Li Huitang

Li Huitang

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Li Huitang is a famous football player in modern Chinese sports history. He started his football career at the age of 17 and was active in the Asian Football World in the 1920s and 1930s. He was affectionately rated as the "Asian king" by fans and Hong Kong media. He was not only a rare Chinese professional football player before the war, but also recognized as the first person in Chinese football at that time. On July 4, 1979, Li Huitang died of illness at the age of 74. According to statistics, he has scored a total of 1860 goals in various football matches. With Brazil's riedenrek, German star gedmuller, King Pele and lone wolf Romario, he is the world's top five stars who have scored more than 1000 goals so far.

Growth experience

Li Huitang (1905-1979), Zi Guangliang, is a famous football player of five ethnic Chinese in Guangdong Province. Born in Hong Kong in 1905. His father, Li Haoru, was born in Wuhua County, Meizhou City, Guangdong Province. When Li Huitang was 4 years old, he returned with his mother to live in Laolou village, Xikeng township (now Xikeng town), Wuhua County. There, this kid who loves football by nature takes the dog hole in front of his home as the goal of shooting practice. After the football brought back from Hong Kong was damaged, they picked grapefruit from two grapefruit trees (one is fenglang grapefruit, the other is Panlong grapefruit) in front of their home to kick the ball. When all the grapefruit on the tree were picked, he used the cloth towel to tie it into a ball to practice. After several years of training, his body is getting stronger and stronger, and his skill is excellent. Around the age of 10, Li Huitang returned to Hong Kong. In 1921, he was admitted to Huangren academy, which is popular in football, and received systematic football training. Li Huitang's style is decent and his footwork is deep. Once, when he was playing against the British Navy team, the ball just crossed the middle line, and then he shot hard. The ball went through the crowd of several British players and entered the net. He used to dribble from the back court, passing four or five interceptors in succession, bringing the ball to the other side's penalty area, calmly starting to score the ball into the goal. It's comparable to Pele, Beckenbauer and Maradona. In 1976, an authoritative football magazine in the Federal Republic of Germany once organized a selection activity, in which Li Huitang of China, Bailey of Brazil, Beckenbauer of Germany, Stefano of Argentina and Puskas of Hungary were named "the top five players in the world".

Sports career

Player career

In 1922, at the age of 17, Li Huitang was selected as the main forward of Nanhua, the most famous football team in Hong Kong. He is 1.82 meters tall, fast and agile, especially in controlling the ball. The ball is at his feet, and it's hard for two or three people to get it. His shooting skill is amazing, no matter what position, what angle, he can open the bow left and right, the ball out like a arrow, pull out of the key. His prone shot is a great skill. In the summer of 1922, Li Huitang participated in the Hong Kong first class Football League on behalf of the South China team, and took up the post of left inner forward. Because of his skillful and ingenious skills, he often made amazing moves, and Hong Kong fans called him "ball monster". In May 1923, Li Huitang represented the Chinese football team for the first time in the Sixth Far East Games held in Osaka, Japan, and the Chinese team won the championship. 18-year-old Li Huitang made his debut in four games and gained a great reputation. From then on, he began his glorious career of dedicating himself to football. In August of the same year, Li Huitang went to Australia with Nanhua to play against the Australian champion new South Wales. In the first five minutes, Li Huitang scored twice. In this game, he scored three goals alone. The Australian authorities awarded him a gold medal. Local newspapers and periodicals in Hong Kong use a large headline to call Li Huitang "the king of the ball", and there is a poem that "thousands of people call him the king of the ball, and blue eyes and purple beard praise him". In 1925, Li Huitang and his childhood neighbor Liao Yueying came to Shanghai from Hong Kong with strong patriotic enthusiasm, determined to compete with foreign teams. During his stay in Shanghai, Li Huitang was at the peak of his football skills. Due to his outstanding football skills, he was employed as a coach by the football team of Fudan University at the age of 22. Later, he joined the Shanghai Lehua football team with outstanding achievements. In 1926, Li Huitang led the Lehua football team to participate in the "scoto Cup" football match held in Shanghai. With a 4:1 wide score, Li Huitang won the 9-time champion of the British Rex team. It was the first time that the Shanghai Chinese football team beat foreign teams, which greatly increased Li Huitang's prestige on the green field. The shame of "sick man of East Asia" has been washed away and the glory of the Chinese nation has been won. In 1927, Li Huitang's team flourished and won the first Western League, the first Senior Cup and the first Chinese League. Li Huitang became a famous "king of the generation". In the same year, Li Huitang led the Lok Wah team in their expeditions to Southeast Asian countries and made remarkable achievements, especially when they led the team to fight in the Philippines. in the 1920s, there was a popular saying in China: "to watch a play, you have to watch Mei Lanfang; to watch a ball, you have to watch Li Huitang. "In old China, it was extraordinary that a football star could be compared with Mei Lanfang, a Beijing Opera master. It can be seen that he has won people's respect and love with his tenacious struggle and superb skills. Li Huitang has made outstanding contributions to the national team. He was selected into the Chinese team in 1923 and participated in the sixth, seventh, ninth and tenth Far East Games in 1923, 1925, 1930 and 1934 respectively. He won the championship for the Chinese team four times. (in fact, there were only three or four countries participating at that time.). Li Huitang returned to Hong Kong in 1931 and joined the South China football team as captain. In 1931, the International Olympic Committee recognized the "all China Sports Association" as a member of the International Olympic Committee, which gave Chinese athletes the opportunity to compete and exchange with football players from other countries. Due to the financial difficulties of the Kuomintang government at that time, Li Huitang and his football team had to raise their own funds to participate in the Berlin Olympic Games in 1936. They set out more than two months ahead of time and relied on the ticket revenue along the way as the cost of participating in the Olympic Games. Li Huitang and his teammates played 27 games along the way, and achieved 23 wins and 4 draws. They saved money and went all the way to Berlin. However, due to all the way to fight, the players have been exhausted, to the Olympic Games, 0-2 loss to the British National Olympic team, the first round was eliminated. In 1939, Li Huitang went on an expedition to Nanyang with the Nanhua team of Hong Kong. In the first battle with the Penang united forces of Malaysia, the Nanhua team won 11:0. In this game, 35 year old Li Huitang is still majestic, frequently dribbling, scoring 7 goals. After the fall of Hong Kong, Li Huitang did not want to be a slave to the subjugation. In 1941, he took the opportunity to compete in Macao and went back to the mainland. He and his hometown formed a Wuhua football team. He pasted a pair of couplets on the front door of his home: "if you are serious about the war of resistance, you can celebrate the Chinese New Year at will. In 1942, Li Huitang went to Meizhou to compete with the Qiangmin team. As a result, he gave way to the Qiangmin team with a ratio of 1:3. The next year, Li Huitang invited Hong Kong Group A experts to compete with Qiangmin team in the name of "aviation construction team". Through these two competitions, the football movement in Meizhou, the "hometown of football", has played a certain role in promoting. Later, Li Huitang went to Guilin to organize the Guangdong football team to participate in the so-called "Fuhrer Cup" football match of the four provinces. In Chongqing, Chengdu, Zigong and other places, he successively held performance competitions and charity competitions to raise money, relieve war orphans and refugees, and support Anti Japanese and national salvation. In 1947, Li Huitang participated in the inter port competition (the predecessor of Shanghai Hong Kong Cup) in Hong Kong. He was hit by a penalty kick, which was his "battle of hanging up his boots".

Refereeing career

In 1948, as a coach, Li Huitang led the Chinese football team to participate in the football match of the 14th Olympic Games. In the same year, he won the international referee certificate of FIFA and became the first person in China to obtain the international referee qualification. In 1954 and 1958, he led the Chinese Taipei team to win the second and third Asian Games. In 1954, Li Huitang was elected secretary general of the Asian Football Federation. In 1965, he was elected FIFA's top vice president in China. In 1966, Li Huitang served as vice president of the Asian Football Federation and the International Football Federation, enjoying high prestige in the world football world. In 1976, he was selected as one of the top five players in the world in the competition organized by the German football magazine. In July 1979, Li Huitang died of illness in Hong Kong at the age of 74.

Technical features

Li Huitang's football skills are very comprehensive, and he is proficient in all kinds of movements. He has a strong ability to control the ball, and has excellent left and right foot skills. Once the ball hits his foot, it's like a magnet. The ball hovers between his feet, and it's hard for others to take it away. His skills of plate, belt, grab, pass, shoot, pick the ball and so on are excellent. Li Huitang summed up a lot of valuable experience in football practice and promoted it to a theoretical level to guide practice. When he retired as a coach, he practiced himself and the team he coached won many laurels.

Honor record

Li Huitang has won more than 50 honorary titles and more than 120 medals including "Asian champion" in his whole life. He has participated in the Far East Games on behalf of the national team four times and won the football championship. In 1966, he served as vice president of the Asian Football Association and the world football association, enjoying high prestige in the world football world. In 1976, he was selected as one of the top five players in the world by the football magazine of the Federal Republic of Germany and Italy. According to statistics, he has scored nearly 2000 goals in football matches. He and Brazil's famous player ridden Reke, German star bender and King Pele are the top four players in the world who have scored more than 1000 goals so far

Chinese PinYin : Li Hui Tang