On July 19, Dalian Ren Football Club head coach Xie Hui shared his journey in the Five Star Football program, talking about his former match against Jürgen Klopp, the manager of English giants Liverpool, on the field.
Xie Hui, nicknamed "Shelop" by Dalian fans, said of the nickname: "We Chinese like to have nicknames, but sometimes we forget the distance between us. Some people ask if it's from here to the moon or to the sun, a distance we forget. The gap between the Chinese Super League and the Bundesliga or the English Premier League, I'm tired of hearing people always talk about players' nicknames. So that's why I don't really like it. Sure, I've played against him twice and he's watched me closely when he played as a center back, but his playing career and his coaching career are two completely different things. He may not have been as good as me as a player, but as I said, it's two different things. I don't really feel much about the nickname because it's like over the moon and there's no comparison."
"I consider myself a special one, not so much a Shanghai man. I've traveled a lot, not only in the five lakes, but also in Germany for a long time. In a way, I'm not so localized and not so much like a Shanghai man in character. I don't think it's necessary to be too geographically oriented because I haven't met many English players in many teams in the Premier League. The same goes for the Bundesliga, for example, there are no Bayern-born players in Munich. From this perspective, we may be too obsessed with the concept of 'local'."
Talking about the second stage of the league's home-and-away system, which will be restarted soon, Xie Hui was full of expectations: "It goes without saying that playing at home in such a vibrant gold-medal city as Dalian will see enthusiastic support from the fans. As a soccer city, if we can play home games in our hometown, the support for our team is undoubtedly the greatest. I can say that such support is unrivaled and I always look forward to this day."
