Chapter 1 A Peaceful Reunion

At the Lianhai Airport in Dragon Country, after discussing with Zhao Gang, Peilan had already departed with the team, separating from him.

Now, Zhao Gang sat in the car, driven by his father, Zhao Ziyou.

Forty years old, wearing gold-rimmed glasses, refined and gentle.

As soon as Zhao Gang got off the plane, he saw Zhao Ziyou nodding at him, a smile on his face, and then the two didn't exchange a word.

This slightly relaxed Zhao Gang, who was so nervous that his palms were sweating.

He simply didn't know what to say to the other man, let alone utter the word, "Dad."

For Zhao Gang, it had been more than thirty years since he had seen his father, and the father before him was exactly as he remembered.

Gentle and calm, taciturn, and never showing a hint of excitement, no matter what happened.

"How have you been?" Zhao Ziyou spoke first.

"Ah... um, I'm quite used to it." Zhao Gang shrank in the back corner, secretly watching Zhao Ziyou.

"Good to be used to it... um... be sure to tell me if you don't have enough money." Zhao Ziyou wasn't good at expressing himself, as if he could only feel a sense of presence by spending money on his son.

Zhao Gang wasn't short of money now, and he didn't know how to respond to these words.

The two fell into silence again.

Fortunately, half an hour later, they arrived home.

Zhao Gang looked at the familiar neighborhood, his mind wandering, just like he remembered.

The father and son went upstairs, and Jiang Ping opened the door. Seeing her son, excitement and joy instantly filled the entire corridor.

"Oh, my precious son!" Jiang Ping looked up at Zhao Gang, hugged his neck, and kissed his forehead repeatedly.

"My precious son is back!"

Zhao Gang looked at the familiar yet unfamiliar face, his whole body stiffening.

He trembled, raising and lowering his hand, not daring to hug her.

Watching Jiang Ping happily on the verge of tears, listening to her joyful calls, Zhao Gang's eyes turned red, and tears welled up.

"Son, son, why are you crying?

Did you have a bad time in England? Did someone bully you?

I told you that you were too young to go to England, but you just had to... your dad had to let you go! We won't go in the future! We'll stay here from now on, and I'll curse whoever dares to bully you to death!" Jiang Ping looked at her son nervously. She knew her son well; he was mischievous and only cried when he was beaten. When else had he ever cried?

Zhao Ziyou stood on the side, shaking his head helplessly. He was the one who cried and insisted on going, and we both agreed.

Now you're blaming me?

"No, no one bullied me, I... I just missed you too much." Zhao Gang wiped away his tears, and Jiang Ping was stunned by his words.

Her son had really grown up and become sensible.

He could say such things now.

He would never have said that before.

Even if he really missed her, he wouldn't have said it.

His personality was just like his dad's; he didn't express his feelings.

"I'm sorry, I used to be so ignorant..."

"What are you saying, son? You don't need to apologize to your mom.

Mom is the closest person to you. You never have to apologize to Mom, understand?"

Jiang Ping hugged Zhao Gang's shoulders, and Zhao Gang closed his eyes, tears streaming down his face, nodding vigorously while gritting his teeth.

"Come in, come in, rest and then eat!" Jiang Ping knew her son. When he came home from school by car, he always rested for a while before eating.

Zhao Gang entered his room, everything was so familiar yet unfamiliar.

The posters on the wall, Maradona, Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Beckham, Messi, C Luo, Henry, and so on.

He even found a diary.

It was filled with the youth, throbbing, and dreams of a teenager.

"Become a world-class star!"

"Defeat Messi and C Luo!!"

"Lead Dragon Country to win the Asian Cup!"

"Lead Dragon Country into the World Cup!"

…

These dreams were just dreams for the teenager.

No matter how hard he tried, it was impossible to achieve them.

"I don't even know where you are now, I hope you are well. I will take good care of our parents and make them proud of us.

Your dream is my dream, and we will achieve it together."

Zhao Gang flipped to the last page of the diary, "I will definitely marry Chi Meiya!"

Forget that dream, I don't even know her, brother.

Zhao Gang had this Zhao Gang's memories, knowing that Chi Meiya was his goddess, but their personalities were similar, and at this age, they were too embarrassed to express their feelings easily.

They only dared to write it in their diaries.

Zhao Gang lay down on the bed, the meeting was easier and happier than he had imagined.

Difficult things, too much thinking, too many plans are useless, only by experiencing them will you find that there is no difficulty in this world that cannot be faced.

The excited Jiang Ping even jumped up in the living room, but her voice was soft, for fear of waking her son.

Zhao Ziyou sat there, looking disgusted, "What are you doing? Can you be normal? Getting so excited?"

Jiang Ping stopped, put her hands on her hips, frowned and stared at Zhao Ziyou.

Hey, pretending so well.

I don't know who it was, who never watched football before, and then begged everyone, looking for pirated links online to watch Norwich's games.

He pretended to be refined all his life, and when he saw someone tackling his son, he cursed and swore, wishing he could rip the person apart.

In the end, he directly cursed the English as hooligans who didn't know how to play football!

Later, when the country had broadcasting rights, he checked the information in advance and printed out Norwich's game schedule.

On the day of the game, he stayed in front of the TV two hours early, not even fishing.

After scolding the players, he scolded the broadcast.

"Don't you know what the Dragon Country people want to watch? Do you think broadcasting others will get you ratings? Put the camera on Xiaogang! Show him... you... you can't just show whoever has the ball! Do you even know how to broadcast?! If I were your boss, I would have fired you right away!!"

Seeing the cheers of the audience and fans, listening to them shouting Zhao, he smiled foolishly at the TV like Wu Laoer, the neighbor with cerebral thrombosis, had he forgotten that that was his son?

Now that his son was back, he was pretending to be profound again?

"Why do I find you so annoying?"

"I don't bother arguing with a woman like you."

"Hurry up and get lost, go fishing! Don't stay at home!"

"I'm not going, I still have to watch Xiaogang eat the fish I caught!"

…

After staying at home for two days, Zhao Gang calmed down.

Zhao Gang found the gym downstairs.

It wasn't as good as a professional training field, but it was barely enough for physical training.

At least he had to maintain his condition.

He also wanted to find a football field to train, but... none of them were open to the public.

Going to the open field at the university was all plastic artificial turf, which wasn't suitable at all.

In the end, he could only train on his own.

At this time, news about Zhao Gang's transfer began to appear in various media, and online discussions began to heat up.

England Championship League Best Player.

This honor wasn't much, after all, the Championship was just the second tier league in England.

However, Zhao Gang was only eighteen years old, and his true professional career was less than a season!

This was quite remarkable.

And the Europa League Best Player, Golden Boot.

Seemed not too dazzling for some wealthy clubs.

However, it was a miracle that Zhao Gang could win these two honors.

Norwich, not to mention wealthy clubs, even calling them strong teams was a stretch; they were probably just a third-rate team in Europe!

As the core player, Zhao Gang had single-handedly brought such a third-rate team to the top of the Europa League!

Even Messi and C Luo might not be able to do that.

Therefore, Zhao Gang not only represented huge potential and the future.

He had already become a quite powerful immediate force.

A large number of interested teams were waving their checks, wanting to take Zhao Gang away.

However, Chelsea's Abramovich waved his hand, offering forty-five million pounds, plus nearly twenty million pounds in floating clauses, making some clubs flinch.

Not only could they not match the transfer fee, but the club itself was not as attractive as Chelsea. Why would they gain the favor of this newly promoted Europa League Best Player?

Those clubs that thought they could use Zhao Gang as a stepping stone, let Zhao Gang play for a season, and then sell him for a high price had given up.

It seemed that Zhao Gang didn't need some mid-level clubs as stepping stones anymore.

Many Chelsea fans had already begun to look forward to the scene of having Zhao Gang next season.

He could lead a team like Norwich to reign supreme at Old Trafford, making Arsenal fans stand up and applaud.

With Chelsea's configuration, wouldn't they beat Arsenal and Manchester United until they cried for their parents and begged for mercy?

Moreover, throughout the entire summer transfer window so far, Chelsea hadn't made any major signings, which seemed to indicate that they had reached an agreement with Zhao Gang!

On the other side, Peilan, who had finally reached a cooperation with Ta An Sports, had been constantly receiving calls from various clubs and even agent friends these days.

They wanted to discuss Zhao Gang's transfer with Peilan.

Peilan could only play dumb, telling the other party that Zhao Gang was accompanying his family in Dragon Country on vacation!

They would deal with the transfer when they returned to England.

After all, there were still more than a month, almost two months, before the end of the transfer window!

What was the rush?

A few days later, Li Li, the boss of Ta An Sports, personally went to Lianhai and had a meal with Zhao Gang.

And finally confirmed the cooperative relationship and signed the contract.

The accompanying staff kept taking photos of the boss and Zhao Gang, as well as Peilan, of course.

There was a very harsh clause for Ta An Sports.

They must set up a professional shoe-making department before the start of the new season, and promise that if the shoes made for Zhao Gang affect his performance in the game, Zhao Gang can temporarily choose other brands on the field. Of course, in other commercial public occasions, Zhao Gang still needs to wear the products prepared by Ta An Sports.

"All the technology is world-class!" Li Li was beaming, and even brought technicians poached from Adidas during the meal.

Zhao Gang had a very good impression of Li Li.

He was a true self-made man, and the three million pounds he offered at the beginning was already quite top-tier.

As a national entrepreneur, Li Li was a very conscientious and responsible businessman.

In fact, if Zhao Gang wasn't interested in Ta An Sports, Peilan would have taken the initiative to contact those two sports giants long ago, regardless of the amount of money. For Zhao Gang's future business map, Ta An Sports was definitely incomparable to those two companies.

"Haha, happy cooperation! I believe you will become a world-class star! Our cooperation must be a win-win!"

As soon as Li Li left Lianhai, the sports headlines of Dragon Country were almost bought out by Ta An.

Li Li's boldness and courage were indeed beyond the reach of ordinary people.

"Fifteen million pounds for three years, Ta An Sports officially signs Zhao Gang, becoming the ultimate winner!!"

"Hiss..."

The fans who saw this news couldn't believe their eyes.

Five million pounds a year.

This was definitely a world-class superstar's endorsement price!

Although Zhao Gang had already proven himself in the Europa League, that was a cup competition, with randomness and luck.

He hadn't made a name for himself in a top league at all.

Ta An Sports was crazy, how dare they offer this price?

"Is Zhao Gang that valuable now? Those stars, a weekly salary of one hundred thousand pounds is already sky-high, but Ta An Sports is giving Zhao Gang an endorsement fee of five million pounds a year?"

"Yeah, Zhao Gang is just a Championship player, and he's only played for a year! Is Ta An Sports crazy, daring to gamble like this?"

"Hey, I feel that Zhao Gang and Ta An's cooperation is likely to be a lose-lose situation! Ta An is spending so much money and will probably lose money. Zhao Gang didn't choose those two companies, which will have a big impact on his future honors."

"What impact can signing an endorsement have??"

"There are a lot of things involved. Zhao Gang shouldn't be short of money. Choosing Ta An is probably due to national sentiment."

"What do you mean he's not short of money, he just wants the money! Those two companies can't give him that much. I didn't expect Zhao Gang to be so mercenary at this age, he won't have any future prospects!"

"That's right, too tasteless, he chose a domestic product, he has no ambition, Adidas and Nike are what stars wear!

Choosing a trashy Ta An, he's obviously a country bumpkin, with a small-farmer mentality, he's done for, I'll never pay attention to him again!"

"I'll bet there's a 50 center! How long have you been kneeling? Are your legs numb? You can't even stand up, can you?"

"Too f***ing stupid, there were rumors before that the signing conditions of those two companies were ten years minimum, they were planning to lock Zhao Gang in directly, and the price was quite low! They're just taking advantage of their size.

Now, Ta An is so sincere, why can't Zhao Gang choose them?"

"What a piece of trash, does Zhao Gang need a fan like you? Does he need your attention? You can barely afford a pair of Adidas after saving for a year, and you treat them like a god!"

People online were arguing fiercely, and this endorsement sparked a brand war between domestic and foreign goods.

Some people also believed that Zhao Gang wasn't worth this price, and Ta An paid such a high price to sign him because of his Dragon Country identity.

Based on Zhao Gang's current performance, one or two million a year was about right.

The prices offered by those two companies were more in line with his worth.

Ta An Sports had been fooled by Zhao Gang and Peilan!

About a week later, this massive online flame war stopped instantly.

Because an even more explosive news directly swept across the entire sports sector like a flood.

Those who felt that Ta An Sports' offer was too high and that Li Li was a bit dizzy instantly stopped talking.

"Seventy million pounds, Norwich's core joins Manchester City!!"

Even Dragon Country fans who supported Zhao Gang were briefly stunned by this news.

If it wasn't officially announced by Manchester City, with Zhao Gang's signed photo, and his photo with Guardiola, no one would believe it.

Seventy million pounds, ninety-six million euros!

Exceeded the highest transfer fee that Chelsea could reach!

A transfer fee on par with C Luo!

Although in recent seasons, money football had begun to run rampant, this price was still unbelievable.

"Um... are the self-media starting to run wild, making things up? Did they even Photoshop Zhao Gang and Guardiola's photo?"

"Doesn't look like a Photoshop, they probably Photoshopped the transfer fee. Zhao Gang's transfer value seems to be around thirty-five million."

"It's really scary, but it's true, announced by Manchester City!!"

"Haha, haha... the transfer value of a Dragon Country player... I can see this happen in my lifetime! Manchester City is so f***ing rich..."