The road to godhood starting from Ligue 1

Chapter 259 Germany, Revenge!
Wait until the next day.

It's not just French media reporting on it anymore; Tottenham's draw of Bastia has been featured in major English newspapers.

Most British journalists and fans know very little about Bastia; they know most about Gaio.

Even after learning about Bastia's recent magical season, the English media, especially tabloids, still generally expressed a sense of superiority that "the Premier League is better than Ligue 1".

They believe that even though Bastia is the top team in Ligue 1, its overall strength and intensity of play cannot be compared with Tottenham Hotspur, who are among the top teams in the Premier League.

"Tottenham had a good draw; although they drew the Ligue 1 leaders, it was Bastia, a team that was in Ligue 2 last season."

When reporting on Bastia, the English media also make a brief mention of Gaio.

They also linked Gaio with Premier League teams, making the rumors seem very plausible.

There are mainly three teams linked to Gaio, the first being Chelsea.

Chelsea have reportedly informed Frank Lampard that they will not be offering him another contract.

According to Lampard's agent, Kutner, "Chelsea officials informed Frank during the Club World Cup in Japan and reiterated after the Everton game that no matter what happens, Frank will not receive a new contract at the end of the season."

Chelsea's stance has remained unchanged since then. Frank must accept this fact; he now only hopes to continue playing for Chelsea for the remainder of the season, finishing it as successfully as possible before bidding farewell to the club he loves.

Chelsea have allowed Lampard to begin contacting other teams after January 1st.

With the prospect of losing the 34-year-old Lampard looming, Chelsea signed Newcastle striker Demba Ba this winter transfer window.

Subsequently, media reports suggested that Chelsea would continue to strengthen their squad and would re-sign Gaio.

The Daily Mail reported that "a significant force within Chelsea wants to push for Gaião's return. Gaião experienced a low point at Chelsea, but now he deserves to be seen by Chelsea again, and not just in the youth team, but in the first team. However, the biggest obstacle to this plan comes from owner Abramovich. Gaião was kicked out of Chelsea because he assaulted a fellow Russian player during training."

Secondly, there's Manchester City.

According to The Sun, Manchester City's new management, Soriano and Begiristain, have made several trips to France to scout Gaio. The Sun also contacted sources within Manchester City, who revealed that the club not only wants to sign Gaio but also wants to build the team around him, as Gaio has already demonstrated exceptional talent and potential with the French national team and Bastia.

Manchester City hopes to build a team around Gaio to compete for the Champions League title, rather than just remaining a Premier League title contender.

Manchester City wants to be the best team in all of Europe.

Gaio is their core plan.

Finally, there's Manchester United.

Ferguson's perfunctory answer was interpreted by reporters as Ferguson's desire to build another title-winning squad for Manchester United, and that Gaião would become Ferguson's second Cristiano Ronaldo, serving as the absolute cornerstone of Manchester United for many years to come.

That's how the English media are, reporting on the transfer rumors between these three teams and Gaio with great seriousness.

Bastia.

Before the match against Reims, Gaião had already informed Chatham and Jerónimí that he would be leaving the team in the summer transfer window, but he would definitely inform them of his specific transfer targets in advance so that the team would have time to negotiate transfer fees.

Neither of them was surprised by this decision.

Jerónimi also joked, "Sorry Gaio, we really want to keep you. No Bastia fan would want you to leave."

But we really don't have the money. As you know, the team is already close to 20 million euros in debt to be able to put together this squad this season."

Gaio had also considered, if possible, leading Bastia to try and win the Champions League, a title the team had never won before.

However, the team's current financial situation no longer allows for such ambitions.

If Gaio insists on staying, then all the loaned players will have to leave. Mane, Kanté, and even Sidibé and Klose will have to be sold to raise funds. In the end, Gaio will only have a team that has no competitiveness.

This is the tragedy of small teams.

It's not that we don't want to preserve the city's heroes, but that we lack the strength to support them.

So it would be better to send him away, so that both of us can be together.

It's that simple.

Gaio will feel reluctant to leave Bastia. He originally saw it as a stepping stone, but after one or two seasons, he has become deeply marked by Bastia.

perhaps,

One day, he will return to Bastia, but perhaps no longer as a player.

After clarifying the transfer issue, Chatham patted Gaio on the shoulder and said, "Don't feel pressured about the Europa League. Our main focus this season is to secure Ligue 1."

The various voices from the outside world are also making a great fuss in Bastia. Both the fans and the players are holding their breath.

The less favored you are, the more you need to prove yourself!

On the way to Reims.

De Bruyne also whispered to Gaio, "Ilion told me that I will have a chance at Chelsea next season, and the first team needs me."

Gaião knew what De Bruyne meant by that. Instead of responding directly, he said, "That's good. With Lampard leaving, you also have a chance to fight for a starting position."

Although he knew that De Bruyne wouldn't have a chance at Chelsea, nor would Lukaku or Salah.

Upon hearing Gaio's words, De Bruyne responded directly, "I want to ask you, is it possible that you will join Chelsea next season? Perhaps we can still be teammates."

Gai was silent for a second, then shook his head. "It's difficult. As long as Chelsea's owner is still Abramovich, I have no chance of joining Chelsea."

De Bruyne also knew about what had happened to Gai during his time at Chelsea; all that was known to the outside world was that Gai had hit that Russian youth academy player.

In fact, Gaio also gave Abu a piece of his mind.

Back then, Gaio truly exemplified what it means to be arrogant and conceited.

At the pre-match press conference for the game against Reims, Hagi Begic responded to reporters' questions about Bastia's "unfavorable draw" in the Europa League.

"To be honest, when I saw the draw results, especially when 'Tottenham' was followed by 'Inter Milan vs. CFR Cluj', my first reaction was probably the same as everyone else's - 'Wow, this is really a 'special' gift from UEFA to our Corsican island.'"

Hagi Begic then went on to lavish praise on Tottenham, lauding their great history, their superstar Bale, and so on.

"So, a 'bad draw'? Maybe. It's an opportunity for us to face the greatest opponents, and we'll step onto the court with the utmost respect, and then..."

At this point, Hagi Begic smiled meaningfully, "Then, we will give it our all, just like in every Ligue 1 match."

Who knows what might happen on the football field?

After all, we are just a small team from Corsica, Bastia, currently sitting top of Ligue 1 and striving to avoid relegation this season. Thank you everyone.

Following Hagi Begic's statement about "striving to avoid relegation," Bastia then secured a resounding away victory against Reims.

Gaião and Lukaku both scored twice, while Mane added another goal. De Bruyne provided a hat-trick of assists.

Reims suffered a humiliating 1-5 home defeat to Bastia!
This kind of night made the whole of Bastia incredibly excited—

"Beautiful! With that kind of attacking combination tonight, I think if we really faced Tottenham, we wouldn't be completely without a chance!"

"Gaio is still strong. Any wing defender with slightly weaker defensive ability can basically be passed by him like a road."

This is also our advantage, because whenever we face Gaio, we have to strengthen our defense on the flanks, which naturally weakens their attacks down the flanks.

Our strength has always been central defense, and tonight our new signing Virgil van Dijk also showed good defensive ability. I think we have a chance to beat Tottenham!

"Look, Bale and Gaio will definitely go head-to-head, after all, one is a right winger and the other is a left winger. I'm already looking forward to Gaio and Bale going toe-to-toe!"

"They're all supercars on the sidelines, it's just a matter of who's faster."

A match against Reims has completely rekindled the confidence of Bastia fans in the Europa League knockout stage.

And the next two matches in January.

This made Bastia fans feel the team's unprecedented strength!
In the 21st round, Bastia defeated Rennes 2-0 at home, keeping a clean sheet.

In the 22nd round, Bastia won 3-0 away against Saint-Étienne, keeping a clean sheet.

Three consecutive league wins in the new year!
And they all delivered dominant performances.

The performances of Van Dijk and Darmian, in particular, brought immense joy to Bastia fans.

Especially Van Dijk!

He displayed exceptional physical talent, possessing top-tier physical attributes. His height of nearly 1.93 meters and strong physique gave him a natural advantage in the air and in combat.

For such a tall center-back, his recovery speed and explosiveness are extremely rare, which allows him to rely on his speed to defuse dangerous situations when the defensive line pushes forward or when the opponent attacks behind the defense.

In one-on-one confrontations, whether in the air or on the ground, his strength makes it difficult for most forwards to gain an advantage.

He likes to take the initiative to intercept the ball, using his physical advantages and anticipation to block the ball's trajectory or cleanly tackle the opponent.

Although he still lacks in positional awareness, experience, and passing ability, these three games have already shown his talent as a center-back.

Another one is Damian.

It's also a modeled monster!

With top-notch physical gifts, such as height, wingspan, and reflexes, he is no wonder Arsenal considers him a player worth developing in the long term.

Of course, his extreme lack of first-team experience also led to his immature and unstable performance in actual matches, accompanied by obvious technical errors and decision-making mistakes.

However, the opponents haven't been able to punish him yet, which has allowed him to gradually integrate into Bastia's defensive system.

Throughout January, Bastia won all three league matches, and everything was steadily improving.

This made Chatham extremely excited.

These two signings in the winter transfer window were another gamble that paid off!

Chatham immediately told Gaio, "I think after you retire, you could totally be a sports director. You have such great vision!"

With all the matches in January now over.

The winter transfer window also officially closed at midnight on February 1st. Among all of Ligue 1, only Paris Saint-Germain made the biggest moves.

The deal to bring in Lucas Moura from São Paulo for 40 million euros was reached in the summer of 2012, but he officially joined the club in January 2013, becoming the world's most expensive signing in the winter transfer window.

Another one is Beckham.

In addition, due to intense competition for strike positions at Paris Saint-Germain, French striker Valero transferred to the Chinese Super League, joining Dalian Aerbin.

Apart from Paris Saint-Germain, the total expenditure of Ligue 1 was only about 10 million euros. Most clubs adopted a contraction strategy to cope with economic pressure, basically selling players instead of buying them.

In addition, there is another event that has a great impact on French Ligue 1 teams – the Africa Cup of Nations!

French Ligue 1 has always been most affected by the Africa Cup of Nations, and this year's competition is no exception.

According to French media statistics, 39 players in this Africa Cup of Nations come from the French Ligue 1.

Judging from the situation of the players' clubs, the mid-to-lower-tier teams are more affected than the top teams, because the African national team players called up by the three French Ligue 1 powerhouses, Paris Saint-Germain, Bastia and Marseille, are not regular starters.

Bastia only has Mane participating in the Africa Cup of Nations.

But for lower-ranked teams that rely on African players, the Africa Cup of Nations was a devastating blow.

For example, Ajaccio and Evian, both in the relegation zone, each had five players called up, which greatly affected their efforts to avoid relegation.

As Bastia's arch-rival, Ajaccio has always favored bringing in African players because they are cheap and effective.

This time, they suffered a backlash, as all five players called up by Ajaccio were key players.

It continued until February.

The media's prediction that Bastia would collapse in the second half of the season has not yet come true.

On the contrary, Paris Saint-Germain is falling further and further behind Bastia in the standings.

While Bastia were on a three-game winning streak, Paris Saint-Germain had two wins and one loss.

They were already down by four points, and now they're down by as many as seven.

Ancelotti remained calm, telling reporters that everything was under control, there were still 16 league matches left, and it was far from over. Paris's focus was now on the Champions League.

There is a wide variety of news and discussions from the outside world.

On February 4th, Gaio entered the tranquil Clairefontaine.

On February 6th, the French team has an A-level match – a friendly against the German team.

This is the second time France and Germany have faced off since the European Championship last year.

During the European Championship, France was thrashed 3-0 by Germany due to Gaio's injury.

This time,
France has a complete squad, and both Deschamps and the French players have only one goal.

revenge!

(End of this chapter)