Well it is not in my hands, unfortunately, it is in Yonex's. And why not if LD wishes so, he could continue till 2028 or 2032. The point is it's LD's decision not ours.
Just so you know, Lin Dan's decision to carry on until Tokyo 2020 has the full moral support of his beloved wife, Xie Xingfang, who expressed so in her social media some weeks ago. Come to think of it, with his Yonex 10-year contract worth millions until 2024, I guess he's persisting out of both the passion for the sport and, perhaps more so, contractual obligations. In other words, if he retired years ago, he would be less able to fulfil Yonex's requirements of keeping himself highly relevant in the badminton world and what better way to do so than to carry on active competition. Besides, his love for the sport can be satisfied by doing something related to badminton or by playing in the professional leagues for which he has even once thought of starting one himself and roping in the retired greats such as peter Gade, Taufik Hidayat and, of course, Lee CW when he retires one day. By the way, Lin Dan has repeatedly said before he's not interested to go into coaching despite Li Yongbo having previously tried, in vain, to persuade him several times. In my opinion, it's a pity as I believe he will be much sought-after as a coach with many MAs falling over themselves to enlist his services apart from CBA who for sure will grab him for themselves, he is too precious an asset to let go. Somehow I have a feeling that as he reaches middle age after retirement, his disposition and temperament might become more suited for coaching and, hopefully, he would give it some consideration. Who knows, becoming a great coach one day could be his next challenge.
Legacy, pride, losing motivation, anything else.....???? Who cares, we are talking US$1.6M a year through 2025 YY is handing over to LD. You mean you guys will walk away from that amount of dough and I have some swamp lands in Florida for sale? Figure out how many ringgit, Yuan, are in LD contract?? Forget about rupee and Yen, we are talking about billions now LD legacy will not tarnish...years from now, if a young someone google the NET, LD's achievements will spell out all his major winnings, and that young someone will find out there is no one come close to LD's, 2 OLY gold, 5 WC, 2 AG, AE, etc….. And no one will tell this young someone that LD was losing 1st round here and there, losing interest and not motivated, etc in tournaments that meant nothing to 2020 OLY QF. LD and XXF just make sure YY continue to show them the Yuan or US$ for the next 7 years and that is an obscene amount of Yen.....into the billions
As a badminton fan I don't care how much money he makes. The videos where he gets a beating will be on the internet possibly forever. Same as with Taufik. At least there are videos in good quality in which Lin Dan plays awesome, which can not be said for Taufik.
ahhh...fans and the man himself, hmmm.....as a fan I agree with you as I wont pay to watch LD play today....the previous discussion is about forumers saying he should quit now than getting spanked tarnishing his lofty status. The man himself is a professional sportsperson, this is his livelihood to secure a financial future for his family and someone is willing to pay him that amount of $$$ to play half-assed baddy, great. Even if LD does not win another major (ohhh btw, how much does playing 5 rounds of AE and winning the gold biscuit worth), US$1.6 a year for the next 7 years for just showing up, he hits the jackpot. You are just jealous, I know I am and so are all the other baddy players
Him continuing to play will do good for the sport. He does have it in him to beat top players and I think he can take Gold in Tokyo if everything goes right.
Then, quite frankly, you have little understanding of badminton. The man is starting to lose against 16 year Olds soon, and hasn't been a danger to a healthy Top5 player for over a year. While I understand why he still does it (that's a lot of money he's getting), at the same time I don't have any interest in watching him anymore. It's painful to watch that slow, unaggressive mess of a game he plays now, and his deceptions and trickshots are almost worthless now that he can't back them up with a dangerous attack and good movement.
There will soon come a time that the very reasons that you and I used to respect him will become eroded to such an extent that we will start to reconsider whether we were wrong to admire him so much. For him to reduce his fans to that state without any concern on his part speaks volumes for what kind of person he really is and has been all along.
He has defeated CTC and taken many to 3 games, includpng Momota in the past 12 months. That should be enough to show he still has the ability. Imagine if he weren't Lin Dan but another young player. These results would be considered to be excellent. The truth is though, as a hardcore fan, I am blind to all of this and will continue to support him.
I am very much aware of what the truth is. He will only go downwards but I still hope that he can do something out of what remains of his career. It is really tough these days being a supporter, one first round loss after another. He still does get the occasional decent result and I am counting on that when it matters. Slim chance, but I will wait.
You don't even know who he really is from the way you speak of him. You don't even care to know or understand. All you care is your ideal image of Lin Dan or what you want Lin Dan to be. He is a professional badminton player not just a badminton player. He doesn't owe each of every fan he has anything and he doesn't need to try to please any of them either. And if you are disappointed with a professional player to "play for money", then you have no idea what it means to be a professional players and what everyone here had to give up to be one.
Yes, that is very true. He has worked hard to be where he is and wants to make the most out of it. He isn't bad person for not always delivering to his fans.
No they wouldn't be. A once-in-a-while upset doesn't count as an excellent result. When Du Pengyu took LCW to 3 games in the 2013, nobody considered it excellent or even great. When Leverdez beat him, nobody said he was any good all of a sudden.
May I ask you a question? Do you find that the Lin Dan of the present day has retained the same professional qualities that drew you to becoming his fan at the time that you did?
Obviously, there was something about Lin Dan the person or Lin Dan the professional player that drew you towards becoming his fan. Do you find that he is letting your expectations down somewhat with the way he is conducting himself these days?
I like him for many reasons, his game is just one of them. Obviously, you want the best results from your favorite player in every tournament and it is very disappointing to see so many early exits. One cannot expect as much as one would from a younger LD but I do feel disappointed. However, that does make every victory much sweeter.
That's an interesting question. The things that drew me to becoming his fan are probably very much different from everybody else here because I have only been his fan recently (less than a year). When he used to win a lot, he didn't interest me much. What drew me to becoming his fan were not just his skills and achievements but rather the qualities that actually made you reconsider whether you were wrong to admire him. It is easy to win and be at the top when you are young, strong, talented etc. But it's not that easy when you are past your prime, (much) older, weaker, struggling physically. For LD who had been all mighty with those huge collections of Medals and titles, he was supposed to be humiliated to be this bad in form and to lose to those whom you called less worthy opponents, but instead of consider quitting he just carry on with it like a man in mission despite those harsh criticisms he is getting. I find it admirable and intriguing especially when we know that he is a very proud man. Yet he still carries out his duty and his obligation. I had my disappointments when he showed no effort nor interest when he played in some tournaments (like US Open last year was so awful amongst others). But he seems to be working harder lately and he showed more interest in winning. Maybe he is preparing for Tokyo 2020 qualification.
Prefer that he when he goes on tournaments, he helps publicity and meets the fans. If he is going to earn some money, at least be a bit symbolic and help the grassroots across the world.
