"The most special one" since the professionalization of Chinese football! Goodbye, Ai God! Goodbye, Exxon!

The reporter reported coldly On the evening of April 9, 2025, 35-year-old Exxon announced his retirement on his personal social media. Since Guangzhou Evergrande officially announced his arrival on December 4, 2012, the Brazilian-born striker has not only spent most of his career in China, but even ended his career in the Chinese Super League, and ended his career as a Chinese.

The time span is more than 12 years, and the pinnacle of Ackerson's life has been left to Chinese football. From a Brazilian goalscorer to a naturalized player of the national football team, he has witnessed the ups and downs of the Golden Yuan era of the Chinese Super League in two capacities, and has become one of the symbols of Chinese football in this era. With 8 trophies and 3 championship titles, "Elkeson" has witnessed the pinnacle of the Golden Yuan era of the Chinese Super League; As the first Chinese non-naturalized player and the holder of the double record of Chinese naturalized players in appearances and goals, "Ackerson" has experienced the ups and downs of the naturalized era of the national football team in the two World Cup qualifiers.

For more than 30 years since the professionalization of Chinese football, he can be called the most special one.

Before joining Guangzhou Evergrande at the end of 2012, Elkeson only ranked 10th in the list of scorers in the Brazilian Liga that year, neither the high transfer fees and annual salaries of Oscar and Hulk, nor the fame of Paulinho, Pato, Tevez, or even the MVP halo of Conca, Goulart and Augusto.

Even if Botafogo started with a starting price, Elkeson's $8.5 million transfer fee still seems to be worth the money. The following 2013 season, Elkeson proved Lippi's vision with an astonishing statistic of 32 goals and 15 assists in 41 games. Especially in the two legs of the AFC Champions League final, he scored against FC Seoul and won the first AFC Champions League trophy for Evergrande. At the end of the year, the goal against Cairo National also allowed the Chinese Super League team to enter the semi-finals of the Club World Cup for the first time - Elkeson, who made his debut in Chinese football.

In 2014, Elkeson broke Li Jinyu's eight-year Chinese Super League Golden Boot scoring record with 28 goals. In 2015, Elkeson scored the winning goal in the second leg of the AFC Champions League final to win the second AFC Champions League trophy for Evergrande, so he was selected as one of the top ten superstars of the 20th anniversary of the AFC Champions League by the AFC.

It was Elkeson who brought the second AFC Champions League trophy that fully opened the golden era of the Chinese Super League in 2016. Shanghai SIPG signed Elkeson for 18.5 million euros, which is still a record for foreign aid transfer fees within the Chinese professional league. In 2018, he teamed up with Oscar and Hulk to help Shanghai SIPG win the championship, and also made Elkeson the first foreign player to win the Chinese Super League championship in both teams. In the summer of 2019, Elkeson returned to Evergrande to win the last Chinese Super League championship, and also completed the transformation from Elkeson to Ackerson.

In the seven seasons from 2013 to 2019, Elkeson pushed the Golden Yuan era of the Chinese Super League to the peak with 140 goals and 60 assists in 245 games, 8 trophies, 2 Golden Boots and 1 Chinese Footballer of the Year title. Although there are Oscar, Hulk, Paulinho, Conca and other high-value and world-famous top superstars in this golden era, in terms of personal performance and team honor, before the completion of naturalization, Elkeson is definitely the most successful foreign aid in the history of the Chinese Super League.

At the same time, from Elkeson to Exxon, he also opened the era of naturalized non-blood players in Chinese football.

Since the second half of 2019, Evergrande has successively completed the naturalization of 7 players led by Exxon. In the top 40 match in September 2019, Aikesen made his debut and scored his first goal on behalf of the national football team, announcing the official opening of the era of non-blood naturalization of the national football team.

Unfortunately, almost all of Ackerson's professional peaks were left in 2019, after which his playing time for club and country was inconsistent, and injuries continued to weaken his form. As a representative of the first batch of naturalized players, Ackerson holds the record for the number of appearances (19) and the number of goals scored by a non-naturalized player in the national football team.

It is undeniable that the naturalized Exxon never returned to the peak of his career, and he failed to meet the expectations of himself and his fans in two World Cup qualifiers. With the termination of the contract with Chengdu Rongcheng in October last year, Aikeson's retirement announced after almost half a year has brought the most successful foreign aid in the Chinese Super League and the first person of non-blood naturalized international football who has been pinned on high hopes to come to an abrupt end, which is really embarrassing.

Although the departure of Oscar, the double standard of transfer fees and annual salary of the Chinese Super League at the end of last year, announced the end of the Golden Yuan era of the Chinese Super League. However, the retirement of Exxon has more complicated significance for the ups and downs of Chinese football in the past ten years. Elkeson is not the top transfer fee and annual salary, but he has reached the pinnacle of his life in Evergrande and SIPG, and has become a witness to the whole process of the Golden Yuan era of the Chinese Super League. With the end of the Golden Yuan era of the Chinese Super League, as a naturalized player, Ackerson has witnessed the weakness of Chinese football in the two World Cup qualifiers in the twilight of his career.

Landing in the Chinese Super League at the age of 23, leaving the peak of his entire career in China, and finally experiencing two World Cup qualifiers as a naturalized player, and taking the Chinese Super League club as the end of his career, retiring as a Chinese, looking at Chinese professional football for more than 30 years, there is only one player who has experienced such a legend, and this is the reason why Ackerson is worthy of Chinese fans to remember and will inevitably be recorded in the history of Chinese football.