Champion, Oh Wey, Champion, Oh Wey!
Oh Wey, Oh Wey, Oh Wey~!
The Roma fans at the scene were reluctant to leave for a long time, and even some Manchester City fans stayed and filmed the Roma players' celebrations with their mobile phones.
Dan Friedkin certainly would not miss such an opportunity to meet European celebrities. Having not appeared in Rome for a long time, he flew to Istanbul today. While watching the game, he was discussing the transfer and contract renewal matters in the summer window with his son Ryan Friedkin and Pinto.
Of course they want to keep Chen Xiaoliang and Mourinho, but there are two problems now:
Firstly, if the two stay, they will need to renew their contracts, which will inevitably lead to a substantial salary increase, because the conditions offered by other clubs can no longer be simply described as generous. In Serie A, a weekly salary of more than 400,000 euros can only be described as outrageous. Only when Cristiano Ronaldo transferred to Juventus did he reach this standard, when his weekly salary was about 600,000 euros.
But at that time, Ronaldo "came" to Italy as a five-time Champions League winner and five-time Ballon d'Or winner. Although there was the factor of inflation involved, Dan Friedkin still believed that he could not match the annual salary offered to Chen Xiaoliang by clubs such as Paris Saint-Germain, Manchester City and Manchester United.
At the same time, Mourinho's current annual salary is 7 million euros. Among all the current Serie A coaches, he and Allegri are tied for first place in annual salary. According to the conditions set by Mourinho's super agent Mendes, it needs to reach 12 million euros, plus various bonus clauses, the total amount will exceed 15 million euros.
This condition seems much better than the offer Chen Xiaoliang received, but the Friedkin father and son believe that Roma can win the Serie A championship no matter which head coach they choose, even if Forti is the coach, so why must they renew Mourinho's contract with a high salary?
What's more, in the previous conflict between Chen Xiaoliang and the management, Mourinho sided with the players and put pressure on the club. The boss always dislikes such disobedient employees.
These are not the worst, the real deadlock is the second point.
Last season's Serie A, Italian Cup and UEFA Cup treble helped the club turn losses into profits in 2022, and this season's treble will undoubtedly significantly increase the club's profitability.
Dan Friedkin believes that the purpose of his investment in the club has been achieved, and it is time for the club to "give back" to its own poor car business.
In principle, he could accept the club's increased spending to renew the contracts of Chen Xiaoliang and Mourinho, but he had to sell a few people to raise funds and set them aside in the directors' dividends at the end of the year.
But after Roma sold Enzo, the only players whose value has skyrocketed, who are young and have potential, and who outside teams are willing to spend money on are Kova and Cesco.
Gvardiol and Perrone are on loan, especially Gvardiol. After winning the Champions League, RB Leipzig has set a price of 100 million euros for the Croatian central defender.
Pinto's idea is to receive a transfer fee of about 200 million euros from the two players, 120 million for Kwa and around 80 million for Cesco.
With this money, the boss's dividend requirements can be met, Chen Xiaoliang and Mourinho's contracts can be renewed, and there will also be enough transfer funds for Riise to recruit a few new players, train them for two years, and then sell them after their performance has increased several times.
In this way, Riise can also earn a lot of commissions by operating these transfers.
Pinto thought it was a great plan to kill three birds with one stone, but in the end he failed miserably against Riise.
He is not an agent like Raiola or Pimenta. He prefers players to develop in a high-quality club in a long-term and stable manner. After witnessing the success of Chen Xiaoliang and the extremely unfavorable situation after Enzo, who he personally arranged for to transfer to Chelsea in the winter window this season, Riise has become more convinced of this view.
Too early and too frequent transfers are not conducive to the players' performance in most cases. Once a player fails because of changing to the wrong team, the agent's behavior is tantamount to forcing growth and killing the goose that lays the golden eggs.
What's more, Cesco and Kwa themselves didn't want to leave.
They both know how capable they are, and especially after experiencing the baptism of the Champions League final, they are more aware of how big the gap is. The so-called little Haaland is at least 54,000 miles away from the real Haaland.
Then, a strange thing happened.
Cesco, Kva and even all the players in the team want the club to keep Chen Xiaoliang.
Chen Xiaoliang asked Riise to tell Pinto that staying in Rome has always been one of his options, but the team must retain the championship team to ensure that it can continue to challenge for honors next season.
Pinto also wanted to keep Chen Xiaoliang, but he had to sell Cesco and Kwa as required by his boss.
As long as the club wants to sell the championship team, Chen Xiaoliang is unwilling to negotiate a contract extension with the club.
So, things quickly fell through.
The group flew back to Rome the next morning.
When the plane flew over the city and prepared to land at the airport, the players were surprised to see that the area around the airport was packed with fans.
The city hall and the club have prepared a championship bus , and in the evening, all the players and coaches will appear at the Rome Olympic Stadium to show the Treble trophy to all the fans.
But the spectacle of 300,000 people pouring into the streets was beyond the expectations of the club.
When the plane landed, the city hall sent out two fire trucks to spray water to welcome the triumphant return of the Roman heroes.
The plane door opened and Chen Xiaoliang was the first to step out. Holding the Champions League trophy in his hand, he waved to all the waiting reporters and then walked down the gangway.
Behind him were vice-captain Mancini and third captain Dybala, both holding the Serie A and Italian Cup trophies respectively, and behind them were other players and coaching staff.
Except for the post-processing staff, everyone who stepped down the gangway boarded directly onto three multi-passenger parade buses parked beside the runway and headed into the city.
Chen Xiaoliang still remembers last year's scene vividly, and this year's occasion is even better than ever before.
After standing at the front of the bus and interacting with countless fans who were following the bus for a while, he sat in the back of the bus and chatted with Mourinho.
Mourinho: "Have you made a decision?"
Chen Xiaoliang: “Yes.”
Mourinho was a little surprised: "Oh? So you've already thought about it?"
Chen Xiaoliang opened his mobile phone, showed Mourinho a picture, and then chuckled.
Mourinho: "Budapest... what the hell is this... oh my god... are you serious?"
Chen Xiaoliang smiled even more happily: "This is also a kind of training. It's better to be idle in the summer than to be idle. Vacation and training go hand in hand."
Mourinho: "It's up to you. Remember to send me a text message the day before the game. I have to see what you look like after losing the game, haha."
"Let's get down to business. You know what I want to ask you."
Chen Xiaoliang shook his head again this time: "It's really undecided. Riise will have a final talk with Pinto tomorrow. If the board of directors insists on doing so, there's nothing to say."
After saying that, Chen Xiaoliang smiled bitterly.
Mourinho leaned in closer and said to him: "Mendez told me a long time ago that this American takes football too lightly. The honors we brought him made him think that it is not difficult to develop football in Europe. From now on, let alone asking him to invest money, even whether the club's own profits can be used for football affairs will be a big question mark."
Mourinho paused and said: "I am 60 years old. I originally wanted to retire, take a break for a year or two, find a national team to coach, and spend the rest of my career."
"But on the other side of Europe, there was someone who had a completely different situation than our American boss, and he had contacted Mendes several times to ask me to come back."
Chen Xiaoliang: "Go back? You mean the team that spent more than 3 billion pounds but only ranked 11th in the league?"
Mourinho: "The offer they made me was quite good. Their squad was also good, but they lacked someone who understood football to coach them. They also promised me that they would invest at least another 200 million pounds in summer transfers."
"Coaching a team like this will be much less stressful. Leading them into the top four will be a success, but I am confident that I can go further."
"Even... winning the Premier League next season is not impossible, what do you think?"
After saying this, Mourinho looked at Chen Xiaoliang, clearly hinting at something.
Chen Xiaoliang thought for a while before saying, "Coach, I have to think about it. Although they have made an offer to me, I haven't asked Riise how the negotiation is going."
Mourinho: "Well, you understand what I mean, and in this industry, everything can change before the final step is settled. I almost became the head coach of Barcelona."
"Mendes told me that in addition to looking for me, they also contacted Pochettino, who is younger and cleaner than me. You know, even in the place where I have coached twice and is the head coach who brought them the most championships, there are still some people who don't want me to appear for the third time."
"But to be honest, you should stay in the Champions League. Believe me, you are very close to winning the Ballon d'Or this year."
"After defeating Haaland, the only person who can beat you this season is the Argentine who won the World Cup."
"He is a living legend, but even the greatest legends must come to an end."
At this point, Mourinho patted him on the shoulder: "Enjoy your vacation and tell me when you make a decision."
The bus continued to move forward, and Chen Xiaoliang kept waving to the fans who followed and stood along the street. Like the traditional parade route, the convoy stopped for a while outside the Colosseum in Rome. The scene of 150,000 fans who gathered from all over the city singing the team song together was captured by the media with a helicopter and immediately spread around the world.
In the evening, the bus drove into the Olympic Stadium. After a short rest, meal and changing clothes, the players lined up in the middle of the venue at 8:30 p.m., holding the trophy and wearing medals.
Even though there is no game tonight, more than 70,000 tickets for the celebration were sold out within just half an hour after they were available for purchase online.
When Chen Xiaoliang held up the most important championship in the club's 96-year history to all Roma fans on the celebration stand in the middle of the stadium.
No one expected that after winning the first European championship in the team's history, the UEFA Europa League last year, the team would make a big jump this year and win the Champions League.
At this moment, Roma has the confidence to become one of the top clubs.
The city hall and the club arranged a number of activities that day, including stars singing with players, interactive games between players and lucky fans, etc. The event lasted until very late.
In order to allow the players to rest as early as possible, the club held a season summary and commendation ceremony at the Trigoria base the next evening.
There is no doubt that the club's best player of the season was awarded to Chen Xiaoliang, who scored 36 goals, provided 36 assists and almost single-handedly carried the team to win the Champions League.
However, when Pinto brazenly stated on the stage that the club was preparing to sign a new contract with Chen Xiaoliang, Kva, Gvardiol, Cesco and Wijnaldum immediately booed.
It goes without saying that Kva and Cesco were very dissatisfied with Pinto's behavior of forcing them to leave the team and cashing them out, while Gvardiol and Wijnaldum were simply dissatisfied because they couldn't stand it. Moreover, they were loaned players and didn't care about Pinto's identity as general manager at all.
Although the subsequent ceremony went on as usual, the atmosphere had become somewhat awkward.
After everything was finished, the team announced that they were going on vacation. Chen Xiaoliang stayed in Rome for another two nights. After relaxing and packing up, he said goodbye to Kva, Cesco and others temporarily, and flew to his hometown Donghai with the sisters, David and David's son.
Unlike Helena, who had studied in the Red Country before, the other three were visiting the Red Country for the first time.
Chen Xiaoliang and his parents acted as hosts, and the whole family took these guests to several cities in the Jiangnan area.
After spending three weeks exploring the scenery of the Red Country, David took his son back to Glasgow, while Chen Xiaoliang once again bid farewell to his parents and flew to Hungary with his sisters.
Chen Xiaoliang, who kept a very low profile, knew that his transfer would have far-reaching consequences, so he rejected all outside interview requests after the end of the season. Even after he returned to Donghai, few people knew about it.
However, after he landed at Budapest Ferenc Liszt International Airport in Hungary, he was photographed by fellow passengers while taking off his mask to pass through customs, and the photos were posted online, which immediately attracted great attention from the football world. Those "famous reporters" who were racking their brains to be the first to dig out Chen Xiaoliang's summer transfer trends took action and sent paparazzi to Budapest to secretly follow and film him.
That’s great. You won’t know until you take a picture. Once you do, you’ll be shocked!
They actually found Chen Xiaoliang appearing on the training ground of Ferencváros, the dominant team in the Hungarian First Division!
Not only has this team won 33 championships in the country's top league in more than a hundred years, it has also frequently appeared in European competitions. This season it has reached the top 16 of the Europa League and is also a very strong team in non-mainstream European leagues.
However, as the Hungarian League ended early, the club had no players left. However, the team's physical director, Hajnal, who had played for Schalke 04 and Dortmund and helped Dortmund win the Bundesliga championship in the 2010-11 season, appeared on the training ground with several coaches and team doctors to accompany Chen Xiaoliang in training.
The question is being asked across Europe: What is this operation???
Although some fans say that Chen Xiaoliang wants to join a weak team, then win the Europa League first, then qualify for the Champions League as the Europa League champion, and finally realize the myth of the weak team winning the championship, but such a plot is just talk and appears at most in online articles. It is impossible in reality.
Some people also said that they went to Budapest for individual practice, but the question that follows is, why Budapest? There is neither the perfect conditions of Rome nor the pleasant climate of the Mediterranean, not to mention that the club has a complete set of logistical support systems for core players, so why go here?
Then there were rumors that Chen Xiaoliang might have bought the team, just like he bought the island of Ibiza.
But someone immediately did the math. The club's total assets amounted to 50 million euros, plus real estate and hardware facilities such as the stadium, which would cost at least 200 million euros. For Chen Xiaoliang, who had only been on the contract to be promoted to a top player for about a year, this number was still significantly higher than the current level, even if his other investments and endorsement income were added.
Moreover, the reporter also photographed the sisters on the training ground, one was responsible for personal physical therapy and the other was training with Chen Xiaoliang.
What about transfers? What about those big clubs? What about Riise?
There were ten thousand versions of answers to a series of question marks circulating in the market, but the real person remained tight-lipped and had nothing to say.
It was not until 10 days later that IAAF President Sebastian Coe excitedly announced an astonishing news at a press conference held at the IAAF headquarters in Monaco. Professional football player Chen Xiaoliang will participate in the 2023 IAAF World Championships to be held in Budapest, Hungary in mid-July!
The specific events are men's 100 meters, 4×100 meter relay and marathon!
At the scene, those veteran reporters who had been running track and field competitions for half their lives were completely stunned...
It's fine for a football player like you to participate in short-distance races relying on your speed, but why did you also participate in marathons? How can a sprinter participate in long-distance running?
In their analysis, they immediately concluded that this was the IAAF's attempt to take advantage of the popularity of the Champions League final, which ended almost a month ago but still had overwhelming traffic.
Chen Xiaoliang also took this opportunity to try his luck and increase his popularity across industries.
As soon as the news came out, a large number of reporters flocked to the scene. Ferencváros had never seen so many reporters since the day it was founded in 1899. More than a hundred reporters from all over the world surrounded the club base, occupying hilltops and high ground, and even sneaking onto the roofs of private houses just to take some footage of Chen Xiaoliang's training.
The key point is that there are both football reporters and track and field reporters here. When the two sides were fighting for the camera position, the former said to the latter, why are you filming the players, that's our job. The latter retorted to the former, you are stealing my job, that is the scope of track and field. The former retorted, if the players didn't come to participate in the track and field competition, would anyone want to watch it?
As soon as these words were spoken, the scene immediately turned into a Street Fighter live practice area.
In the end, there were so many fights that the Ferencváros club simply allowed 20 minutes of public filming time every day.
Of course, there is a charge, 20 minutes, 2,200 euros per person.
Even though this was clearly robbery, everyone still lined up to pay. Club director Hainar was grinning from ear to ear. There were more than a hundred reporters that day, and if Chen Xiaoliang had stayed a few more days, he could have earned enough to pay the team's salaries.
Two days later, five more athletes and several coaches came to the base to train with Chen Xiaoliang.
At this time, it was the turn of the European football reporters to be confused. In order to make a living, they bought cigarettes and alcohol, and went to ask the track and field reporters who they had beaten up two days ago, who were these people?
The track and field reporter immediately boasted, "You little bastards, look at how ignorant you are."
"That's the men's 4×100 relay team of the Red Country Track and Field Team. They are Xie Zhengye, Yan Haibin, Chen Jiapeng and Deng Zhijian, as well as veteran Su Bingtian who hasn't participated in an outdoor competition for more than a year."
The five track and field athletes have absolute respect for Chen Xiaoliang. This Champions League final has spread among sports fans all over the world, let alone in the Red Country.
However, they were skeptical about the organizers of the Athletics Association saying that Chen Xiaoliang would participate in the competition. After all, different fields have different worlds, and the way football players train speed is very different from that of track and field athletes.
However, after the first day of running, Chen Xiaoliang ran a time of 9.93 seconds in training, which shocked the five people!
Although this is not a result that can win a medal in the world championships, any athlete who can break the 10-second mark means that he is already one of the dozens of fastest people on the planet.
Su Bingtian, who is already 34 years old, once created the fastest time of 9.83 seconds in Asia, but with his age, his condition is irreversibly declining. This time he came here more as a sparring partner and substitute, and also to give some technical guidance and suggestions to his young teammates.
I didn't expect that all these things were taught by Chen Xiaoliang.
After more than a week of training, the popularity of the World Championships has continued to rise. Even Bolt, the world record holder and die-hard fan, flew to Budapest as a promotion ambassador and left a message on social media saying that he was looking forward to Chen Xiaoliang's appearance.
The 100-meter world record he set was 9.58 seconds, excluding the reaction time at the start. His average speed was about 38 kilometers per hour, and his peak speed exceeded 41 kilometers per hour.
In the field of football, the fastest player in the top five leagues last season was Newcastle defender Botman, who ran at a peak speed of 39.21 kilometers per hour, followed by "Donxie" Nunez at 38 kilometers per hour and Mbappe at 37.9 kilometers per hour.
However, since the players' sprint is usually around 15 to 30 meters, in the case of a 100-meter race, the starting technique and rhythm changes are different, and there will indeed be a significant gap with the sprinters.
However, Chen Xiaoliang also has his unique advantage, which is that his physical strength is unmatched by sprinters, which enables him to maintain the maximum speed for a longer distance in the 100 meters than sprinters.
Chen Xiaoliang really enjoyed this week's training. Although his speed is enough to earn him a place on the relay team, he doesn't know what kind of result he will get in the end.
On the afternoon of July 7, in the second group of the first round of preliminaries, Chen Xiaoliang easily advanced to the individual 100m semi-finals with a time of 10.08 seconds.
In the evening, he teamed up with Xie Zhengye, Yan Haibin and Chen Jiapeng as the last runner. The four of them successfully advanced to the 4×100m final with a time of 38.07 seconds.
On the afternoon of July 8, Chen Xiaoliang ran a personal best of 9.91 seconds in the first group of the men's individual 100m semi-final and advanced to the final.
On July 10, the third night before the World Championships, countless people stayed in front of their TVs.
This was probably the track and field event that football fans paid the most attention to. In the stands of the stadium, you could even see many people wearing Roma jerseys and waving Roma flags cheering.
In the 36,000-seat Kapic Stadium, which was newly built for this World Championships, the audience witnessed perhaps the most famous crossover in modern sports. The fans of the Red Country, in particular, never expected that Chen Xiaoliang would join the Red Country national team in this capacity!
In the Roma player group, a group of bad friends led by Dybala and Kvart have already opened the handicap and said that they have edited a short video content to congratulate the captain on his defeat, waiting to mock Chen Xiaoliang who is invincible in the field of football.
At 8 o'clock in the evening, the women's 4×100 ended and then the men's athletes began to take the stage.
Just like in football matches, there is a small ceremony for track and field athletes from each country when they take the field. When Chen Xiaoliang and his three teammates took the field, they made a gesture of launching a wave of Hadouken in Street Fighter.
There is a little metaphysics in this. At that time in Tokyo, they won the third place in the Olympics after performing this gesture.
When the on-site director shouted out the name "New UEFA Champions League champion! Chen Xiaoliang!", the whole audience responded with the loudest cheers!
Those football reporters just made a tactical fade-away towards the track and field reporter - see, what is the first sport!
Unlike a football match that lasts for 90 minutes, a sprint or even a relay race will be over in about 40 seconds. From the mobilization of state, concentration of thought to muscle strength, everything starts and ends in an instant, and there is almost no room for error.
Chen Xiaoliang was still arranged to be the last runner, while the main player Yan Haibin was at the starting position.
This is also what the coaching staff discussed, and they believed that this would fully utilize their advantages of one being good at bursting out and the other being good at starting.
The Red Country team was placed in the second lane.
The 32 team members from eight countries were all in position. Chen Xiaoliang looked at the starting point, constantly adjusting his breathing and heartbeat.
It would be a lie to say that I'm not nervous. After all, my identity is different today. Today, the national flag is printed on my chest!
The referee clears the track and prompts the athletes to take the starting position on the starting blocks.
"Prepare……"
"Bang!"
Yang Jian: “The game has begun!”
"In the men's 4x100m final, the first runner of the Red Team is Yan Haibin!"
"He had a great start! He also maintained a good pace in the first 50 meters!"
"The first runner is very steady, the baton will be passed soon!"
"Second runner-up Xie Zhengye!"
"rise!"
"pay!"
"take!"
"Very stable, Xie Zhengye, speed up!"
"Xie Zhengye's second runner-up was very good and he is currently in the top three!"
"Next to him in lane 3 is Jamaica, whose second baton is very fast! They are currently in first place!"
"The third runner-up is Chen Jiapeng!"
“A strong shot in the corner!”
“Good handover!”
“This batting position once belonged to Su Bingtian, and today Chen Jiapeng perfectly inherited his curve!”
"It's almost the last leg!"
"Chen Xiao, light up!"
"Chen Jiapeng hands over the baton!"
“Don’t make mistakes!”
"Perfect!"
"The Jamaican ace John Blake dropped the baton!!!"
"Chen Xiaoliang is now in second place, and half a body length ahead of him is Italy's Toto in lane 6!"
"There are still 40 meters to go! Chen Xiaoliang is going! He is going!"
"Chen Xiaoliang is still accelerating!"
"Totu's rhythm is messed up!"
“About to cross the finish line!”
"Overtake! Sprint!"
“We won!!!”
“We won!!!”
“Incredible!!!”
"Chen Xiaoliang is still accelerating after 70 meters!"
"This incredible man has once again brought us miracles!"
"It is well known that the peak speed of a 100-meter sprint is between 60 and 70 meters. After that, due to lack of oxygen in the muscles, the athlete's speed will drop slightly!"
"But Chen Xiaoliang was still accelerating after catching up with Totu. This incredible phenomenon obviously interfered with Totu's attempt to defend his leading position!"
"Before the race, the other two favorites to win, the Jamaican team, made a mistake in the handover of the fourth baton. The originally expected competition between Blake and Chen Xiaoliang may have to wait until the 100m final tomorrow night!"
"The British team dropped the baton in the second leg and was eliminated from the competition early!"
"Oh my god, what an incredible night, what an incredible experience!"
"A natural born champion, a natural born recipient of honor!"
“The results are out!”
"37.44 seconds! This result even surpasses the result of the Italian team's victory in the Tokyo Olympic final!"
"The official website specifically listed a row of numbers. Chen Xiaoliang's time for the last 100 meters was 8.63 seconds!!!"
"It broke the fastest time of 8.65 seconds set by Bolt in the 2015 World Relay Championships!"
“It’s hard to imagine that he is a crossover football player!!!”
"Oh my god! I wonder how many track and field fans are shouting in their hearts at this moment, Chen Xiaoliang, change your career! Dominate the world track and field arena!"
Chen Xiaoliang took a national flag from the excited audience in the stands and ran towards his teammates.
The other three teammates who were gasping for breath couldn't help but look at each other in surprise when they saw how calm he was.
"How did you run?! Shit... Aren't you tired?"
[Physical Recovery Card 2→1]
Chen Xiaoliang waved away the system panel and pretended to take a breath: "Tired, of course I'm tired, hahaha!"
I was thinking: "I took this photo halfway through the run. My muscles instantly recovered from the anaerobic state to the saturated state. Hey, perfect!"
At this time, veteran Su Bingtian, who was on the bench, also ran over. He hugged the four players excitedly, and then said to Chen Xiaoliang: "Brother, you have to come to the Olympics next year!"
At this time, Filippo Totto, the runner-up of Italy, whose rhythm was disrupted by Chen Xiaoliang, ran over, congratulated the Red Country team, and then said to Chen Xiaoliang: "Can I take a photo with you?"
Chen Xiaoliang agreed readily.
“Crack, crack, crack…”
Dozens of reporters gathered around, and wherever Chen Xiaoliang appeared was always a hot spot!
Totu said to Chen Xiaoliang: "Congratulations, I hope you can go to the Premier League next season and challenge more strong teams there!"
Chen Xiaoliang was still a little embarrassed and asked, "Thank you, are you also a Roma fan?"
Totu laughed and said: "I am an AC Milan fan, so please go to the Premier League as soon as possible!"