It was late in the evening on June 1 and Mousa Dembélé was settling down to support his old team. After a draining 2-2 draw with Hebei CFFC in the Chinese Super League, Dembélé had returned to his modern home in Guangzhou’s new town and set an alarm for 4am. Tottenham Hotspur, the club he represented for seven years and left five months prior, were playing in Madrid, 6,500 miles away, in the Champions League final.

“I fell asleep!” Dembélé, 32, told The Times. “In the morning I was so angry because I wanted to stay awake. Obviously I had the game that day and the temperature here is so high that after the match I was really tired and slept on the couch.