Volume 1: Playing football with me will break your legs Chapter 1: A new member joins the Qidian Orphanage!
Wednesday, July 23, 2014.
London, England.
A group of young and strong men were sweating profusely on a green field, and a sharp whistle pierced the afternoon sky.
“Beep!”
"Offensive foul!"
The referee blew the whistle and quickly ran to the scene, took a look at the two players lying on the ground, and then gestured to the outside of the court:
"Team doctor! Stretcher!"
The medical team carrying medical kits immediately rushed into the field, while the coaches of both teams watched the situation on the field with a little anxiety.
As for the other players, most of them just took the opportunity to take a deep breath, then grabbed a bottle of sports drink from the sidelines, tilted their necks back and drank it in big gulps to replenish their bodies with water after the intense exercise.
There were only two or three hundred fans scattered in the stands on the sidelines. When they saw that someone seemed to be injured, there was a slight commotion among the crowd.
"Woke up!"
"I told you, how could that big Nigerian guy lose to an Asian monkey?"
"Haha, look at that poor little guy, he's still in a coma!"
Some of the audience laughed heartlessly.
The "big guy" they were talking about was standing there with his hands spread out with an innocent look on his face.
Adebayo Akinfenwa, who holds dual citizenship of England and Nigeria, is “only” 1.80 meters tall, but weighs an astonishing 102 kilograms!
He is almost the strongest athlete in the entire football world!
But lying at his feet was a yellow-skinned East Asian man.
Looking at his completely unconscious opponent, Akinfenwa felt a little regretful. Perhaps... he shouldn't have been so impulsive just now.
Originally this was just an insignificant friendly warm-up match, but he had just joined the team and was eager to prove his abilities in the new environment, so he gave his all in this competition.
You have to know that the team you play for is a powerful team in English Football League Two (the fourth-tier league) - New Wimbledon Club!
Their opponent today was just a Clapton club struggling in the ninth-level amateur league...
The score was already 3-0 and I had scored a goal, so why should I try so hard?
…
"Awake! He's awake!"
Li Polo heard a voice.
The language is very strange. Although I can understand it, it is not the most familiar Chinese, but the foreign English with a strange accent.
He opened his eyes, and what he saw was a middle-aged man with a stubble on his face. After seeing that he had opened his eyes, he stretched out two fingers of his right hand:
"Hey, boy, what's this?"
"two."
Li Polo frowned, but still answered him.
Memories flooded into his mind like a tide.
The owner of this body is also called Li Polo. Polo is obviously an English name, the Polo of Marco Polo (although it is a surname). He immigrated to England with his parents when he was six years old. However, as both his parents died in an accident, the young boy could only rely on government relief to make ends meet. As he grew older, he, who only had a junior high school education, could only do odd jobs in restaurants and department stores to make a living.
Perhaps influenced by the football atmosphere in Europe, or perhaps just by chance, three years ago, he joined the local community football team. In addition to regular training once a week, he also had to participate in a game every weekend, in exchange for an extra income of 20 pounds - and the statutory minimum hourly wage in the UK is 6 pounds.
He just turned twenty years old this year. He is 1.82 meters tall and weighs 76 kilograms. He can barely be called a strong man, but in the fight just now, he was completely at a disadvantage.
There is no way. Akinfenwa on the opposite side is too strong. Even Ramos and Van Dijk can't knock him down, right?
Seeing that he was still conscious, the team doctor asked again:
"Do you feel any particular pain?"
Li Polo moved his arms and legs, turned his neck, and finally shook his head:
"No."
The team doctor patted his shoulder and pulled him up from the ground:
"Young man, you're in good shape. You can handle that monster! I'm counting on you!"
Li Polo couldn't help but baring his teeth.
This team doctor...is from the New Wimbledon Club across the street!
…
“Beep!”
After confirming that the players on both sides could continue, the referee blew the whistle to continue the game.
It was just a free kick from Clapton in the backcourt. The goalkeeper kicked the ball forward, wanting to take advantage of the opportunity to launch a quick attack.
As a defender, Li Polo watched the ball flying high into the sky from afar, and suddenly a strange picture popped up in his mind - he seemed to be able to clearly predict the final landing point of this long kick!
His eyes moved quickly, and the football seemed to be pulled by him, landing almost exactly on his predicted point!
"I... have awakened my talent?"
"…This is definitely fake, right?"
Li Polo shook his head, dispelled this strange thought, and prepared to devote all his energy to the game.
However, it is now the 68th minute, and there are only 22 minutes left to the end of the game. The three-goal deficit has made this warm-up match meaningless, but Li Polo, who has just come into this world, still wants to get familiar with his body.
“Back off!”
In a blink of an eye, Clapton's quick attack was beaten back by the opponent. Several midfielders issued warnings to the back line and then retreated in large numbers to prepare for defense.
Lower-level teams often prefer long passes, and New Wimbledon is no exception. As soon as their midfielder seized the ball, they launched a long pass.
The speed of the ball is not too fast, so it is very likely to break through the opponent's defense!
The strong and fierce striker, Akinfenwa, glanced at the sky, made a slight prediction in his mind , then lowered his head and sprinted towards the goal at full speed!
After running twenty meters, he turned his head again to check the location of the ball, but out of the corner of his eye he saw a black shadow passing by him.
The guy who was easily knocked over by me a few minutes ago flew into the air!
Akinfenwa opened his mouth.
In Li Polo's eyes, the spinning football seemed to be under a deceleration spell, and he could accurately predict its next flight path!
He jumped high, and the ball hit his forehead accurately and then bounced back.
Akinfenwa stopped sprinting in frustration:
“Almost there!”
…
The header clearance did not cause any commotion. No one, including the coaches and players from both teams and the spectators on the sidelines, felt surprised.
This clearance did not lead to an effective attack, and the huge gap in strength between the two sides caused the game to enter garbage time early.
New Wimbledon replaced three starters at once, preparing to hone the second-line players and make preparations for the new season.
The same thing happened to Clapton. The exhausted forwards and midfielders were replaced, hoping to rely on the energetic newcomers to waste the remaining time.
When both teams had used up their quota of substitutions, the game was still a one-sided game of attack and defense. Clapton couldn’t even get out of his own half for the next ten minutes!
"Tsk, this little guy is pretty good at heading the ball!"
When Li Polo cleared the ball again, the eyes of Neil Ardrey, the new Wimbledon head coach sitting on the sidelines, lit up.
Assistant coach Neil Cox also noticed what had just happened:
"You mean... the other side's defender?"
Adley nodded:
"We tried to break through the defense and find Akinfenwa in these attacks, but he intercepted us every time. It's hard to believe that these were accidental."
Cox agreed with his assessment :
"And he's also very strong and doesn't look Asian at all."
Adley laughed:
"Don't let him hear this, or he'll sue you for racism!"
Cox punched him in the chest:
" Come on, I'm a mixed-blood myself!"
While the two were chatting and laughing, the game had reached the 83rd minute and Clapton got a free kick opportunity in the frontcourt.
It's a bit embarrassing to say that this was only their second free kick in the frontcourt of the game - because in the previous 83 minutes, they could hardly pose any threat to New Wimbledon's goal.
Cox whistled:
"It's a pity that the opponent is too weak and we can't practice defending set pieces."
Adley shrugged his shoulders but did not deny it.
For them, the biggest significance of this game is just to fulfill the agreement between clubs. Do they still expect to discover a promising star from a ninth-level amateur team?
Then he saw the young defender, whom he described as "good at heading," jogging towards the front court.
Adley pushed his glasses on the bridge of his nose and smiled slightly:
"Looks like we can practice some defense."
