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Dong Fangzhuo has to dig deeper
By Chen Xiangfeng (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-07-28 06:28
For Chinese young striker Dong Fangzhuo, praise from his Manchester United
coach and teammates is encouraging but not enough for him to settle with ease in
the English top flight.
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| Manchester United's Dong Fangzhou (R) and Beijing Guoan's Zhang
Shuai battle for the ball during their friendly soccer match at Workers'
Stadium in Beijing July 26, 2005.
[Reuters] | Dong's goal, which helped lift the
two-time European champions to a 2-0 victory against Hong Kong last week in the
first match of United's pre-season Asia Tour, stirred high expectations from
reports that the Chinese international has the ability to play in top-notch
leagues and tournaments with the English club.
"Dong is a player, like a lot of our young players, who has potential and we
hope to develop that potential in the next two or three years," said United
manager Alex Ferguson.
"He's a very enthusiastic boy. He's very quick, strong, athletic and I think
he's got the material to do well."
It has been suggested that United's decision to call Dong up for their Asia
Tour list was more a marketing ploy than a game plan.
To please the Chinese fans, Ferguson gave Dong about 20 minutes to play
against Beijing Guo'an at the Beijing Workers' Stadium on Tuesday, though the
manager had said before the match it was an important tune-up for his
first-choice and bench players ahead of the Champions League.
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