Chapter 239: How can just one championship be enough?
As soon as the whistle sounded, the players on the Roma bench rushed into the field like a tide, and the Roma fans in the stands were even more crazy and intoxicated.
On the Milan side of the stands, many people could not believe what happened tonight, and some older fans could not help but recall the even more bitter night 17 years ago.
The difference is, there wasn't even a penalty this time.
The camera turned to the sidelines. The golden Italian Cup had already been placed at the exit of the player tunnel, and more than a dozen staff members had entered the stadium and began to set up the podium.
The Roma team anthem was played at the Olympic Stadium, and all the Roma fans began to sing along with the music, shoulder to shoulder, hand in hand with fans they knew or didn't know, together:
"Rome, Rome, Rome!"
"The soul of the ancient city is immortal!"
"We love you!"
"With a sincere heart."
"I'll be with you all the way!"
The camera then turned to the famous players who were present at the scene in 2007-08, the last time they represented Roma to win the Italian Cup.
Totti, Mexes, Perrotta...
That year, they won the Italian Cup for the eighth time in the 2006-07 season, and retained the title. However, no one would have thought that it would take 14 years between the ninth and tenth titles.
Then the director on the scene scanned the camera one by one and paid tribute to those players who had played for Roma.
Giannini, De Rossi, Riise, Cafu, Montella, Bruno Conte, and even Ancelotti.
Many young fans were surprised and thought that the camera was turning to Ancelotti to mock him for once being the head coach of Milan and being defeated by his opponent in a final after leading by three goals in one night.
In fact, when Ancelotti was a player, after leaving the youth training team Parma, he transferred to Roma in 1979 and stayed there until 1987. During this period, he won four Italian Cup titles, reached the Champions League final once, and was also a core member of Roma's second Serie A title in team history.
And the position he plays is midfield.
Fortunately, as the head coach of Real Madrid and having led the team to the final of this season's Champions League, he will not be troubled by his past players and coaching experiences in Roma and AC Milan. Instead, Maldini, as the director of Milan, can only awkwardly accept the comfort of the people around him.
But Ancelotti was not idle either. He sent a text message to the club's board secretary Enrique Sanchez, which was concise and to the point: "We should prioritize buying this red countryman before Joan Armeni."
Soon, the Italian Football Association staff began to guide the players of both teams back to the bench to prepare, because the award ceremony was about to begin.
The Roma players lined up in two rows outside the circular podium. AC Milan, the runner-up, walked onto the podium first under the line of Roma players. Although they looked reluctant, they still accepted the runner-up medals from the hands of Football Association President Gravina, then hurried down the podium with their heads down.
Many Milan fans have already started to leave the stadium, while the red and yellow Roman elements are constantly rising and falling in the Olympic Stadium like surging waves.
After the runner-up award was presented, the champion award was presented. Every time a Roma player came up, the on-site director read out his name loudly, and the fans responded with enthusiastic cheers.
Leading the way was Patricio, who blocked several of Milan's determined attacks today.
Although he has won the European Cup and the UEFA Nations League with Portugal, this is his first championship in the top five leagues at the club level.
Then Pellegrini, Mancini and other players who have been in the team for a long time came on stage one by one.
Players who played less frequently, such as Wu Lei, Carles Perez and Kumbulla, were ranked in the middle.
Players like Malaysia, Cesco, Abraham, etc. who performed well but were in their first year with the team were at the end of the list to receive the award.
Of course, two crucial figures who also came to the club in their first year, Mourinho and Chen Xiaoliang, were ranked last.
Chen Xiaoliang originally insisted that Mourinho, as the head coach, receive the trophy from Italian Football Association President Gravina and lead the team in celebrating, but Mourinho refused to accept it.
In the noisy environment, he hugged Chen Xiaoliang's neck and said: "You fought hard for the championship, and you should lift it."
Soon, a huge announcement was heard at the scene: "Head Coach! Jose Mourinho!!!"
"oh!!!!!!"
The fans responded with the warmest cheers. After putting on the medal, Mourinho raised his hand towards the stands, extended his right index finger, and made a "1" gesture.
Comment:
What does this mean?
【Return to the first championship in Serie A? 】
[No way, he has won so many championships, why would he care about a cup? Should I say he is still the world's number one head coach?]
[I will still show the car once, but now the birds are not so arrogant. I think it means that Roma fans are the best fans.]
…
Every move of this character coach on and off the field can always stir up discussions among fans.
However, before they could come to a conclusion, the director's voice came up again: "Chen! Xiao! Liang!"
"Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh!"
The whole audience began to sing along in a regular rhythm, cheering and looking forward to the toast moment that was about to come!
After Chen Xiaoliang took the gold-plated trophy, he walked to the center surrounded by his teammates. The players raised their hands one after another and then slowly lowered them.
The whole audience suddenly fell silent.
Suddenly, Chen Xiaoliang raised the trophy up, and the audience burst into cheers!
"yeah!!!!!"
Abraham and Zaniolo on both sides of the crowd, like two clowns, had already accepted the champagne provided by the sponsor. At the moment when everyone was cheering, they stopped shaking the bottles violently, and left a gap with their thumbs pressing on the bottle mouth. The carbonated wine instantly sprayed out from the bottle mouth, pouring on the Roma players and Mourinho who were celebrating!
Mourinho wiped the champagne off his face with his hand, walked down the podium silently, and returned to his coaching colleagues standing nearby.
Fitness coaches Lapetti and Carlos Larin, goalkeeping coach Nuno Santos, analysts Giovanni Serra and Michele Salzarullo, these five people are old partners who have followed him for several years or even more than ten years.
Mourinho thanked them one by one with hugs.
When the camera was pointed at his face, his eyes were clearly red and sparkling.
He Wei: "No matter how the journey has been, no matter how many labels we have been given, tonight we still have to say thank you to Mourinho."
"From Porto's dream title win to Chelsea's rapid progress, Inter Milan's treble, Real Madrid's national derby and century showdown, to Manchester United and Tottenham's disappointing departures, he has brought too many stories and too many memories to world football in the past 20 years."
"And these 20 years have also left him with a head full of white hair."
"Many people said when he joined Roma that this was a sign that Mourinho, who was approaching 60 years old, was beginning to decline, and that no top team was willing to hire him as a coach."
"But in any case, at this moment Roma has used the championship to prove to the world that they are on the right track."
"Perhaps they will understand what Maupassant said: life may not be as good as you imagine, but it will not be as bad as you imagine. People's fragility and strength are beyond one's imagination. Sometimes, a fragile word may make you burst into tears, and sometimes you find that you have walked a long way by gritting your teeth."
"Let us congratulate Mourinho, Roma and, of course, AC Milan is also a team that deserves respect tonight."
"Thank you for watching the live broadcast of the Italian Cup final tonight, viewers, see you next time!"
After winning the championship, the Roma players walked around the field to thank the fans. Although there were still two rounds of league games and the Europa Cup final to play, the club still arranged for the players' families to come to the scene in advance to share this happy moment with the players after winning the championship.
In addition to Helena, Chen Xiaoliang also specially invited David and his son to join him, and made a video call with his parents at the celebration site, even though it was already past midnight and dawn was almost approaching.
After a while of fun, everyone returned to the locker room and Mourinho gave a brief speech.
In addition to thanking the players for their great comeback tonight, he also emphasized the team's improvement in spirit throughout the season.
However, the season is not over yet, there are still three games, and each one is no less important than tonight's game.
On the night of the 14th they will face Venice at home. Although they are at the bottom of the league, they are only 2 points behind Cagliari, which is 17th, so they still have hope of staying in the league.
At the same time, Milan's game will start on the evening of the 15th, and they will have one more day of rest than Roma. This will also allow them to be better prepared for the last two rounds of the league as they know Roma's results in advance.
Mourinho knew his players were tired, but so were their opponents.
As long as this league game is over, they will have plenty of rest time.
After winning the championship, the players were in high spirits and shouted that they would definitely fight for the triple crown!
When he got home that day, Chen Xiaoliang fell asleep without even taking a shower. When he got up the next day, the soreness in his lower limbs still made him feel the aftermath of this extra-long overtime game.
However, after turning on his mobile phone, the reports about the final still made him very happy.
He scored a hat trick in 7 minutes and provided a winning assist in overtime. He undoubtedly received a full score of 10 and was elected the best player of the game.
In just one game, he was rewarded with 18 skill points, and for the first time, he received a skill card (one game) by performing a hat trick in a cup match.
Skill value 51 → 69
Chen Xiaoliang checked and found that the function of this card is to enable him to master any skill that he does not know in any game. Of course, like the star card, it can also be used as a material card to increase attributes by more than 18 points.
Thinking of this, he clicked on the reward panel of the superstar mission again.
[Superstar Mission: Win 5 aerial duels with Zlatan Ibrahimovic]
[Task progress: 5/5]
[Mission Reward: Zlatan Ibrahimovic Skill Training Package]
[Obtain training package: Skilled in high-difficulty shooting, 33 points of training]
Only then did Chen Xiaoliang realize that the superstar's skill training package was actually useful for accelerating the learning of a skill that the other person was good at.
[Good at difficult shots] Naturally, this includes Ibrahimovic's overhead kicks, side hooks, scorpion kicks, and the amazing overhead kick 40 meters away from the goal outside the penalty area that made Joe Hart suffer for the rest of his life. With this skill, one can perform this difficult shot without reducing his own shooting ability.
However, Chen Xiaoliang thought about it and realized that he was only good at long-range shooting at present, so he might as well save it for later when his ordinary shooting ability improved before using this training package.
The system is still flashing.
Yes, it’s a mission for wealthy families.
[Exclusive mission: Win against the giants]
[Task Reward: Randomly obtain a legendary football star card of this wealthy club (five minutes)]
[Task progress: Defeat AC Milan (May 11, 2022)]
He silently clicked to get the reward!
[Mission Reward: Obtain a peak Filippo Inzaghi goal-scoring attribute card (five minutes)]
Looking at this card, he thought of the scene of using Kaka's card to defeat AC Milan last night.
It feels so good to treat others as they would like to be treated.
Even today's Milan fan community exploded. Not only did they make fun of themselves, but fans of many other clubs also flocked to the social account of Zhongyang TV Sports Channel's World Football, strongly demanding that they produce another inventory of the final reversal.
However, just when Chen Xiaoliang thought it was over, he found that the system was still flashing.
[The achievement of being worth 70 million euros has been achieved]
[Achievement Reward: Leadership +2]
Leadership 15→17
[The achievement of 80 million euros has been achieved]
[Achievement Reward: Stress Resistance +2]
Stress resistance 15→17
What?! His value has exceeded 80 million euros?!
Chen Xiaoliang quickly used his mobile phone to open the German "Transfer Market", and sure enough, his value, which had risen to 68 million after winning the Kopa Award more than two months ago, was now 85 million euros!
This figure is already on par with Tottenham's Asian superstar Son Heung-min! In addition, Manchester United's Portuguese star Bruno Fernandez is also worth the same.
However, in the ranking of all midfielders, he is still behind Pedri of Barcelona, Musiala of Bayern Munich, Bellingham of Dortmund, and Phil Foden and De Bruyne of Manchester City.
The five midfielders are all worth 90 million euros.
Behind Chen Xiaoliang are Gavi from Barcelona, Valverde from Real Madrid, Rodri and Bernardo Silva from Manchester City, Rice from West Ham United, Kimmich from Bayern Munich and others, whose market value is 80 million euros.
Because the Premier League is extremely prosperous and the league roster must include 8 players who have been in a local club in England or Wales for 36 months (cumulative) before the age of 21, outstanding local English players will receive special attention from Premier League giants, which is why the household registration book came into being.
Putting aside the household registration factor, the players at the top of the market value list are all from top clubs in each league.
Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern, Manchester City, Manchester United, the halo bonus and platform added value of these giants make their players receive far more attention and traffic in all aspects than players of similar level in other teams. Both fans and the media are more likely to see their outstanding performances, and their value will naturally rise.
But for Chen Xiaoliang, this thing is just a way to get rewards by accomplishing something.
At least he will not leave Rome until he reaches the highest level of club competitions and competes with top teams and top stars.
Soon, two days passed in a flash, and Chen Xiaoliang still did not participate in high-intensity training. In addition to low-intensity tactical targeted training, he did some simple aerobic recovery exercises.
At 19:45 on the evening of May 14, he led the team once again into the Rome Olympic Stadium to face Venice in the 37th round of the league!
