#154: Premier League, Football Journalism, Interview Superstars, and Women in Football with Liv Wang 44:20

Kia ora, ni hao and hello. Welcome to the Cherry Journal podcast. I'm your host Camille Yang. My guest today is Liv Wong, a renowned Premier League journalist with a massive following of millions. I've been a follower of Liv's work for quite some time now, admiring her unique content creation and interviewing style with Premier League footballers.

Recently, I had the opportunity to meet Liv in person during my visit to Manchester. Needless to say, it was an incredible experience sitting down to talk with her. So, get ready for an insightful conversation about Liv's journey, experience and perspectives in the world of football journalism.

Welcome, Liv. Nice to meet you in Manchester and welcome to my podcast. Thank you for having me. Can you share with my listener about your background, where are you from and how did you end up in Manchester? I'm from Beijing. I grew up in Beijing. Beijing is still my city and will always be my city. I usually say I'm a content creator.

But if you really ask me what I do on a daily basis, I cover the Premier League here in the UK. I lived in London last season and recently moved to Manchester, which I'm loving at the moment.

We'll see, we'll see where we end up. Can you tell me how did you enter the football world? Because you know it's a very male dominated world and how did you end up here to be a journalist? I first started watching football in 2006, the Germany World Cup. I was very little at the time. I think World Cup is just one of those things where everyone focuses on one thing, it's football, whether you were a fan before that or not.

So ever since then, I've been a fan. And my favorite player is Michael Owen. And at that time, he played for Newcastle. So I watched Newcastle for a little bit because of him. And then in 2009, he moved to Manchester United. I moved with him. And ever since, I've been a United fan. I actually told him this story because he played for Liverpool. So he still thinks of himself as a Liverpool legend. Yeah.

But I told him, I'm United fan because of you. He's like, yeah, that's interesting to know. But he also said that players can play for different clubs in their career, but...

fans when they choose a club, they never change, which is fascinating. So yeah, so ever since then, I know I wanted to do something in football, about football. I actually majored in English, so I know this is my strength. And I kind of realized back then, I actually haven't been doing this for a very long time. Well, maybe three years ago, I realized there weren't many people in this industry, at least for Chinese football.

viewers that create really quality content well there were there was content but i feel like there was room for improvement so i wanted to do i don't know bring my talent to chinese viewers and i think we are doing that yeah and we are creating more content for chinese viewers and content specifically for chinese viewers which is something that hasn't been done before

And can you share with me your workflow? Like how do you prepare the interview with a player or the coach? So how is your routine like? Yeah, so we do interviews, like longer ones where we sit down.

And we also cover games on match days. So we go to this match and then we report there. So it's quite different, actually. So on a match day, of course, you've got to prepare for the two teams' specific stats. Usually, if I can, I'll go to the press conference the day before. You can only go to one, I guess, because they always happen around the same time. And then if I cannot be there in person at the press conference, I'll

find the video on YouTube and listen to what they have to say before. And pretty much everything you can find online from the two teams, because not only managers do interviews, players before a big match, they do interviews as well. Then see the team news, who's gonna be absent and who's coming back.

And then head-to-head, the importance of the match, everything. And then on match day, we will do a lot of filming before the match. Also get to talk to some legends, usually legends that play for either team or both teams sometimes, which is also fun. After the match, we'll talk to a player or a manager, sometimes both.

Yeah, unmatched day is quite intense, but I feel like if you're in this industry, you live for that adrenaline. For the longer interviews, it also depends because sometimes we know a lot in advance that we're gonna do this interview, but sometimes it's quite in short notice. But quite similar is I'll try to find whatever I can find online and try to know more about this player.

So if there's something he says, I'm always prepared. There wouldn't be something like, "Oh, he asked me a question I wouldn't even know what he was talking about." And then, because I want to do this for Chinese viewers specifically, so I always ask them what they want to ask the players. Because you do this not for yourself, right? You don't talk to the players because there are things that you want to ask. Of course there are things I want to ask, but

you're doing this for your audience and their audience are so far away. A lot of them cannot be here and don't have the privilege to meet the players and have a feel of what they're like. So you really need to show it to them within that short slot that you have. So a lot of times it's not just about questions that you ask, it's more about giving them a feel of

what the players are really like as people. I think one thing quite different from other broadcasters that we do is that we don't ask really conventional questions. We try to ask something different. I wouldn't say groundbreaking, but we're kind of doing that. Because on the same day, there will be several interviews lined up for them. And if you all ask the same questions,

players get really tired of them and by the end the answers will be really short and it's not going to be good content for you but if you ask different questions from other broadcasters it's something new for them and a lot of times they enjoy that and because China is so far away they are quite interested to see what fans there feel about them and how they show their appreciation this is what I'm doing I know there are Chinese viewers that don't like that

for some reason I don't get. But I actually got a lot of positive feedback from Chinese viewers but also from foreign viewers. I got English comments a lot of times saying that I like that you're bringing the Chinese element to it. Because I remember I read some comments online that people like to know players' Chinese nickname. Can you give me an example? Like take a Ruben Diaz one as an example. I was actually gonna take him as an example because

He's called husband, right? Habib. Which is definitely a compliment, but also kind of bold. Because it's very intimate. And it shows that people do think

that he's attractive. So I wasn't really sure how the club's gonna feel about it, but when I explained to them, they're like, "Yeah, why not tell him? See how he feels about it." And of course he knows his compliment. I actually got a lot of foreign viewers telling me that

Girl, you're so bold for telling him that because he's got female fans abroad as well. I mean, abroad here as well. Which is quite fun is that I think a few weeks after...

I went to Man City again and their press officer, we're just talking about like the players' nicknames in Chinese. And he was like, yeah, Ruben's nickname is Hubby, right? Like the press officer remembered it and he thought it was quite fun. And sometimes I show them like pictures that Chinese fans drew for players, especially for Man City because...

City fans, I feel like they're younger, so they like to show their appreciation this way, which I adore as well. A lot of times I show them pictures, so one time the press officer asked me, are there any pictures today that we're going to see? So he even asked me if there's something to come. So I feel like it's very different for them because it's a very Asian thing.

They didn't experience this before, but once they kind of get a feel of it and know it all comes from a place of love, a passion for the game, they try to understand it. That's what we want to do. Yeah, true. I remember you also asked Jorginho to write the Chinese character. Oh yeah, I think I have that picture. I can show it later. I think I have that. I like Jorginho. I like him as well because we actually first met at an event together.

So it's not like for a broadcaster, it's like a commercial event. And he was really nice because there were people there I can tell that were not nice. So he really stood out of how nice he was. And he remembered my name because, I mean, I didn't really introduce myself as who I work for, but we're just talking and he remembered my name. And then we had like a 10-minute slot together and it was really fun to talk to. And he saw my shoe as well. Oh, okay.

Because I got nothing else for him to sign that day. I was like, can you sign my shoes? He's like, no one asked me this today. You're the only one. Okay, why not? And then a week later, we filmed that for Chinese New Year. And then he even asked me recommendation for Chinese restaurant. And I sent him one. And then he replied to me saying, oh, thank you. I'm going to have a visit there. I wouldn't say he's a very...

Because for that episode, we were trying some Chinese food. I wouldn't say he's like a very adventurous eater. He definitely wanted to try more. He didn't like fish or spicy food. But there were a few dishes that he really liked. I like him as a player.

Also recently you interviewed Mo Salah and you mentioned like two years ago you interviewed him before then he remembered. Yeah, so Mo is very nice. I don't know, I feel a lot of for a lot of players is the case. It is like if you don't watch any of his interviews, you don't know what he's like, his personality is like. Mo is very, very approachable.

and he's always smiling it's the type of person that if you look at him in the eye he will smile at you not everyone is like that so yeah we had an interview about two years ago around this time it was on zoom so i'm not sure a lot of us on zoom you don't know if they're gonna remember you but yeah he was like yeah i remember i have really good memory and

And then when we start, because that was like a small talk before we started. And when we start, I was like, yeah, it's been a long time. He's like, yeah, a couple of years. So he even said that at the beginning of the interview to acknowledge that we've spoken before, which is very nice. Not everyone's going to do that, you know. You can have a joke with him. I always say to people that he's kind of sassy. He's very confident. He knows his qualities and everything.

If there are things that he's good at, he's going to say he's good at those things, which I always appreciate. I mean, humble is nice, but if you're overly humble, it seems kind of fake. He's not like that. He knows his strength. It was always nice to chat with him. And I asked him about his perfume and he told me, even showed me, I said, you smell really good. He's really happy about it. So yeah, I always enjoy talking to players like that because...

And at the end of the day, you're talking to another person who's on a human level. I don't see them as superstars.

if we can stay in the same room we're equal. Actually I quite like the series you did with the perfume. You asked the player what's their perfume to use but also as you mentioned there are some negative comments about that people don't like it. How do you deal with those negative online comments? Yeah a lot of times I feel like the comments don't make don't even make sense. They're like why are you asking them that? I was like I'm talking to you I can ask whatever I want right and it's not part of the interview we're just having a small talk. A lot of times

it's a great conversation starter. A lot of times they appreciate it. They're like, oh, do you want to get my scent perfume? Right? They actually...

Wanted to recommend me something. I mean if they don't want to tell me that they don't need to tell me it's fine, right? They're old enough and mature enough to know how to defend themselves If there's things they don't like they'll tell me they don't like it and I don't need you Someone who's never met them before to tell me why I should or shouldn't ask right? I mean, I know how to have a conversation So a lot of times I feel like the comments are just like nonsense, but it does I mean Everyone gets affected at some point

But I think like, I feel like you just need to know, kind of same as Mo Salah, you need to know where qualities are and you got to have confidence in yourself that you know what you're doing is valuable. So, and then you know what they're saying is just utter nonsense. You don't need to believe. I mean, if you know, you know there's

that you don't really need to take into consideration. But at first it was difficult. I feel like it does take time to know your value and then you can try to block those voices. It reminds me of Taylor Swift when she first entered the entertaining industry and she was like taking all the comments and she got sad and crying and she even changed her personality to...

fit for other people's standards but later now look at her she's become super powerful now yeah everyone loves Taylor now so it does take time and you gotta just keep doing what you're doing and if you let those comments get to you and actually stop yourself from doing what you want to do then they get their way right you don't want them to get their way you

Exactly, yeah. I admire your bravery on this part. And also when you shared the initiative during the Women's World Cup, because you found out there's not enough sanitary pads available. So can you walk me through the whole initiative you did and what people's reaction was?

At first, I wasn't really planned. I knew I wanted to do something about it, but I thought for a country like Australia, there should be facilities like that. Because in England, at least at football stadiums, most of the time you see sanitary products in women's bathrooms. But when we got to Australia, when I went to the stadiums for games, China's games, there weren't any sanitary products there.

So, luckily, because we arrived quite early, like quite a lot in advance before the workup started. So I contacted some of my friends saying that if you knew any company that's willing to do this, because we didn't make any money from it. It's all pro bono. So there we got, my friend knew a company that,

make sanitary products and they just would like to send me I think 300? A few boxes to Australia so I can give them away just to raise awareness. I know a lot of people say "Oh why you do this?" like people don't need it but it's more about raising awareness right? People need to know something like this should be more accessible at public restrooms. After we received the pads because it wasn't really planned so it was just me

And a friend who lives in Australia, she came to, I think it was in Perth or Adelaide. I think it's in Adelaide. She flew from Sydney to Adelaide to watch the games with me and she helped me film it on my phone. So you could tell the video is not well made. Like the quality is not the best. Sometimes you can't even hear what people are saying because it's really not planned. It's not a commercial, anything. It's just something I really want to do and proud to do.

So I think it does raise awareness and gets people talking, which is what we want, because it doesn't matter if there are negative comments or not. As long as people are talking about it, there will be more people that realize that products like this should be more accessible for women. So I think that was...

Because it wasn't planned, right? So I think it's still a good tryout. I will do more things like this in the future. I think one good thing for England is

people do know that things like this are essential items. Because if you go to Marks and Spencers, by the cashier, you see a little rack listing items that are essential and pads is there. So I don't think it's a conversation that needs to be had here. But back home, maybe we need to do more. Yeah. Once I found out in England,

especially for the development of women's football is amazing. When I grew up, my dad always took me to the stadium, but when I told him I want to play football, he said, "Oh, it's not for girls." That's back to 1990s. But now you see in the park, all the girls are playing football and the women's league, just like the Derby game yesterday. Yeah, you just see the development of women's football growing so fast. Yeah, I'm super happy to see that.

In terms of you working in this male-dominated environment, what's your overall experience? Do you find any challenges still need to improve or what's your observation?

Yeah, so sorry about playing football. So last season, I live in London. At first, I lived with my friend, and then I moved out to get my own place because I'm bigger now. But my friend is English, and they have two daughters. The bigger daughter plays football just because she likes it.

I feel like in back home sometimes when you play football, they think you've got to have a career in football. It doesn't have to be like that. It can just be something that you like to do as a hobby. And she loves women's football. Like she can name all the whole England squad, the women's England squad. And for men's squad, she doesn't know too much about, but she just loves women's football. So is my friend. Like he...

You think, oh, you're a guy, you probably know more about Premier League and stuff. No, he knows more about women's football because he genuinely thinks it's a very empowered thing. And also because daughter is playing football. They're very supportive. And so even these young girls, they're nine years old. They have their, I wasn't a league, but they have their local club. They have their teams. Well, they described to me that they don't necessarily play that well, but they love doing it. And eventually they'll get better.

It doesn't matter even if you don't get better what's wrong with that right you enjoy playing. Yeah so back to the industry here I feel like it is still mainly guys doing this job there are more and more girls coming into this industry but I did notice like one time it was last season I had a friend of mine driving me to a club my friend is white and he's six foot two he's really tall

But he was just driving me there. He didn't have anything to do with the work that we got to do. But when we got there, everyone talked to him as if he was my manager or something, as if I couldn't make my own decisions. I didn't notice that at first because I've...

It was my first few interviews here in person, so I didn't really notice that at first, but he noticed that. He was like, they shouldn't be talking to me just because I'm a guy. And then he just stepped away to make people realize that I'm my own boss. So it does happen, but...

From time to time, I think they'll realize that girls are very good at their job as well. True, yeah. I see a lot of podcasts and even broadcasts, they use girls a lot. Even in China, like MeGoo TV, we just mentioned before, and they started having girls' commentary. So I think it's an improvement now.

Come on, football is not rocket science, right? Anyone can understand football. Do you think they're the smartest people in this industry? No. Actually, I'm not bashing them. But for example, I think one time I talked to...

Sean Wright Phillips, who used to play for Man City, he said he didn't like to prepare for things. He likes to get questions on the spot and he can just answer them. I was like, oh, did you do that when you were at school that you didn't review any of your subjects before exams? He's like, I'm not very good at exams. That's why I play football. Yeah.

I mean, it really is not something that difficult to understand. So a lot of times I feel like people just see that's a girl and this just start bashing them. So you really got to think to yourself, do you actually listen to what they have to say or you just don't like women? Mm-hmm.

When I dated with boys and they didn't know I'm a football fan, so they start to explain, okay, this is offside, this is corner. It happened to me one time as well. I was on this first date with a guy and I mean, I think he knew I'm a football fan, but he still didn't really believe me. So he just started quizzing me about the World Cup history, like who won this World Cup, who won that one before. And a lot of times...

The thing is, when people question you, a lot of times they don't even know the answers. So this guy had to Google the answers himself to make sure I got the right answers. And that was a huge red flag. You've interviewed so many different players and coaches. What popped up into your mind now, like the most memorable one? Well, the first one I ever...

Well, my first ever interview was with Kylan Bape. That's always going to be very special for me because I would say that was the start of my career.

Also because if the first one you ever talk to is Killian Bape, there really is no way up, right? He is the biggest player and he will be for the next 10 years. So of course I was nervous, but after that, nothing faces you. I really enjoyed that chat. It was 30 minutes long and Killian was really, you know, a lot of times some players, they don't even try.

they just answer questions they don't even try they don't go out of their ways to make it more entertaining to watch but Killian really he tried to have correct jokes a few times and give me really good answers and even asked me questions so yeah I still enjoy that that was back in 2020 so almost four years ago but I still remember that one and

Other ones, I would say if you see me talking about it a lot, that means I like it. Because there are ones that I don't enjoy. And I don't like bad-mouthing people. So if it's bad, I don't really say it's bad. But if it's good, I'm going to say how good it is. Since we're talking about Kimbap, let's talk about Haaland and Bellingham. You also interviewed them. Can you share some stories about those young players? Sure.

Yeah, Erling, at first, because when he was a doorman, he wasn't the best choice to talk to. I guess his answers were really short. But I think that's his sense of humor. He didn't try to humiliate anyone. It's just like, that's how his personalities are like. I think Martin Odegaard even said it. He's like, when Erling was doing something silly, he knew he did it on purpose. Like he knew he was trying to be fun.

But after he got to Man City, I feel like nowadays he's getting better and better at doing interviews. That was probably one of our most successful interviews because we asked him the Star 1, Bench 1, Star 1 question, which at first I thought the club probably was not going to approve it because it gets people talking. It's kind of controversial, but I was just surprised to see the club was fine with it. So I asked him the question and the answer was even better.

So that one was, that one really went viral because you know if something is viral, the players see it themselves. So Martin Olga saw it and Drew Ballyham saw it. So players that actually mentioned in the interviews saw it themselves without me asking. Especially, they acknowledge it, you know, because when I ask them about it, they can totally say, oh, I've never seen it before. But they're like, yeah, I've seen it. I know what he said. To have them acknowledging that on camera is,

It's powerful. I gotta say, I'm not blowing my own trumpet, blowing my own horn, but it's something a lot of people in this industry for decades, they probably haven't achieved that. And we did that within a year.

So I think that really shows that what we're doing works. It does get people talking and watching, even players themselves. Yeah, so for Jude, he's very mature for his age. And you can just tell he's a nice person to talk to. He actually can have a conversation with you.

I think I flew to Madrid for that and I think there were people that work for that company that is a football card company uh they were asking Jude about what sneakers he was wearing and Jude was like oh it's I got it from like a runway or something it'd be hard for you to find the same pair like he was just like really fun to talk to without being condescending he didn't

that he's a star, although he really is. I think he's going to be the biggest star for English football in the next decade. Yeah. And I saw his sign on your shirt. I'm like, what a scarf! He's very like a down-to-earth guy. Yeah, when I walked in, he just pointed at my scarf saying, I like your scarf. I was like, oh, thank you. And then, because I wanted to get a shirt printed because it's better, that way it looks better. But...

I got the shirt. It's not the newest shirt. At that time, the newest shirt hasn't been released yet. So when I try to get the numbers printed, they don't have any in stock. So I just showed up with a blank shirt. I was like, can you sign on the back instead? So it's...

They were all laughing because I don't think anyone's asked him that. But I think he's more special this way because he actually wrote down his number. He was like, what number should I write? He's like, whatever, which one ever you like. And then he wrote 22, I guess, because that's his number at Dortmund. So it's quite sentimental for him as well. When they write to you in person, you want something more personal. So he actually wrote, what a scarf.

it's something exactly from that moment so I really really appreciate that how funny is that? True, true. Yeah I found that picture is very interesting yeah and I see people see your job maybe as a very glamorous like you got a chance to talk to the players but I know it must be a lot of efforts you need to make is there any like behind the scenes stories people probably won't know about how difficult this job is?

I still got to say it's a privilege to do this job. Every day I'm grateful for what I have. I mean, every job is difficult, isn't it? I cannot say, oh, this is really hard and it's a hard job because I know I see the perks. And so I need to check my privilege from time to time. But of course, there are challenges and obstacles. For example, I started watching football since 06. How many years now?

18 years. Bloody hell. So it does take years of passion for the game. Because it's not something you can just pick up in two days. You need to...

be a genuinely be a fan so whenever you see a player maybe he was not that famous but because of the time that you watch football you know who that is and when they talk about a certain game you can remember what they were talking about so yeah uh you gotta have that first and then um to have the language proficiency to do this in english

It's not the easiest job because you don't see a lot of foreigners. By foreigners, I mean non-English or non-English speaking people here that...

can try to make an influence because you go to TV or the major media outlets, there are still most of them are English people or people from English-speaking country. English is still my second language, doesn't matter how many years I've learned it. So it's still quite challenging sometimes. It's definitely harder than doing this in Chinese. Also, because you do this face-to-face, you see the reaction on the spot.

If they don't like what you're talking about, you do feel it. Although I would like to think I'm good at conversation, so I don't have that happen to me much. But nobody likes to be rejected on the spot. But it does happen. And then you do get criticized a lot. Like people don't know anything about your job trying to say you're doing a shitty job, which is so unfair because I feel like for any other job,

they wouldn't have a say. But just because what you do is public, they think they know more. A lot of times it's really ridiculous. Because if you're doing a great job, you can feel it, right? You have a good feeling after. And it's mutual. If you're feeling good, the player feels good as well. A lot of times they do tell me, they text me saying, that was fun, that's a good interview. And when that happens, still sometimes I got comments saying that that was really bad, it was really awkward. It was like, the player literally just...

we're just chatting like how fun, how much fun he was having and you're telling me he's feeling awkward? Did you, really? Really? Come on. So I wouldn't say it's the easiest job. I also wouldn't say it's the hardest job. I do feel like I'm in a very lucky position to be doing this.

I know you are a United fan and when you watch the game or interview United players, as a journalist you shouldn't have this bias. But what are you really feeling inside? I think I'm pretty good at detaching myself from the fan side of me.

Whenever I go to any games, I'm really, really calm. You don't see pretty much any reaction from me. And when I talk to them, it doesn't matter which team they play for, they're all the same to me. For United players, I feel like I know them a little bit better because it's my team. So a lot of them, for example, WDHL,

When he was still there, I've been watching him for over 10 years. So, of course, I knew him a little bit better. But it doesn't change how I approach them. It's still the same. They're all equal to me. I don't see anyone as...

superstars or I don't favor anyone one of them. I think that's one thing that people don't notice like a lot of people do see people in this industry posting pictures so they think you're just chilling with player all the time. It's not really like that right you cannot be a fan if you cannot detach yourself from the fan side this job is not for you and I know I've seen people

that can't do that. I think they can, but when they see the player up close, they're like, can I get a picture? Can I get this signed? Which is not allowed on a match day. Even for some big names like Jimmy Cargill and Gary Neville, when Liverpool play Man United, I don't know if it's for the entertainment effect or what, but they are like... Yeah, I think for them, they're different because they got this job because of their...

playing career and it does add to the entertainment and attraction of the show so they do fight a lot but I think like when they are doing commentary they they still do their job it just sometimes for example like I remember one game it could be the 7-0 or something there was a few minutes where Gary was just silent there was only one person talking I think he was just sulking yeah but they're different you cannot really compare all commentators to

Gary and Jamie. They got their playing career, a lot of them. No, if you're just a general commentator, you need to be unbiased.

Now let's talk about Chinese football, because a lot of English-speaking fans, they couldn't understand why China has such a huge population, but our football team is so bad. So what's your opinion about the current state of Chinese football? Well, I think we've all seen the documentary, was it last year, about the former national team manager?

who's in jail now. So there is systemic issues in China football. But I feel like that's also a rabbit hole that we don't really want to go down because it's just too many layers to this problem. But I genuinely think that football is for Chinese people because we've seen people of the same race like Koreans, South Koreans, Japan,

They got good players. So I think it really shows that as East Asians, we can do it. And with such a big population, there's not possible that we don't have just 20 players. Yeah, it's a rabbit hole we don't really want to go down because there are things a bit too dark behind the scenes maybe. But I know...

I noticed one thing that our fans are still really passionate about football. And I genuinely think if our team, our national team does better, it's going to revive the whole industry in China. It's going to help with our, not just Chinese football, there will be more people watching the Premier League as well because they think it's a popular sport. So I think as a Chinese fan, we do need to have hope for this national team and want them to do well.

I know some people like to laugh at people's failures, but when it comes to your national team, it's not going to be beneficial in the long term. So it doesn't matter how they're doing now.

I still need to support them because I know if they do well, it's going to be huge for this industry. And a lot of football clubs, they are surprised to see they have such a huge fan base in China. So when I grew up, a lot of people follow Barcelona and Real Madrid. And now you can see Man City, United, Liverpool fans everywhere. So they're like very curious to know how people get into it, why they are following us. Yeah.

Actually, you'd be surprised to see how many smaller teams have their own fan base as well. I mean, Leeds is not a small team, but they were in the championship for so long. And they have diehard fans. They have a group chat of over 200 people. And they just love Leeds. And for big games, they'll organize a watch-along together at a city. Sometimes I think it's in south of China, because Leeds is still a big club. There are smaller teams, I think.

One time I went to Bristol Rovers and there were even fans of them in China. They're in League One. It's crazy to think. But yeah, so you'd be amazed at how many fans the foreign clubs have in China. People are just genuinely interested in football. Yeah.

It's a huge opportunity for them as well. Get the overseas fans, fan base. And speaking of the footballer's nickname, can you share some interesting nicknames for my English listeners? I think husband is a fun one. What else?

Well, the reason one is Mo because he likes cats and people think he's got a cat personality. So they call him cat as well. Also because Mo, the pronunciation in Chinese is kind of similar to the pronunciation of cat.

Kevin DeBuena is Ting Ting and he knows that as well. Animal symbolism is a huge part for Asian culture. Like our zodiacs are all animals. So a lot of times we have to associate animals with people. So many nicknames do come from animals. Like Bernard Silver. Yeah, Bernardo is a bunny. Yeah.

And actually last year, because it was the year of the rabbit, Man City, because they do value the Chinese market. They do a lot of content for Chinese fans. They asked Bernardo to say, hello, everyone. I am Bunny in Chinese. That was really funny. Even now I think about it. Yeah, I love that. And like Levi Cowell, Chelsea player, people see him as a Shiba Inu. So yeah, that's his nickname. And yeah,

I gave him a toy of Shiba Inu on his birthday as well, which is, it was surprising for him. But I think he gets it. Yeah, a lot of them just come from animals, which a lot of times is quite different from what

people here experience, but it does make sense, you know. Oh, I remember one, because Diogo Jota's nickname is, they think he looks like a rabbit or bunny. So I told my cameraman, who's an Englishman, he's 40s, that, oh, people think Diogo looks like a bunny. He's like, no, he doesn't. Don't tell him that. And, but the second Diogo walked in, he was like, yeah, I see it now.

So a lot of times there's truth to it, right? People just don't make something out of the thin air. They do see the resemblance, that's why they're called this name. I'm quite close to a few journalists, because not everyone is nice, but some of them are. His name is Nassar Kinsella. He reports on Chelsea, but he's a United fan. I told him that Mason Mount is seen by Chinese fans as a Pomeranian. He was like, that's really interesting.

what am I then as an animal? So he wants to know what he looks like as an animal. So I posted about it. So there were people commenting, saying he looks like this and that. So yeah, people are intrigued. Yeah, it's very funny. And a lot of players, they even learn Chinese, right? The Nottingham Forest player, Alan Gutt. So a lot of them, we try to teach them a few things to say for Chinese New Year because it's the biggest thing. Oh, for Pochettino,

I really like Pochettino. It doesn't matter if you think what he's doing with Chelsea now, but I like him as a person. First time I met him, so the press officer told him, oh, next one is from our Chinese broadcaster. Her name is Liv. And he was like, oh, you're from China. And he just said, 你好.

Straight up to me. I didn't ask him that. He just... Because he knew I was from China. So he was like, yeah, ni hao. And I was like, oh, we need to have that at the start, at the beginning. He's like, yeah, let's do it again. So he was really nice. And he's always been nice to me. He invited me to his office when I was at their training ground. He showed me pictures when he visited China because he first visited when he was still playing for Espanyol. For Anthony Lange, that was quite an interesting case because...

A lot of players, they know a few words, right? But they don't really plan to learn Chinese because it's very different from what they know, right? It's not phonetic language. There are no letters.

And what are the chances of them using Chinese in Europe? But he sees opportunities for China because he knows Jesse Lingard. Jesse was popular in China. And he's always down to say a few things in Chinese. And he actually learned it really well. But Anthony thinks he can, because he's good at languages. He already speaks four languages.

So he thinks it's a challenge for him to actually learn this language, which is so different from what he already knows. But when I first spoke to him, he didn't have a teacher yet. So I told him that you need to have a proper teacher because it's not a language that you can learn by yourself. And so he asked me, oh, can you please send me links to some textbooks so I can get them? I didn't write him right after because I wanted to...

have my research first and see which textbook is the best for him. So I didn't write him right after and then he texted me first saying that don't forget to submit the books. I was like okay. Yeah so after a few days after I had because I asked people what textbooks are the best they got me a lot of recommendations so I had a look at the the ones they sent me over. I sent him two options the

And I think he said the club's gonna help get him a teacher. Yeah, so we'll see. We'll see if he's actually gonna learn it properly.

Because there are quite a lot of Chinese people in Nottingham, the city, because of the university, they do exchange program with a university in China. So I think it wouldn't be too difficult for him to find a teacher. We'll see. One day, maybe you can do an interview with him in Chinese. Because, to be honest, to be able to speak Chinese in the Premier League is not a huge plus. You do represent China.

the huge country, but there aren't Chinese-speaking players or managers here. For example, if you're from Portugal or Brazil, there are plenty of Portuguese-speaking players you can talk to. So on a match day, of course, they will try to assign you to a player that speaks the same language as you.

Here I'm just the same as every other English person that speaks English. So yeah, if there is a player that speaks Chinese, it's going to be a huge benefit for him as well. Imagine if there's really a Premier League player that speaks Chinese. The whole country is going to fall for him. Exactly. So back to you, what was this year's focus and do you have any plan for the future?

Well, the Euro is coming, so we're going to try to do something around that. And then just pretty much just take it one day at a time, really. I mean, I know where I want to end up eventually, but I don't like to plan every single step.

Can you share what was your ultimate dream? As a foreigner here, a lot of times you do get seen differently because you're foreign. I think eventually you want to be seen as equal. You don't want people to treat you, to give you special treatment because you're foreign. You want to earn your place because you deserve it, not because you're a foreigner.

Is there anything else you'd like to add on? And people, if they want to follow your works, where can they find you? I'm active on pretty much all the platforms. I'm on Instagram, on TikTok, on Douyin, on other Chinese platforms as well. If you just search my name, you can find me. It's Liv Wang. I usually, well, in English, it's Liv Wang. I hope there will be more girls genuinely interested in football because it's a fun sport. We do need more support.

and hopefully we get to create more fun content in the future because that's what we do it for great thank you so much very nice to talk to you