Chinese national football team center-back Li Lei, who will join Grasshopper Club Zurich of Swiss Super League in January 2022, said he booked one-way ticket to Europe because he won't give up his dream of playing overseas.

This will be the first time 29-year-old Li will play for a foreign club. Some of his friends took a very surprising attitude at his decision to seek a career outside China.

"They didn't understand it at the beginning," Li said in an interview with China Media Group's (CMG) weekly show, "Football Night". "They were like 'why do you want to play overseas at this age?'"

But Li's determination changed their thoughts. Many of his friends said they support his decision and respected his bravery to step out of his comfort zone.

"It's not like I'm trying to do something significant for Chinese football," Li said. "I just want to go to Europe with my own efforts and see what I'm capable of there with my performance."

As one of the top players in China, Li believes he has already earned enough money to support both himself and his family. Therefore, it's time for him to chase his dreams. It has been a while since he began to pay more attention to games and teams of the Swiss league.

"From what I saw, the top teams all do tiki-taka and have a fast pace in both offense and defense," Li said. He already received the weekly training agenda, which is very intensive.

Li's days at Beijing Guoan are being numbered after playing seven years for the club, and it can get emotional when he meets his teammates. The team's captain Zhang Yuning encouraged them to give the best possible performance as a goodbye to Li.

Li will have to go to Switzerland by himself because of COVID-19. Though it will be challenging for him there in terms of both life and career, he doesn't want to give up easily and has no plan to return for at least 18 months - which, at this point, is the remainder of this season and then the full 2022/23 season.

"I only booked a one-way ticket with no trip home," Li said with a smile. "I hope now and, in the future, more Chinese players can go playing overseas because that's how they can learn about football outside [China], that's how they can change, detail by detail."