In the Chinese football circle, Gong Lei has a different life from too many people.
When he was a player, he was almost the same age as Gao Hongbo and retired early in the domestic arena and became the "Tahiti Ball King" across Australia. And every year in the World Footballer of the Year selection, as the only player in China who has been nominated, Gong Lei will be picked up from memory by the media and fans.
After retiring from the army, Gong Lei walked in a variety of roles with ease. He is the "palace guide" of the CCTV commentary, and he is also the coach who led the team to the AFC Champions League and won the FA Cup.
Now, he is also a senior executive of a sports company, one of the managers of Chinese Super League clubs and La Liga clubs.
In the face of the surging news reporter, Gong Lei still always smiled. Talking about the battle between China and South Korea, he believes that the national football team can win; when it comes to the impact of foreign aid on the Chinese Super League, he also admits that the international standard for measuring football powers does not have the "national team record".
Gong Lei explained on CCTV.
The South Korean team has weaknesses, and the national football team can win
"The Battle of China and Korea? I will explain the game in the CCTV studio..."
It is easy to "set up" with Gong Lei, who has worked as a football commentator for many years and is happy to share his views with everyone who likes football.
For today's Chinese football, on the evening of the 23rd, the focus of the Sino-Korean war, Gong Lei can't wait to support the national team.
"The South Korean team emphasizes confrontation, physical fitness, and the distance between the three lines is kept very tight, which is their advantage. When I was in suning last year, the South Korean international Hong just came to the team, and I had a more intuitive understanding of the characteristics of Korean players, but the shortcomings of the Korean team were also more obvious..."
As a professional, Gong Lei pointed out that the South Korean team's "ability to have the ball" is far inferior to the "ability to have the ball", "compared to the forced snatching of the no ball state, when the ball is at their feet, the processing ability of Korean players is average, especially the transition between attack and defense, there is not much change." ”
"Not only compared to the level of world-class teams, but also in Asia, South Korea is not prominent, if we can grasp the offensive and defensive conversions, grasp the details, there is a chance ..."
Unlike many people who are pessimistic about this game, Gong Lei believes that the Chinese team has the ability to win the battle, "I predict that the score may be 1-0 or 2-1, and the Chinese team will win." ”
Guizhou Renhe won the FA Cup, and the players sprinkled drinks for Gong Lei. Oriental IC Infographic
To measure a soccer powerhouse, there is no concept of national team record
In addition to looking forward to the prospects of the national brand, Gong Lei, who has been the guizhou and manager, has something to say about the changes in the Chinese Super League in the past two years.
"Many teams are buying high-level foreign aid, the positive side is that the league competition is more intense, stimulating the ball market, making more people willing to watch the Chinese Super League, boosting the social influence of football, and high-level foreign aid has also promoted the growth of local players."
"In my experience with Guizhou people, at that time, our strength was in the Chinese Super League, that is, in the middle of the stream, but playing in the AFC Champions League against the top teams in Japan and South Korea also felt that the gap was not so big..."
But there are two sides to everything, and Gong Lei has not avoided the squeeze of foreign aid on the living space of local players, especially the frontcourt players, "Gao Lin is marginalized, the importance of Wu Lei in the team is declining, and yu Hai I have brought before cannot play, which has indeed had an impact on the national team in the short term." ”
Such contradictions are in Gong Lei's eyes, but he prefers to evaluate them from an international perspective.
"The international standard for measuring a football power is divided into three aspects, the football population, the level of coaching and the level of professional leagues, and there is no mention of the performance of the national team. In fact, the problems we have, England also exists. ”
"In the long run, the current big investment is understandable, at a certain stage, you need such a move to stimulate, and I believe that the localization strategy will also be on the attention of management and investors." In fact, teams like Guangzhou Evergrande have already mentioned the concept of 'all-Chinese class'. ”
Gong Lei also plays field football with friends in his spare time.
Tahiti "Ball King"
There are indeed too many colors that local footballers do not have in Gong Lei. He likes to make horizontal comparisons, and he tends to use the laws of football development to explain the problems encountered by Chinese football at present. For this reason, his overseas study and playing career is undoubtedly an important experience.
Recalling the past, Gong Lei was both full of gratitude and gratitude.
"Didn't catch up with a good time." Gong Lei described his youth as "retiring" from the Beijing team.
"At that time, the football environment was not professional, it was still a professional team system, I won the sixth place in the National Games with my teammates, but then I was seriously injured, and after weighing it, I chose to go to Canada to study... It's a pity to think about it, our players also performed very well in the World Youth Championship. ”
The 20-year-old Gong Lei led the team to the quarterfinals of the World Youth Championship as the captain of the Chinese youth team, which is the best result of the Chinese national team in the world, but at the age of 24, he has faded from people's vision.
But things took a turn for the better at this point. While studying in Canada, Gong Lei received an invitation from the Tahiti team as Pillay.
In 1988, Gong Lei accompanied the Beijing team on a visit to Tahiti, which impressed the local team, and for two years, the other side did not give up the invitation.
"I also love football too much to give up." Gong Lei landed in Tahitian football by mistake. 'I scored 38 goals that year, which is still the Tahiti league goal record, the team also won the double, and the Tahiti national team manager nominated me at the time of the World Footballer of the Year awards, and now that I think about it, it's a lot of luck."
1993 is unusually far away, but you can still feel the joy in Gong Lei's words, and being recognized as a player has always been his greatest satisfaction.
Gong Lei will be responsible for the management of the club in the future. Oriental IC Infographic
As a coach, I don't understand
Perhaps what Gong Lei did not expect was that after retiring from the army, he returned to the center of the storm in Chinese football.
Gong Lei can speak English, French and Spanish, and also holds the title of AFC lecturer, starting from coaching Gansu Tianma, his footprints have also traveled through Xi'an Chanba, Guizhou Renhe, Jiangsu Suning...
In 2013, he led Guizhou Renhe to victory over Evergrande to win the FA Cup and reach the AFC Champions League, and Gong Lei ushered in the peak of his coaching career. Even after leaving the coaching position, Gong Lei, who faced the outbreak of China's sports industry, has become a fragrant feast in the eyes of some sports companies.
In 2016, Gong Lei joined Suning, and his titles include vice chairman of Suning Sports, head of the Chinese coaching team and team leader, plus the commentary work that fans have been talking about, Gong Lei is the busiest person in the football circle.
There have been rumors that Gong Lei often leads the team to fly directly to Beijing on the night of the game to explain for CCTV, and then returns to the team. For the rumors, Gong Lei smiled and confessed that he was very clear about his positioning.
"[These roles] let me choose, I still tend to do the most professional thing in football, the commentary is mainly for the fans, in fact, when I was the head coach of the team, I put the commentary work down."
Gong Lei studies tactics.
Next stop, executives of the Chinese Super League and La Liga clubs
After bidding farewell to Suning's several positions, the next stop is DDMC Sports (as vice president of the management company of the contemporary Ming Cheng Football Club).
DDMC Sports is part of the Contemporary Ming Cheng Sports Group and will be mainly responsible for the operation of the Chongqing Contemporary Lifan Club and the Granada Club in La Liga in the future.
"The earliest acquaintance with Gong Dao was on the TV screen, considering Gong Dao's professional ability and international background, we have always hoped that he will join, but the first time there was no negotiation, and the second negotiation was finalized."
Jiang Lizhang, president of the Contemporary Ming Cheng Sports Group, said that inviting Gong Lei is a suitable choice, and the current situation is the "best era" of Chinese sports.
"The industry has exploded, domestic and foreign resources are constantly circulating, our business is not only as simple as managing two teams, but also similar to the city football group, including youth training, overseas talent mining will be the focus of our work..."
Gong Lei and Sun Jihai worked together in Guizhou.
When Jiang Lizhang talked, Gong Lei just listened with a smile, but as soon as the topic turned to youth training, Gong Lei couldn't wait to "interject".
"Worldwide, young players have different age groups of impact targets, u23 has the AFC U23 Championship, u20 has the World Youth Championship, u17 has the World Junior Championship, these age groups we have the direction of cultivation, but the future should also focus on younger players, such as 5 to 12 years old."
At the end of the brief interview, Gong Lei stood alone in front of the window looking out at the streets and traffic of Shanghai, looking like he was enjoying it, and in the busy schedule of a Chinese footballer, a momentary pause seemed precious.