On the evening of October 24, Real Madrid defeated Barcelona 2-1 in the Spanish national derby staged. In Shanghai, La Liga also specially organized a fan watching event.
During the event, Serge Torrenz, General Manager of La Liga China, accepted an exclusive interview with The Paper and talked about La Liga and Chinese football.
Regarding Messi’s departure, Torrenz believes this is a “natural law”-“Many players come to La Liga and leave. If I list all the stars who have played in La Liga in the past 20 years, this list will be very amazing.”
Regarding whether there will be many Chinese players in La Liga in the future, Torrenz said,“There are currently some Chinese players in our focus, but not many players are really ready to play in La Liga.”The national derby also has Benzema (right) in excellent condition.
In the national derby of Real Madrid and Barcelona, although the quality of the game is not bad, there is always less gunpowder smoke in the past.
Once upon a time, Cristiano Ronaldo and Messi were the golden signatures of La Liga and the national derby. With the departure of the two superstars, will La Liga decline in its attraction to fans? In this regard, Torrenz seemed very calm.
“Messi is a very important player, one of the best players in recent years or even the best in history, Ronaldo is the same, but the two of them are not the only stars who have left La Liga.”
“Romania, Figo, Beckham, Irving, Ronaldinho, Maradona, Rivaldo…” Torrenz reported a long list of names in one breath, “Many players come to La Liga and leave, if I’ve listed all the stars who have played in La Liga in the past 20 years. This list will be amazing.”
“The stars came and went, but La Liga is still there. Those teams-Barcelona, Real Madrid, Atletico, Valencia, Serbia…are still there.”
“Now Messi has left, but we also have many outstanding players like Benzema and many young talents. The clubs also have their own budgets. In the future, it is possible to continue to introduce star players.” Bassa Nocan, full of fans General stadium.
Real Madrid’s Barcelona dominance declines and competition becomes fiercer
After losing Messi, Barcelona is undoubtedly in a period of pain. In the current La Liga standings, Real Sociedad, Sevilla, Atletico Madrid and many other teams are in the first group together with Real Madrid.
Torrenz said: “Neither Barcelona nor Real Madrid have shown too much dominance in the past two seasons. Other teams are very competitive. Real Madrid and Barcelona have played very hard to win three points every weekend. .”
In his opinion, this situation continues this season:“Last season, we didn’t know who will win the championship until the last match day. This season will be the same. But in the end I think the Madrid duo, Sevilla and Barcelona will become the champions. Contender.”
Regarding the economic crisis encountered by the Barcelona club, Torrenz believes that the epidemic is undoubtedly one of the main reasons. After all, a large part of the club’s income comes from match days. When the epidemic causes a sharp drop in income, a series of undesirable consequences gradually appear.
But as the epidemic eases, the club will slowly get back on track-in fact, as Torrenz said, this national derby is also the first national derby to open all the stands after the epidemic. According to official statistics, 86,422 fans watched the game at the Nou Camp. Wu Lei is still fighting for the Espanyol.
Wu Lei is very positive and confident
In this highly competitive La Liga season, the Spanish team played by Chinese player Wu Lei also performed well, even beating Real Madrid 2-1 at home in the 8th round. The Spaniard is currently ranked 11th in the standings.
And Torrenz has higher expectations for this team: “I feel that the Spaniard should be able to reach the 10th position in the standings this season, or even higher.”
However, compared to the club’s recent good performance, Chinese player Wu Lei is at the bottom of his overseas career-the scoring shortage has lasted for nearly a year. The last time Wu Lei scored for the Spaniard was on December 6, 2020. day.
In the game, Wu Lei also struggled to get too much playing time. But in Torrenz’s view, being able to keep playing matches for Wu Lei means there is still a chance to show himself.
“He is very focused on contributing to the club, whether it’s playing for 90 minutes, 45 minutes, 30 minutes-it depends on the coach, Wu Lei’s performance is actually good.”
“Wu Lei is sometimes able to start now. Most of the time he is on the bench and has always had the opportunity to play. Although the efficiency of scoring may not be so high, he still has the trust of the coach. It is not easy to be a La Liga player. It is good for La Liga to have a Chinese player. He is also the best player in China at the moment.”
Coincidentally, in July of this year, Torrenz and Wu Lei had a chance encounter, and the two happened to take the same flight to Spain.
“At that time, I congratulated Wu Lei and wished him all the best. He is a great person, very positive and very confident.”For this Chinese player, Torrenz had a very positive impression. Chinese player Zhang Chengdong (left) played for La Liga Vallecano.
La Liga has been paying attention to Chinese players
At present, Wu Lei is the “single seed” of Chinese players studying abroad in the five major European leagues. It is undoubtedly the common hope of Chinese fans to see more players going to play in Europe.
Torrenz also believes that studying abroad is a good way for Asian players to exercise themselves. Obvious examples are Japan and South Korea.
“Japan has 30 or 40 players (studying abroad in Europe), and Korea is about the same. They don’t need to go to La Liga or the Premier League (these top leagues), but to many different European leagues, but these leagues are definitely better than those of Japan and South Korea. The league level is high.”
“This is a way for Japanese and Korean players to improve themselves, and it is also one of the reasons why the Japanese and Korean home teams can perform well in the international arena. Of course it is important to strengthen the local league, but I think Chinese players also need to stay abroad, and the Chinese Football Association also An encouragement policy for studying abroad has been introduced because it can help improve the level of Chinese football and the national team.”
In fact, La Liga has been paying attention to potential Chinese players.
Torrenz revealed: “La Liga is analyzing Chinese Super League players every season. We have a scout system and will produce scout reports for La Liga clubs. Whether it is 18-year-old young players or older players, we will Collect their data and performance.”
“There are some Chinese players in our focus, but not many players are really ready to play in La Liga, because the level of La Liga is very high. We are very interested in talented players, but we must also face it. To reality.” The scene of the game.
The Chinese fan community is important to La Liga
The Spanish national derby was able to attract many Chinese fans to watch, and even organized fan watching activities in Shanghai. A very important prerequisite is the game time-the kick-off time of the game is 10:15 late Beijing time, which is very suitable. Chinese audience watching.
This is also one of the methods taken by La Liga in order to attract Asian fans. As Torrenz said: “To put a game like a national derby in such a friendly time period is our commitment to Chinese fans.”
In fact, La Liga held the first National Derby Tournament for Chinese audiences as early as 2016, and it is now in its sixth year. In the 2021-2022 season, La Liga also launched a new “El Clásico” (national derby) brand logo.
“We have also organized a lot of fan activities around the world, which proves that we really want to establish more connections with fans. Through multiple platforms, including online social platforms, we have continued to provide fans with more opportunities to enjoy La Liga. “
Torrenz revealed that La Liga will have more similar fan-related events in China from now on. The venue will not be limited to Shanghai, but will go to multiple cities.
“Football is a worldwide sport and needs to focus on the global market, and China is a very important market.” He told The Paper.Return to Sohu to see more
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