From sleeping in toilet to Champions League - and now China
South African Dino Ndlovu has swapped European football with Azerbaijan's Qarabag for Zhejiang Greentown, a club in China's second tier. By Alberto PIZZOLI (AFP/File)
What you need to know:
The well-travelled 27-year-old has swapped European football with Azerbaijan's Qarabag for Zhejiang Greentown, a club in China's second tier and formerly called Hangzhou Greentown.
Shanghai. South African striker Dino Ndlovu spent three nights sheltering in a station toilet before going on to play Champions League football -- and he is now embarking on the latest chapter in his career with a move to China.
The well-travelled 27-year-old has swapped European football with Azerbaijan's Qarabag for Zhejiang Greentown, a club in China's second tier and formerly called Hangzhou Greentown.
It is Ndlovu's first time in China, he arrived just days ago and does not speak the language, he told AFP as he adjusts to his new life.
Ndlovu said that prior to joining the club he learnt about Hangzhou, a city near Shanghai, by looking online.
It would be a daunting prospect for many people, but Ndlovu -- who has a handful of caps for South Africa -- coped with much harder when he was 18.
"I was from a village 110 kilometres (70 miles) from Johannesburg, but Johannesburg is where everything happens," he said by telephone from southwestern China's Yunnan province, where his team is preparing for the coming season.
"When I was young my dream was to be a professional footballer and I was going for trials at the academy of Platinum Stars, one of the teams in the PSL (South Africa's Premier Soccer League), but the trials were every day.
