Li Huitang, one of the world's top five football kings - Powerful King Kong Kick
Li Huitang, courtesy name Guangliang, nicknamed Lu Wei, was born in Hong Kong in 1905. His father, Li Haoru, was from Wuhua County, Guangdong Province. When Li Huitang was 4 years old, he returned to his hometown of Laolou Village, Xikeng Township, Wuhua County with his mother. There, this child who loves football by nature used the dog hole in front of his house as a target for practice shooting. Because his family was poor and could not afford a football, he had to use grapefruit as a ball and practice hard with bare feet. He would dribble and walk with the ball on the way to school and home from school. This not only honed his will but also improved his dribbling skills. After several years of training, his body has become stronger and stronger, and his skills are outstanding.
At around the age of 10, Li Huitang returned to Hong Kong. In 1921, he was admitted to Huangren Academy, where football was relatively popular, and received relatively systematic football training.
In 1922, Li Huitang, who was only 17 years old, was selected into Hong Kong's most famous football team, South China Team, as the main forward. He is 1.82 meters tall, fast, agile, and has particularly good ball control skills. The ball is at his feet, and it is difficult for two or three opponents to steal it away. His shooting skills are even more amazing. No matter what position or angle, he can shoot the ball from left to right, and the ball will hit the target with great force. His lying down shot is a great trick.
In the summer of 1922, Li Huitang represented the Nanhua team in the Hong Kong Football League A and served as the left inside forward. Because of his skillful and superb skills, he often performed amazing moves, and was called "the football monster" by Hong Kong fans. ".
In May 1923, Li Huitang represented the Chinese football team for the first time in the Sixth Far Eastern Games held in Osaka, Japan, and the Chinese team won the championship. The 18-year-old Li Huitang first showed his talents in 4 games and became famous. From then on began his glorious career dedicated to football.
In August of the same year, Li Huitang traveled to Australia with Nanhua and competed with the Australian champion New South Wales team. Li Huitang scored twice in the first 5 minutes. In this game, he scored three goals alone, which caused a sensation throughout Australia. The Australian authorities specially awarded him a gold medal. A local newspaper in Hong Kong used a large headline to call Li Huitang the "King of Football", and there was a poem that said, "Thousands of people call him the King of Football, and people with blue eyes and purple beards also praise him."
In Shanghai in the 1920s, the fate of football was completely in the hands of foreigners. In 1925, with strong patriotic enthusiasm, the young Li Huitang came to Shanghai from Hong Kong with his childhood sweetheart neighbor Liao Yueying, determined to compete with foreign teams.
When Li Huitang was in Shanghai, he was at the peak of his football skills. Due to his outstanding skills, he was hired as a coach by the Shanghai Fudan University football team at the age of 22. Later, he joined the Shanghai Lehua Football Team and achieved outstanding results. In 1926, Li Huitang led the Lehua football team to participate in the "Scottish Cup" football match held in Shanghai, and beat the British Lex team, which had won the championship for 9 consecutive times, with a disparity of 4:1. This was the first time that a Chinese football team in Shanghai defeated a foreign team. The team's record greatly increased Li Huitang's prestige on the pitch. It has wiped away the shame of "the sick man of East Asia", vented the anger of the Chinese people, and won glory for the Chinese nation.
In 1927, Li Huitang's team was at its peak, winning the Western League First Division, the First Senior Cup and the Central League First Division championships. Li Huitang became the famous "King of Football". In the same year, Li Huitang led the Lehua team on an expedition to Southeast Asian countries and made many extraordinary achievements. In particular, he led the team to fight in the Philippines. The record was brilliant and he returned with great honors.
In the 1920s, there was a saying in our country: "To watch the theater, watch Mei Lanfang, and to watch football, watch Li Huitang." In old China, a football star could compete with the Peking Opera master Mei Lanfang. The comparison of Lan Fang's name is indeed extraordinary. It can be seen that he has won people's respect and love with his tenacious hard work and superb golf skills.
Li Huitang has a decent playing style and good footwork. Once, when he was playing against the British Navy team, he shot the ball as soon as it passed the center line. The ball actually passed through the crowd of several British players and entered the net like a precision-guided missile. Another time against the Western United team, he dribbled the ball from the backcourt alone, passed four or five opponents who came to block him, brought the ball to the opponent's penalty area, calmly kicked the ball, and scored the ball into the goal.
Li Huitang has made outstanding contributions to the national team. Selected for the Chinese team in 1923, he participated in the 6th, 7th, 9th and 10th Far Eastern Games football games in 1923, 1925, 1930 and 1934 respectively, winning the championship for the Chinese team all four times.
Li Huitang returned to Hong Kong in 1931, joined the South China Football Team and served as captain. In 1931, the International Olympic Committee recognized the All-China Sports Association as a member of the International Olympic Committee, giving Chinese athletes the opportunity to compete and communicate with football players from other countries.
Due to the financial difficulties of the then Kuomintang government, in order to participate in the Berlin Olympics football match in 1936, Li Huitang and the football team had to raise their own funds and set out more than two months in advance, relying on ticket sales from games along the way. Olympic Games expenses. Li Huitang and his teammates played 27 games along the way and achieved a record of 23 wins and 4 draws. They lived frugally and traveled all the way to Berlin. However, due to all the fighting, the players were exhausted. By the time of the Olympic Games, they lost 0-2 to England and were eliminated in the first round.
In 1939, Li Huitang went on an expedition to Southeast Asia with the Hong Kong South China team. In the first battle with the Malaysian Penang Allied Forces, the South China team won 11:0. In this game, the 35-year-old Li Huitang remained majestic, frequently dribbling the ball and shooting hard, scoring 7 goals alone. Once, during a match against a foreign team, Li Huitang hit a powerful shot right in the arms of the "foreign general" goalkeeper. The goalkeeper couldn't hold his abdomen in and immediately fell to his knees.
After the fall of Hong Kong, Li Huitang did not want to be a slave to the country, so he took advantage of the opportunity to compete in Macau in 1941 and returned to the mainland. He formed the Wuhua football team with his hometown people. A couplet was pasted on the door of his home: "Resist war seriously, and celebrate the New Year casually."
In 1942, Li Huitang went to Meixian to compete with the Qiangmin team, and ended up winning 1:3 with "courtesy". civil. The next year, Li Huitang invited Hong Kong Group A experts to compete with the Qiangmin Team in the name of "Hong Kong Construction Team". Through these two games, it played a certain role in promoting football in Meixian County, the "hometown of football". Afterwards, Li Huitang went to Guilin to organize the Guangdong football team to participate in the so-called "Heads of Nations Cup" football match among the four provinces. He successively held exhibition games and charity games in Chongqing, Chengdu, Zigong and other places to raise funds, relieve war orphans and refugees, and support the fight against Japan and national salvation.
In 1947, Li Huitang was 45 years old. He participated in the inter-port competition in Hong Kong (the predecessor of the Shanghai-Hong Kong Cup). A penalty kick he shot was saved. This game was his "hanging up his boots" battle".
In 1948, Li Huitang led the Chinese football team to participate in the 14th Olympic Games as coach. In the same year, he received the FIFA international referee certificate and became the first person in China to obtain international referee qualifications. In 1954 and 1955, he led the Chinese Taipei team to win the second and third Asian Games football championships.
In 1954, Li Huitang was elected as the Secretary-General of the Asian Football Confederation. In 1965, he was elected vice president of FIFA, becoming the Chinese to hold the highest position in FIFA.
In 1966, Li Huitang served as the vice president of the Asian Football Association and the World Football Association, enjoying high prestige in world football. In 1976, he was named one of the top five football kings in the world in a selection organized by the Federal German Football Magazine.
In July 1979, Li Huitang died of illness in Hong Kong at the age of 74.