According to netizens' revelations, a group of statues in Shenyang for the 2001 national football team to qualify for the World Cup, only Li Tie's statue head was splashed with paint. However, some netizens believe that this is the "rust" of the statue cast in copper, not the radical fans who are dissatisfied with the achievements of Li Tie's team and splash paint.
In 2001, the national football team reached the World Cup final for the first time in its history, and it was the only time so far, so after the national football team qualified, Shenyang, which hosted the top 10 national football tournament that year, appeared in many places to commemorate the statues cast to commemorate the national football team. Including the then national football coach Milu, former internationals Fan Zhiyi, Li Tie and others are listed.
However, the stadium that hosted the national football competition at that time was later destroyed due to commercial development and became a commercial area, which also made fans sigh. And Li Tie, who made great contributions to the national football team to break into the World Cup, transformed into a coach after retiring, and became the national football coach in early 2020, Li Tie said at the beginning of his tenure that his dream was to lead the national football team into a World Cup as a coach.
In the previous top 40 matches, Li Tie led the team to achieve 4 consecutive wins, thus helping the national football team to successfully qualify for the top 12 matches, but in the top 12 matches, in the case of the first 4 rounds of the national football team all in West Asia, only got 1 win and 3 losses, and the qualifying situation was precarious, so Li Tie instantly slipped from the peak, especially the use of naturalized players was criticized by the outside world.
Local netizens in Shenyang broke the news that the statue set up for the national football team was only the color of suspected paint on the head of The statue of Li Tie, suspected of being splashed with paint by radical fans. However, some netizens believe that because the statue is made of copper, oxidation has occurred after long-term exposure to air, and green has appeared.