Just as Dong Fangzhuo was still trying to match the young man in casual clothes she had met in Istanbul with the young man in the newspaper, Li Shiguang's life story had already been dug up on Chinese forums.
Because Championship matches were not broadcast in China, most fans were unaware that Leeds United's owner was a young man of Asian descent.
However, Premier League matches are broadcast in China, especially matches like the defending champions versus the newly promoted team, which are very popular in England. Naturally, the domestic broadcasts will not miss them.
In fact, while preparing in the studio, the two commentators of HCTV-5, Su Tao and Wang Lu, had already obtained the lineup information of both sides.
After reviewing Leeds United's lineup, Su Tao turned to Wang Lu beside him with a puzzled look and asked, "Coach Wang, have you heard of Leeds United's head coach, Shiguang Li? That name sounds like it belongs to a Chinese person."
This completely baffled Wang Lu, who was looking at Chelsea's roster information. His small eyes were filled with great confusion as he turned to Su Tao and asked, "What Li? Isn't Blackwell the manager of Leeds United? Did the staff make a mistake?"
As a result, the two just stared at each other blankly, and ended the commentary of the match without even figuring out the background of the Leeds United manager.
But looking at the young man with yellow skin and black hair standing on the sidelines on TV, and combining that with the name they saw in their hands, Su Tao and Wang Lu could still tell that the young Leeds United manager was probably Chinese.
What the two commentators saw, the domestic fans naturally saw as well. Although Su Tao only briefly mentioned Li Shiguang's background when introducing the lineups of both sides before the game, he was completely unaware of Li Shiguang's background. However, after Leeds United won the game, some curious fans still dug up Li Shiguang's life story online, and even the video of his interview was dug up by these fans!
The very next day, the fact that Leeds United had a Chinese owner and head coach quickly became a hot topic among Chinese football fans.
"Niu Boyi! I always thought that becoming a captain in Europe was the limit for Chinese players, but I never imagined that someone could not only become a boss, but also a head coach leading a team in matches! The most crucial thing is that he beat Mourinho yesterday!!!!???"
"Holy crap! Holy crap! Holy crap! This is practically a novel protagonist! He takes over Leeds United in a crisis, buys Howard for 3 million euros and sells him for 15 million euros in just 3 months, and after the manager resigns, he personally leads the team to win the Championship and return to the Premier League. Even the great writer Kim wouldn't dare write something like this!"
"Speaking of which, wasn't Deisler supposed to have depression? But he played so well last night. After watching the game, I thought he was on performance-enhancing drugs. Now I know the reason, he must have taken Chinese medicine!"
"Wow!!! So handsome!!! And young and rich. Girls, I'm going to check out what universities Leeds has. My mom wants me to try studying abroad."
"Hey, you upstairs, you're messing with me!"
"I've watched the video. He's just a Chinese-American, yet he's so rich and directly controls a Premier League club. Why doesn't he bring in some Chinese players to play? Since he has the means, he should help develop football in his hometown!"
"I agree with the comment above!"
"Indeed, I suggest Leeds United bring in more players from China!"
"Why bring in more? What are we going to do with them? Bet on football? Or go to bars?"
Before this year, although China could not be considered a football powerhouse, it still gave domestic fans some hope.
For example, Chinese players are now playing for Premier League clubs like Manchester City, Everton, and Manchester United, as well as in the Bundesliga.
However, starting in February of this year, the leadership of the Chinese Football Association was changed, and since then, Chinese football has been on a downward spiral year after year, with various match-fixing and fixes emerging one after another. By the time Li Shiguang was reborn, the team had already become a third-rate team in Asia.
Therefore, Li Shiguang had no good feelings towards the Chinese Football Association. Although he knew that there were players playing in the English Premier League and he had even met Dong Fangzhuo once in Istanbul, Li Shiguang did not have much contact with them.
Although he missed his hometown, Li Shiguang knew that since he had embarked on the path of football, it was best not to get involved with the Chinese Football Association in any way.
But last night's game not only made domestic fans aware that Leeds United's owner is of Chinese descent.
Just after the match yesterday, Su Tao requested information about Li Shiguang from the TV station, since he would be doing commentary later and couldn't just gloss over the Leeds United manager every time he was introduced.
However, after the staff figured out Li Shiguang's information, they did not give it to Su Tao immediately, but instead handed the information over to the Chinese Football Association.
Now, Li Shiguang's publicly available biographical information has come into the hands of Zhou Guanlong, the head of the Chinese Football Association.
Zhou Guanlong was looking at Li Shiguang's information.
Standing next to him, Zhang Beiyong, the lackey, spoke up: "Boss, after the report came up, I immediately checked it out. This Li Shiguang is indeed of Chinese descent. He took over Leeds United from his father last year. This young man is quite capable. He is both the owner and the coach. In just one year, he solved Leeds United's financial crisis and even got them promoted to the Premier League."
“I think this is an opportunity for us. We can try to contact him, since we haven’t found a suitable breakthrough for the previous plan.”
The plan Zhang Beiyong mentioned is actually something that Zhou Guanlong has been pushing for since he took office in February this year. He has always wanted to send some young domestic players to European teams for training.
Regardless of whether these players ultimately stay or not, this can be considered a good achievement for Zhou Guanlong, who has only been in office for a short time, and he may even be able to gain some benefits from it.
So when Zhang Beiyong mentioned this plan, Zhou Guanlong frowned, lit a cigarette, and began to tap his left fingers lightly on the table...
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