wei Shihao very much, often neglected and became a spectator of the team.
Recalling Lippi's coaching days with the national team, Wei Shihao once paid a heavy price for his thorny behavior. At that time, Lippi was giving a pep talk to the national players, hoping they could be on high alert and prepare fully for the upcoming game. However, Wei Shihao and Yang Liyu were whispering at this moment, completely ignoring Lippi's admonition. This made Lippi very dissatisfied, and he directly excluded Wei Shihao from the World Cup qualifying squad, which became a small "stain" in Wei Shihao's national team career.
After Li Tie took over as the head coach of the national team, Wei Shihao still faced a cold reception. Li Tie managed the team very strictly, explicitly requiring the national players not to play with their mobile phones during meals so that they could better focus on training and matches. However, Wei Shihao did not take this rule seriously; he still played with his phone during meals as he pleased. This made Li Tie very angry, and he directly smashed Wei Shihao's phone in hopes of warning him. However, Wei Shihao did not rein in his behavior because of this; instead, he had a direct conflict with Li Tie, which led to him being removed by Li Tie and once again "hidden" by the national team.
Therefore, compared to Wei Shihao's unpopularity under Lippi and Li Tie, he has now become a favorite under Ivan's command, which inevitably creates a strong contrast. On the one hand, this shows Ivan's tolerance, and on the other hand, it indicates that Wei Shihao is becoming more and more mature as he grows older.
Regardless, such harmony between the coach and the players is undoubtedly a very good thing for the Chinese men's football team.