Jiang Zhipeng: I haven't played enough in 20 years, and my joints are the healthiest in the team

Reporter Wang Wei reports On March 6 this year, Jiang Zhipeng just celebrated his 36th birthday. Until now, he clearly remembers the specific date of going to the Genbao base on Chongming Island in Shanghai. In 2025, the veteran will transfer from Wuhan Three Towns to Shenzhen Xinpeng City, which is the 20th year of his professional football career.

◆"Football": In this year's Chinese Super League, you and Yu Hanchao, Tan Long, Wu Xi and other players are all over 35 years old and still galloping on the field. After many years of fighting, although he is no longer young, he often plays a key role in the game, how do you understand this persistence?

Jiang Zhipeng: I think perseverance still comes from the love of football! The most important thing is how much money you earn or what you have experienced before with the national team, but the love of football. I hope to give full play to my spare energy at the end of my career, help more young players in the team, and contribute to Chinese football, so that my love can be targeted.

I still remember clearly that I went to Shanghai Chongming Island Genbao Base on July 28, 2000, and began to represent Shanghai East Asia in the professional league (China B League) in 2006, won the championship of China B League at the end of 2007 and successfully rushed to the first division, and won the men's football group A championship of the 11th National Games under the guidance of master Xu in 2009, which is a very important gold medal, thanks to Xu for leading us all the way. This year marks the 20th anniversary of my professional football career and I have played almost 400 professional league games.

◆After joining Shenzhen Xinpeng City this year, your role in the team has gradually emerged, becoming a key player of the team after the Provincial and Hong Kong Cup, and serving as the team's captain in the first round of games.

What I talk about the most in the team is to use your brain to play football, and you can't just rely on brute force to play because you are young or energetic, and you will not be able to keep up when your physical function decreases a little bit in the future. The sooner you use your brain to play the ball and combine it with your skills and tactics, the longer your football path will be and the easier it will be to play. In addition, I also told the younger players to be more confident in the game, especially when playing away against strong teams like Shanghai Port and Beijing Guoan.

Of course, sometimes I lose my temper, mainly because after talking to the younger players about the essentials, they will make the same mistake again. This always reminds me of the scene when Director Xu taught us. I think, from that point of view, it's also quite a training for me, a bit like I'm starting to think from a coach's point of view.

◆"Football": Yu Hanchao is 38 years old this year, Tan Long is also 37 years old, Wu Xi is 36 years old, and he is definitely old on the court, but Yu Hanchao often comes off the bench at the last moment to score key goals, Tan Long often scores, you and Wu Xi also play at a very high level, do you usually communicate with them some experience? What do you think of this group still fighting in the top league?

Jiang Zhipeng: Brother Monkey (Yu Hanchao's nickname) is really fierce, after he scores some stunners or tie goals, I will send him WeChat. I said to him, "Brother Monkey, you kicked too hard, tell me how you did it?" Then he would always say to me: Blind kick! (laughs)

I think Yu Hanchao, including Tan Long and Wu Xi, as well as Zhang Linpeng, they are all very humble and low-key people, such players will constantly summarize themselves, and self-reflect, and will not blame others. I think that's a big reason why they're still scoring goals and still playing in the team.

There may be a few players who will blame others after they can't play at this age, and they may give up on themselves, but they are different. I also talked to Cao Yunding about the situation of Hanchao before, Brother Monkey is too powerful, he has also been injured and operated on before, and he can still kick now, which shows that he usually puts a lot of effort into training.

I also talked to Tan Long, he is a very self-disciplined person, I used to ask him to have supper with him after the Changchun game, he would say that he would not eat, and he would go back to recover quickly, and there would be a game later. I think self-discipline is also a very important factor to be able to play at this age.

◆On March 6 this year, you just celebrated your 36th birthday, and many fans and friends are curious to know how you maintain the physical and technical condition of high-intensity confrontation, and what special requirements do you usually have for yourself in terms of physical assurance and condition assurance?

I think the first thing is diet, which is important for body fat control. The Xinpengcheng team will take a body fat measurement, and my body fat rate is generally around 9.00 percent or 10 percent, and the overall maintenance is okay.

In addition, there is also the usual strength training, I practice strength not all parts of the training, I mainly practice joint strength, including squats, sometimes do two sets of bench presses, maintain the weight, squats will be a little heavier. The maximum weight can reach 170 kg and 180 kg. The period at the beginning of the league is about 160 kg, and a day or two before the game will go to squat for a big force, 100 kg, 120 kg, 140 kg, 160 kg squat. Then, do some explosive bounces and activations and so on, and let the power be transformed. After the medical check-up, they said that my joint fitness was the best in the team, including foreign players (laughs). I think for us athletes, the older we get, the most important thing is to protect the strength of our joints.

Now it is said that it is scientific training, and not allowing young players to practice heavy strength training such as squats may hurt their knees. But when we were sixteen or seventeen years old, we had to do squats, and we could squat to 120 kilograms, and the maximum strength could even reach 140 kilograms. For me, going to the gym right now is the most useful item.

In fact, you can see that the joint strength of this group of players trained from Genbao Football Base is maintained well, including Zhang Linpeng, Wang Shenchao, Lu Wenjun and others. Looking back, those things that were used by Xu Gui back then still worked for us.

◆"Football": Guangdong and Shenzhen fans say that you have a lot of fate with Guangdong football, whether it is Guangzhou R&F or Shenzu, and now Shenzhen Xinpeng City team, you basically put your youth and the best professional football experience here. When you were about to leave R&F, many fans were very reluctant to give up on you, saying that you would definitely return to Guangdong. What feelings do you have for Guangdong football? Can you say it's your other hometown?

Jiang Zhipeng: I joined Guangzhou R&F when I was 25 years old (2014), and after playing in Guangzhou for four seasons, I moved to Hebei Huaxia Happiness, and then returned to Guangdong in 2020 for the second time, joined Shenzhen Kaisa, and then went to Wuhan Three Towns, and returned to Shenzhen again this year to play for the Xinpeng City team. 2025 is my 8th year in the Chinese Super League and my 20th year in the professional league.

After several hibernations, I returned to Guangdong and Shenzhen, I think this is a kind of fate, I think it may be that the story of Guangdong football has not been broken, and I need to leave something for Guangdong football and Shenzhen football, and my life seems to be inseparable from Guangdong football. Coming back to Guangdong is like coming home, Guangdong gives me the feeling of another hometown. I want to try to play in the Super League for a few more years.

◆This year's Chinese Super League Shenzhen Xinpeng City team has ups and downs at the beginning, conceding more goals, and the pressure on both offensive and defensive ends is relatively large, from the player's point of view, what kind of adjustments and changes do you think are needed to solve the problem at both ends of the offensive and defensive ends?

This may be something that the coach needs to consider, and it also requires the whole team to work together to figure out how to solve the problem. I think the players did their best on the pitch and we played well against Shanghai Port, away to Qingdao Manatee, we changed the formation and scored the last goal to win and then we continued that formation. Later, I experienced only one goal in three rounds, which shows that after the first few games, the run-in is better. At the moment, we still have room for improvement on the offensive end, and we need to further improve the efficiency of the offensive end, make the scoring points more consistent, and strengthen the team's attack.

◆This season, the fans of Xinpeng City are very enthusiastic, and there are 20,000 or 30,000 fans at each home stadium to watch the game. What are some of the things you'd like to say to these fans?

I think the Shenzhen fans are very cute, especially in the rounds when we conceded a lot of goals, after we returned to the home stadium, the Shenzhen fans never gave up on us, very supportive of us, there were 20,000 or 30,000 people on the scene to cheer for us, which is a great support for us. I am very grateful to these fan friends. Including the FA Cup in Guangzhou last week, when it was raining so heavily, Shenzhen fans made a special trip to Guangzhou to cheer for us in the rain, which made our team very moved. In the future, we will do our best to play every game, and strive to deliver a wonderful game, so that fans and friends feel that it is worth the money to watch the game live.

I don't think Shenzhen fans are the kind of team that is angry when they lose and happy when they win, in fact, they want to see our spirit, see the hard work of the players on the field, and the spirit of never say die and fight until the last second. I can feel their support for us all the time.