At 28, Li Zhongyi, once a gifted midfielder named one of the Guardian's "40 Best Young Talents in the World," could now only scrape by in China's amateur league. On the night Qinghai Kunlun's season ended, a drunken Li Zhongyi looked back on his regret-filled football career. He could have steadily risen through the ranks at Sheffield United in England, but his father's stubbornness forced him to return to China. He could have shone at Wuhan Zall, but a ban imposed by Evergrande put an end to that. He could have played on the professional stage, but a dispute with his agent relegated him to the amateur leagues.
After a night of heavy drinking, he was reborn in his 15-year-old body in June 2012. By then, he had already spent three years training professionally in Sheffield United's youth academy in England. The choice that would change his fate, returning to China to join Evergrande's reserve team, was about to be made under his father's urging.
With the gift of foresight, can Li Zhongyi break free from his family's control, avoid the traps of his past life, and truly take charge of his football career this time? Now that the English pitches have opened their doors to him again, how will this reborn midfield prodigy write his own legend?
