Reporter Bai Guohua reported
Guizhou Renhe, Jiangsu Suning, and now Chongqing Contemporary Lifan, three different clubs, head coach, general manager, different role changes, Gong Lei staged an alternative hat-trick in Chinese football.
At a press conference held on April 14, Gong Lei took out a No. 33 jersey, and the reason for choosing No. 33 was that "the away team also scored three points, and the home team also got three points." Coincidentally, in the match between Lifan and Zhicheng on the same day, it was Nansong of No. 33 who opened the record for the home team.
Before the game, unable to withstand the soft and hard bubble of the host of the conference, Gong Lei also gave a prediction for the match of the night: "1-0 or 2-1, Chongqing wins." "And the result of the game is really, 2-1, Chongqing wins.
Just took office to bring good luck, and coincidence is "outrageous", which of course makes Chongqing Contemporary Lifan Club and Gong Lei himself very happy, in an exclusive interview with reporters, Gong Lei said: "A good start is half of the success, and then I hope that I and the club will be smooth and profitable, and do a good job together." ”
◆ "Football": Hello, Mr. Gong. Can you talk about the process of taking office in Chongqing this time?
Gong Lei: Thanks to the contemporary sports group and the club for their warm invitation and trust in me, after many exchanges and communications with Mr. Jiang (Jiang Lizhang, chairman of Chongqing Contemporary Lifan Club), we are in the field of football, the overall layout of the future in the country and the world, I can better understand Mr. Jiang's understanding of football at the professional level.
I hope to use my years of experience in football to better serve the club. We want to build a future technical system, to have their own hematopoietic function, to combine the local characteristics of Chongqing. I will not fail to live up to the trust that Mr. Chiang kai-shek and the Group have placed in me.
◆ Talk about your understanding of Chongqing and the focus of your future work?
I am no stranger to Chongqing. From the perspective of regional culture, it may be closer to Guizhou, including geographical climate, as well as catering culture.
◆ What advantages and disadvantages do you think are in chongqing contemporary Lifan now?
Now, many of the contemporary Lifan players have their own characteristics. In the past two seasons, under the leadership of Zhang Wailong, the team has gradually matured. Our current dependence on foreign aid, as well as the age structure, is somewhat large, ranking second in the Chinese Super League. So, how can we develop better and improve the competitive state of the team?
The contemporary Lifan style of play is not like the old Sichuan team style. Style needs to be gradually formed into its own. There is also the excavation of local players, including the players' own sense of urban belonging, which needs to be worked on. Of course, the team is still in a steady upward trend.
◆ In the past, when you brought Guizhou people and people, you emphasized that each team should have its own regional characteristics, and now in Chongqing you also emphasize this, is this related to the environment in which you grew up? In China's current environment, how much significance do you think it is to emphasize this feature?
Yes, our generation grew up in the era of Chinese football style, I was a child to watch Rong Zhixing they play football, at that time, the Guangdong team has the characteristics of guangdong team, Liaoning team has the characteristics of Liaoning team, Beijing team has the characteristics of Beijing team, different characteristics also lead to each place for the technical requirements of the team members of the focus is different.
Like when I was a small player, the coach knew my characteristics, so he would cut the technical movements very carefully according to my characteristics, and he hoped to play my strengths, rather than saying that I must make up for the lack of physical confrontation, which is also related to our Beijing football emphasis on technology - the influence of the football style formed in each place is far-reaching, so this is an important reason why I emphasize regional style so much.
◆ It seems that the current style of Guangzhou R&F kicking is very appetizing to you?
Yes, I often watch guangzhou R&F games. From the perspective of achievements, R&F is currently not as good as Guangzhou Evergrande, but in terms of technical style and characteristics, I think they have more of the charm of the previous Guangdong football, so I also hope that in the future, we can form our own technical style and regional characteristics in Chongqing Contemporary Lifan.
◆ "Football": The head coach has done it, the general manager has also done it, if you can choose, do you prefer coaching work or management work?
Gong Lei: In the future, when the time is ripe, I will definitely consider more cooperation and development with Mr. Jiang in the position of coach, which should consider the right timing, in the past, renhe and Suning coaching, are in a specific historical environment. At the management level and coaching level of many clubs, I am also fully mentally prepared and I have enough confidence in myself.
Coaches and managers have different responsibilities, such as task indicators, coaches are linked to performance, but now we have to do systematic and long-term engineering. I am mentally prepared in this regard, but when the time is ripe, I dare to take it.
◆ I have communicated with many insiders before, and many people have such a feeling: everyone does not like to be a head coach, they like to do management work, because the pressure of the head coach is too much, and the Chinese coach is even more so. Will this create a vicious circle that will lead to fewer and fewer coaches in China?
Yes, I admit that this phenomenon is now universal. I'm 52 years old and if I look at it from a coaching standpoint, I'm in a prime age right now.
Maybe everyone doesn't know that with my experience coaching Guizhou Renhe, although we have caused a lot of trouble for Guangzhou Evergrande, I have always aimed at Lippi, he is the teacher in my mind, I learned a lot from him, he even pointed me a clear path, let me know the direction of my future development in the coaching career.
But there is no doubt that the pressure on the head coach is much greater than that of management, and if a few games are not played well, it may face the crisis of graduation, and as a general manager, the time and space obtained will be much more and much greater, so it is not surprising that this situation occurs.
Moreover, the situation facing our local coaches is really difficult. Now local coaches are generally coaching teams facing relegation pressure, and if they are not careful, the team will not be able to succeed in relegation, and another situation is that the local coaches temporarily come out as firefighters, how difficult the situation is, everyone can imagine.
But our local coaches actually still have advantages, familiarity with the team, psychological mastery of the players, these are the advantages of Chinese coaches, so I also hope that the outside world will not look at Chinese coaches with the eyes of "original sin", when looking at foreign teachers and local teachers, they can be treated equally.
◆ "Football": Chongqing Contemporary Lifan Club has made a layout before, such as letting Trussier be in charge of youth training, and Jiang Zong also said that after you come, you can have better communication with him. Trussier has also coached in China for many years, and the general evaluation is that there is a level, but often do not handle the relationship around him, I don't know how you think about this problem?
Gong Lei: Yes, I have met with Trussier, I know French, we can communicate relatively smoothly, which is a small advantage.
He has been in China for many years, and indeed, there are such evaluations in the outside world. He is indeed an idealist, he may be impatient, he may be too ahead of the curve, so there will be some contradictions with the reality of China, I think this is normal, but the key thing is, I think what he does is out of the public mind, out of good intentions, this is a good thing.
I believe that our cooperation should be fine and that the experience and ability of the special manager should be of great help to our club.
◆ Since it comes to youth training, the previous Guizhou people and clubs have established many youth training projects in Chongqing. You have worked in Renhe before, and now you are in the youth training of Chongqing Club, what do you think?
Chongqing has a lot of football seedlings, and I started to build a youth training system and establish a coaching team. People and people have "home" in many cities, the former Xi'an, Guiyang, including the current Beijing, and the local government have a co-construction relationship in football.
The work we are about to carry out now is to do a good job in Chongqing, people do not have their own base, but we will now establish our own training base, build our own coaching team.
The club also revealed to us that in the future, our youth training system will radiate to the surrounding areas, Sichuan, Hubei, Hunan, so that we will have more room in the selection of materials, of course, this also puts forward higher requirements for us, can your system keep up? Can your people keep up? These are the hard and long-term tasks that we will have to do in the future.
◆ "Football": Everyone is familiar with Gong Lei has another identity, that is, CCTV's commentator. So after serving as the general manager of Chongqing Contemporary Lifan, will you continue to serve as a commentator? How helpful has the experience of so many years of commentators helped your business?
Gong Lei: Over the years, the experience I have accumulated in business is inseparable from watching and explaining every season. Interpreting the performance of high-level teams in terms of business is directly related to my personal business improvement and continuous learning and deepening.
I took over the team in the 2013 season, I won the FA Cup, this is not to say that I can step up to the sky, it is true that outside the competitive platform, appreciating and interpreting high-level competitions is beneficial to the improvement of my business, so I will cherish this.
Now we must put more energy on the club, this is not a conflict, how to better coordinate the work, better serve the club, this is what I want to focus on in the near future.
◆ Conversely, working on the front line of the club, including coaching the team as a head coach, or managing the club as a general manager, will also help your interpreting work, right?
That is true. When it comes to commentary, my experience of leading the team and managing the club is also very helpful for my commentary. However, now I will definitely put more energy into the club side.