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Chapter 271 The Cornerstone of a Wealthy Family

When Tang Lin brought breakfast from the kitchen to the dining table, she noticed that the landlord, Mr. Berg, was not there, whereas Mr. Berg was always very punctual.

He looked down at Mr. Berg's room on the first floor and found the door closed.

This worried him somewhat, since at Mr. Berg's age, it was entirely possible for him to face life-threatening situations in his sleep...

So he immediately put down his breakfast and ran to knock on Mr. Berg's door.

While banging on the door, he shouted loudly, "Mr. Berger? Mr. Berger!"

After he knocked and shouted, Mr. Berg responded from inside the room: "I'm fine, Don, I'm all right."

Even though he said that, Tang Lin was still uneasy: "But your voice sounds a little off..."

After a rustling sound inside the door, footsteps were heard, and then the door was opened.

Jon Berg, dressed in his pajamas, stood before him, yawning sleepily. "I'm sorry to have worried you, Don... I was too late last night to get up..."

Seeing him like this, Tang Lin finally breathed a sigh of relief.

For elderly people living alone, the biggest fear is not waking up after falling asleep.

This is why Mr. Berg was willing to waive his rent. Besides the fact that the two got along very well and were friends despite their age difference, it was also because this way, there would be another young person to take care of him, just in case.

Since Tang Lin was already taking care of him, it was impossible for him to charge rent anymore.

Tang Lin essentially earned the free accommodation by using his professional knowledge and hard work.

Both sides get what they need; it's a win-win situation.

Out of absolute trust in Tang Lin, Mr. Berg even gave him a key to his bedroom door.

If he hadn't responded to being called earlier, he would have immediately gone back upstairs to his bedroom, found the key, and come down to open the door.

After breathing a sigh of relief, Tang Lin was very curious. Mr. Berg's daily routine was always very regular. He didn't even need an alarm clock and could get up on time every morning.

He asked, "Why do you stay up so late?"

Mr. Berg chuckled somewhat sheepishly, “Because as soon as I close my eyes, I can’t help but think about tonight’s Champions League match, how I’ll get to the stadium, who I’ll run into on the way, and what will happen during the match…”

Upon hearing this, Tang Lin realized that Mr. Berg must indeed have a hard time sleeping.

He understood why: "I thought only the players participating in the game would be nervous, but I didn't expect the fans to be nervous too."

Mr. Berg laughed out loud: "Ha! I bet a lot of people, like me, didn't sleep well last night!"

"Why?" Tang Lin asked.

"It's simple. This is the first time we've watched a Champions League match in our own backyard. Don Tyne FC has been around for 165 years, and Lize Park Stadium is 115 years old. This is the first time ever. How could we possibly sleep with such a first?"

Tyne Football Club was founded in 1872, and Lize Park Stadium was completed and put into use in 1922 as a gift to celebrate the club's 50th anniversary.

Over the next 115 years, the stadium underwent numerous renovations and expansions, changing both inside and out from its original appearance when it was first built, but it has always stood near Liser Park in Newcastle.

In a sense, this stadium has become a spiritual home for all Tyne fans.

Therefore, when it was previously reported that the club was going to abandon the Lize Park stadium, which could no longer be expanded, and choose another location to build a new stadium, it caused controversy among Tyne fans.

Many Tyne fans rationally believe that the club needs a more modern and better stadium to develop better, but emotionally they still cannot accept that their spiritual home is moving...

Fortunately, at least before the new stadium was built, their Lize Park stadium finally hosted a Champions League match.

Even if it is to be demolished later, in their memories, there are still wonderful moments when the whole family went to Lize Park Stadium to watch the Champions League match.

Lize Park Stadium, no regrets.

※※※

Tang Lin soon saw examples at school that proved Mr. Berg's prediction to be correct:
The Newcastle local students in the class were almost all listless and looked like they hadn't woken up properly during class.

Even the teacher's dark circles seemed to have gotten worse—this teacher is a Tyne fan, because he actually wore a Tyne jersey to class today!
When he appeared at the classroom door, he was immediately greeted with excited whistles and applause from his classmates.

After finishing his classes in the afternoon, Tang Lin did not linger at school but quickly returned home.

Although it's closer to the Lize Park stadium from the school, he still chose to go the long way back.

It was so that I could travel to Lize Park Stadium with Mr. Berg and the others.

As a newly minted Tyne fan, he also wanted to follow in the footsteps of Mr. Berg and other veteran Tyne fans, measuring the journey from home to that spiritual home.

This was something we had all agreed upon beforehand.

It is also a ceremony for Tain fans to personally participate in the Champions League.

After Tang Lin returned home, he had a simple dinner with Mr. Berg—he cooked a pot of dumplings—and after dinner, Tang Lin changed into his number 99 Tyne jersey and left the house with Mr. Berg.

They met up with the others at the entrance of the miners' bar and then headed towards the subway station.

Tang Lin overheard the Tyne fans around him talking about how they hadn't slept well the night before.

"I feel like I didn't fall asleep until 3 a.m...."

"I don't know when I fell asleep, but I tossed and turned in bed for a long time in a daze."

"I tried so hard to fall asleep, I wanted to wake up in the stands and the game had already started... but the more I tried to fall asleep, the less I could... God!"

Mr. Berg nudged Tang Lin and winked at him: "How about it, Tang? We've waited 165 years for this day, how can we sleep soundly on the eve of a home game?"

Tang Lin recalled the scenes he had witnessed on the university campus during the day and sighed inwardly:
The Champions League is truly something else!

He had seen many Tyne fans at Newcastle University before and witnessed the excitement when the team won a game or qualified for the Champions League.

Even so, what he saw today still shocked him.

As the most prestigious competition at the club level, it's no wonder that Wang Lie used the Champions League as a goal to motivate the whole team...

Look at the densely packed Tyne fans on the streets, who have flocked from all corners of the city to Lize Park Stadium for a grand event.

Who wouldn't be captivated by such a scene?
Just as Tang Lin was reflecting on his feelings, some fans around him started arguing about how Tyne would perform in the game.

Some say this is Tyne's first time facing a true powerhouse in the Champions League – Lille, the team from the previous round, doesn't qualify as a powerhouse, having never even won the Champions League. Milan, on the other hand, is a renowned Italian powerhouse, ranking among the top in all of Europe – and with this being their first home game, if the fans are this nervous, how about the players?

In addition, with the recent controversies involving Wang Lie, Vitini, and Ribeiro, can they really remain completely unaffected?

Therefore, they are worried that the team might perform poorly at home due to excessive pressure, and could potentially lose the game...

Those who disagree argued that since Tyne didn't lose due to nervousness in the previous away game against Lille, it was even less likely he would lose at home. Others explained that their lack of sleep wasn't due to nervousness, but rather excitement.

Milan City is undoubtedly a top European club, having won the Champions League eleven times in their history. They are currently the only Italian team to have achieved double-digit Champions League titles.

But a glorious past does not mean that one is great now.

Milan has failed to win the domestic league title for five consecutive seasons, and its best result in the Champions League in the last six seasons is reaching the quarterfinals.

What's the difference between this team and Atlético Lille?

If we can beat Atlético Lille away from home, why can't we beat Milan at home?
Both sides have valid points, and such a debate is destined to be fruitless.

So in the end, everyone turned their attention to Tang Lin, hoping that this "lucky son of Tyne" could make a fair and accurate prediction.

Robbie Dixie asked him, "What do you think, Don? What do you think the outcome of this match will be?"

Tang Lin certainly knew why everyone wanted to know his opinion, because in their hearts he was the "lucky one," and his words could give them some psychological cues.

He used to be somewhat resistant to being the "lucky one," but now he has completely let go of it.

He also knew what everyone wanted to hear.

So he said without hesitation, "I think Tyne will win."

He stated the result directly without explaining how he arrived at it.

Because he is not a professional football player, he knows very little about football, and even less about football tactics.

If he has to analyze for a long time and come to this conclusion, it would be easier to just state the result directly and make people believe it.

Anyway, he is a chosen one, how can you analyze something like destiny?

If the prediction is correct, everyone is happy; if it's wrong, no one will blame him.

Given this, what reason does he have not to say what everyone wants to hear and likes to hear?
Sure enough, upon hearing Tang Lin's words, the surrounding Tyne fans, regardless of their previous heated debates, all cheered together.

It was as if all the examples cited in the previous argument were meaningless under Tang Lin's "prophecy"...

※※※

The entire Tyne team traveled by bus to Lize Park Stadium. Four or five kilometers away from the stadium, large numbers of Tyne fans could be seen walking on the road.

When they see Tyne's bus, they stop and wave and cheer.

As the bus drew closer to the stadium, the density of Tyne fans on the road increased.

When we were still more than 200 meters away from the stadium, the roadside was already packed with people, densely packed, three or four layers deep.

These fans were here specifically to welcome them.

Without police motorcycles clearing the way, the bus might be unable to move at all.

Even so, some fans encroached on both sides of the road, getting very close to the bus.

They waved Tyne scarves or hats, flags, and some held up signs and posters of the players.

Of course, there was also deafening cheering.

Not only along the roadside, but an even more striking scene unfolded ahead of their bus, at the end of the road. There lay the plaza outside the Lize Park stadium.

Just like a coloring game, all the areas on the map without buildings were filled with blue.

This isn't the first time Lize Park has hosted a match—Tyne players used to travel the same route to their home games, but neither the number of fans nor the atmosphere they created could compare to this one.

If what they saw on the bus before a regular league home game was at most like a rushing river, what they saw now was a vast and boundless ocean!

The countless waving arms and flags are like the undulating sea, and the cheers that penetrate the double-layered soundproof glass of the car windows are, of course, the sound of the ocean, a sound that is mixed with the sound of waves and wind. When calm, it can be like a baby's murmur, and when surging, it is like a world-destroying roar.

“My God, there must be at least 100,000 people!” Charlie Cohen exclaimed.

No one could give a definite answer to Charlie Cohen's question, because no one really knew if there were 100,000 people, but it was certainly something they had never seen outside the home stadium before.

They had thought the scene they saw outside the airport before the first Champions League match was impressive enough.

Only now do I realize that what happened before was nothing compared to what's happening now.

Some people found it hard to believe: "Isn't that unlikely? How many people can our home stadium hold in total? If there are really 100,000 people, how can they all fit?"

The maximum capacity of Lize Park Stadium is 65,000 people.

For safety reasons, some empty seats are usually left unsold as a buffer zone.

The higher the level of the event, the stricter the security requirements will be.

The security requirements for the Champions League are even stricter. Some stadiums that can sell standing tickets during domestic league matches must temporarily install seats and sell seated tickets for the Champions League.

This is also why the stadiums of these teams have different capacity for league and Champions League matches.

When faced with the question of "we prepared one table of food, but two tables of guests showed up," Wang Lie said, "Of course there wasn't enough room, so many of these people didn't have tickets. They knew they couldn't get in, but they still wanted to come just to see us."

Yes, many people actually didn't manage to get tickets.

Even die-hard fans who own season tickets to the team have to buy tickets to watch games outside of the league.

If they didn't manage to get tickets—which are extremely difficult to obtain given the passion of Tayne fans for the Champions League—they wouldn't be able to enter the stadium to watch the game, but these people still came to the stadium.

Just to catch a glimpse of the team, to send them onto the field...

Renzo Pisano, who transferred from FC Madrid, said: "It's the same when Madrid plays in the Champions League, such as those very important matches against very strong opponents... There will be a lot of fans coming out of the stadium to cheer for the team, even though many of them don't have tickets..."

Hearing Pisano say this, Vitini was thrilled – didn't this mean that our Tyne also had the same scene and treatment as a powerhouse like FC Madrid?
Making Tyne a wealthy family is his goal, so this scene is what he hopes to see often in the future.

Just like the Champions League home stadiums of top teams such as FC Madrid, Scotsman, Clayton, Atlético Barcelona, ​​and Eczacıbaşı...

In his excitement, he simply opened the small, ventilated window next to his seat, letting in all the sounds of the "sea waves" outside.

The sudden increase in noise attracted the attention of all the teammates in the car, and they all turned their eyes to look over.

Vitini felt his heart pounding and surging along with the "tidal wave" outside.

A surge of emotion welled up inside him, and he actually stood up, imitating Wang Lie, and opened his arms to shout to everyone:
"Guys, we all know why so many people are here for this match! It's the first Champions League game in Tyne's home history! They're here to witness history! But I really love this scene..."

He pointed to the sea of ​​people outside the car window.

“I want to see scenes like this often. Just like Pisano said…”

He then pointed to Lenny Pisano.

The latter was somewhat surprised—how did the topic turn to him?

"Because FC Madrid is a powerhouse, a team that participates in the Champions League every season and has won nineteen Champions League titles! So their fans often come out of the stadium to celebrate... I hope we can be like them and often give our fans the opportunity to gather here and celebrate!"
"So guys, I have a dream, which is to make Tyne a great team like that! I want Tyne's fans to treat every week like a holiday, just like the fans of other great teams!"

"This season is our first time participating in the Champions League, but I hope we can participate in the Champions League every season from now on! When Tain truly becomes a powerhouse, those who come after will know that this powerhouse started with us!"

"Guys! I know a lot of you have achieved success with other teams, some even from top clubs! You've definitely seen more than I have... but has any of you built a top club from scratch?"

His question caused the crowd, who had initially viewed Vitini's speech with a jeering, amused, and teasing gaze, to suddenly become serious and attentive.

Because none of you here have actually witnessed the birth of a powerful family!

"And now, this opportunity is right in front of us. We can become the founders of a great family!"

After Vitini finished speaking, the enthusiastic response he had imagined did not come.

A silence fell over the carriage.

This silence was like a bucket of ice water, cooling down Vitini's initial excitement and pulling him out of his state of agitation.

He then realized that he had just tried to show off in front of a group of older, more senior, more experienced, and more knowledgeable veterans...

How would they see me? Would they think that I, a young person who hasn't achieved anything yet, have no right to speak so eloquently and boss them around?
Generally speaking, those words should have been spoken by Wang Lie; he was indeed overstepping his bounds by doing so.

He turned his gaze to his roommate, Anderson Nova, who was sitting next to him.

The latter leaned back, turned his head to look at him, his eyes wide open, his mouth agape, his expression one of exaggerated surprise.

Clearly, even his best roommate didn't expect him to pull something like this...

This made Vitini even more embarrassed.

It's as if everyone else in the world is normal, and he's the only clown...

Just then, someone suddenly clapped their hands and shouted, "Well said, Vitini! Well said!"

Vitini looked in the direction of the voice and saw neither the team-oriented captain Elliot Goetz nor his idol Wang Lie, but Renzo Pisano, who had transferred from FC Madrid this summer!

Not only Vitini was surprised, but his friend Katic, who was sitting next to Pisano, was also surprised.

Everyone in the car, including the two of them, turned their attention to Pisano.

Pisano offered no explanation, simply expressing his support for Vitini.

After he spoke, Wang Lie gave Vitini a thumbs up and said, "This is not only your dream, Vitini, but also mine."

what is this?
This is an affirmation and endorsement from the team leader!

Once he snapped out of his daze, Anderson Nova whistled and said to Vitini with the same exaggerated tone and expression, "Wow! You're fucking awesome, Vitini! That's right, let's make Tyne a powerhouse! Let's pull off a big one!"

"Forward! Tyne! Forward!!"

The shouts of the Tyne fans outside the car came in through the side window that Vitini had opened, truly like waves, one after another.

In this environment, the hearts of the other Tyne players gradually became passionate as well.

※※※

After changing in the locker room, as Pisano went out to warm up, Majekatic specifically went to Pisano's side and, as they walked together, said to him:

“I’m a little surprised. I didn’t expect you to stand up for Vitini… I thought Wang would be the first. After all, Vitini is a loyal fan of his.”

Pisano shook his head: "I don't know what the king is thinking, but Vitini's last words struck me."

"To be the founder of a wealthy family?"

Pisano nodded: "Yes. Do you know why I was willing to come to Tyne?"

"Because you want to prove to FC Madrid that you are still top-class?"

This is a reason that even a fool could see, and something that Katic knew.

After all, Katic had used the promise of winning the Champions League to persuade Pisano to join Tyne.

But Pisano never told Katic about his regrets and dissatisfaction with his time at FC Madrid.

After all, it was just his personal desire, and he might not be understood even if he told others, so why bother telling them?

Joining FC Madrid and becoming a part of this century-old powerhouse is the ultimate goal that countless top professional players dream of.

But he wasn't content with just being an ordinary member of this wealthy family; he wanted to be the special one.

If he said that, even Katic might not understand him.

So even after arriving in Newcastle, when the two frequently visited each other and became very close, Pisano never mentioned the thorn in his heart to Katic.

But now, after hearing Vitini's dream for the first time, Pisano was deeply moved.

Unexpectedly, his selfish motive resonated with the ambition of Tyne and a young man.

Since he arrived in Tyne, he's increasingly felt that this guy isn't a traditional Brazilian—as an Argentinian, he has all the right to speak on what a "traditional Brazilian" is.

No wonder a Brazilian like him would be a fan of the king...

Only an "atypical Brazilian" like him could like Wang, right?
After reflecting on this in his heart, Pisano said to Katic beside him, "Would you choose a brick from the exterior of Madrid, or a cornerstone from Tain?"

Katic was taken aback at first, then a thoughtful expression appeared on his face.

Pisano didn't wait for his answer, but continued, "Since we're both just stones anyway, I'd rather be a foundation stone, buried underground, supporting skyscrapers, than a beautiful but ordinary stone embedded in the outer wall of a stadium."

Katic suddenly realized what was going on, and then looked at his friend with a different gaze.

He knew that his former Madrid FC teammate had great ambitions, which is why he used the Champions League title as a goal to persuade him.

He thought that was enough.

Now he realizes that compared to his friend's ambitions, the "bait" he had thrown out was utterly insignificant...

After all, one Champions League title is not enough for Tyne to become a powerhouse!

(End of this chapter)