The televised catharsis of Wu Lei

“It is not only an excellent athlete, but also a magnet for the football industry. He wanted to accept new challenges and his quality is hard to beat among Chinese footballers“. They wanted to know what you think Chen yansheng, president and owner of Espanyol, about his compatriot Wu lei? Well a documentary about the player parakeet that the Youku platform has launched this week in China, within a series entitled 'My legacy and me', answers this and many more questions. It's a 'Wu Lei Inside'with all of the law. Since his signing, in January 2019, to his historic goal against Barcelona.

Wu Lei explains on Chinese social media that initially declined the idea, because as a young man he had literally felt “like Jim Carrey on The Truman Show”. However, now he is satisfied with having expressed his thoughts and, above all, with having taught the world how is the contrast between Asian and European football. And also life itself. Because the cameras accompany the footballer even when Nanjing Cemetery, on his trip to China on October 8, 2019, when says goodbye shedding irrepressible tears to his grandfather, died a week before while he was working with Espanyol.

It's a Wu Lei unknown to the parakeet follower. That shows loading all the weight of the Chinese team (“the hope of a people”, they sing to him en masse), and that the documentary begins by going to see discreetly a match from his former team, the Shanghai SIPG, hiding from the public so as not to mislead his companions. “It can be unfair to them if the fans chant my name,” he justifies.

At that time, he had been wearing blue and white for six months. And why did you sign up? “After winning the Chinese Super League and being the top scorer, I thought I had no more goals to meet. I wanted to keep winning”, he assures.

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The sports director Francisco Joaquín Pérez intervenes Rufete, who notes that “Wu Lei has a great level of competitiveness, he has a very good understanding of the game … he had it allThe only thing left to do was make the decision and we made it. He arrived, by age, at his time and that of our club. “And third who was the attacker's coach at East Asia Football Club:” To be honest, has gotten a little older, could have made the jump earlier“, he confesses Fan Zhiyi, best Asian footballer of 2001 and ex-Crystal Palace.

Xu Genbao, his mentor and key figure in both his career and in Chinese football, explains how he came to their academy, in 2003: “I asked our coach Yang Limin to evaluate him. And he came and said 'that boy is Maradona“And in height they did not lie, since When he made his debut in the Second Division of his country, at just 15 years old, he was not over five feet Tall. He had always played with kids a year or two older and yet he had been the star of their teams.

What shocked Wu Lei the most upon his arrival in Barcelona, ​​in addition to the comfort – “you can get anywhere quickly by car” – was that “The sports cities, the infrastructures, are much better in China than in the European clubs, with gyms of more than 1,000 square meters and swimming pools, and with many playing fields “. However, he clarifies, “in Europe, the important thing is the people. Everyone has their responsibilities and they enjoy their work. It is a much simpler concept compared to the Chinese one. “

The player, whom the documentary accompanies through the pre-pandemic Dani Jarque Sports City, delves into this in his relationship with the fans. “Here there is no sense of distance that there is in China, it is very simple. We greet each other, we talk, I like this kind of atmosphere. It's a good time of my life“, celebrates.

Another aspect that helps to better understand Wu Lei is the monitoring of his personal day-to-day life, in the first months without their children, who stayed with their grandparents in Shanghai; later he is already seen taking care of them, for example, in an amusement park. He is seen in the greengrocer, lost in a shopping mall and, of course, at home. With his wife, Zhong Jiabei, who throws one of lime and one of sand: “Now I love him more than in China, because I can understand his feelings better. He wants to bear the pressure alone, he does not share it with me.“.

And this 'inside' also goes from the pressure. As in the 4-0 to Stjarnan With which Espanyol began their career in the 2019-20 Europa League, just two years ago. That day, despite the win, the footballer was not happy. “I had been playing as a forward, and today they put me on the edge. He did not know how to play. The worst thing is that they were all far behind. I feel very tired“He reveals to his wife while they are in the car.”It's hard to earn the trust of others. The competition is very intense in Europe, “he added.

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Also before Espanyol-Barcelona from January 4, 2020 Wu Lei concedes: “I am under a lot of pressure. Not just me, but the whole team“It refers, obviously, to that anxiety for the permanence in First that never came to fruition.

Nor could Youku's cameras accompany him further in his blue and white adventure, since the pandemic cut short the development of a documentary that, however, could not have a better cinematic climax for its protagonist: his goal in the derby. This year it will be reissued. And, with or without the cameras of Chinese television behind, Wu Lei will try to continue to undress his best version.