Team China deserves praise despite failed World Cup qualification, says Zhang
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E-mail Xinhua, April 26, 2022
BEIJING, April 26 (Xinhua) -- China national team striker Zhang Yuning said he would praise the whole team for what they had been through during their failed FIFA World Cup qualification campaign.
The 25-year-old striker posted a comment on social media on Tuesday in response to a video that shows the team stretching in a relaxed-looking manner with the caption: "China's men's team are training as hard as the devil".
Zhang viewed this video as a veiled attack on the side, whose efforts during their failed World Cup campaign have been widely derided.
"Our World Cup qualification campaign has ended. To sum up, I want to say I would offer praise to all the team players, including myself," he wrote.
"You all have endured so much over so long a time. Yuning will never forget every detail we have been through together."
"When we carried on in silence, all our hearts were crying," he added.
On Monday, Zhang posted on social media some screenshots of the training video in question.
"This was the sixth time we underwent quarantine after coming back to China [from FIFA World Cup qualifiers]. This time, we stayed in isolation in Hainan for 21 days," he wrote.
"We trained at 11am with the temperature reaching 36 degrees Celsius and the sun baking overhead," he wrote.
He then accused the video poster of deliberately defaming the Chinese team for failing to qualify for this year's World Cup finals.
"How can you use this video which you cut out from one of our warm-ups to incite wilful barbs against us from those people who are unaware of what has gone on? How ignorant you all are!" he wrote.
Zhang, Wu Xi and Zhang Linpeng have been called up for China's U23 team as overage players to prepare for this year's Asian Games in September in Hangzhou, China.
The Chinese players have been released to their respective clubs after serving out their mandatory quarantine in Haikou, Hainan.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic wreaking havoc, the kickoff date of the 2022 Chinese Super League season remains undecided. Enditem
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