Chinese football's once again impact on the World Cup journey ended in numbness and sinking. The national football team returned to China on April 3. From June 6, 2021 to the present, after following the national football team to West Asia to watch the top 40 matches, the fan Lei Zi has been stranded in Dubai, UAE for a full 10 months.
Fans
Lei Zi is the vice president of the Chinese Dragons Fan Club, the leader among the fans, and one of the most obsessive national football fans. In his 30s, he has followed the national football team to countless away games, as long as there is a place for the national football team, there is his unrepentant figure. In the early summer of 2021, in the face of the barrier of the epidemic, Lei Zi resolutely embarked on a journey to follow the national football team to West Asia. Unlike in the past, this time, he is the only member of the Chinese fan expedition.
In early June 2021, Lei Zi transited from Hong Kong to the United Arab Emirates via Thailand to cheer for the national football team
Why didn't Leizi return to China? What has he experienced alone in far West Asia for 10 months? In an interview with a client reporter from Beijing Daily, Lei Zi revealed to the domestic media for the first time that he was stranded in Dubai because of the new crown infection. In the past 10 months, in addition to cheering for the national football team in every game in West Asia, Lei Zi has not been idle. With the support of the Chinese in Dubai, he established the Dragon Twelve Football Club to provide high-quality football youth training conditions for overseas Chinese teenagers and continue to work hard for the future of Chinese football.
Alone on an expedition, forced to stay
In 2021, after the resumption of the Qatar World Cup Asian Qualifier Round of 40, the Chinese team defeated Guam 7-0 at home in Suzhou, and then due to the impact of the epidemic, it had to move its "home" to Sharjah in West Asia and the United Arab Emirates. In all the next Qatar World Cup qualifiers, the Chinese team completely lost its de facto home stadium.
Lei Zi took a group photo with national football team members Alain, Wu Lei and Luo Guofu
LeiZi's love for the national football team is almost obsessed, the domestic game needless to say, since 2012, every time the national football team goes away, he has not spared no effort to accompany the national football team. But this time it's a little different, as the spread of COVID-19 has not only imposed great restrictions on international travel, but also added a lot of uncertainty. However, Lei Zi still set off.
The national football team won three consecutive matches in the last three matches of the Round of 40 and successfully advanced to the round of 12, and Lei Zi also booked a ticket and planned to return from Dubai on July 18, 2021. Before being interviewed by the Beijing Daily client reporter, Lei Zi had been telling his family and domestic media that he was stranded in West Asia because he could not buy a ticket because of the suspension of flights.
"According to the regulations, you cannot return to China for three months after being infected with the new crown." Lei Zi confessed that until now his family did not know that he had been infected, because he was afraid that his family would be worried. After much deliberation, he agreed to the reporter's writing about the matter in the report.
As we all know, COVID-19 is not fatal to most people, but the many characteristics of this emerging infectious disease are enough to have a big impact on the lives of infected people. Lei Zi lost his sense of taste for half a year, and he could not taste anything he could taste. In a few months, he lost more than a dozen pounds.
"National football is too difficult"
The sluggish performance of the national football team in the round of 12 has made public opinion's confidence in Chinese football fall to the bottom again. Lei Zi accompanied the national football team through the entire journey of the top 12 in West Asia, and as one of the most senior national football fans, he still hopes that everyone can understand Chinese football more.
"From the time I stayed here and accompanied the national football team to the end, my biggest wish was that the Chinese team could enter the World Cup. In this process, we Chinese fans have too many unsatisfactory places. But we don't have a home stadium, in fact, the Chinese national team is really difficult. In my opinion, they are much harder than I thought. ”
On September 5, 2017, in the last match of the last World Cup Asian Round of 12, China played against Qatar, and Lei Zi cheered for the national football team on the road
From June 2021, the Chinese men's football team has made four expeditions to West Asia in the journey of the World Cup qualifiers, plus the away matches against Japan and Vietnam, according to the current domestic entry-exit quarantine policy, the national football team should be quarantined for nearly 100 days in 10 months.
"Have you ever wondered what it's like when you and your family can't meet, and your life is spent all year together, and you're all isolated in a hotel?" Lei Zi said that due to his long-term stay in the UAE, he knows the situation of the national team very well, "They must stay in the hotel in accordance with the epidemic prevention policy and cannot go out." All we could do was bring them some food and drink, it was too hard. ”
Established a youth training club for overseas Chinese
After being infected with the new crown, thinking that the day when he returned to China might still be far away, Lei Zi found something for himself to do. There are as many as 300,000 Chinese living in Dubai, and he successfully organized the UAE Chinese Football League. Through the platform of the football game, he also quickly integrated into the local Chinese overseas Chinese community and made many trustworthy friends.
Lei Zi launched the UAE Chinese Football League and held a press conference
This gave Lei Zi a lot of inspiration. In China, Lei Zi has long been engaged in the promotion of campus fan culture, and is committed to letting more teenagers understand football, like football, and play football. "The Qatar World Cup is about to take place. I wondered if I could do anything for the Chinese fans living here, so that everyone had more opportunities to watch the World Cup and have more interest in caring about the World Cup. But I think about football, more importantly, there are still more children and parents who are willing to participate in it, because the hope of Chinese football must be in the youth, in the school. ”
Lei Zi and the children of Dragon XII Football Club
In cooperation with the Dubai Chinese School run by the Chinese Ministry of Education, Dragon Twelve Football Club has now enrolled 104 young students in Dubai, of which 12 are foreigners and the rest are overseas Chinese. The club employs four managers from Spain, Argentina and the United Kingdom, all of whom have international top coaching qualifications. The club is not profitable, Lei zi said, in order to let more children participate, this is an inevitable choice for football youth training.
Never go alone?
On March 26, China's U23 men's football team defeated thais 4-2, and the domestic wife told Leizi that her daughter was curious to ask her at that time, is it not the Chinese women's football team, the Chinese men's football team can not do it? Lei Zi sighed and said that when a 6-year-old child knows that Chinese football is not good, when football practitioners do not want their children to play football, it can be seen how bad the current public opinion environment of Chinese football is. He hoped that public opinion can have a little more understanding and tolerance of Chinese football, and more people can work hard to let more children enter the stadium, so that Chinese football can have a better tomorrow.
"I remember a statistic from 1999, when the Chinese women's soccer team won the World Cup runner-up, and our registered female footballers were more than 2,000. At that time, there were 1 million female college students playing football in the United States. China's real football population is actually very small, Chinese football to this day, to achieve such an achievement, it is not easy, has become a miracle of the world. ”
What are the plans for the future? Lei Zi hopes that he can return to China as soon as possible and meet his family who have been separated for nearly a year as soon as possible, but at the same time, he cannot let go of the youth training career at hand. But it is certain that no matter what, the fan Lei Zi will still firmly follow the chinese football all the way.
![The story of leizi staying in the west has to start from the Shanghai team[fig]](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAP///wAAACwAAAAAAQABAAACAkQBADs=)