Former Adelaide United player Gyawe Jonas Salley is a people magnet in China
GYAWE Jonas Salley is a people magnet. It doesn’t matter where the former Adelaide United enforcer is in this world, his charisma and charm always draws in the masses.
GYAWE Jonas Salley is a people magnet.
It doesn’t matter where the former Adelaide United enforcer is in this world, his charisma and his charm draws the masses towards him.
Six years after leaving the Reds for Chinese football, Salley was instantly recognised at Henley Beach on Sunday by fans young and old wishing the talisman would light up the Reds again.
That won’t happen in the short term Salley said.
Salley, 33, is back home in Adelaide on a break, visiting his wife Azra and his two children Nahla, 4, and Ayla, seven months.
Salley married his sweetheart Azra in Adelaide in 2010.
“I Skype them every day, three times a day, when I’m in China,’’ Salley said.
“I also use chat channels to talk to them, in the morning, lunchtime and before they go to bed, I read the children stories from my iPad.”
Salley is now coming up to his eighth season in China and will early next year join Nei Mongol Zhongyou in the League One competition for his second preseason with the club.
Salley is a very popular figure in China.
He is also captain of the club which plays at the 51,500 capacity Hohhot City Stadium.
“They have a lot of respect for me in China,’’ Salley said.
“In every city we go to, fans they recognise me and they greet me like “hey that’s Salley.”
“I have really enjoyed my career in China.”
Salley has faced some of the world’s best players in China including superstars Didier Drogba and Nicholas Anelka during their stints in the league and has an interpreter on call 24 hours a day.
He lives in a hotel in Hohhot which has a population of 2.86 million in the province of Inner Mongolia which houses 25 million people.
Salley says he is now a mentor for young players at Nei Mongol Zhongyou.
“They have a lot of respect for me,’’ he said.
“I feel very comfortable being there.
“They way the treat me, they are very welcoming.”
Salley is still looking as fit and as strong as ever.
But he says his body is starting to show signs of being battered in a 300 plus games career after making his debut in the Cote d’Ivoire’s first division.
Salley hopes to watch Adelaide face Wellington Phoenix at Coopers Stadium on Boxing Day after playing 31 matches for the Reds between 2007 and 2009.
That stint was enough for him to make a decision in calling Adelaide his now permanent home.
It was here where Salley pledged his allegiance to Australia, becoming an Australian citizen at a modest reception at Thebarton Oval in 2008, arriving on the doorstep of South Melbourne to play soccer after moving from the Cote d’Ivoire.
He made his mark in the A-League for the now defunct New Zealand Knights in 2006, joined Sydney FC briefly for one game in 2007 before becoming one of former Reds coach Aurelio Vidmar’s main men.
Originally published as Former Adelaide United player Gyawe Jonas Salley is a people magnet in China
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