Football: Starting from the 05 World Youth Championship

Lin Feng felt that the external praise and the domestic fans' celebration were unnecessary.

This is just a warm-up match; it shouldn't be taken seriously at all.

He had heard from his club teammates that the World Cup was very intense, especially the physical confrontation and defensive intensity.

Although the Argentinians took the game very seriously, they certainly didn't go all out, at least not with the same do-or-die determination they show in the World Cup.

The Chinese national football team has always performed well in warm-up matches, but in the official matches, that's a different story!
After the friendly match against Argentina, the Chinese national football team did not linger and immediately took a flight to London to prepare for their next friendly match against Great Britain.

Fans who learned about the Chinese team's schedule were both impressed by the players' hard work and filled with curiosity:

[By the way, we used to have to pay appearance fees when we invited other teams to play friendly matches in China. These two matches were both invited by other teams, so does that mean they have to pay us appearance fees?]

That should be the case. The national football team may not be a high-profile team, but the rules can't be broken. It's just a matter of how much they can win!

With dozens of players on the national football team, the cost of food, lodging, and travel alone would easily exceed one million yuan. If the opponent offers less than one million yuan for the appearance fee, then it's a losing proposition!

[Is the 100 million in RMB or Euros? It's definitely in RMB. I remember last year when Nike sponsored the Chinese national football team's training camp in North America, in addition to sponsoring sports equipment, the appearance fee for one match was already 10 USD. It's definitely higher now!]

The Chinese national football team used to be weak, had low profile, low training value, and low commercial appeal. Therefore, compared with other strong teams, the national team's appearance fee was very low. Earning $8 to $10 per game was considered very high.

However, in recent years, with the strengthening of the national football team and the presence of big-name stars like Lin Feng, the value of the Chinese team has also risen accordingly.

Before the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany, European teams such as France offered 20 euros per match to invite the Chinese team to play friendly matches, two to three times the previous price.

This price was not low for the Chinese team at that time. They earned 60 euros after three games, which was almost enough to cover the national team's match and training expenses for the entire year.

At that time, the Chinese team had no international competition honors, and Lin Feng had only just entered the top five leagues and had not yet made a name for himself.

At this moment, the Chinese team has reached the top of Asia, and Lin Feng is no longer the rising star of the World Youth Championship. Instead, he has directly become the world's number one player with a host of honors, including Ballon d'Or and European Golden Boot.

Although Asian football is not strong overall, its status as the Asian hegemon still carries some prestige.

With the addition of Lin Feng, a superstar with extremely high popularity worldwide, the Chinese team's value has skyrocketed six or seven times, with appearance fees reaching $150 million!
This price is still lower than that of the world's top teams, but the gap isn't that big anymore.

Even compared to teams like Paraguay, Cameroon, and Colombia, whose overall strength is similar to China's, China's team is worth at least twice as much!
There's no other reason than that their team doesn't have a superstar like Lin Feng!
Thanks to the soaring value of the Chinese national football team, the Chinese Football Association will receive $300 million in appearance fees for these two matches.

Moreover, this kind of business can continue until the start of next year's World Cup.

Coincidentally, China has been increasing its investment in the football industry in recent years.

The Football Association can use the money it earns to invest in the primary and secondary school football leagues, the national youth football league, and the university football league that are being established across the country.

While these football programs may not immediately improve the strength of Chinese football, they can lay a solid foundation for Chinese football at the grassroots level, which is a good thing that benefits the present and future generations.

You absolutely cannot neglect it just because you can't see the output in the short term. Investing a penny now may yield ten or even a hundred times the return in the future.

……

The football atmosphere in England is almost the same as in Argentina. I don't know if it's because they knew in advance that the British team had arranged a friendly match with the Chinese team, or if they are just naturally very passionate about football.

The 9 tickets for Wembley Stadium were snapped up within two hours of going on sale.

Moreover, the tickets ordered by the British were shockingly expensive, with the cheapest ticket costing £50!

Even so, tickets are still incredibly hard to come by!
As expected, compared to developing countries like Argentina, established developed countries like the UK are still rich!
[Damn it, just because the tickets were too expensive, I hesitated for a second longer, and they sold out!]

I didn't manage to get a ticket either; this match is much more popular than I expected!

[Can any of you explain why the British are so interested in this match?]

[Perhaps it's because the Chinese team just defeated Argentina?]

[It might also be because the Chinese national football team has a star player like Lin Feng; the British have almost no resistance to stars who are both talented and good-looking!]

Chinese fans were right; the Chinese team's upset draw against Argentina won them a lot of goodwill from British fans.

In addition, the Chinese team is too mysterious to the British, as the two teams have never faced each other in an international competition.

They only played each other once, even in warm-up matches.

Therefore, the British are extremely curious about a team whose international ranking has soared in recent years, which has upset world-class teams such as Germany, France and Argentina, and which they themselves lack knowledge of.

Besides, there are many fans, especially young and beautiful female fans, who came specifically for Lin Feng.

It must be said that British football has a truly unique eye for talent.

They chose the Chinese team as a warm-up opponent—a team that was neither particularly strong nor weak, but whose strength was just right, and which could bring them extremely high commercial returns.

They could earn over £400 million just from ticket sales for this match.

If you factor in the revenue from merchandise and broadcasting fees, you could easily earn another three or four million pounds.

Even after deducting the £80 appearance fee paid to the Chinese team, they can still net at least £600 million!
Football associations in various countries are mostly low-paying organizations that don't make much money.

The Premier League may be thriving, but that has little to do with the Football Association.

In such situations, national teams directly under the jurisdiction of the national football association become a tool for these associations to make money.

With the FA's successful example before us, I believe there will be quite a few teams willing to play against the Chinese team as a warm-up match.

Rather than engaging in commercial calculations, the players on both sides were simply excited about their warm-up match opponents.

"Lin, welcome to our country! Don't rush off after the competition, your sister-in-law and I will treat you to dinner!"

Lin Feng had just arrived in London when his former teammate Beckham called him, inviting him to dinner after the match.

"Okay, as long as you don't treat me to Stargazing!"

"Of course not! I know a fantastic Chinese restaurant in London's Chinatown that will definitely satisfy you!"

As soon as he hung up the phone, Lin Feng noticed that his teammates were looking at him very strangely.

"What's wrong? Why are you all looking at me like that?"

Lin Feng felt somewhat confused, wondering why these guys were looking at him like that.

"Brother Lin, was the person who called you just now Beckham?" Hao Junmin grabbed Lin Feng's arm, his eyes gleaming like a hungry wolf that had spotted its prey.

Seeing the other person's expression, and glancing at his teammates around him, Lin Feng immediately understood:
So these guys are all superfans of their idols, and they all want to use their connections to get autographs or even photos with their idols?
"Go away, go away, you guys handle this yourselves. I'm not helping you chase after celebrities with public funds!"

……

In the past, when the Chinese team went abroad to compete, coordinating the training base was a major problem if the organizers did not make arrangements.

But for some reason this year, the national football team has not been harassed at all in this regard; on the contrary, they have felt treated with hospitality.

Upon learning that the Chinese national football team needed to use its training base, several Premier League teams in London extended offers.

Chelsea and Arsenal were the most proactive. In order to compete with Wenger for players, Abramovich not only opened Chelsea's luxurious Cobham training ground to the Chinese national team, but also booked a five-star hotel for the team and sent the team's luxury bus to pick up and drop off the players.

This five-star treatment left the national football team members somewhat bewildered:

Unsolicited kindness is either a sign of ulterior motives or theft!

So, what did Chelsea, or rather Abramovich, see in the Chinese team?

All eyes were once again fixed on Lin Feng.

"Brother Lin, I heard that Chelsea's owner is worth tens of billions. Why don't you just go for it!"

"Yeah, Brother Lin, if you join Chelsea, with Abramovich's generosity, your annual salary will at least double!"

After witnessing the luxury of Chelsea's training ground and Abramovich's extravagant spending, the Chinese national team players were all swayed by Abramovich's sweet talk and ended up acting as Chelsea's advocates.

"Are you even my teammates? You were so easily bribed by the other side?"

Lin Feng rolled his eyes at his teammates, annoyed. These guys were too unreliable.

Lin Feng isn't very interested in the Premier League, and even if he were to come to the Premier League, Chelsea wouldn't be his first choice.

Abu is indeed very generous, but he's notoriously impatient.

He would clamor to change coaches as soon as the team's performance fluctuated even slightly.

Since Mourinho left, Chelsea's coaching turnover rate has been even more exaggerated than Inter Milan's back then.

With coaches changing every few days, the team's tactics and playing style can never be stabilized. How can the team achieve results?
He can't just join Chelsea for the higher salary; he also has to consider his career development and commercial viability.

From this perspective, if he had to choose, the most suitable Premier League teams for him would be Manchester United and Liverpool, two long-established powerhouses.

Unfortunately, both teams have significant problems, and he would rather go to a struggling club like Arsenal than to either of them.

At least that professor can continue working for another seven or eight years!
……

On paper, the British team is no weaker than Argentina, although they lack a superstar like Messi.

However, the British team clearly has more star players, especially established stars like Lampard and Gerrard, who are the core of their respective teams' attacks. The British team obviously has more of these!

But for the Chinese team, which just pulled off a stunning draw against Argentina, they are confident that they can put up a good fight against any opponent, no matter how strong they are.

The Chinese team is full of confidence, and the British are equally confident.

In the previous World Cup European qualifiers, the British had achieved an impressive eight-game winning streak, securing first place in their group with one round to spare and earning their ticket to the World Cup.

Let alone facing a second-rate team like China, they are confident they can even defeat Germany, the nemesis of the British team.

Despite the Chinese team's recent upset draw against Argentina, the British are confident they won't make the same mistake.

Moreover, compared to the Argentine team, the British team has a clear physical advantage.

Based on their past experience playing against Asian teams, using their physical advantages to defeat Asian teams is a sure way to win.

For this match, England manager Fabio Capello fielded his strongest lineup.

The defense was led by Terry and Ferdinand, with Glen Johnson and Ashley Cole on the left and right flanks respectively.

In midfield, Gerrard, Lampard, Beckham, and Barry lined up in a row, a truly dazzling display of talent.

In the attacking third, English star Wayne Rooney lived up to expectations and appeared in the starting lineup, but his strike partner was replaced by the tall Peter Crouch.

Zhu Guanghu glanced at the opponent's starting lineup and understood immediately.

The British seem to be going for a high-ball approach in this match, utilizing speed, impact, and height in front of the goal.

This style of play is something the Chinese national football team doesn't really like, nor is it good at dealing with.

This made him a little more worried about the game, but then Lao Zhu felt relieved.

Although fans jokingly call the British team the "China of Europe," they are, after all, a traditionally strong team, and their strength on paper and team history are not something the Chinese team can easily match.

Losing to such an opponent is quite normal for the Chinese team.

We can't expect miracles to happen in every game, can we?
October 10th, 7:00 PM.

With the referee's whistle, the match between England and China officially began.

At the start of the match, the British team gave the Chinese team a rude awakening with a quick attack down the flank.

At 34, Beckham was still sharp, delivering a precise cross that found England's striker Crouch amidst the crowd. Had Crouch not headed the ball wide, China would have almost conceded a goal in their very first defensive play.

Gerrard then took over the game, and the British team began to constantly attack the Chinese team's defense from both flanks.

With crosses constantly being sent into the penalty area from the flanks, Li Weifeng, Feng Xiaoting, and the Chinese team's goalkeeper became the busiest people on the field.

[This match is so fast-paced! The British team's style is completely different from Argentina's!]

They rarely play on the ground and almost never combine plays in midfield; they go straight for the space behind the defense, and their attacks from the flanks are getting increasingly fierce!

Our players are at a disadvantage in physical duels; if this continues, our defense will crumble! (End of Chapter)