Newly-elected Chinese men's national football team head coach Li Tie at a press conference in Beijing in January, 2020. Photo: Xinhua
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https://scmp.com/sport/football/article/3106096/li-ties-david-moyes-message-has-chinese-football-fans-reminiscing Football
Li Tie’s David Moyes message has Chinese football fans reminiscing of World Cup and English Premier League glory days
- China head coach posted on social media after watching West Ham United’s dramatic English Premier League comeback against Spurs
- Chinese football fans recall a time when Li led China to 2002 World Cup appearance and teammates played in England
Tottenham's Gareth Bale (centre) looks on as West Ham's manager David Moyes shakes hands with goalscorer Manuel Lanzini at the end of the English Premier League draw. Photo: AP
China national team coach Li Tie congratulated his former Everton boss David Moyes after watching West Ham United’s dramatic late comeback against Tottenham Hotspur in the English Premier League on Sunday, prompting Chinese football fans to reminisce about the country’s glory days.
Li posted on his Weibo account at 2.06am after staying up to watch the 3-3 thriller, sharing a video of West Ham’s injury time equaliser from Manuel Lanzini.
“I just watched a Premier League game,” Li wrote. “Congratulations to my former boss David Moyes for leading West Ham to create a little miracle! Three goals in 10 minutes! This is the charm of football! Before the last minute, Never give up! Football, everything is possible!”
Li played for Everton from 2002 to 2006, initially arriving on loan from Liaoning ahead of the 2002-03 season, which was Moyes first campaign in charge of the Goodison Park club.
He and China international teammate Li Weifeng moved to Merseyside after playing for China at the 2002 Fifa World Cup in Japan and South Korea.
That remains the country’s only appearance at the finals and many users reminisced about this high point of Chinese football, which was followed up with several Chinese players in the English Premier League.
Aside from the Everton duo, there was also Sun Jihai at Manchester City. Sun, who was one of the first two Chinese players to arrive in England along with Fan Zhiyi at Crystal Palace in 1998, would go on to be inducted to the English Football Hall of Fame in 2015.
Li played 29 times for Everton in his debut English Premier League season, which ended with Moyes being named as the League Managers Association Manager of the Year for the first time.
Injury limited Li to just five more league games after picking up a broken leg on international duty. He would later move to Sheffield United.
Chinese internationals Everton's Li Tie and Manchester City's Sun Jihai shake hands after their teams drew 2-2 in the English Premier League at Goodison Park on January 1, 2003. Photo: Reuters
West Ham United’s official Weibo thanked Li for his well wishes: “Thanks to Tiezi for his blessing to Moyes, this is the charm of football,” they wrote.
Several comments expressed their desire for Li to coach China to a second World Cup finals appearance, while others asked Li if he was keeping an eye on the fortunes of his former team Wuhan Zall in the restarted Chinese Super League season.
Wuhan, who Li left to take over the China job after taking them to fifth place on their return to the top flight, lost the first leg of their relegation play-off to Henan Jianye on Sunday.
One reminisced about when Wuhan Zall scored three goals in 10 minutes: “Three goals in 10 minutes. Such a small miracle also happened to Wuhan Zall. At that time, the head coach was called Li Tie,” wrote Wuhan Football Report.
They actually scored three goals in five minutes under Li coming from 3-1 down to beat Guangzhou R&F 4-3 in a June 2019 away game.
Li’s China side have not played a competitive fixture this year because of the coronavirus pandemic. All World Cup qualifiers have been moved to next year by the AFC.