On the morning of January 4, 2022, Li Lei flew to Zurich, Switzerland, to start the journey of staying in the grasshopper. Li Lei, who stepped out of his comfort zone and bravely stepped forward, spoke for the dreamers of Chinese football.
"Jump into the sky and fly into the air, don't do the poor worm in the middle of the night in the dark... Grasshoppers bounce in the heart socket, please come and hand over your enthusiasm to dream. ”
Perhaps, the hit song "Leaping a Thousand Dreams", released by grasshoppers in 1988, can be used by Li Lei as a background music for his gorgeous adventure.
Outsiders may be surprised that Li Lei, who has stood up for years, can still jump out of his comfort zone to go abroad to stay in the West without hesitation, but in the eyes of those who know him, even if there are a hundred reasons to stay, there is only one reason to go out - dreams, which is enough for Li Lei.
Concerned about national security
In the 15th round of the 2021 Chinese Super League, when Beijing Guoan and Guangzhou entered the injury time limit, Yu Dabao, who was injured, handed the captain's armband to Li Lei, he held it in his hand for a while, and then tucked it into his socks and did not wear it.
"I wanted to give the armband to Housen, but it was far away, the game was still going on and there was no chance. I felt that there were many people in the team who were more qualified to wear the captain's armband than I was, and I was about to leave the team and could not assume the responsibilities of the captain. ”
In fact, in the current national security team, Li Lei is one of the most senior players after Hou Sen, Park Sung and Jang Si-cheol. The arrival time of the current captain Yu Dabao was only a few days earlier than him.
In early 2015, 23-year-old Li Lei joined Beijing Guoan from Henan Jianye. The young man didn't think much of it, after all, in the position of Guoan's left guard, he was in front of Zhang Xinxin and Zhao Hejing, and even Zhou Ting, a veteran who could be competent left and right. Of course, he doesn't want to wait for the veteran players to retire in order to get a stable chance to play.
What impressed Li Lei was that his debut in Guoan did not come too late. "Before I first came to Guoan to play Henan Jianye, I originally warmed up, and when I returned to the dressing room, I learned that I couldn't play because of the avoidance clause. It was a double-match for a week, and a few days later I played in the AFC Champions League group stage against Urawa Red Diamonds. It was my first game for Guoan, and it was also my first time playing in the AFC Champions League, and I was excited and nervous. There were a lot of injuries in the team at that time, and I actually played at left centre-back. Li Lei recalled.
In the impression of former Guoan coach Xie Feng, Li Lei is always a very down-to-earth and reassuring player, "Whether it is training or playing, his attitude and execution are the best." Since the second half of 2016, he has gradually gained more playing time, and he can play at left-back or left-centre-back. Later, driven by high-level foreign teachers and foreign aid, Guoan's overall strength has been greatly improved, and Li Lei's personal ability and understanding of the game have also improved rapidly. ”
In Li Lei's view, the person who brought him great changes is Schmidt, who came to Guoan in 2017, "Without him, I probably wouldn't have become an international now." The German boss admired Li Lei and even thought he had the ability to gain a foothold in the Bundesliga.
"Desperate, hard, a little axis in football. Li Lei was almost a model at that time, training fully when he was not injured, and when he was injured, he was eager to return to the field the next day to train. Schmidt's translator at the time recalled tomorrow.
Li Lei said: "Not being able to win a league title for Guoan is the biggest regret in these seven years. Now think about it, the first game of this year was not played well, the second game just began because of a mistake to lose the ball, the midfield was replaced, the mood is a little fluctuating. At that time, the mentality was really wrong, I knew that my contract was only one year left, and I wanted to fight for Guoan a championship. ”
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Hope to realize dreams
As early as the first half of last year, when Guoan proposed to renew his contract, Li Lei clearly expressed his desire to stay in The Ocean. Guoan Club also agreed to leave the team on his own at the end of the year and without proposing any additional conditions.
In August 2021, Li Lei's free entry into the Swiss Grasshopper Club at the end of the year has been basically determined. Initially, when the chairman of the Grasshopper Club asked him if he had any intention of joining, Li Lei was particularly excited and agreed without hesitation.
'Realistically, if I still have a contract now, with my current level of ability, there won't be a European club willing to pay a transfer fee to take me away, which is a very realistic situation.' Li Lei is well aware that for him who is about to turn 30, this is the first glimmer of light, and it may be the last chance.
"My wife expressed her support at the first time, saying that she had a dream before, but she couldn't achieve it, so she regrets it now." She hopes that I can fulfill my dream and not leave any regrets in the future. My parents were worried at first, because now the two children are still young, and the epidemic is so serious. But I said that if I missed this opportunity, I might not have it again in my life, so I still wanted to go out and try it. They saw that I was so determined, so they did not dissuade me anymore and silently supported me in their own way. ”
Hou Sen is Li Lei's good friend in the Guoan team, from the earliest Xianghe base, to every time they go to an away game, they all live in the same room, the two are brothers and sisters, and they have nothing to say.
"From the first day I met Li Lei, I knew that staying in Yang was his dream," Hou Sen said, "I asked him how long it took him to decide, he said it was only five minutes, as soon as he knew that there was this opportunity, he decided to go." ”
As a senior of the Yulin Army and a former co-worker, Xie Feng was quite surprised by Li Lei's stay in Yang.
In 1997, the 31-year-old Xie Feng followed the national team to train abroad, and the agency that used to run Fan Zhiyi and Sun Jihai to play in the United Kingdom told him that there were several European teams that were interested in him, but because of his age, they all gave up.
"Everyone knows that in the past few years, many of the young domestic players who went out to stay in the west were the operations of agents, gilded in the lower leagues in Europe, just to get a big contract after returning home. But Li Lei's stay in the Ocean this time is different, after the domestic football environment tends to be rational, the purpose of his stay in the Ocean is to improve himself and broaden his horizons, which is definitely worthy of affirmation and encouragement. Even if the income is less than after the domestic salary limit, if it is me, I should choose to go out and go for a walk. Xie Feng also affirmed the courage of his former disciples.
Everything is given by Guoan
The seven years of guoan were the most important stage of Li Lei's career. "It's like a boy growing into a man, from an ordinary player to an international, it was Guoan who gave me everything I have now. I am a child in the big family of Guoan, and the day I ran away from home was indeed very unwilling, but sooner or later when the child grew up, there was a day when he left his parents. ”
In Li Lei's view, in addition to the attitude of a professional player, in addition to diligence and hard work, loyalty should also be a basic attribute. "Although this loyalty is becoming less and less in professional players now, I still value it more. After seven years in Beijing, it was really difficult to say goodbye to Guoan. ”
"In the past seven years, his relationship with Guoan is indeed very deep." Hou Sen said, "As far as I know, his income from going out this time may be more than half that of China." In his years in Guoan, there have always been domestic teams that want to poach him, including Evergrande and SIPG in their heyday. If he had left then, he would have paid at least two or three times more than he does now. But he has always stayed in Guoan because he himself always said that everything he had was given by Guoan. ”
Hou Sen felt that Li Lei was the kind of righteous person who "you are good to him, he will pay you back tenfold". "One year at home to Yanbian, the day before the game he had a fever close to 40 degrees, couldn't get in bed, and snuggled up on the couch. But there were a lot of injuries in the team at the time, and the left-back position was gone. The next day he insisted on playing the game down, and after the game he collapsed. Hou Sen said, "He is a particularly emotional person, I will say so, even if one day there is no sequel to his story with Guoan, I will not feel that he has failed us." ”
"If I return to China in the future, I definitely want to return to Guoan." But also to see the specific situation, at that time I should think more about the family factor, if the family is still in Beijing, I will definitely come back. Because I owe too much to my family in recent years. In the past two years, the epidemic has been less and more with family, and it is even more difficult to go home after going abroad. Li Lei said.
Reinvent yourself
This season's Swiss Premier League is in the middle of a winter break, and on January 5, the Grasshoppers will end the Christmas and New Year holidays and regroup. Li Lei departed from Shanghai to Zurich after New Year's Day to meet the team, and after a short period of adaptation and adjustment, he will accompany the team to Spain to prepare for the Swiss Premier League, which will be restarted on January 30.
For Li Lei, the nearly one-month preparation period will be the best time for him to familiarize himself with the environment and integrate into the team. "The club has found a house for me and has arranged German lessons every week. But everything else depends on me, and I don't have a dedicated translator. There's nothing wrong with that, I can learn the language and communicate more with my coaches and teammates, and if I always rely on translation, there will definitely be a gap in the middle. Language is indeed the biggest obstacle, but fortunately football is the same. ”
In the perspective of tomorrow, who knows more about foreign teachers, the players of the Swiss Grasshopper come from all over the world, and Li Lei should be able to communicate smoothly in English. "I remember that he had a lot of communication with Schmidt at that time, and for a while he would take the initiative to go to Schmidt's office to exchange some tactical play. The foreign coach is still more concerned about the initiative of the players, so I believe that he has not had much problem integrating into the team in the first month or two by learning the language and adapting to the environment. ”
Li Lei envisioned that the best situation was to be familiar with the rhythm of the Swiss league in the shortest possible time and have a foothold in the team. "But I was also prepared to face the difficulties, after all, the quality of training and playing in the domestic league is not so high, and I may not be in too good form when I just went to Europe, so I gave myself 6 to 8 weeks to adapt, from mental to physical, to meet the challenge and reinvent myself."
Li Lei hopes that he can always be a 7-point player, No matter where you play, you can maintain stability, instead of playing particularly well today, playing like tomorrow, I don't want to be this kind of player. 」 Especially as a defender, it's really important to stay stable. ”
Hou Sen revealed: "Grasshopper Club actually inspected a lot of Chinese players, including many international players, and finally felt that Li Lei's characteristics were more in line with the team's playing style. But in the current contract, there should be no commitment to the playing time, he can only prove himself again, trying to gain the trust of the coaching staff. In my opinion, Li Lei has a very clear plan for this stay in Yang, such as how long to adapt to the new team's playing style, how long to prove himself in training, and then let the coach and teammates feel that this Chinese player is really strong, rather than relying on sponsorship or agreements. ”
Li Lei believes that "Chinese players are generally relatively late-ripening, generally after playing 200 professional games, they can reach the basic level of foreign countries, that is, 30 years old may just be enough to stay in the foreign qualifications." For me, no matter how old I am, I have to go out and meet it. Of course, going out will not only have successes, but also failures, but I am ready. ”
"After going out for a year and a half, he didn't plan to come back halfway through." Hou Sen admitted that after Li Lei left, he would probably be sad for a while, "He once told me, Dahou, why don't you dare to go out and break in?" To be honest, I really don't have the courage he has now. The same opportunity was given to me, and I didn't dare try it. So I now call him 'Dreamcatcher'. ”
Author: Zhang Qiang
This article was originally published in the 831st issue of Football Weekly
Released: 30.12.2021
Images are from the web