[Ultimate_Red_Devil]

Linkage

Originally Posted by Article

Reds confirm Dong exit

Chinese striker Dong Fangzhuo's United contract has been cancelled by mutual consent.

The 23-year-old became the first ever Chinese player at Old Trafford when he joined from hometown club Dalian Shide in January 2004, but has since found his first-team opportunities limited.

He initially spent two years on loan at Royal Antwerp until he was eligible to play in England, and scored 35 goals in 61 games during his time in Belgium.

He pulled on the red shirt for the first time in a friendly against Hong Kong XI in July 2005 and scored in the 2-0 win. The following summer he got the winning goal in a 1-0 win over Kaizer Chiefs during the pre-season tour of South Africa.

He finally made his competitive debut for the senior side against Chelsea in May 2007, but has since struggled to break into Sir Alex Ferguson’s squad.

Last season he enjoyed some success in the Reserves, scoring four goals in a three-game purple patch in November.

He also played twice for the senior side in 2007/08, in September's Carling Cup defeat to Coventry and as a substitute in the 1-1 Champions League draw in Rome, before a knee injury ended his season early.

In this summer’s Olympics in his homeland he scored a late equaliser for China against New Zealand, but could not prevent his country exiting the tournament at the first stage.

[Prongs]

Shame really . He never could make it through .

So how can these asian players ever make it at England or Europe at the top most level ? apart from park , nakamura , there ain't many hits at UK as far as i can see .

Is it worth it for players like DONG to give away their 21s and 22s to come to europe and play in reserve league watched by 200 people . Or should they rather play in their own country and bang in 25 goals season after season ?

Or is if just fair for them to at least try ? After all they are getting to train with the top mot players and in all fairness , play with some good teams on the rare occasions they make it to a rare start ?

[carlyluvsunited]

So long Dong, Fangzhou for the memories !!

Joking aside, in response to Prongs comment ...

Just wait, maybe 1 year, 2 years and there will be a
flood of top quality players pouring out of China !!

Nobody had seen a snooker table over there until
6 or 7 years ago, now they have 3 or 4 players who
could become world champion !

China never entered the Olympics in any sport at all
before 1984 ... now they walk away with 53 Gold
medals and beat the whole world !!

My country Romania always battled with Russia for
the team gymnastics (for the record we have won
a medal for the last 9 Games in this), every Olympics
the question was Romania or Russia ? Now it is
"China will win !!!".

Badminton was always won by Thailand, Malaysia,
maybe Bangladesh. Now China have the outstanding,
unbeatable players !

A Chinese high hurdler, LMAO !! I would have laughed
3 years ago if you told me that. Now their guy (I forget
his name) was expected to trounce everyone, and prob-
ably would have done but for his injury !!

It just goes on and on and on ....

If China decides they want to be good at something then
trust me, they will. If they decide they will win the World
Cup in 8 or 12 years time then I for one wouldn't bet
against them.

China is awash with cash right now, they have money
falling out of their pockets. So investing in all these
sports stars was easy, and they got the results, no
question about that. With a population of 1.4 Billion
they must have hidden super stars in everything I
would imagine.

China for the World Cup 2018 anyone ?

[Prongs]

Come on That was very very optimistic .

[carlyluvsunited]

Originally Posted by Prongs

Come on That was very very optimistic .

Of course optimistic.

China winning the World Championship Snooker probably
sounded optimistic until they actually did it !

If you think about the numbers of people too ...

England choose their team from 60 million population.

For every one person England has to choose from.....

China has 23 !!

Having said that, if they just want to become as good
as England they wont win much

[Prongs]

Originally Posted by carlyluvsunited

Of course optimistic.

China winning the World Championship Snooker probably
sounded optimistic until they actually did it !

If you think about the numbers of people too ...

England choose their team from 60 million population.

For every one person England has to choose from.....

China has 23 !!

Having said that, if they just want to become as good
as England they wont win much

Some how . I don't see it .

All this medals , were for one olympics . They hosted . They wanted to win it all . And they did it .

Football would never fascinate em that much to do it cos Asian Football league is mediocre at its best * with no disrespect to any country * .

What does it offer like Olympics for those kids to get into football over night . Its a slow increase rate . They can be good .

But the Asians again are to be blamed *( although not really )*

PL before a decade would never have such huge audience . The more entertaining it became , the more money it got from TV , the more demanding it became to its own fame and now you see Chelsea doing what any other team would do . buy players , build success . Buy Top players * .

Gone are those days when a team can experiment around much and still compete .

[losangeles]

When United signed Dong my immediate thought was shirt sales in Asia was the reason. I bet we sell a ton a shirts in Asia, because of Park and to a lesser extent Dong. I've seen a bunch of Dong shirts in the Chinatown section of Los Angeles, and thought it was hilarious that out of all United's stars, people chose their purchases clearly on player ethnicity.

I think this is why United seem to track American players, too, because if we here in the USA actually had a player worthy of United, he would sell tons of shirts here, get exposure here, up United's revenue here.

Look at where United tours in the preseason. The locations are about opening new lines of revenue.

Good luck, Dong. I appreciate your efforts to make it.

[dada]

I'd have to agree that China dominationg world football isnt something I can envision alas I would not put it beyond the realm of possibilities.

As for Dong, best of luck to him. He never was going to cut it at Utd so its excellent that he is given this opportunity to re-evaluate where he stands in the world of professional football and play somewhere where his talents will be utilized.

[manutd004]

I'm still wondering what we saw in him in all honesty.

[funkdoctorspock]

Originally Posted by manutd004

I'm still wondering what we saw in him in all honesty.

A presence in the asian market. That would be my guess.

He is a talented player, just not United quality.

Wish him all the best in his footballing endeavours.