There is a team in the world of football that has never missed the final stage of the World Cup in its 17 appearances; they have only lost three times in 13 qualifying rounds in their continent; their yellow jerseys bear four shining golden stars; a large number of talented players have emerged in their history; as many people hate her as like her, but no one dares to underestimate her, because that is suicide; for a period of time, this team was almost synonymous with football, yes, she is called Brazil.

However, no matter how beautiful the history is, no matter how brilliant the past achievements are, they cannot save Brazilian football now. Brazil in 2001 felt a bit unlucky. Historically, they had only lost a total of three South American qualifying matches, which is a remarkable record in international football, but in the 2001 South American qualifying matches, Brazil lost six of the 18 matches in one breath, which is also a very amazing record for Brazilian football. But even more amazing records continued: during the two-year qualifying competition, the Brazilian team used four head coaches successively: Luxemburgo was dismissed because of poor results at the Olympic Games, poor handling of relations with the media, and tax evasion; his successor, Candinho, performed very well, but Candinho refused to become the head coach of the Brazilian team because he did not want to "betray" his friend Luxemburgo; Leon was even more unlucky, and was dismissed at the airport in Japan simply because of the poor results in the meaningless Confederations Cup; finally, it was Scolari who governed the army with an iron fist, and he finally led Brazil to defeat Venezuela 3:0 in the last round, and advanced to the World Cup in Japan and South Korea. During the long qualifying process, as many as * players went in and out of the Brazilian national team!

The main lineup is unstable, the tactics are unclear, the head coach is frequently changed, and they lost to more than half of their opponents… Sometimes, even the Brazilian people lost confidence and no longer held any hope. Such a dark qualifying round has never happened in the history of the Brazilian team!

Fortunately, Brazil still qualified from the South American region in the end. Otherwise, after losing the orange Netherlands, and then losing the yellow Brazil, the World Cup in Japan and South Korea would be unimaginable.

I thought that the Brazilian national team could finally prepare for the World Cup wholeheartedly after qualifying, but I didn't expect that the inclusion of Romário (romariodesouzafaria) caused almost the entire Brazil to turn against the head coach Scolari. However, in the end, Scolari still announced the news that the Brazilian team was closing the door to Romário, even though there were hundreds of Romário supporters protesting outside when he announced the news. As the player with the highest goal rate in the Brazilian team, Romário's failure to be selected also added a 34-year-old spectator to the World Cup, the other being Roberto Baggio of Italy.

But no matter how much the media and fans fussed, and no matter if even the Brazilian president personally pleaded, Scolari still insisted on his own opinion, for the sake of a genius he had taken a fancy to, 19-year-old Kaka, whose full name is Ricardo Izecson Santos Leite (ricardoizecsonsantosLeeni), who plays for the São Paulo (saopaulo) club in Brazil.

Kaka (kaka) is working very hard to integrate into this big family, and it seems to be working well. He can even ask Carlos (Carlos) for toothpaste if he runs out. Despite the uproar outside for Romário, the national team is still calm. Everyone knows that Kaka replaced Romário in the national team, but Roberto Carlos (robertoCarlos) patted Kaka when he first entered the national team and said: "Don't worry, we can't hear the outside voices here!" He made a gesture of covering his ears, and the funny expression made Kaka laugh.

Speaking of which, Carlos (Carlos) is a very interesting person. He is short and a bit strange-looking, but he always has a smile on his face. He has a good relationship with almost all the players. In the national team, he is the happy fruit, the treasure. This reminded Kaka of An Ke in Dawn, but An Ke is much taller than Carlos, but the talent for being funny doesn't depend on height.

However, don't think that people who are always laughing and joking are easy to bully, I am afraid that all of Carlos's opponents would think so. Look at his 62 cm circumference left thigh, look at his amazing speed of 10.50 seconds in the 100 meters, and then look at the free kick he scored from 35 meters away in the 1997 French Four Nations Invitational Tournament… would anyone still doubt his lethality?

At least Kaka wouldn't. He personally saw the look in Carlos's eyes before the run-up in the free kick training. The eyes that always smiled like a crescent moon were extremely firm and murderous at this moment. Then after a "Carlos-style" run-up, when the outside of his left foot hit the football hard, the ball exaggeratedly bypassed the wooden wall but hit the goal post, Carlos smiled and shook his head at Kaka on the side. But Kaka was thinking, fortunately I am his teammate, I don't have to line up in the wall to defend his free kick in the game.

In his 168cm, 70kg body, there is a devil-like power, but this does not prevent Kaka from becoming good friends with him.

"God!" Carlos shouted in a slightly exaggerated way, "Why are you so handsome?" He hugged his bald head, looking very jealous. Kaka just smiled, he didn't know what to say to this old brother.

But Carlos immediately returned to his original state, he blinked slyly: "Not bad, you got the position of the second most handsome in the team!"

"Second?" Kaka was a little confused.

"The first is of course me! Hehe!" Carlos smiled, "By the way, don't let little Ronaldo know, otherwise he will come to you and ask you to give him the second position, hehe!"

Thinking of Ronaldinho's (ronaldinho) appearance, Kaka couldn't help but laugh.

"That's the expression!" Carlos pointed to Kaka and said, "Remember your current expression, smile and face everything you are about to face. Don't care what others say, don't treat yourself as a newcomer. Young man, in fact, football is very simple…”

Carlos kicked the football with his left foot, and the football bypassed the wooden wall and flew into the goal.

Another person that Kaka paid attention to as soon as he came in was Ronaldo (ronaldo), the number one killer of the Brazilian team who became famous at a young age, was famous in international football, but seemed to have disappeared in the past two years.

In Brazil, the idol of all Brazilians is Pele (pele), but in the eyes of many Brazilian children and young people now, Ronaldo is also the object of their worship, and Kaka is no exception. He is a peerless genius recognized by the entire Brazil.

Kaka's first impression when he saw Ronaldo in the national team was "he is fat". This is understandable. He has not played well in the past two years, and he has been sitting for injury and recovery training, so his weight must have increased. However, Carlos solemnly reminded Kaka not to mention the word "weight" in front of Ronaldo, otherwise he will immediately turn against you.

However, Kaka found that Ronaldo was adding strength training to himself in the training process, he was losing weight! Before the World Cup started, his weight had dropped by 4.3 kg! This number is amazing for those who are familiar with Ronnie, because he hates people discussing weight in front of him the most. For the weight loss problem, he can even turn against Hector Cuper, the head coach of Inter Milan (intermilan). But Kaka really saw Ronnie losing weight!

"Incredible, isn't it?" Cafu (Cafu) looked at Ronaldo, who was sweating like rain, and said to Kaka beside him, "But if you saw his tears in the Olympic Stadium in Rome that day, you would understand." Cafu said softly, "Think about the final of the World Cup in France back then… you should be able to understand his mood, twice, every time the championship trophy was placed in front of him, but he fell at the finish line every time…”

Carlos also had less of his usual hippie smile when talking about Ronaldo: "He couldn't play for two years, and almost 95% of the world thought it was impossible for him to return to the field. What he needs now is to prove himself. Losing weight is the first step. He is very concerned about face, don't look at him hating others mentioning weight in front of him, in fact, for the World Cup, you can let him do anything. So I said, don't doubt his ability, never doubt, especially now that he has a desire for victory like a hungry wolf." Finally, Carlos still said in his usual tone: "Should I send a warning to defenders all over the world? The alien is back on Earth!"

In Kaka's view, the World Cup is more like an incredibly beautiful dream. He was recruited into the Brazilian national team after only playing in the Brazilian domestic league for one year, and he also participated in the World Cup! This is what countless players dream of, and Kaka has become the lucky one. But it is too unfair to simply say that he is lucky. His speed and skills have become more mature under the tempering of professional football. A "genius that Brazil produces only once in thirty years", who else can you choose if you don't choose him?

The match against Costa Rica was the second match in the group stage. With the Brazilian team's victory already set, Kaka, wearing the number 23 jersey, was finally sent on the field by head coach Scolari to start his World Cup debut.

"Kaka, get ready to play!" When he heard Scolari say this to him, he didn't react. He didn't stand up in a hurry and took off his coat to warm up until Scolari repeated it again. He was warming up on the sidelines. The Brazilian team had already locked in the victory with 5:2. He knew that he was just going up to feel the atmosphere of the World Cup, so don't expect too much. Looking at his teammates running on the field, he suddenly thought of Zhang Jun, that good friend in China.

The fourth referee checked Kaka's shin guards and cleats, and then raised the electronic display board: Number 23 is on!

June 13, 2002, 26 minutes and 25 seconds into the second half of the match between the Brazilian team and Costa Rica. This should be the moment that Kaka will remember forever. As a member of the Brazilian national team, he set foot on the World Cup stage for the first time! The cheers of tens of thousands of fans shook his eardrums. It was completely different from the feeling in the Morumbi (morumbi) stadium on weekdays. An unspeakable beauty rippled in his heart.

"Kaka embraced Rivaldo (rivaldo), who was replaced, and stepped onto the field."

"Zhang Jun, I'm waiting for you here!"

"Kaka is on the field!" Yang Pan shouted in front of the TV, which caused many people to give him white eyes. Isn't he just a brat from Brazil? Is it worth getting so excited about? Does he even know you?

Zhang Jun was thinking about when he could take this step and step firmly on the grass of the World Cup stadium. It seemed very far away, but who would have thought that Kaka would wear the yellow jersey of Brazil and appear on the World Cup stage when they said goodbye last spring?

"Ronaldo (ronaldo)! Goal! This is his eighth goal in this World Cup! 2:0! Brazil has almost embraced the World Cup! Rivaldo's (rivaldo) leak, Ronaldo's low shot, once again penetrated the ten fingers of Kahn (oliverkahn), the best goalkeeper of this competition!"

"Referee Collina (Collina) blew the whistle to end the game! Brazil won the World Cup for the fifth time! They wrote history, five-time champion Brazil!"

After receiving the gold medal, captain Cafu (Cafu) walked to the front desk. He was led to the square table where the gold cup was placed. FIFA President Blatter picked up the gold cup and waited to hand it over to its owner. Cafu shook the thin and tall table, seemingly worried about whether it was stable, because the organizers told him that he would accept the gold cup on it.

After confirming that the table was stable, Cafu climbed onto the "podium", and then bent over and took the shiny Hercules Cup from Blatter! He raised the gold cup high in the cheers of fans all over the stadium!

Below the stage were countless adoring eyes and raised arms. In the 2002 paper cranes flying all over the sky and countless colorful ribbons, Brazil used this special award ceremony to prove to people that Brazil has returned to the top of world football!

Kaka took the Hercules Cup from his teammates, and every member of the Brazilian team had the opportunity to get close to the dream they had been fighting for for four years. The gold cup emitted a dazzling light under the stadium lights and flashes, making Kaka feel like he was in a dream, it was so incredible!

In the small restaurant, the people who supported Germany sighed, while the Brazilian fans were elated. Yang Pan supported Italy, but Italy didn't even make it to the top eight. Kaka was in Brazil, so after being sad, he turned to support Brazil.

"Great! Zhang Jun, Kaka won the World Cup! That kid… is really enviable!" Yang Pan said to Zhang Jun beside him while applauding.

"Yeah! World champion…" Zhang Jun murmured, that trophy is almost the dream of all players, and now it is in Kaka's hands. Looking at Kaka's excited smile, Zhang Jun said in his heart: "3:0, he scored a hat-trick and widened the gap again, Li Yongle, did you see it?"

Li Yongle stood in the back row of the crowd. All the places near the school where you could watch the game were crowded, so he had to run to this shopping mall to watch it. The area in front of the TV in the home appliance area of the shopping mall was full of people, but fortunately there was a little space, and he could watch it from behind without affecting anything because of his height.

Brazil raised the Hercules Cup and cheered, drawing the most orthodox end to this World Cup that began with subversion - the team with the most championships in history added another golden star to its chest.

All the World Cup matches were over, and the one-month drama came to an end, but in Li Yongle's view, another good show had just begun. Whether it was Zhang Jun or Yang Pan, they would think so, Li Yongle thought.

Germany, Dortmund.

Yokohama, Japan is the first battlefield, and here is the second battlefield. At least that's what An Ke thought.

The small bar where he worked was crowded from the start of the final. After the match started, people were still squeezing inside. Barrels of beer were being moved out. An Ke was exhausted, but he could still watch the TV broadcast. Kahn's (kahn) several saves gave him a deep impression, but unfortunately this goalkeeper who had just won the "Levyashin (Levyashin) Award" let go of the ball at the most inopportune time. When Ronaldo (ronaldo) put the ball into the goal, An Ke seemed to hear the sound of countless beer glasses breaking throughout Germany.

When the bald referee Collina (Collina) blew the final whistle, there was only the sound from the TV in the entire bar. Those big men who were still cheering before the game bit their collars and scarves, desperately trying not to cry, but tears still flowed uncontrollably. There was no scolding, no noise, not even a sigh. Everyone was crying silently. No one drank beer anymore, and An Ke stood in front of the TV blankly, watching Kahn sitting alone in front of the goalpost, looking lonely at the cheering Brazilians. Neither the consolation of his opponent Ronaldo nor the referee Collina could make him blink. In the vast Yokohama International Stadium, his back was so desolate…

I must have had this feeling myself, right? An Ke asked himself in his heart, what kind of feeling is it to watch your opponent celebrate victory in front of you?

Kahn must want to cry, right? But he just pursed his lips tightly without any expression. He is the captain, he is the pillar, he is the last dignity of German football, so he can't cry, he must show a strong side to the world, to Germany, and to himself. He finally stood up and led Germany to the runner-up podium, and was the first to receive the silver medal. Even so, he still didn't have a smile on his face when facing Blatter and Pele.

An Ke remembered himself in his first year of high school. He seemed to be like this after that defeat. He felt terribly uncomfortable, but he couldn't show it in public.

Brazil is the team of his good friend Kaka, and Kahn is his idol. He can't explain his feelings at this moment…

June 31, 2002, Japan, Yokohama, International Stadium.

Kaka tasted the sweetest happiness in his life, while another group of people watched his happiness with different feelings.

ps: The football on campus ends here. Recently, some people said that "We Are the Champions" does not describe the game as detailed as before, and it feels a bit like a running account. I think it is necessary to say a few words:

"We Are the Champions" will be written from 2001 to 2010. In the nine years, there will be professional leagues, European events, World Cup, Olympic Games, Asian Cup, Confederations Cup, and various friendly matches and confrontation matches. You can imagine how many matches there will be in total. If I write like "Do You Care If I Play Football", I guess I will run out of energy. And I can't guarantee that every game is written differently, is wonderful, and has highlights.

Therefore, I will only write in detail about some of the wonderful, important, and key games. The university league is just a springboard for Zhang Jun and the others to go to Europe. There is only Li Yongle as an opponent in it, and there is not much to write about. I can't write two or three chapters for each game, right? Many people say that it is written like a running account. I think this may be the feeling after reading "Do You Care If I Play Football". This is also a concern of mine, because this change in style from such detailed game descriptions to such brief game reports is likely to be unacceptable to many people, but there is no way, this is necessary. Just like the growth of Zhang Jun and the others, my writing must also go through such a process.

Of course, I will try my best to write a wonderful game for large-scale competitions like the World Cup. However, I will not write about every game in the professional league in detail, and even only less than one-third of them will be written in detail. The careers of professional players are long, and not every game is a classic, nor will Zhang Jun score a hat-trick in every game, and it is even more impossible for every game to be full of twists and turns, and the result is unknown until the last minute.

In the future, there will be many games that I may skip, which may make many people unhappy, but for the sake of the entire novel, I must persevere.

Also, I want to say that football is not just football on the football field, those off-field, training, life, emotions, transfer disputes… are all components of football. So the abbreviation of the game is just to give you a as complete football world as possible. I don’t know if I can write well. To be honest, I have no confidence in this at all, but since I have already started serializing it, an ugly daughter-in-law always has a day to see her parents-in-law, so I am waiting for the guidance and criticism of all my friends with a very uneasy mood. Thank you all!