Reporter Wang Wei and intern reporter Huang Hao reported About half way through the North South Division of the China Second League, Guangzhou Leopard kept winning all the eight rounds of the league, ranking first in the overall scoreboard. In Guangzhou Leopard Array, Xia Dalong, a Chinese Japanese mixed blood player who joined on loan this year, has scored 6 goals, which is the team's top scorer.
On the court, Xia Dalong is a tall, dark, aggressive and aggressive center; Off the court, when she changed into casual clothes and received an exclusive interview with our reporter in the Cafe of the Westin Hotel of HNA Guangzhou, the feeling of Xiadalong was completely opposite to that in the competition. She was easy-going, calm and funny. When chatting with reporters, Xia Dalong smiled directly and spoke fluent Chinese with a slight Japanese accent. When answering questions, he would repeatedly consider whether his words were accurate. Xia Dalong's level of Japanese is the same as that of ordinary Japanese. His level of spoken Chinese is slightly lower when he systematically learns Chinese after the age of 18.
Xia Dalong stressed that although he was born in Japan, he has always been a Chinese citizen and has a Chinese passport. He began to receive amateur football training in Japan at the age of 5. Until he graduated from college, he never thought that he could become a professional player like now. He has been to many teams for trial training, and also left a shadow in the championship, second and first place competitions. Last year, he experienced the joy of success in the Super Bowl in Sichuan Jiuniu (Shenzhen Xinpeng City).
It was once a pity for Xia Dalong that he failed to follow Shenzhen Xinpengcheng to play in the CSL. However, his successive goals after joining Guangzhou Leopard gave him a new idea. He wants to launch an attack on a higher level league with Guangzhou Leopard.
Xia Dalong was born in Nagoya, Japan. There are many versions of his football career on the Internet. With the opportunity of this face-to-face interview, Xia Dalong personally responded to his identity mystery. He said that although he grew up in Japan, his nationality has always been China
Xia Dalong's father is from Dalian, and his mother is of mixed race between China and Japan. His parents met, married and settled in Japan, but they still retain Chinese nationality. Xia Dalong's grandmother is Japanese, so he has a quarter of Japanese ancestry. Xia Dalong grew up in the Japanese cultural environment after her birth, and her family usually communicate in Japanese.
At the age of 5, Xia Dalong officially started to contact football
From primary school to junior high school, Xia Dalong stayed in a local private football club in Nagoya for ten years. As he goes to school, he regards football as his greatest hobby. In high school, Xia Dalong entered the school team and participated in the Japanese high school league. But at that time, he was far away from professional football.
"When I was a sophomore in high school, my family sat together to discuss. My sister suggested that I go to China to study in college. At that time, I never thought I could become a professional player." After graduating from high school, Xia Dalong, 18, boarded a flight to China. In Beijing, Xiadalong spent a year learning Chinese in the language training class system. In his spare time, he continued to maintain his love of football on the field.
"After learning Chinese for a year, I thought I could go to a Chinese university right away, but when I signed up, my teacher said that I was a Chinese, not an international student, and I had to pass the college entrance exam to get the chance to go to university." Xia Dalong was stunned. He thought he could go to college, but he was not qualified for admission, so he had to spend another nine months preparing for the college entrance exam.
"Later, I finally understood that what the teacher said about the college entrance exam was actually a joint exam for returned overseas Chinese students. This exam required five subjects, and I remember that when I first saw the test questions, I could not understand them. Later, during the preparation for the exam, I learned from 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. every day. After nine months of study, I went to take the exam." Xia Dalong said, He sighed with relief. It was too hard for him to learn Chinese systematically at the age of 18.
After the national college entrance examination, Xia Dalong's experience of choosing a major is also very interesting. At that time, he didn't have a major he particularly wanted to study, but one relative thought that Xia Dalong's daily clothes were well matched, so he could consider studying clothing design. In this way, Xia Dalong chose fashion design as his undergraduate major and spent four years in Shanghai.
After graduating from college, Xia Dalong, 25, began to worry about finding a job. Fortunately, the experience of playing football in Shanghai amateur football circle during his college years brought him employment opportunities.
Xia Dawei, Xia Dalong's brother, is also Chinese, and has been a professional player in the Japanese Basketball League. After leaving the professional arena, Xiadavi worked in a Japanese insurance company and won the National Outstanding Newcomer Award. This year, he also published a personal autobiography. Xia Dalong said that the two brothers often communicate with each other, and his brother's experience also gave him a reference to some extent.
"Until I graduated from college, I was not sure whether I could embark on the path of professional football, but then Coach Huang Yi came to me and asked me if I wanted to go to a team in Shenzhen to play in the championship." Huang Yi had been selected as a member of the Chinese Olympic team during his playing days, and served as head coach of several teams in Shanghai after he became a coach. In 2018, he went south to Shenzhen to coach the championship team Shenzhen Xinqiao.
Since the opportunity is at hand, it's better to try boldly. After arriving at Shenzhen Xinqiao, the championship team, Xia Dalong played the role of high center in the team and started his own player career in the championship game.
After a year of "testing the waters" in the China Champions League, Xia Dalong gradually had the idea of becoming a professional player. For this reason, before the start of the 2019 season, Xia Dalong had been to several professional clubs for trial training, but he was not favored by professional teams for lack of professional youth training background and age advantage.
"Japanese coaches attach great importance to the cultivation of players' foot skills, so starting to practice since childhood will really give me a little advantage on the field, but only in amateur football matches. Compared with many professional players, I still have a big gap with them, but fortunately, there is a team behind me that finally gives me a chance."
The opportunity that Xia Dalong said came from the fact that the Chinese and second teams at that time had a large capacity. Due to the lack of a high center, the club found Xia Dalong and hoped that he would try. In this way, Xia Dalong played in the China Second League at the age of 26 and officially became a professional player.
In the 2019 season, Xia Dalong played nearly 30 games in the China Second League and scored 5 goals. Later, Baodingrong was disbanded, and Xia Dalong continued to look for opportunities to play football with his less impressive professional player's resume.
Before the start of the 2020 season, Xia Dalong returned to Japan to visit his family and planned to return to China to continue to find a team for trial training. At that time, he contacted the Shenzhen Xuegang Club. After experiencing isolation in Shenzhen, before Xia Dalong could wait for the trial training notice to come to Xuegang, Sichuan Jiuniu, who was preparing for the battle in Dongguan, found him. The team that was still in Sichuan at that time also wanted to get a high center. Xia Dalong, who received the phone call, took a bus from Shenzhen to Dongguan for trial training the next day. He said that this decision was the most critical decision in his player's career so far.
On the first day of trial training in Dongguan, Xia Dalong made his debut in the warm-up match. Later, he returned to Sichuan with the army and officially signed a contract with the club after a month of training with the team.
By mistake, Xiadalong jumped from middle B to middle A, but this also meant that the difficulty was upgraded. "The first time I played in China, I totally couldn't adapt to the rhythm of the game, and there was also a lot of pressure in my heart, and I even began to fear playing." At the end of the 2020 season, Xiadalong's goal account in China has not been opened. Fortunately, with the arrival of the new season, the club still gave Xia Dalong the opportunity to stay in the team, which also allowed him to continue to wait for playing opportunities on the stage of the Chinese League One.
In the 2021 season, Xia Dalong gradually gets the chance to rotate and score goals in league and cup competitions. In 2023, in the fourth year of coming to Sichuan Jiuniu, Xia Dalong followed the team to surpass as a champion of China First Class, and at the age of 30, he won his first championship trophy after becoming a professional player.
However, Chong Chao's joy has not yet dissipated, and a cruel reality is in front of him. Xia Dalong was told that he was not in the team's plan for the new season, and that he was close to the Chinese Super League stage.
In this regard, Xia Dalong made an analysis of his personal situation. He believed that after the team ascended the Chinese Super League, it would inevitably introduce more powerful foreign aid in the front line, so his playing time would undoubtedly be compressed, so it would be a good thing to look for opportunities in other teams. After negotiation and consideration, Xiadalong joined Guangzhou Leopard on loan at the beginning of this year.
"It's really a pity that I didn't get on the CSL stage, but I'm still grateful to Sichuan Jiuniu. Last year I played a perfect season there. I would like to thank Wang Hongwei for letting me join, Li Yi for helping me regain my confidence when I was about to lose confidence, and Coach Tato for allowing me to stay with the team until I came to Guangzhou Leopard. "
All kinds of frustrations on the road of professional players let Xia Dalong master the way to relieve pressure, and let him develop a humble and grateful attitude.
Returning to China B, Xiadalong cashed in his value with one goal after another in Guangzhou Leopard. When it comes to expectations for the future, Xia Dalong didn't say much. He felt that he still had to play well this season. If he could help Guangzhou Leopard move from China to a higher level league, it would be a great achievement in his career.
