Chapter 164: Slap the Golden Boy Award in the face, an invitation from the most authoritative media!
Chen Xiaoliang opened the envelope and found an invitation letter with gold letters on a black background on one side and gold letters on a white background on the other side.
"2021 Golden Globe Awards Ceremony" was written in gold letters on a black background.
He turned it over and looked carefully at the specific contents on the white side:
“Dear Mr. Chen Xiaoliang:
We sincerely invite you to attend the 2021 Golden Globe Awards ceremony at the Chatelet Theatre in Paris, France on November 30, 2021, and to participate in the selection of the 2021 Kopa Award as a candidate for the award.
Editions Philippe Amaury Publishing Group, L'Equipe - France Football
Looking at Chen Xiaoliang's stunned expression, Mourinho smiled and took out another invitation.
It’s from Turin Sports Daily. The content is similar when you open it, and it’s also a beautifully made card.
Tuttosport also selects its own Ballon d'Or every year, but because this newspaper is very biased and is regarded as the mouthpiece of Juventus, their customer base is mainly supporters of both Juventus and Torino. This also makes it completely incomparable to L'Equipe in terms of authority and influence .
The latter was founded in 1900 and is recognized as one of the most influential and authoritative sports daily in the world and in Europe. France Football is its biweekly magazine. The magazine founded the Golden Ball Award in 1956, which is now regarded as the highest individual honor in football.
However, in the selection of players under 21 years old, the European Golden Boy Award, which was established in 2003, was established earlier and has become more famous.
It was not until 2018 that France Football established the Kopa Award, which is also for players under 21 years old. It was named after Raymond Kopa, the first French player to win the Ballon d'Or.
Mourinho: "If the Ballon d'Or and the Golden Boy are judged by those journalists, the Kopa Award is more interesting. Their judges are all living former Ballon d'Or winners. At least they are people who really understand football and they will not vote for a few bucks. Although some of them will still vote for people who are similar to themselves, it is at least much better than those journalists who know nothing.
So, are you going to participate in both awards?"
Chen Xiaoliang was stunned for a moment and asked, "Coach, are you going?"
Mourinho: "I received all the invitations, but I didn't go to any of them. There were a lot of matches in those days. Plus, some people didn't want to see me, and I didn't want to see them either, so I didn't go and cause trouble for others."
Chen Xiaoliang: "What will happen if I don't go?"
Mourinho shrugged: "You confronted the female reporter. According to my understanding of the Turin people, in this case, they would rather give the Golden Boy Award to a Spaniard than to a young man from a rival club in their country.
Similarly, if the Ballon d'Or is finally awarded to Messi, the people of Turin will definitely give their own Turin Sports Ballon d'Or to Lewandowski.
Then they can make a big news in the newspaper, saying that the French have already been chosen for the Ballon d'Or, and then criticize them.
But for the Kopa Trophy, I suggest you participate. After all, we are all public figures in our profession. It won't hurt for you to show your face at the top football events. The boss will also be very happy that Roma has produced a player who can participate in the Ballon d'Or. "
Mourinho's choice was exactly what Chen Xiaoliang thought.
Chen Xiaoliang felt nauseous when he thought about going to Turin to attend the Golden Boy Awards ceremony and seeing Portman.
"Then I'll listen to you." Chen Xiaoliang answered respectfully.
"You kid, you obviously think so in your heart, but you can tell others that I didn't let you go. You are smart." Mourinho picked up the invitation letter and pointed at Chen Xiaoliang. "Then I will let the club reply to them."
"Fuck, you figured this out. You really have a keen eye."
"Don't give me that." Although Mourinho said this, he was already very happy in his heart when facing Chen Xiaoliang's flattery.
"By the way, prepare a formal suit. You can't wear a jersey to the award ceremony."
"Okay!" Chen Xiaoliang left Mourinho's office with the invitation letter.
In the following days, the team's training atmosphere was relatively relaxed. Since the national team members had left the team to participate in international competitions, Mourinho did not do too much tactical training. There were more small-scale coordination exercises and intra-team competitions.
Due to the shortage of people, Mourinho transferred a lot of players from the youth team to play together with the first team.
In the eyes of these young players, Chen Xiaoliang's defense was like an iron wall. Mourinho did not stop him and allowed these young players to take turns challenging Chen Xiaoliang in the confrontation to see who could pass him and then shoot.
It was not until later that the first-team players also joined the activity.
But unfortunately, after an afternoon, no one succeeded in the challenge.
After returning home every afternoon, Chen Xiaoliang would go out for an hour's jog with Erica. Her knee has almost recovered.
And because of her growing worldwide popularity after the Tokyo Olympics, the Roma club also hired her as the team's part-time physical coach, just like Dortmund in the Bundesliga. Erica happily accepted this identity in order to thank the Roma club's team doctor for providing her with treatment and rehabilitation training.
On November 13, Chen Xiaoliang also went to the Italian national team's home stadium, the Olympic Stadium, which is also the home stadium of Roma and Lazio, to watch the match between Italy and Switzerland. In the end, Jorginho missed the penalty kick and the two sides drew 1-1.
Teammate Cristante came on as a substitute in the 69th minute, while Mancini sat on the bench throughout.
Compared to the somewhat boring game, the director gave the camera to Chen Xiaoliang .
In order to avoid gossip magazines' exaggerated remarks, Chen Xiaoliang deliberately separated David and his son between the three people.
Little David and Erica spent the entire game arguing about which team was stronger, Germany or France. They couldn't come to a conclusion after discussing the entire game and repeatedly asked Chen Xiaoliang to judge.
However, the two Scots and the Germans agreed on one point, that is, the England team is a pile of shit!
After November 15, the players who participated in the international competitions returned one after another, and the young players of the youth training team gradually faded out of the training of the first team.
On November 18, after everyone had gathered in good health, Mourinho started a new tactical arrangement.
He began to let Veretout and Cristante play as double defensive midfielders in the team's internal confrontations, and moved Chen Xiaoliang to the central midfield position.
However, he called Chen Xiaoliang to his office for detailed discussion beforehand.
Mourinho told Chen Xiaoliang that his arrangement had two considerations.
In the near future, ignoring the Golden Boy Award which will be drawn on the 23rd and which Chen Xiaoliang will definitely not attend, the Copa Award is about to be awarded and the judges' votes will be determined on the 27th.
Chen Xiaoliang's biggest competitor Pedri has just started recovery training and may not be able to play until January next year, so the league away game against Genoa on the 22nd and the Europa League group match against Vitesse at home on the 25th will become Chen Xiaoliang's last performance opportunities before the votes come out.
In terms of the odds for the Golden Boy Award, Chen Xiaoliang's odds have been falling almost every day since he rejected Portman. Currently, Pedri's odds have reached 2, while Chen Xiaoliang and Bellingham are 6.5 and 9 respectively, which means that there is no suspense about the Golden Boy Award anymore.
Although Turin Sports Daily did not say anything, several Italian sports reporters who had no previous contact with Chen Xiaoliang frequently spoke out during the international competition cycle, questioning Chen Xiaoliang's achievements.
The arguments are nothing more than those few things. The results in the Scottish Premier League cannot prove anything, and cannot be compared with the data achieved by Pedri and Bellingham in La Liga and the Bundesliga.
His outstanding performance in Serie A in the past few months is only because his opponents are not familiar with him and do not take him seriously.
The long-range shot against Lazio was obviously a fluke, and the free kick against Milan was also a fluke.
Things like this, to put it bluntly, are just slander.
Mourinho and Chen Xiaoliang knew without having to think that these people were just recruits hired by Portman using her network of connections.
Last week, the Kopa Trophy also announced the final 10 candidates:
Paris Saint-Germain left-back, Nuno Mendes, 19 years old (Portugal)
Bayern Munich midfielder, Jamal Musiala, 18 years old (Germany)
Barcelona midfielder, Pedro González López, aka Pedri, 19 years old (Spain)
Jude Bellingham, Borussia Dortmund midfielder, 18 years old (England)
Manchester United striker, Mason Greenwood, 20 years old (England)
Arsenal midfielder, Bukayo Saka, 20 years old (England)
Leverkusen midfielder, Florian Wirtz, 18 years old (Germany)
Ajax midfielder, Ryan Gravenberch, 19 years old (Netherlands)
Rennes striker, Jérémie Doku, 19 years old (Belgium)
Roma midfielder, Chen Xiaoliang, 17 years old (Red Country)
Since each vote for the Copa Award can be cast for three people with scores of 5, 3, and 1 respectively, and most of the living Ballon d'Or winners are from traditional football powerhouses, the probability that they will give priority to their compatriots or teammates is very high.
But at the same time, since the votes will eventually be made public by France Football, a certain degree of objectivity is required. Therefore, Mourinho estimates that German Ballon d'Or legends such as Matthäus, Sammer and Beckenbauer, who are also legends of Bayern and Dortmund, will almost certainly vote first for Musiala and Wirtz.
Similarly, Ronaldo and Figo will also vote for Nuno Mendes.
This is not because the judges are unfair, but after the ballots are made public, if the fans of the team find that their legend did not vote for their player, it will cause certain negative public opinion on the Internet.
Nowadays, even a Ballon d'Or legend doesn't want to attract unnecessary online violence, unless the performance gap between the candidates is too obvious, so obvious that even their own fans think that their competitors performed better.
So Mourinho judged that Chen Xiaoliang might get a lot of 2nd and 3rd places.
In the next two games, he will play as an all-around midfielder and participate more in the offense in order to allow Chen Xiaoliang to perform better.
Going further back, the team has basically completed the transfers of three defensive players in the winter window.
In Mourinho's plan, after the winter break, the team's defensive midfielder configuration in the second half of the season will be Cristante and Veretout to take turns with Matic, and letting Chen Xiaoliang play as an all-around midfielder is also to give him more freedom.
The entire coaching staff is unanimous in this regard.
In the defensive midfielder position, Chen Xiaoliang has to undertake a lot of frontal defensive tasks and cannot easily lose his position. Therefore, his crossing ability cannot be fully utilized in many cases. Similarly, being responsible for defending behind in set-piece attacks also prevents him from using his excellent heading ability to join in direct attacks.
Similarly, the configuration of double defensive midfielders actually limits Chen Xiaoliang's freedom. The presence of the defensive midfielder on the other side often becomes the opponent's main offensive target, and in the end Chen Xiaoliang still has to cover him to assist in defense.
It would be better to place him in the middle of the midfield, and while ensuring the defense of the defensive midfielder, move Chen Xiaoliang's defensive coverage area forward to the center circle, improve the midfield's pressing ability, and further develop Chen Xiaoliang's unparalleled running ability.
In short, assigning this position to Chen Xiaoliang is equivalent to giving Chen Xiaoliang complete tactical freedom, and also thoroughly establishes his tactical position as the core of the team.
In the team confrontation, this tactical arrangement also achieved good results. Chen Xiaoliang's forward position not only did not weaken the defensive ability of the defensive midfielder, but instead became another barrier in front of the two defensive midfielders.
In attack, he can freely decide whether to advance to the header or to cross the ball from the wing. The team's offense also shows signs of being revitalized, especially the offense launched from the wing. In team training, Cesco frequently received crosses from Chen Xiaoliang, making the substitute defenders Kumbulla and Trippi who were defending him embarrassed.
But in the final analysis, training is always training, and it still needs to rely on competition to put it into practice.
On November 20, the team assembled and set off for Genoa, preparing to challenge Genoa away on the 22nd.
For a full 12 days, 3 hours of team training and 2 hours of extra training every day earned Chen Xiaoliang 60 hours of training value.
Training value 16 → 76
In order to better cope with the new position, Chen Xiaoliang struggled for a long time and used 60 training points to add 3 points to the passing attribute.
Pass 10 → 13
Training value 76 → 16
At 21:00 on November 22, 2022, at the Luigi Ferraris Stadium, 34,901 tickets were sold out early.
Many Italian scalpers were selling tickets at high prices outside the stadium.
They are surrounded by police officers who are maintaining order.
One hour before the game, when the starting lineups of both teams were announced, the fans and media became collectively excited as if they had discovered something incredible.
Chen Xiaoliang, whose data has been repeatedly questioned on the Internet recently, unexpectedly left the defensive midfielder position.
Behind him were the double defensive midfielders of Cristante and Veretout, and on his left and right were the wingback combination of Zalewski and Karsdorp.
The three central defenders are still Ibanez, Smalling and Mancini.
The forwards are still Abraham and Cesco.
What shocked the fans even more was that the letter C, symbolizing captain, was printed on the starting lineup, next to Chen Xiaoliang's No. 33 jersey.
For a while , headlines such as "Magic Bird supports the Red National Railway and fights back against reporters' doubts", "Roma changes its formation, the captain is replaced, Chen Xiaoliang moves forward, what is Mourinho's intention?", "The captain is replaced for no reason, following Madrid, London, Manchester, the drama of finding the insider is staged in Rome 4.0 version?" and so on were widely circulated on the Internet.
Compared to the reservations of many local Roma fans, the Red Country fans were very excited. In their eyes, Pellegrini should have given way long ago. Although there were some doubting voices, worrying that Chen Xiaoliang's dribbling and ball control might not be able to suit this position, they were quickly overwhelmed by the expectant voices.
You know, the fans who are going to watch this game at 3:45 am in the Red Country are all going to see Chen Xiaoliang.
When both sides walked out of the player tunnel, Chen Xiaoliang, who was originally standing at the end, walked first with the team flag in his hand, and behind him was still the vice-captain Mancini.
And the final position became Cesco.
Without any incident, the game started on time at 21:45 local time in Italy.
Cesco kicked off from the center circle and passed the ball back to Chen Xiaoliang, who passed it to Zalewski to the left without stopping the ball.
The Polish teenager started the game by running wildly.
Genoa, who also plays a 3-5-2 formation, has a team value of less than 60 million euros and currently ranks 17th with 9 points.
Coincidentally, the points and position are exactly the same as those of the Venetians before the previous round.
But today Mourinho fielded a full lineup of main players, and there could be no mistakes in the result.
Genoa's 28-year-old right wingback Sabelli was overtaken by Zalewski before he could react.
In the middle, Abraham, Cesco and Chen Xiaoliang joined in together.
Genoa's right center back Bilaschi had to defend in the penalty area, and Zalewski now had a wide passing space on the left side of the penalty area.
It was too fast! Genoa didn't expect Roma to rush into the penalty area without any foreplay!
How can this be possible!
While Genoa's two defensive midfielders had just chased back to the penalty area line, Zalewski made a low cross, and Abraham suddenly sprinted and shot on the ground!
Italy's national team's veteran goalkeeper Sirigu tried his best to block the ball, even colliding with Abraham and falling to the ground to dive for the ball.
The two of them really collided! The ball that flew up was hit by Sirigu's fist and flew out of the penalty area.
Chen Xiaoliang followed up and overpowered the opponent's Croatian midfielder Badelj, jumped up and headed the ball towards Cesco on the right!
Cesco understood what he meant, ran back forward and headed the ball!
The ball goes in!
0 to 1!
Genoa's defenders raised their hands collectively, indicating that Cesco was offside!
The referee of this game did not dare to be careless, because the referees of Roma's previous two games were found to have made major mistakes in the game after the game by the league committee. The reason was that they mistakenly awarded a penalty to Roma's opponent and were "severely punished" to referee two rounds of games in the Serie B.
The Roman media, led by Corriere dello Sport, criticized the Serie A organizing committee, and fans also left messages online criticizing the fairness of the league.
Therefore, in order to calm things down, the referee of this game must be absolutely fair.
Less than a minute into the game, he ran to the VAR, listening to the opinions of the video referee team while watching the game back and forth.
The referee felt painful because judging from the perspective of "body hair offside", Cesco's ball was indeed offside.
The 0.1 second at which the offside line is drawn becomes very important.
If the goal counts, Roma will be attacked by fans and newspapers from other places after the game. If the goal doesn't count, Roma will definitely make the matter worse.
After hesitating for a long time, the referee finally made up his mind and said that the goal was valid!
Genoa fans booed collectively, while the Roma players finally hugged each other to celebrate!
Barrage:
[Magic Bird is awesome! Chen Xiaoliang is awesome! ]
[I'm in now? I feel so relaxed]
[Nonsense, this is Chen Xiaoliang. If Pellegrini were in this position, he would definitely shoot you a cannon. Pass the ball? No, I am the absolute core of Roma No. 7. How can I pass the ball?]
[The total value of Genoa's starting lineup is only 33.2 million euros. Badelj, who defends Chen Xiaoliang, is worth 1 million euros, which is not as good as one of Chen Xiaoliang's toes... Sabelli, who defends Zalewski, is worth 1.5 million euros. If it is not easy to play against such a relegation favorite, then don't even bother shouting the slogan of winning the championship.]
[In this regard, Serie A is far inferior to the Premier League. The Premier League leader may be overturned if they play at the bottom of the pound.]
[Who said it was inferior? You see, the referee will help you in a moment]
