What did Wu Lei bring back during his two years abroad in La Liga?

On January 27, 2019 in Barcelona, ​​Spain, 27-year-old Wu Lei officially joined the Espanyol Club. The transfer fee is only 2 million euros, making it the cheapest Chinese player transfer in La Liga. Wu Lei became the second player in the history of Chinese men's football to play in the five major European leagues. The first was Sun Jihai who joined Ligue 1 in 2003, but Sun Jihai only became famous in the Premier League.

Wu Lei played for Espanyol for two and a half seasons and returned to Shanghai Haigang in July 2021. The significance of this overseas experience to Wu Lei personally and to Chinese football goes far beyond the goal numbers themselves. Looking back to see what Wu Lei brought back, the answer is not all good news.

La Liga debut benefits

In his third game after joining Espanyol in January 2019, Wu Lei started against Valladolid at home. He came on as a substitute in the 54th minute and scored in 10 minutes, his first goal in La Liga. This is the first goal scored in the five major European leagues in the history of Chinese men's football.

The Espanyol was a mid-range team in La Liga at the time, and coach Rubi and later Ma Qin were willing to give Wu Lei a chance. Wu Lei also reported goals in 5 games and key assists in 3 games. The Spaniard assessed that he was worth every penny. This virtuous cycle made Wu Lei's performance in La Liga outstanding in his first half-season.

Highlights from the first full season

In the 2019-20 season, Wu Lei played 37 La Liga games and scored 4 goals and 2 assists, plus 1 goal in 6 Europa League games. This was the best season of his European career. He came off the bench to score the equalizer in the derby against Barcelona, ​​earning a standing ovation from the Stadio Kamenir.

Wu Lei performed the best performance of his La Liga career against Real Sociedad, running 12.3 kilometers in a single game and hitting the opponent's penalty area many times. This kind of data caused the Spanish media to change their evaluation of him from a Chinese marketing label to a real La Liga player.

The knock-on blow of Espanyol's relegation

In 2020, Espanyol was unexpectedly relegated to Segunda División. This was a huge blow to Wu Lei, but he chose to stay with the team and continue playing in the second division. During the relegation season, Wu Lei played 13 games in La Liga and scored 0 goals.

The relegation made Wu Lei's position a matter of suspense. La Liga clubs occasionally made offers, but neither the club nor Wu Lei was really interested. Wu Lei's contract expires in 2021 and the Spaniard will not renew it. In this case, Wu Lei's choice to return to the Super League is a reasonable choice.

Condition declined after returning to China

In July 2021, Wu Lei returned to Shanghai Haigang and immediately scored goals in the Chinese Super League, scoring 8 goals in 10 games. This made fans think that he had brought back technical upgrades from La Liga. However, Wu Lei's performance continued to decline in actual national team games.

In the top 12 of the 2022 World Cup preliminaries, Wu Lei was in a downturn and only scored 1 goal in 10 games. The difference in performance between the national team and the club shows that Wu Lei's performance in the Chinese Super League was a downgrade, but his shortcomings were exposed after the strength of the national team's opponents increased. This phenomenon is not a problem of Wu Lei alone but a problem of the level of Chinese players as a whole.

What technologies did you bring back from studying abroad?

The core skills Wu Lei learned in La Liga are running without the ball and quick decision-making after receiving the ball. Chinese Super League players generally pause for 1 to 2 seconds after receiving the ball to think about the next step. Wu Lei was polished in La Liga to make decisions almost immediately after receiving the ball. This sense of rhythm was developed in La Liga over a year.

But Wu Lei's physical confrontation ability has not been significantly improved. The physical requirements of La Liga are one order of magnitude higher than those of the Chinese Super League. As a small man with a height of 1.72 meters, Wu Lei always suffers in the confrontation. This is a talent limitation, and no amount of La Liga training can make up for it.

Wu Lei’s endorsement income skyrockets

Wu Lei's endorsement income skyrocketed during his time in La Liga. The annual price of Nike's exclusive sneaker contract has increased from 2 million yuan to 5 million yuan. Chinese food brands Li Ziqi, Yili, and Dongfeng Motor have signed Wu Lei as their spokesperson.

Wu Lei's total personal endorsement income in 2020 exceeded 30 million yuan, which is five times that of Chinese Super League players in the same period. His La Liga experience has labeled him one of China's top overseas students, and the commercial value of this label far exceeds his actual number of goals.

The blank space of studying abroad in the post-Wulei era

After Wu Lei returned to the Chinese Super League, the Chinese men's football team's overseas players in the five major European leagues dropped to zero. Only a few players will play in low-level leagues from 2022 to 2024, such as Li Lei in the Swiss League and Zhang Yuning in Greece from 2019 to 2020.

This interruption in studying abroad has deprived the national team of the ability to be tempered by top European competitions. Wu Lei himself has become a lonely symbol in the history of Chinese football overseas. Many fans lament that there has not been a second Wu Lei in 10 years. This situation reflects the dual bottlenecks of Chinese football youth training and players' personal abilities.

Media myths of excess

During Wu Lei's two and a half seasons in La Liga, the Chinese media's coverage of him reached a phenomenal level. In every La Liga game, CCTV will individually edit all Wu Lei's touches. Chinese fans pay more attention to Wu Lei than Messi and Ronaldo.

This media frenzy put Wu Lei under tremendous pressure. He has said many times in interviews that he hopes to be treated like an ordinary player, but Chinese football needs a hero so much that Wu Lei has to shoulder this expectation. This expectation eventually became a burden on his career.

Wu Lei’s indirect impact on youth training

The proportion of Chinese youth training going abroad has indeed increased during Wu Lei's time in La Liga. Every year, about 20 Chinese young players go to play for low-level clubs in Spain, Portugal, Serbia and other countries. But there are almost zero who can actually stand firm.

Wu Lei proved that Chinese players can play in La Liga but did not prove that Chinese players can gain a foothold in Europe in batches. This isolated case has led some youth training institutions to exaggerate the replicability of Wu Lei's path and create false hope for parents. In the end, most of the players who studied abroad for youth training returned to the Chinese Super League or left football.

Wu Lei’s true value

After returning to China, Wu Lei officially announced in 2024 that he would retire at the end of 2025. He has played 98 games for the national team in his career and scored 38 goals. He is the second highest scorer in the history of the Chinese men's football team, second only to Hao Haidong. Although this number is not dazzling, it is already the highest honor for Chinese players in the new era.

What Wu Lei brought back from studying abroad was not just skills or experience, but also proof that Chinese players can theoretically play in the five major European leagues. This proof of spiritual value to Chinese football far exceeds his personal number of goals. Unfortunately, the replicability of this proof is almost zero, and Chinese football after Wu Lei is still treading water.