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‘Anything possible’ for Londoner who made Chinese football history
SHANGHAI, Sept 9, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – In March 2015, London-born Nico Yennaris
played for Wycombe Wanderers in the fourth tier of English football in front
of 2,362 people.
Fast forward and the midfielder is now called Li Ke, he has a Chinese
passport and plays for China, trying to help them reach the World Cup for
only the second time in their history.
“If I was to look at where my career was going at that time, I would
probably have said you’re mad,” the 27-year-old told AFP, reflecting on his
unlikely journey from England’s lower leagues.
Li, who is half-Chinese, grew up playing alongside England and Tottenham
Hotspur forward Harry Kane, and they are from the same area of east London.
He made his solitary Premier League appearance for Arsenal in 2012 against
Manchester United and eventually featured in all four divisions in England.
But in 2019 the former England youth international made a move that would
change his life and the course of Chinese football.
Li left Brentford for Chinese Super League title contenders Beijing Guoan,
and in June that year became China’s first naturalised footballer.
A small contingent of Brazil-born players has followed, a quick fix aimed
at getting ambitious China to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
“It’s an honour really because you’ve created a bit of history that no one
else can take away from you,” said Li, whose mother is Chinese and father
Greek-Cypriot.
Speaking by telephone from Suzhou, where Beijing are in a CSL “bubble” to
guard against the coronavirus, Li said it was his determination to play at
the highest level possible that took him to China. He could also have
represented Cyprus.
“You’ve got to be realistic. (Was) it possible for me to play for England?
Probably no, honestly, with the way my career was going on,” he said. –
‘That’s not my name’ –
Although he made his debut last year for China — who under President Xi
Jinping want to become a major power in the sport — the idea first arose
when he was 17 or 18 and trying to break through at Arsenal.
Finding competition for places tough, Li made loan moves to Notts County
and Bournemouth, before switching permanently to Brentford in 2014.
While there he went on loan to Wycombe in England’s fourth tier.
Through all that, the notion of playing for China never went away, even if
it seemed remote at times.
“At first it was literally just, is it possible that I can play with China?
And then they (contacts in China) explained about having the Chinese passport
etc.,” he said.
“And then the conversation came back with: would you play out in China? And
then that was a whole other conversation.
“I’ve always been very ambitious, I’ve always set my targets high and I’ve
always tried to push the boundaries for myself.”
Li said his family had been concerned about him giving up his British
passport.
“I think there was a lot of factors of what could this mean for the future?
Is it possible for you to get your British passport back later on in life?
How could that affect you coming back to the UK?” he said.
“These are all unknowns because it had never happened before. To me, I was
just focused on playing football.”
As a child the family was more immersed in his father’s culture so moving
to China was a big change — “new language, culture, food, everything”. Li
has had to learn Chinese from scratch. There was even a new name, which he
first heard when he landed in Portugal for pre-season training and the driver
picking him up was looking for “Li Ke”.
“And then he was like, that’s you. And I said, that’s not me, that’s not my
name,” he recalled, laughing at the memory.
– Kane reunion? –
China’s Qatar 2022 World Cup hopes are in the balance but if they make it,
there’s a chance Li could face Kane and the country of his birth.
“It would be funny, would be amazing if that did happen,” Li said.
“If I was lucky enough to captain China and he was to captain England, it
would be a funny one for our parents but also anyone that’s associated with
us where we grew up.
“Like I said, anything’s possible.”
BSS/AFP/MSY/1009 hrs