Chapter 1 The Strongest National Olympic Team in History

It wasn't blind praise when the media called this National Olympic team the "strongest National Olympic team in history." Because, in terms of player strength, this National Olympic team was indeed very strong.

Looking at the players, they had five outstanding players playing abroad, which was the key to them being the "strongest in history."

Zhou Yi, who played for Borussia Dortmund and was the team's absolute core.

Sun Pan, who performed well at Atletico Madrid and secured his position as Atletico Madrid's main goalkeeper.

Yang Muge, the main midfielder for Schalke 04.

Guo Nu, the defensive mainstay for Cesena.

He Ying, the main striker for Valladolid, the second-highest scorer in the Spanish Second Division, and the hero who helped Valladolid finally get promoted.

All five of these players were absolute starters at their respective clubs, which was rare among previous players playing abroad. In the past, if Chinese players playing abroad could be rotation players, that was considered the highest achievement, and even being a substitute was pretty good. But all five of these guys were starters, and they accounted for half of this National Olympic team.

In addition, the National Olympic team also included excellent young domestic players such as Wang Dalei, Wu Lei, and Zhang Linpeng, who were also main players in their respective clubs and had been tempered in professional leagues for a long time.

Before this National Olympic team, the strongest National Olympic team in history was the one led by Xu Genbao in 1992. Although that team ultimately suffered a black three minutes and missed the Barcelona Olympics, that team produced many stars. Hao Dong and Fan Zhiyi were undoubtedly the best in Asia in their respective positions at the time. In addition to them, Li Bin, Peng Weiguo, Xu Hong, Jiang Jing, and Hu Zhijun were also stars in the early days of the establishment of the Jia A League.

But even that team didn't have anyone who could play as a starter, or even become a core player, in a top five European league team.

So it's no exaggeration to say that this National Olympic team is the strongest National Olympic team in history. It really deserves the name.

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On July 10, the Chinese National Olympic team took the time to visit the Great Hall of the People. This was also the first time Zhou Yi and the others had entered the interior of the Great Hall of the People, to attend the establishment conference of the Chinese Olympic Sports Delegation.

Except for 1988 and 2008, the previous Olympic delegation establishment ceremonies had nothing to do with the Chinese men's football team. Compared with those famous players who had participated in many Olympic Games, Zhou Yi and the others were complete newcomers.

At the meeting, they saw many sports stars they had only seen on TV before. Although they themselves were considered stars, many players were still star-struck in front of the Olympic stars. Zhou Yi got the autograph and photo of Lin Dan, the world badminton champion, and ran back to show off to his teammates.

Everyone else had something to show for their efforts, except for Sun Pan, who looked around, frowning and not taking action.

"What are you looking at?" Zhou Yi asked.

"I'm looking for Ai Fukuhara..."

"Ai Fukuhara?" Zhou Yi was puzzled.

"Yeah, why isn't she here?"

"What do you mean, 'come'? She's Japanese!"

Sun Pan was stunned by Zhou Yi's words, and after a long while, he reacted and slapped his forehead. "Damn! I always thought she was a standard Northeasterner!"

"So you like that type of girl, Ai Fukuhara..." Zhou Yi looked at Sun Pan with a thoughtful expression.

"No, no, no!" Sun Pan quickly waved his hands. "I like all types of girls!"

"..." Zhou Yi was speechless in the face of Sun Pan's shamelessness.

Yang Muge squeezed through the crowd and returned to them.

"How did it go?" Zhou Yi asked.

Yang Muge picked up a photo and said, "I got a photo of Coach Liu."

Zhou Yi took the photo and looked at it. "Liu Guoliang?"

Yang Muge nodded. "It's a bit of a pity. I actually wanted Zhang Yining's autograph too, but she's retired..."

Many players from the National Olympic team went to ask for autographs and photos from stars of other sports. In comparison, the National Olympic team was much quieter, and no one came to ask them for autographs or photos. After all, compared to those Olympic stars, the image of Chinese football was just too far behind.

But there were exceptions.

While Zhou Yi was chatting with his friends, a tall figure suddenly appeared in the National Olympic team's ranks. He was so conspicuous that everyone stopped chatting and turned their attention to him—Sun Yang, the young swimmer who won the championship and broke the world record at the Shanghai World Championships last year.

"Hi." Sun Yang raised his hand to greet everyone, then went straight to Zhou Yi. "Zhou Yi, let's take a photo together?"

Zhou Yi pointed to himself in surprise. "Me? With me?"

"Yeah." Sun Yang grinned. "I'm your fan!"

With that, he took out his phone.

"Let me help you." Yang Muge offered. Sun Yang handed him the phone.

Then he leaned down slightly and put his arm around Zhou Yi's shoulder. The two stood together and took a photo.

After the photo, Sun Yang took the phone and gave Zhou Yi a thumbs up. "I watched your games in Dortmund, you're really super awesome! I used to think only Xavi and Pirlo could play like that, but I didn't expect that we have it in China too! Good luck at the Olympics. If I have time, I'll watch your games too!"

After saying that, he waved to the other National Olympic team players and said goodbye.

"Wow! Awesome!" As soon as Sun Yang left, a National Olympic team player exclaimed. When Sun Yang broke the world record at the World Swimming Championships last year, he was in the limelight. Even athletes from other sports had heard of his name. He was known as a genius boy in the world of swimming.

Who would have thought that he was actually a fan of Zhou Yi?

Before everyone's exclamations were over, someone else came over to take a photo with Zhou Yi. This time it was Ma Long, a player from the Chinese men's table tennis team.

After that, people came one after another to ask Zhou Yi for photos and autographs.

The teammates next to him were dazzled. At this time, many of them suddenly realized that there were actually big stars in their National Olympic team whose influence extended beyond their own sport!

This made the National Olympic team players a little proud.

Zhou Yi was indeed the number one star of the National Olympic team. Although there were five players playing abroad, the most dazzling was obviously Zhou Yi. Even in the media interviews after the establishment meeting, Zhou Yi was interviewed by the national television station as a representative of the National Olympic team.

When asked about his feelings about participating in the Olympic Games for the first time, he said, "I'm very excited and excited. I used to only watch the Olympic Games on TV, but I didn't expect that I would have the opportunity to participate in the Olympic Games myself."

This answer was actually quite appropriate.

However, his answer to the next question surprised both the reporters and his teammates.

When the reporter asked Zhou Yi what his goals or expectations were for participating in the Olympic Games for the first time, Zhou Yi smiled and said, "To compete against excellent teams and players from all over the world, and then win the championship."

After Zhou Yi finished speaking, the reporter interviewing him was stunned, and the teammates behind him were also stunned.

Except for the Five Little Dragons, everyone was stunned.

If they heard correctly, Zhou Yi just said "championship"?

"This... sorry, can you repeat that..." The reporter was also a little confused, and she confirmed with Zhou Yi.

"Yes, the championship. I hope we can win the championship at the Olympic Games. That's my personal expectation for the Olympic Games." Zhou Yi repeated, this time he said it more clearly. Everyone heard him say, "I hope we can win the championship at the Olympic Games."

Was Zhou Yi crazy?

In addition to being shocked, the reporter suddenly realized that this might be a big news, so she quickly asked, "Why would you propose such, such... such a high goal?" She was so frightened that she stammered.

Zhou Yi continued to answer the reporter's question with a smile: "I think this is a goal that is in line with the Olympic spirit, right? Higher, faster, stronger. If the gold medal is the highest goal, then we should strive for the highest goal. The Olympic Games are held once every four years, and for us football players, we only have one chance to participate in this lifetime, so of course we must strive to do our best."

"So... the goal of the gold medal is a kind of self-motivation?" the reporter asked.

Zhou Yi nodded.

Seeing Zhou Yi nod, she breathed a sigh of relief—this explanation was still normal. It didn't mean that Zhou Yi really wanted to win the championship, but that he regarded the championship as a driving force for struggle. This was much easier to accept.

The interview with Zhou Yi ended here, and Zhou Yi and his teammates were about to leave the Great Hall of the People and return to the training base in Xiangshan to continue training.

His teammates surrounded Zhou Yi on the way back: "Zhou Yi, that championship goal, were you just kidding the reporter?"

This situation was actually quite common. In front of the media, everyone would subconsciously or painstakingly say some nice things.

"No." Unexpectedly, Zhou Yi shook his head.

"Eh?!" Everyone was shocked—was Zhou Yi serious? "You're serious?!"

"Otherwise, what did you think?" Sun Pan couldn't help but ask.

For a time, everyone looked at each other, a little unable to accept it.

The Olympic gold medal!

Although everyone liked that thing, everyone knew how far away that thing was from them. Winning a gold medal at the Olympic Games was never an easy task. Even in China's traditional strong sport of table tennis, everyone was often very nervous watching.

Not to mention that football is a traditionally weak sport in China...

"Don't look at me with that expression, winning a gold medal isn't impossible. As long as we maintain our good form and perform well, I think we still have a chance." Zhou Yi said to everyone. "We are not the first Chinese team to participate in the Olympic Games, but we can be the first Chinese team to win a gold medal. Isn't that cool?"

"It's cool, but Zhou Yi, isn't the difficulty too great?"

"If it wasn't difficult, wouldn't it be boring? I think it's like this, first we have to believe in ourselves, and then we can really accomplish something that others think is impossible for us to accomplish. If even we ourselves think it's an impossible thing, how can we really achieve it? If our goal is to qualify from the group stage, then after qualifying from the group stage, will everyone think that's enough?"

Someone said, "How could that be enough? Who wouldn't want to go further?"

"Exactly!" Zhou Yi clapped his hands. "After going further, wouldn't you want to go even further if you could?"

Now everyone looked at each other, and roughly understood what Zhou Yi meant.

Zhou Yi continued, "The knockout stage is the top eight, going further is the top four, and going further... damn, isn't that the final? Since we're already in the final, why not try to win a championship?"

This rhetorical question silenced the car.

Everyone seemed to be lost in thought.

Zhou Yi didn't continue to explain. He sat down, and Sun Pan next to him leaned over and asked him, "Isn't the Olympic spirit about participation?"

Zhou Yi glanced at him: "That's just an excuse for losers to comfort themselves."