Posted on 06/23/2004 5:00:57 AM PDT by burlywood
WAYNE ROONEY has become a cult figure in China, eclipsing David Beckham overnight as the most admired foreign player among the world’s most populous footballing nation. Shops enjoyed a rush on memorabilia celebrating the 18-year-old England player, whose name means “silly nun” in Chinese ideograms. Internet chat rooms overflowed with praise for him and the National Sports Bureau invited him to the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. “He is young enough to come to the Games,” Tian Jing, a spokeswoman, said. “Everyone hopes he will.”
The Chinese have widely praised Rooney’s aggression on the pitch, contrasting it favourably with Beckham’s more manicured style. Gong Lei, the coach who briefly brought Paul Gascoigne to China last year, said: “Football is a man’s game and Rooney always scares his rivals even if he’s still a child. Beckham may be a pop idol but it’s usually girls who prefer him to Rooney.”
Asian culture traditionally values precision and artfulness over brute force but teenagers are rebelling against ancient norms under the influence of Western satellite television. For them Rooney’s cursing and shoving is the epitome of liberation.
Tor Petersen, a sports marketing agent in Shanghai, said: “His fearlessness is his most appealing quality. For Chinese who grew up praising perfection, this is a quality they don’t outwardly possess.”
European Championship matches in Portugal have been watched live by millions on Chinese state television over the past week despite the time difference, which means that kick-off is after midnight.
Even before Euro 2004, Rooney was well known in China, because his club, Everton, is sponsored by a Chinese company, Kejian.
One of Rooney’s team-mates at Everton is Li Tie, one of China’s top footballers.
Rooney merchandise was running out in Chinese department stores yesterday as customers rushed to replace their Beckham hats, jerseys and towels. At the New Universe shopping mall in Beijing, England football shirts with Rooney’s number nine sold out.
With a population of 1.3 billion rapidly falling in love with football, China is regarded as potentially the world’s biggest football audience and merchandise market.
Last year more than 300 million Chinese reportedly tuned in to watch a Premiership game between Everton and Manchester City, who also have a Chinese player.
The hype surrounding Rooney in China is expected to build while England remains in the tournament. Hao Hongjun, a football commentator, said: “Rooney now occupies every corner of my mind.”
China’s sports newspapers all carried photographs of Rooney on their front pages yesterday.
The Soccer News daily, which has several million readers, pictured him under the headline, “Youth and Speed”, with no mention of Beckham who was standing next to him.
In internet chat rooms, Chinese fans are dissecting not only Rooney’s performance but his future and class background, a subject once of great importance in the communist country.
They surmised that he must be from a “peasant” background because they had read reports of his family members being involved in a fist fight. But this did not dent their enthusiasm.
Hu Haiyun, a reporter at the Titan sports paper, said: “If you like stars, you choose Beckham. If you like football, you choose Rooney. He has shown real signs of character: we like that sort of person.”
NATURAL ATTRIBUTES FOR STARDOM
Wayne Rooney hasn’t the figure of a rugby second-row forward but he has an athletic build (Dr Thomas Stuttaford writes). Just the build that is useful on the football field — strong neck, broad shoulders, muscular, lean, lithe physique, with small but strong buttocks and well developed legs.
His muscular neck will give him plenty of power for heading. His well muscled gluteal region (buttocks), strong thigh muscles — including those in the back of his thigh — biceps femoris and semitendinosus and semimembranosus — and the quadriceps in the front — together with the well-developed muscles in his lower leg ensure that his kicks don’t lack power. His powerful thighs, rich in muscle and almost devoid of fat, are seen in the shots of him doing his Rooney flip, or cartwheel.
It is not so much his muscles that attract attention in a game as his demeanour. He uses his hands expressively so that it is possible to see how he assesses where the ball is or where it should be going next. He has wonderful eye-to-leg co-ordination and is as quick as a snake striking the ball. He doesn’t have to think but reacts instinctively, and his eye for a ball is exceptional so that when he strikes he connects with it at the right point. With football brains, as well as football physique, he has the attributes for stardom.
The more we have in common, the safer the world will be.
As an old Kopite this is what I would expect from an Evertonian.
The same forces that gave rise to the 'velvet revolutions' of Eastern Europe in the 1980's are at work here. I find this very encouraging.
I swear to G-d! All the West sees in China is this huge Market. Call me back when there is a real cultural change from communism and totalitarianism.
I remember when the Chinese government used to execute its citizens for daring even to read western literature. That they now have access to the internet and western satellite TV, and the beginnings of a consumer culture is change I thought I'd never see in my lifetime. Of course they still have a long, long way to go, but once the ball starts rolling...
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