Chapter 880 Italian Summer
1990 was the first year of the 1990s and also a year that left a deep impression on Song Yuanchao in the memory of later generations.
Because that summer, the much-anticipated World Cup was held on the Apennine Peninsula, and Song Yuanchao stayed up all night to watch the World Cup with a few friends. In particular, Maradona, the reigning king of football, led the Argentine team, which had been stumbling since the group stage and finally made it to the final, which made Song Yuanchao fascinated.
With four main players unable to play due to two yellow cards, Maradona led Argentina in a constant battle with the championship-contending West Germany team, and almost staged a single-handed meeting to rewrite the fate of the team. Unfortunately, the goddess of luck did not give Maradona and Argentina another chance. At the last moment, West Germany broke through Argentina's goal, won the victory, and thus lifted the World Cup.
When watching Maradona crying like a child on the green field on TV, Song Yuanchao also felt very sad at that time, because he was an Argentine fan and a supporter of Maradona. At the last moment when he saw Argentina's dream shattered and returning with broken wings, Song Yuanchao smashed the beer bottle beside him to pieces and jumped up and cursed.
The opening ceremony of the World Cup that year was held in Milan. Song Yuanchao and Qin Zhengguo set off three days in advance and arrived in Milan the day before the opening ceremony.
When they arrived in Milan, the whole city was already like a sea of flowers. Countless fans wearing all kinds of costumes and dressed in strange ways were partying and looking forward to the opening of the World Cup the next day.
This trip to Italy to watch the World Cup was something Song Yuanchao and Qin Zhengguo had already discussed. They were both fans of Maradona, and it would be a pity to miss such a grand event. It was just that Qin Zhengguo was full of expectations, longing for Maradona to hold the World Cup trophy again. But Song Yuanchao was different. He used this way to remember this grand event and make up for the regret of not being able to arrive at the scene in his previous life.
As early as two months ago, the tickets for the opening ceremony were almost sold out, and in the past few days, fans from all over the world have crowded the small city of Milan. Fortunately, Song Yuanchao made arrangements in advance and got the tickets through channels early, and also booked hotels in several competition cities.
"Why are there so many people? It's like a big market."
It took more than an hour to drive from the airport to the hotel, which usually takes only half an hour. When we arrived at the hotel, the square in front of the hotel was also crowded with people, countless fans wearing the jerseys of the teams they supported, with their faces painted with colorful oil paints. In addition, many tents were set up in the square. Because of lack of money or unable to find a place to stay, many fans could only use this method to solve the problem of sleeping.
After getting out of the car and walking into the hotel gate, Qin Zhengguo looked back towards the square and couldn't help but say this to Song Yuanchao.
"Okay, isn't this normal? Come on, let's go in quickly. It's really hot today." Song Chaoyuan pushed Qin Zhengguo, and the two of them slipped into the hotel.
I arrived at the hotel, completed the check-in procedures, took the elevator upstairs, and finally breathed a sigh of relief after entering the room.
The journey was quite tiring. There was no direct flight from China to Milan. Song Yuanchao and Qin Zhengguo started from Hong Kong, flew from Hong Kong to Frankfurt, and then arrived in Milan from Frankfurt. Including the transfer time, it took more than 30 hours and they were already exhausted .
After arriving at the hotel, Song Yuanchao and Qin Zhengguo greeted each other and went to their rooms to sleep. They slept soundly and did not wake up until the next day.
After getting up, Song Yuanchao washed up, called Qin Zhengguo to go to the restaurant to eat something, and then returned to the hotel to prepare.
It was almost time, and the two changed their clothes. The clothes they wore were specially prepared. They were all Argentina's blue and white striped jerseys with a striking number 10 player number on them, which represented Maradona. When they walked out of the hotel wearing these clothes, they were immediately greeted warmly by many Italian fans on the street.
In Italy, Maradona is also worshipped by them. If many Italians were allowed to choose for themselves, perhaps more people would support Maradona than the Italian football team.
Milan is not a big city, and it would be faster to walk to the stadium than to take a car at this time. Song Yuanchao and Qin Zhengguo mixed in the team like ordinary fans, and headed towards the San Siro Stadium where the opening ceremony was held.
Along the way, Qin Zhengguo jumped around like an excited child, and got some oil paint from an unknown fan and painted his face with all kinds of colors. Even Song Yuanchao could not escape his clutches and was painted by him so much that Song Yuanchao couldn't even recognize himself when he looked in the mirror.
"Ahh... It's so exciting!" Qin Zhengguo whistled and howled like the fans around him, and said excitedly to Song Yuanchao.
The warm atmosphere around also made Song Chaoyuan excited. The feeling on the scene was completely different from that through TV broadcast.
"It's a shame that Daqi didn't come this time. If she had come, it would have been even more trouble with the three of us."
"Okay, don't be so good as to take advantage of him. If he really couldn't leave for business, he would have come with us. What? How about you go back and take over for him right away? Let him come over to play?"
"Just pretend I didn't say anything." Qin Zhengguo turned his head without saying a word and continued to shout and twist his body along with a few young men with colorfully dyed hair. The fat on his body trembled like waves under his jerseys that looked a little small.
We finally arrived at the stadium. There were huge crowds of people outside the stadium and cheers were heard all around.
In the square outside the stadium, there are many large TV screens. Only a few fans who rush to the stadium have tickets to enter, while the vast majority do not have tickets and can only stay outside the stadium and watch this event through these TV screens.
Outside, many Italian local scalpers were walking among the crowd, just like Chinese scalpers, muttering words like "tickets, tickets" and selling the opening ceremony tickets that had increased several times in price. Of course, the famous European thieves were also in the crowd, and from time to time, a thin man would be seen squeezing out from the crowded place, and then he ran away without knowing where he was.
When he squeezed out of the crowd, there were bursts of exclamations and curses. Although Song Chaoyuan and the others could not understand the language they were speaking, when they saw their pockets and waist bags that had been slit open and their extremely angry expressions, they realized that they had been accidentally robbed.
Before coming, the experienced Song Chaoyuan and Qin Zhengguo were well prepared. They left all their valuables in the hotel. Apart from the binoculars hanging around their necks, they also had some change, cigarettes, lighters, room cards, passports and football tickets. All these things were hidden close to their bodies, so the Italian thieves would not be able to steal them unless they had the ability to pull down their pants.
When they arrived at the place, Song Yuanchao and Qin Zhengguo continued to walk forward with the crowd, and finally reached the ticket gate after sweating profusely.
He reached out and took out the ticket from the specially sewn underwear pocket inside his shorts. The ticket inspector was not surprised at all, because they had seen such behavior many times today. Not to mention hiding their tickets in such places, there were even people hiding them in more secret places. While checking the tickets, he was thinking that he must find a place to wash his hands thoroughly after finishing the work, and he had to use soap several times.
After passing the ticket gate, it was finally not as crowded as outside. It took some time to find the place according to the location of their tickets.
Song Yuanchao and his companions did not buy tickets for the luxury box, not because they were reluctant to spend the money, but because such boxes were simply not available. They were usually reserved for heads of state, princes and nobles, or at least important officials in the world of football.
However, Song Yuanchao and his team's position was not bad, it was in the middle of the stands with the best view. After arriving and sitting down, Song Yuanchao breathed a sigh of relief and reached out to wipe the sweat from his forehead.
There were fans coming to watch the game all around, because today was the opening ceremony and the first opening match. In addition, due to Maradona's support and popularity in Italy, most of the fans who came were wearing Argentina jerseys like Song Yuanchao and his friends. Although no one knew each other and many of them did not speak the same language because they came from different countries, it did not mean that they could not communicate. For example, the two young Italian girls sitting next to Song Yuanchao and his friends started having a passionate conversation with them in fast Italian.
Song Yuanchao only knows English, and Qin Zhengguo has only a vague understanding of English after so many years in Hong Kong. He can speak Cantonese quite well now, but they can't understand a word of Italian.
One of the two girls could only speak Italian and a little English, while the other actually knew some Chinese. After learning that Song Yuanchao and Qin Zhengguo were Chinese, she started chatting with them very enthusiastically.
Especially Qin Zhengguo, who was chatting enthusiastically with an Italian girl with dyed blue hair who looked to be about seventeen or eighteen years old. The two of them spoke in poor English with gestures, and laughed from time to time. At the end, they even almost put their arms around each other's shoulders. Otherwise, if Song Yuanchao had found something wrong and secretly kicked this guy, Qin Zhengguo would have almost made a mistake.
"Song, don't worry. We Italians are all so enthusiastic. This is just friendship between friends and doesn't mean anything." Another black-haired girl saw Song Yuanchao's little action and said this to him with a smile.
Song Yuanchao smiled a little embarrassedly, but still explained: "My friend is married. He loves his wife very much, and his wife loves him too. He also has two lovely children."
"What's the big deal?" The girl shrugged indifferently and said, "Don't you think it's inappropriate to say these in such an atmosphere? Song, I know you Chinese people are shy, but you are too nervous. It's a bit old-fashioned here. Why don't you relax a little and let us spend a wonderful and happy day together?" The girl pointed her finger around her head and laughed.
The girl's words made Song Yuanchao laugh and cry. He couldn't say whether it was good or bad, but he could see that the girl really didn't have any other thoughts, it was just that everyone's thinking was different. But some words were really hard to respond to. Song Yuanchao was afraid that what he said next would easily cause misunderstanding, so he suddenly pointed forward and said, "Look! The opening ceremony is about to begin!"
