Wu Lei

[EdmondDantes]

Full Name: Wu Lei
DOB: 19 November 1991
POB: Nanjing, Jiangsu, China
Height: 1.74m / 5'9"
Playing Position: Foward/ Winger
Current Club: Espanyol (just signed from Shanghai SIPG)

 

[Porque]

Chinese owner buys Chinese star. Makes a lot of business sense and he may even get a few LaLiga goals.

 

[EdmondDantes]

I've watched the Chinese Super League for the past 3 seasons a fair bit and Wu Lei is by far the best Chinese player - and performed better than a lot of the expensive signings from European clubs like Carrasco for instance.

It was easy to see he was more than good enough to play in a top 5 European league but I never saw this move happening simply because of logistics:

Wu Lei is a star and on monster wages. It's brave of him to leave all that aside and embark on a new adventure to test his skills.

The only problem is he's just had surgery and will be out for another 3 months which is not ideal.

 

[Luftstalag14]

Useless in big games.

I wish him the best in Spain.

 

[Messi983]

[tw]1089810539495243776[/tw]

 

[EdmondDantes]

Useless in big games.

I wish him the best in Spain.

In the CSL he's been great but not for his national team - those two screamers he scored in the Asian Cup surprised me. I hope he does well. Espanyol are innocuous to us these days.

 

[Luftstalag14]

In the CSL he's been great but not for his national team - those two screamers he scored in the Asian Cup surprised me. I hope he does well. Espanyol are innocuous to us these days.

Exactly, therefore some Chinese fans jokingly labeled Messi “Argentine Wu Lei” for Messi’s relatively lack of results and trophies with the NT. A friend of mine teased me and said “Now the Argentine Wu Lei will meet his namesake”.

Wu Lei is known as someone who needs a lot of service and someone who is very wasteful in front of the goal and someone who sucked whenever he played for the NT, especially in big games. He scored the brace against the Philippines but did nothing against South Korea and Iran.

Anyways, this transfer generated a lot of interest among Chinese fans as he will be the only high-profile Chinese player playing overseas. A smart marketing move for Espanyol as they are going to be followed by many here and some fans have already ordered Espanyol jerseys. But honestly pretty much everyone has very low expectations, they don’t expect him to get much game time at all.

 

[EdmondDantes]

Exactly, therefore some Chinese fans jokingly labeled Messi “Argentine Wu Lei” for Messi’s relatively lack of results and trophies with the NT. A friend of mine teased me and said “Now the Argentine Wu Lei will meet his namesake”.

Wu Lei is known as someone who needs a lot of service and someone who is very wasteful in front of the goal and someone who sucked whenever he played for the NT, especially in big games. He scored the brace against the Philippines but did nothing against South Korea and Iran.

Anyways, this transfer generated a lot of interest among Chinese fans as he will be the only high-profile Chinese player playing overseas. A smart marketing move for Espanyol as they are going to be followed by many here and some fans have already ordered Espanyol jerseys. But honestly pretty much everyone has very low expectations, they don’t expect him to get much game time at all.

He will indeed. I'm sure he will love living in Barcelona and meeting his 'namesake'.

I likened him to Salah, in a way that, despite being mostly a wide player, he was always always the focal point of SIPG's attack with his diagonal runs. But he's got added work-rate on top of that. He's fast and agile, with very good technique as well. He can definitely play at this level, but the question is, will he adapt?


The injury certainly won't help but I hope he does since he's a player I like.


Talking about the transfer itself, I always thought Wu Lei playing abroad would never happen, but MD broke the news yesterday out of nowhere, did journalists in China know about it in advance? Was this in the works for a while?

 

[Luftstalag14]

He will indeed. I'm sure he will love living in Barcelona and meeting his 'namesake'.

I likened him to Salah, in a way that, despite being mostly a wide player, he was always always the focal point of SIPG's attack with his diagonal runs. But he's got added work-rate on top of that. He's fast and agile, with very good technique as well. He can definitely play at this level, but the question is, will he adapt?


The injury certainly won't help but I hope he does since he's a player I like.


Talking about the transfer itself, I always thought Wu Lei playing abroad would never happen, but MD broke the news yesterday out of nowhere, did journalists in China know about it in advance? Was this in the works for a while?

We will see how much game time he gets, after all Rubi doesn’t rotate much, I heard. Nevertheless I expect him to have a very hard time adapting, to the much higher level of game play in Spain and life in Spain overall. If he is smart he should be learning Spanish as we speak. I envy him that he will be living in Barcelona, at least for a while.

In terms of the transfer, from what I have read, someone broke the news several days ago that Espanyol would be signing a high-profile Chinese player and netizens started speculating who it was going to be. Not many people thought it would be him and when the news broke most people were genuinely happy for him and wished him well. There is a Baidu sub forum for Chinese Espanyol fans (seriously??) and there were very little activities there other than some Real Madrid fans thanking and praising Espanyol (presumably because they gave us a hard time or something) and all of sudden in the last 24-48 hours that forum became extremely active with many fans joking that they are coming out of the closet as a fan of RCD ESPANYOL of 10, 20, 30 years and showing their support for Wu Lei. I saw one post today saying “Chinese Barca fans look out, next time when there is a Barcelona derby it will be you guys against 1.3 billion”, hahaha

 

[EdmondDantes]

We will see how much game time he gets, after all Rubi doesn’t rotate much, I heard. Nevertheless I expect him to have a very hard time adapting, to the much higher level of game play in Spain and life in Spain overall. If he is smart he should be learning Spanish as we speak. I envy him that he will be living in Barcelona, at least for a while.

In terms of the transfer, from what I have read, someone broke the news several days ago that Espanyol would be signing a high-profile Chinese player and netizens started speculating who it was going to be. Not many people thought it would be him and when the news broke most people were genuinely happy for him and wished him well. There is a Baidu sub forum for Chinese Espanyol fans (seriously??) and there were very little activities there other than some Real Madrid fans thanking and praising Espanyol (presumably because they gave us a hard time or something) and all of sudden in the last 24-48 hours that forum became extremely active with many fans joking that they are coming out of the closet as a fan of RCD ESPANYOL of 10, 20, 30 years and showing their support for Wu Lei. I saw one post today saying “Chinese Barca fans look out, next time when there is a Barcelona derby it will be you guys against 1.3 billion”, hahaha

I think he will play because he's too talented not to. The question is how long it will take for him to adapt to a different league.

It seems like there's a lot of great banter going on in Chinese forums then. People cheekily claiming to be 3 decade long Espanyol fans is hilarious.



One more thing, I keep reading Wu Lei is injured and just had surgery, but how come he was juggling with the ball in his presentation? What's his injury about?

 

[Joan]

Shoulder injury, collarbone if I recall correctly.

 

[Leo_Messi]

I have no clue who that guy is as I have never watched him in action to date. However looking at his stats he seems to be the best Chinese player for what that is worth. A good move by Espanyol and hopefully this will create added interest in La Liga in China. I understand that Spanish football is getting more and more popular in China. Such moves will definitely help propel that trend.

There is also that 17 year old talented South Korean playing for Valencia and I believe that the owners of Valencia are of Chinese descent too.

It is just the "wrong" type of Chinese owners. It would be funnier with more wealthy owners although I usually don't like those type of football clubs who are not in it for the long run. However I don't see any other method for other Spanish clubs to threaten the big 3 long-term. In particular Valencia has tremendous potential to grow as a club. Hate to say it but Espanyol too has great potential. Their location in BCN and their rivalry with us ensures that alone. Aside from being a Spanish top flight club.

 

[EdmondDantes]

Thanks, Joan. I only watched his one game in the Asian Cup since I just couldn't find streams online. So I had no idea he'd got injured.


-

Leo_Messi

He's a bit like Salah and Son Heung-min. A very good, fast, wide forward.

He and Oscar destroyed the Chinese Super League last season.

 

[Leo_Messi]

Thanks, Joan. I only watched his one game in the Asian Cup since I just couldn't find streams online. So I had no idea he'd got injured.


-

Leo_Messi

He's a bit like Salah and Son Heung-min. A very good, fast, wide forward.

That is an exciting description as Son is arguably the best Asian player currently while Salah is the best African player. I am always in favor of stars emerging in lesser known football markets. Even more so if such stars end up playing in Spain or Italy.

As I wrote there is another very talented Asian player in La Liga currently. The 17 year old Lee Kang-in who not many months ago played for Valencia B. Ironically I saw him in action against Barça B at the Mini Estadi and he immediately caught my attention.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Kang-in

 

[EdmondDantes]

That is an exciting description as Son is arguably the best Asian player currently while Salah is the best African player. I am always in favor of stars emerging in lesser known football markets. Even more so if such stars end up playing in Spain or Italy.

As I wrote there is another very talented Asian player in La Liga currently. The 17 year old Lee Kang-in who not many months ago played for Valencia B. Ironically I saw him in action against Barça B at the Mini Estadi and he immediately caught my attention.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Kang-in

Paik at Girona as well, Nakajima at Portimonhense is another incredible talent.