Chapter 201 Five Little Dragons

For Chinese fans, there were several news stories in the summer of 2011 that demanded attention.

And what was rare was that these news stories had nothing to do with Zhou Yi, or so it seemed… In fact, these news stories were insignificant and not worth mentioning in the entire European football scene. However, for Chinese fans and Chinese football, they might have extraordinary significance—

Atletico Madrid announced that they had reached a loan agreement with Chelsea to loan nineteen-year-old goalkeeper Sun Pan from Chelsea for two years. Sun Pan would represent Atletico Madrid's first team in the La Liga in the new season.

Barcelona issued a routine press release, informing that the following players would be leaving La Masia, some through transfers and some through loans, and He Ying's name was among them. In the player destination column, it read "Valladolid", and the departure method was "loan".

In addition, a reporter found Yang Muge's photo and introduction in the preseason training roster for the first team of Schalke 04 while browsing the official website of Schalke 04.

In China, the media gave these five people, who went abroad to study abroad together because of a reality show, a collective name: "Five Little Dragons."

Now, it seemed that these Five Little Dragons were finally about to take off together.

They entered the public's field of vision through different channels.

But wait… it seemed that someone was forgotten?

In mid-July, Inter Milan officially confirmed that they had reached an agreement with Cesena to officially buy out Japanese fullback Yuto Nagatomo, who was loaned during the winter break last season. The team's coach, Leonardo, revealed on the website that he hoped Nagatomo would participate in the Copa America with enough energy and wisdom, and try to maintain enough physical strength and passion after the Copa America.

Obviously, Nagatomo was already an indispensable member of Leonardo's plans for the new season.

The media disclosed that Nagatomo's transfer fee to Inter Milan was 4.5 million, which was 500,000 more than the 4 million preferential buyout amount agreed upon by the two teams.

But in fact, Inter Milan only paid 4.25 million in cash, and the remaining 250,000 in cash was offset by player transactions.

The add-on to Nagatomo's transfer deal was a person who Chinese fans were not familiar with but not unfamiliar with—Guo Nu.

Guo Nu, who performed well in Inter Milan's youth team, was not recruited into the first team after showing his talent. On the one hand, perhaps Inter Milan's first team believed that his strength was still far from the requirements of the first team, and on the other hand, it might also be related to the fact that Inter Milan's first team was not short of people in the defense line, especially in the center back position.

However, Inter Milan did not give everything to Cesena, they only transferred half of Guo Nu's ownership to Cesena, and at the same time allowed Guo Nu to represent Cesena in the game.

"Old Guo, you actually became an add-on for the Japs!" In the group chat, Sun Pan was mocking Guo Nu, who was the last to determine his future.

"So what? It's better to have a game to play than anything else!" Guo Nu retorted.

"That's right, be realistic, it doesn't matter who you are an add-on for, as long as you have a game to play." Zhou Yi also rarely defended Guo Nu.

"Zhou Yi understands me!" Guo Nu said triumphantly.

But as soon as he finished speaking, Zhou Yi said, "But Old Guo, how come your worth is 250,000 euros? 250 grand, Inter Milan's pricing is simply a blatant personal attack. They're calling you a 250!" (T/N: 250 in Chinese is an insult that means idiot)

"Pfft!" Sun Pan laughed.

"Haha!" He Ying also laughed.

"What 250?" Guo Nu refused to accept it, and angrily denounced Zhou Yi's fallacious arguments, which were simply deafening. "I only gave half of the ownership to Cesena, it's only half a 250, okay?!"

"Okay!" Zhou Yi immediately replied below.

"Damn…" Guo Nu finally reacted, and quickly sent an expression of covering his face and smiling bitterly with tears. At this moment, facing Zhou Yi, who was as cunning as a fox, he could only fully express his inner feelings with this expression.

"A ha ha ha ha!" Sun Pan laughed and rolled around in the group chat.

"Old Guo, you…" He Ying couldn't help it either.

Yang Muge corrected Guo Nu with a smile: "Old Guo, you can just say that your worth is 500,000, why say that you are half a 250…"

After a series of jokes, everyone began to look forward to their new season.

Basically, they were all looking forward to how they could become the main players in the team, perform well, get promoted and get a raise, and reach the peak of their lives.

In the end, Yang Muge was still calmer, and said to everyone: "Except for Zhou Yi, in fact, none of us have determined whether we can play in the real first team game in the new season. So everyone has to work hard! If there is an opportunity, don't let it go, seize it!"

He shared the words that Hao Junmin gave him with everyone.

"Yes, everyone, work hard. Strive for all of us to go to London for a spree next year!" Zhou Yi also said.

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The Four Little Dragons, except for Zhou Yi, seemed to suddenly appear from the dark and muddy silt and be discovered by everyone.

Before, everyone knew very little about their performance in the club. Domestic broadcasts of youth team-level matches were impossible.

And now, they could look forward to seeing more Chinese players in the new season.

Sun Pan was in Atletico Madrid, Yang Muge was in Schalke 04, and Guo Nu was in Cesena. La Liga, Bundesliga, and Serie A would all be broadcasted live for free in China.

As long as they could play in the game, they would not be afraid of not seeing it.

The only difficult one was probably He Ying. He went to a Serie B team from Barcelona's youth training camp. There was no broadcast of the Serie B league in China. Many people did not quite understand why He Ying, who was originally the most talented and promising among these five people, seemed to be the worst off now?

Before Zhou Yi, he was the star of hope for Chinese football in the 90s age group.

Going to La Masia was also more lively than Zhou Yi going to Dortmund. Everyone hoped that he could become the first Chinese player to wear a Barcelona jersey and fight in the Camp Nou.

But two years had passed, and he was loaned to a Serie B team. Was this a decline?

Would a star of hope fall here?

Faced with the disturbances from the outside world, He Ying was very calm in his heart. Because he already knew what the goal was, and what kind of path he had to take before reaching this goal. He was prepared and did not think that playing in a lower-level league was willingly degenerating. Sun Pan could shine in the third-level league in Germany and become famous in one battle, why couldn't he?

※※※

When everyone's future began to gradually become clear, Dortmund welcomed their first official game of the new season on July 24.

German Super Cup, Dortmund vs. Schalke 04.

The German Super Cup was a very young event. Since its inception in 1977, it had only been held sixteen times by now, because there were many times when the Super Cup was not held every year. For example, there was a four-year gap between the first and second Super Cups. In the middle, the Super Cup disappeared for more than ten years and became the German League Cup. It was not until 2008, due to the European Cup, that the German League Cup was cancelled and the German Super Cup was restored.

And there were some times when this cup was not recognized by the German Football Association as an official game. It was not until 2010 that the German Super Cup was rewritten and accepted by the German Football Association, becoming an official competition.

In the history of the German Super Cup, Bayern Munich and Dortmund were the most successful teams, with four titles each. And Hamburg was the unluckiest team, participating in the Super Cup three times in history, but never winning a title.

Schalke 04 participated in the Super Cup for the first time last year, and lost to Bayern Munich 0:2.

Last season, they finally won the German Cup and qualified for the new season's Super Cup.

This was a Ruhr derby in the Super Cup, and it was also the first time in the history of the Super Cup that such a situation had occurred.

The day before the Super Cup, the Chinese team without Zhou Yi welcomed their first game of the World Cup qualifiers at home, their opponent was Laos. When everyone thought that the Chinese team would easily defeat Laos, the Chinese team was slow to get into the state, and even trailed Laos 1:2 in the first half, until the second half when they woke up like a dream and finally defeated Laos 7:2.

It was originally a game without any suspense, but it almost created suspense, and one could not help but worry about the performance of this Chinese team without Zhou Yi. They worried whether the national team was too dependent on Zhou Yi… What if Zhou Yi was injured or unable to play?

And those who were worried about the unsatisfactory performance of the Chinese team in this game could pay attention to the German Super Cup. Maybe they could find some answers from it.

Because in this game, two Chinese players entered the game's roster.

Of course, Zhou Yi was on Dortmund's side. And on Schalke 04's side, what was surprising was that Yang Muge's name appeared on the roster!