Reporters Liu Xiangyu and Han Bing reported that on the afternoon of December 20, the Swiss Grasshopper Club officially announced that Li Lei joined.
"It's great to see Li Lei join Grasshopper! He is a Chinese international who can bring a lot of experience to the team. Hopefully, he will be able to adapt well to Swiss football and culture and help the team in the second half of the season. Grasshopper Technical Director O'Clofengana welcomed Li Lei.
At the same time, Guoan Club sent a farewell to Li Lei, "138 appearances in 7 spring, autumn, winter and summer, contributing 4 goals and 12 assists." We may not remember all the moments when you were in the green jersey, but we will certainly not forget your galloping figure and every moment you sacrificed yourself to defend..."
Grasshopper Club has already made an extremely full investigation of Li Lei before signing him. They carefully studied Li Lei's previous two seasons of league and AFC Champions League matches, and believed that he met the requirements of the team and the standards of the Swiss Super League, so they extended an olive branch to Li Lei this summer.
On the road of football, Li Lei constantly chased his dreams, playing for Qingdao Hailifeng, Shanghai Shenxin, Henan Jianye, and then to Beijing Guoan. Li Lei's contract with Guoan expired at the end of this year, and after full communication with his family and careful consideration, Li Lei decided to accept the challenge and go to Switzerland to play.
The Guoan Club gave the greatest support to Li Lei's stay in the Yang. Chairman Zhou Jinhui understands and supports Li Lei to chase his dreams, and asks the club to fully cooperate with Li Lei to complete the relevant procedures. Li Lei is also the first player to travel overseas from Guoan to stay abroad after Sinobo took over Guoan.
Li Lei is now ready to play in the Swiss Premier League, and the Grasshopper Club has taken care of the relevant matters, allowing him to concentrate on training and playing abroad. However, before leaving, Li Lei will also stand on the last shift, he will represent Guoan, play the rest of the 2021 competition, after December 31, Li Lei's green career will temporarily end.
For this unknown challenge, Li Lei himself is fully prepared to deal with difficulties. "I give myself 6 to 8 weeks to complete the mental and physical reconstruction and try to adapt to everything there as quickly as possible." Li Lei said that after getting clear news of staying in The West, he has been paying attention to the match between Grasshopper and Swiss Super League, and what he needs to face is a faster pace of competition and a stronger physical confrontation. Even if it is difficult, he will have to try it.
"Playing abroad has always been my dream, and when the opportunity is in front of me, I want to take advantage of it, otherwise I will regret it." In addition, I also want to let more young players realize through my stay in The West that there are not only five major leagues in Europe, but also many leagues to choose from. Li Lei said.
Li Lei signed a one-and-a-half-year contract with Grasshopper, the first half of which is used to adapt, and then he will try to fight for a position in the main force or rotation lineup. There is no guarantee of playing time in the contract, and everything depends on him to fight for. The Swiss Premier League is a springboard to the five major leagues, and Li Lei is currently trying to gain a foothold here, and see if there are more possibilities in the future.
As an international footballer, Li Lei can get a good salary in China, but when he plays in Switzerland, his salary will be greatly reduced. But this did not change Li Lei's idea of staying in the ocean, and the completion of the dream was always put first. As part of the Chinese Football Association's promotion of players staying abroad, it is reported that the Football Association will give appropriate salary subsidies to international footballers staying in Foreign Countries to encourage more players to go overseas for training. Li Lei also hopes that through high-level events, he can continue to maintain his form, improve his level of competition, and continue to fight for the country.
The Zurich Grasshopper is a Swiss league magnate and has won 27 Swiss league titles, but the last one was in 2003. The club has declined in recent years and has not reached the top three of the league since the 2013/14 season. In the 2018/19 season, the team was relegated for the first time in 70 years, but returned to the Swiss Super League this season.
The first half of the season ended on Sunday, and the Zurich grasshopper finished in 6th place with 23 points and conceded 26 goals, the same as the city rival FC Zurich at the top of the table, and tied for fourth in the league.
The Zurich grasshopper, which was acquired by Hong Kong in April last year, can provide Li Lei with a certain background advantage. However, just like Wu Lei in Espanyol, whether he can stand firm depends on the efforts of the players themselves.
Grasshoppers play in a 3412 formation, with the main defenders of the austrian veteran Margret and the 23-year-old homegrown defender Schmid, and the other position is the 32-year-old Kosovo defender Lenjani, the 23-year-old Jamaican teenager Arigorny, Rusley and the Hungarian teenager Bora rotation. The team has recently rotated a lot of defensive lines due to poor records. In the last six league games, the defensive line has a total of 9 players starting, including the 20-year-old Kosovo youngster Hossa has been given the opportunity.
Austria veteran Margret is in a solid position but older, and young homegrown defender Schmid is the club's focus. Others have equal opportunities for the time being, and whether they can play depends on the status. In contrast, Hungarian Bora and local youngster Rusley have more chances to play.
Margret and Rusley are both 1.86 metres tall, guinea-Bissau-Based guinea-Bissau player Totti Gomez, the main wing-back, and the others are in the same range as Li Lei. Li Lei, who will turn 30 next May, is not dominant in age, but he is experienced and in good physical condition. Also in the Grasshoppers is Japanese player Jun Kawabe, who joined sanfrecce Hiroshima last summer, who attacks midfield and will not compete directly with Li Lei.
Li Lei is not the first Chinese player to join the Swiss league, Shi Jun joined the Bernese youth of Switzerland from Chongqing Lifan in 2005, and by 2008, he played a total of 48 Games in the Swiss Super League, scoring 4 goals and assisting 2 times, in addition to 16 appearances in the Swiss First Division and the Swiss Cup, 5 goals and 1 assist.
At the end of 2013, the Xiyong team also signed Zhang Jiaqi. Last year, Grasshopper signed Basel-born Chinese player Yang Mingyang, but he failed to get a first-team appearance throughout the season, joining Nantong Zhiyun of the Chinese League this year.
According to the plan, Li Lei will depart for Switzerland on January 4, 2022, and he will embark on a journey of complete unknownness alone.