‘Nottingham Released’ He heard criticism from his Manchester United seniors for running a business without any practical experience since October last year.
There are predictions that Jesse Lingard (32), who joined professional soccer K League 1 FC Seoul, will make the K League a success, but there are concerns due to various incidents and rumors that occurred during his career as a player.
Lingard is a player from Manchester United, a world-renowned soccer player, who has been active in English professional soccer for 13 years since his professional debut.
Lingard came from Manchester United youth and played for Manchester United, West Ham United, and Nottingham Forest, and scored 29 goals and 14 assists in 182 games in the English Premier League, which is considered the world’s best league. He can play both attacking midfielder and wing forward.
He was selected for the England national team in 2016 and made his international debut. He played a key role in the 2018 World Cup in Russia, scoring 1 goal and 2 assists, helping England advance to the semifinals.
The biggest concern surrounding Lingard, who entered the K-League stage, is his physical condition. Lingard has not been with his team since the 2022-2023 season. Until 2022, he played for his team, Nottingham Forest, but as the attack points did not come out, Nottingham gave Lingard little opportunity to play in 2023. Nottingham released Lingard at the end of the season. Afterwards, joining RET Park, a Saudi Arabian league professional team, was discussed, but ultimately fell through.
Lingard, who has had no actual experience since October of last year, said at the press conference held at the Seoul World Cup Stadium on the 8th that there were no problems with his physical condition, but this has not yet been verified. It is unclear whether he will be able to participate in the league opening game, Gwangju FC-FC Seoul, to be held at Gwangju Soccer Stadium on the 2nd of next month, as well as the FC Seoul home opening game on the 10th.
There is also a possibility that Lingard is more concerned about business than the game. Lingard launched J-Lings, a clothing brand named after himself, in 2018, and in 2021, he acquired the esports team R6 gaming team and is running J-Lingz esports.
Manchester United seniors Roy Keane and Gary Neville criticized Lingard’s business operation, saying it was not helpful to football. In fact, the company is known to have suffered a loss of close to 300 million won in the first year.
“His personal business is separate,” Lingard said at his introductory press conference. The most important thing is soccer. I came because I can run. “For now, I will focus only on soccer,” he said, but it remains to be seen whether he will actually focus only on soccer.
Lingard’s childhood was not easy on his personal side either. After his parents’ divorce, Lingard, along with his younger siblings, mainly stayed with his grandparents. Her mother struggled with depression and because of this she had to rely on Lingard to look after her younger siblings.
She gave birth to her daughter while dating fitness model Rebecca Halliday, who is seven years older than her, but it is reported that she is not currently dating. 고스톱