Chapter 26 Interested

The next day, the newspapers in St. Petersburg were still enthusiastically reporting on the game that had ended yesterday.

Even the Moscow media sent applause and cheers to Zenit.

Because that game was truly wonderful.

Starting from the first leg, when they were scored on three consecutive times on their home turf, no one thought Zenit had a chance to turn the tables.

But Chen Yingxiong's goal at the Velodrome Stadium was worth a thousand gold pieces.

At the time, people may not have thought too much, but now, it was that goal that sounded the charge for St. Petersburg Zenit's counterattack, allowing them to complete a major reversal after returning to their home stadium.

Against Marseille, Zenit scored a total of three goals, and all three goals were scored by Chen Yingxiong alone.

He shone brightly in this game, letting all of Europe know that there was such a person.

Although the game against Everton was fought in England, it was only a UEFA Cup group stage match after all, and its influence was limited. Moreover, Everton was not a very strong team, and its influence was always limited to England, failing to break out of the English Channel and spread to the entire European continent.

In the round of sixteen against Villarreal, Chen Yingxiong scored a goal, but that game took place in the cold, snowy St. Petersburg, and its influence was also limited—overall, European football does not pay much attention to Eastern Europe, and even less to the more distant Russia.

Don't be fooled by how professional so many Western European clubs claim to be; their attention to lower-level leagues may not even be as good as that of a Chinese fan. Some Chinese fans can even recite the leagues of India and Thailand like a family treasure. Even the scouts of those European powerhouses may not be able to do that.

In the football world, there is generally such a strange situation—the higher the level of football in a country, the less they know about football in other regions, and the lower the level of football in a country, the more they know about the level of football in other countries.

China is a very typical example. Chinese fans are perhaps one of the most knowledgeable groups in the world, mastering the fastest and most information... There are many fans who can recite the top five leagues like a family treasure, and there are also those who only focus on lower-level leagues and lower-level teams. Some people even buy a satellite dish to specifically receive foreign TV stations and watch football games, no matter which league, as long as it is a football game, they watch it.

And what about countries with the top five leagues? Even coaches who are professionally engaged in football will be completely ignorant when they encounter those small teams from Eastern Europe. "Can you name a few players from your group stage opponent, Galati Steel?" "I'm sorry, we don't know much about them..."

Such conversations are not uncommon.

Many people think that they are professionals in football, they have a scouting network, they make a living from this, and they should know a lot of information that even fans do not know. But the reality is... they really don't know. Not all teams will send scouts to observe their opponents like Mourinho's team. Their means of collecting information are very conventional. For those unpopular teams in unpopular European leagues, they don't know much more than the average fan.

If St. Petersburg Zenit hadn't made it to the UEFA Cup, and if Chen Yingxiong's performance in the UEFA Cup hadn't gotten better and better, he might not have been recognized by the mainstream European football media until who knows when.

Now that more and more people know him, all kinds of things naturally increase.

The most typical is... teams are starting to be interested in Chen Yingxiong!

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Sasania looked at the praise of Chen Yingxiong in the local St. Petersburg newspaper, and his heart was bleeding...

When Chen Yingxiong's vampire agent, Dekula, proposed a weekly salary of 100,000, Sasania didn't say anything on the surface, but in his heart, he had already closed the door to contract renewal negotiations with this greedy pair.

But as if to deliberately make things difficult for him, no renewal was being negotiated on this side, while on the other side, Chen Yingxiong's goals came one after another, each one wonderful, and each one important.

After the game the day before yesterday, Advocaat called him again, hoping that the club would spare no expense to keep this big guy. Even if the other party was going to leave sooner or later, they should still complete the contract renewal with him, even if it was just to keep him for another season...

Wasn't this making things difficult for him? People had already used this method to indicate that they were unwilling to renew the contract. What else could he do? Going to the door would only result in being turned away.

He knew that Chen Yingxiong would definitely not continue to stay at Zenit.

At this time, he shouldn't be thinking about how to keep him, as that would be futile. He would waste time and energy, and not keep the person, but instead miss a great opportunity.

What great opportunity?

A great opportunity to ask for the sky-high price and take the opportunity to make a fortune.

If he were Advocaat, he would quickly send Chen Yingxiong out, take advantage of the time when he could make more money, and then use the money earned from selling him to buy several capable but not very famous players to supplement the team's strength.

Instead of stubbornly refusing to let go as he was doing now. This was not good for either side. As Chen Yingxiong's performance in the UEFA Cup got better and better, everyone knew that Zenit, this "small temple," could no longer keep this great Buddha.

But how should he tell Advocaat... Advocaat's love for Chen Yingxiong was too obsessive.

Just at this moment, the phone on his desk rang.

"Mr. General Manager, a club is asking us for a quote for Chen Yingxiong."

Sasania's spirits were immediately lifted!

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"Hero, you rejected the opportunity to renew your contract with Zenit. Have you thought about which club you want to go to?" Dekula asked Chen Yingxiong about his future arrangements in a phone call.

"Of course it's a powerhouse!" Chen Yingxiong blurted out this sentence without thinking.

"Are you sure?" Dekula was stunned for a moment, and asked back.

"What's the point of not going to a powerhouse?" In Chen Yingxiong's mind, the teams he was familiar with were all powerhouses, and only such teams were worth joining. He had never heard of St. Petersburg Zenit before, and joining this team was completely a last resort—only this team was willing to take him.

Now that he was a little famous, of course he had to join a powerhouse.

Just like that famous saying: "A cook who doesn't want to be a driver is not a good tailor"... uh, wrong, it should be "A soldier who doesn't want to be a general is not a good soldier." Not wanting to go to a powerhouse proves that you have no pursuit in football.

Why do those players who join teams like Real Madrid always say things like: "Being able to play for Real Madrid is my childhood dream?" Isn't it because joining a powerhouse and achieving success in a powerhouse is the common goal of all motivated players?

So Chen Yingxiong naturally hoped to play for a powerhouse.

He didn't consider whether he could go, nor did he consider whether people wanted him, nor did he consider whether his strength was enough. He only considered whether he wanted to... This made the problem much simpler. He wanted to go.

But Dekula didn't think so: "Well... as far as I know, Hero, there is currently no club that meets the definition of a powerhouse that is interested in you..."

"What?" Chen Yingxiong was a little surprised to hear this news.

"Impossible, right? I performed very well in the UEFA Cup..."

"If you change 'UEFA Cup' to 'Champions League,' then many powerhouses will be fighting to get you."

"So the influence of the UEFA Cup is not enough?"

"That's right, Hero. The UEFA Cup is a chicken rib league that powerhouses disdain to play in at all. They only want to play in the Champions League, so naturally they pay more attention to the Champions League. Even if you win the top scorer in the UEFA Cup, they may not be willing to pay tens of millions of euros for you."

What Dekula said seemed to make sense, but Chen Yingxiong was still unwilling to give up... "How about this, you can keep an eye out for me first... Or how about you actively promote me? Put together a few videotapes of my games and send them to Barcelona, ​​Real Madrid, Manchester United, Milan, or something..."

Dekula thought for a while and nodded: "Okay, I'll try."

"Ah, thank you!"

Chen Yingxiong really wanted to go to a powerhouse. He always felt that joining a powerhouse was a particularly glamorous thing. Salary was secondary. The key was that it was the most watched stage, with the opportunity to participate in higher-level Champions League matches. Media exposure would also greatly increase, and his popularity and fame would skyrocket. Especially those powerhouses whose games can be seen in China. When his parents missed him, they could really just turn on the TV and watch his games. He was currently playing in the Russian Super League. Although he could also appear in Chinese media, he couldn't watch the games after all. What's the point of watching after-the-fact news? Football games, of course, must be watched live!

Going to a powerhouse would make him a true football star. In the Russian Super League, he was at most just a rising star. Russia's league is ranked sixth in the UEFA coefficient, but the influence of this league in the whole of Europe is really poor. Some people say that Russia is a football powerhouse, so how could this be? Being a football powerhouse was something that happened more than a decade ago. Russian football has been declining ever since. Mainstream European leagues don't really know much about the Russian league. Only a few teams are paying attention to Russia. Manchester United is one, Chelsea is one, and other teams are not very interested in this bitterly cold league.

So as long as he stayed in Russia, he would not become famous.

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News began to appear in the Moscow media that other European teams were interested in Chen Yingxiong. Who would be happiest about Chen Yingxiong leaving St. Petersburg Zenit? Of course, it was the Muscovites!

Since this hero came to the Russian Super League, he had disturbed the entire Moscow area. Originally, the Russian Super League was the Greater Moscow Super League, with the championship rotating, and it was always in Moscow.

Now, the league championship had been snatched by a team from St. Petersburg. Now, throughout Europe, St. Petersburg Zenit had replaced CSKA Moscow and Spartak Moscow as the representative of Russian football.

Moscow absolutely could not allow itself to be suppressed by St. Petersburg and take all the limelight.

So the Moscow media vigorously hyped the news that European teams were interested in Chen Yingxiong, on the one hand to fuel Chen Yingxiong's departure from Zenit, and on the other hand, naturally, to disgust the people of St. Petersburg.

Even if Chen Yingxiong didn't leave in the end, we will disgust you for several months, and make you disturbed and upset during these months!

Let's see how you suppress Moscow's teams!

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ps, asking for recommendations, asking for clicks, asking for monthly tickets! Asking for a chance to let me add more updates!