Since the establishment of the First Division in 1994, the domestic soccer league has been professionalized for nearly 30 years. In the past 30 years, many players have made a fortune, especially in the era of gold-dollar soccer. Huge investments by Chinese Super League clubs such as Evergrande, Port, Shenzhen, and Hebei Huaxia Happiness have allowed many local players to earn money they would never have earned in several lifetimes.
Nonetheless, there are still some A-League star players who are still struggling to make ends meet, and some of them can only make a living by running a dropshipping business now. This player is Song Lihui, a decorated veteran of Shandong Taishan (Luneng).
Song Lihui was born in Dalian, Liaoning province, and when the A-League was established, he played as a defender in Liaoning. 1998, at the strong request of Coach Yin Tiesheng, Shandong Luneng brought in the unheard of Song Lihui from Liaozhu, which changed Song Lihui's destiny completely.
Because of his average defensive ability, Song Lihui was transformed into a back after joining Luneng, a position that gives full play to his outstanding counter-attacking ability, speed, breakthrough ability and outstanding passing footwork.
After Sandrach entered Shandong Luneng, the Serbian coach directly put Song Lihui in a higher position in the midfield. Song Lihui also played like a fish out of water in front of the waist position, not only often give teammates an assist, but also can score their own goal. Sandridge also gave Song Lihui a very loud nickname - Chinese Zidane, because of his outstanding performance in the league.
In his 10 seasons with Luneng, Song Lihui represented the team in 159 First Division matches, scoring 24 goals. in 1999, he won the first league and FA Cup in the club's history with Luneng. Such an achievement was quite difficult for a player who went from defender to forward.
However, in his last two seasons with Luneng, Song Lihui had gradually lost his place in the team. He moved to Nanchang Hengyuan in the 2008 season. After that, he played for Shenzhen for two seasons, and Song Lihui did not officially announce his retirement until the end of the 2009 season.
After his retirement, Song Lihui returned to his hometown of Dalian and began working as an assistant coach at Dalian Albin, which was still in China B at the time. Since then, he also worked as an assistant coach and head coach for several amateur teams such as Jiujiang Liansheng, Shandong Tending, Taiyuan Zhongyou, etc. However, his coaching results were very average, so he began to be gradually forgotten by the fans.
Recently, Song Lihui reappeared in fans' view, which surprised many people. Recently, an old fan took a drop and noticed that the driver was wearing the old Shandong Luneng uniform. Upon closer inspection, the driver turned out to be Song Lihui, a double champion of Luneng.
Through dialog, fans learned that after leaving the Shandong Wangyue team last year, Song Lihui has been idle at home. In order to make a living, Song Lihui had to run a drip, now almost a year. As the hero of Luneng's championship, Song Lihui is now down to run a drop, which makes many Shandong fans feel embarrassed.
I have to say, Song Lihui's luck is really bad. If he could have been born a few years later and caught up with the Chinese Super League's golden dollar era, he would have had no problem earning $10 million to $20 million a year. Here, we also hope that the clubs Song Lihui used to play for can lend a helping hand to help him, and don't let the former "domestic Zidane" leave his beloved stadium...
