Chapter 7: Tour to China

Tang En is not from Ningbo or Zhejiang. Before traveling through time, he only visited three places in such a huge China - his hometown, a small town in southern Sichuan; the place where he went to university was Beijing, the capital of China; and the location where he graduated from university Chengdu, Sichuan Province, where he graduated from university.

Although Shanghai, Ningxia and Hangzhou belong to China, it seems to him as if it is another world. He speaks languages ​​that he cannot understand at all, eats dishes that are not as good as his taste, and has a huge difference in customs and humanities. He never thought that one day he would have the idea of ​​traveling there.

But now, with the blessing of possessing the soul, he got the opportunity to "travel publicly" and came to a place where he had just been a name symbol for him before - Ningbo City, Zhejiang Province.

Of course, he didn't really come for vacation and travel. In fact, this time he came to China, there was no strange and likable Xianya around him, but followed a large group of men.

Yes, they are all members of Nottingham Forest Club.

A year ago, Nottingham Forest Club won a large tract of land in Clifton southwest of Nottingham for building a new stadium. The city government gave strong support and allowed them to purchase the land at a lower price. Of course, there is no free lunch in the world. In return, they must do something for the Nottingham City Government.

Now, it's time to repay the government.

In essence, this trip to Nottingham Forest is a naked gold rush journey and a move by a businessman who pursues interests. But the publicity needs to be higher.

In fact, this is a cultural journey between Nottingham City in the UK and Ningbo City in China. The Nottingham Cultural Propaganda Week, which is full of friendly atmosphere, will be fully launched with the visit of European champion Nottingham Forest. Chinese in Ningbo do not have to go to the UK far away from the other side of the mainland to appreciate the most authentic English culture and British style.

The relationship between Nottingham and Ningbo dates back to 2005. In this year, the two cities signed a contract and officially formed a friendly sister city. As a gift. The University of Nottingham, which is well-known in the UK, cooperated with the Ningbo Municipal Government to clone the entire university to Ningbo and build a completely independent Nottingham University in Ningbo. All the faculty and textbooks are configured by the University of Nottingham. After students successfully graduate, they can obtain a Nottingham University diploma from the University of Nottingham method.

With these relationships, it is no surprise that Nottingham Forest visited China and settled in the city of Ningbo.

This is the result of the cooperation between the club and the municipal government. If there is no such relationship, Alan Adams will not care about any friendly sister city. He is more willing to set up the game location for his visit to China in Beijing or Shanghai. But if he takes other people's land cheaply, he will naturally have to pay some price. Fortunately, the loss here can be made up for it in other places - the Japanese's fanatical pursuit of Beckham is enough to make Allen wake up in his dreams; Southeast Asia and Hong Kong have always been the largest audience group in the Premier League in Asia, and the status of Premier League teams there is simply incomparable to other leagues.

Before coming to Ningbo, the opponent in Nottingham Forest’s game had been announced. On the day of the announcement, the opponent’s name surprised Tang En - the Chinese National Olympic Team.

This is also Alan's masterpiece.

Considering that the impact of Ningbo's competitions is too small, he decided to find an opponent with enough influence for Nottingham Forest. Nowadays, the whole of China is crazy about the Beijing Olympics held in August. What is a more convenient way to promote yourself than to take advantage of the Olympics' gust of east wind?

So he tied the line with Aide Company and the Chinese Football Association, hoping to arrange a warm-up match - to industry insiders, it was a "warm-up match" and for ordinary fans, it was a "commercial match". The opponent of the match was the Chinese National Olympic Team.

Isn’t the National Olympic Team currently preparing for the Olympics? They need a high-level opponent to be their warm-up target. Which team is more suitable than the European champion?

For the Football Association, this is a very attractive plan. First of all, they don’t have to pay out their own pockets to invite high-level foreign teams to play warm-up matches; secondly, Nottingham Forest is indeed very high, and now the whole world knows that this team is very beneficial for the Chinese national Olympic team to play against them; thirdly, European champion Nottingham Forest competes with the Olympic team hosted by the Olympic team. It is also very helpful for promoting the Olympics around the world. Since the torch relay, some Western countries have never stopped opposing the Olympics, and it has become increasingly fierce. This game should be able to convey another completely opposite voice. As long as it is under the premise of the Olympics, everything can be done.

In principle, the Football Association agreed with this proposal, but they also have their own requirements...

The Chinese Football Association hopes to participate in the sharing of income from the competition.

After hearing this proposal, Alan and the head of Ed Company looked at each other. Alan didn't understand this approach very well. But Ed Company is a professional company where foreign teams often operate commercial competitions in China. They told Alan that if you want to deal with the Chinese Football Association, you will encounter such things that are incredible to you foreigners. To be honest, this requirement is not really too much...

Only then did Allen recall what Tang En said about "What is China's national conditions". He has been going back and forth from Britain to China for half a year, and he thought that his understanding of China should be similar to Tang En. Now when he thinks about it, he realizes that he is still very far away from that guy Tony...

Allen Adams agreed to the Football Association's proposal and agreed on the specific share ratio. The Football Association, Aide Company and Nottingham Forest jointly announced that the opponent of Nottingham Forest's visit to China is the Chinese National Olympic Team.

As soon as this news came out, it immediately attracted the attention of the Chinese media and fans. The media reported on the upcoming game, introduced Nottingham Forest, promoted Nottingham Forest, and reported Nottingham Forest. Fans also expressed great interest in this game. In addition, China's national-level TV stations purchased the live broadcast rights for this game.

These are what Allen hopes to see most, and the Chinese National Olympic Team's combat plan is very successful.

Tang En had no objection to this opponent. Not only that, he felt that playing against the Chinese National Olympic Team might be the best choice. If you play against a local team in Zhejiang, Tang En would find it meaningless. Playing against those temporarily pieced together league teams will not play the role of training. Competing with a national Olympic Team that has been training for a long time is also a bit competitive.

Yes, Allen only considers economic effects, while Tang En cares about competitive value. The spellings of these two words are the same in Chinese pinyin, but they are incompatible. In professional football clubs, they are almost completely opposite.

When getting off the plane, the stars of Nottingham Forest were very warmly welcomed. The light rain couldn't stop the fans who came to the airport to wait, and there were also beautiful girls queuing under the airport gangway to offer flowers. The enthusiastic and beautiful Ningbo girl made the players of Nottingham Forest very happy. In addition to the few big stars, they were also a little reserved and had to maintain their personal image. They were younger and almost hugged each other and took a close photo.

Don Eun didn't care about them, as he thought this showed that his team was in good condition.

After taking the garland presented by the little girl, the team walked towards the airport bus parked outside the terminal. Along the way, the fans who came here heard the news were naturally warmly welcomed. From the posters and portraits held by the fans, you can intuitively understand who is the most popular person in the team.

Before coming to China, the Nottingham Forest players gathered together to bet - who would be the most popular player in China? Of course, this gambling excluded Beckham from the beginning...

Now the answer is revealed. Apart from Beckham, the most popular person, George Wood, Van der Fate, was narrowly superior.

"Wood! Wood!" The enthusiastic Chinese fans held up George Wood's poster and big-headed cartoon portrait, shouting his Chinese nickname.

Faced with the crowd that welcomed him so enthusiastically, George Wood still had a calm face and almost no smile. But everything he did could only attract higher decibel screams and more people to pursue him.

"Look! This is the star! It's really a personality!"

“The wood is so cool!!”

"But I think he is very cute-ah. Mutou! I love you!"

...

Ribery gritted her teeth and said, "It's unreasonable, zombie faces can have such high popularity..."

Fortunately, someone soon comforted him with "injured little heart". "Ribery! Ribery! Look here, look here!" Someone shouted in English.

He quickly turned his head happily, but told him to see an embarrassing scene:

A Chinese fan held up the sign, and two fans next to him pointed their fingers at the sign. It said in French: "How much does it cost to stay in Nottingham?!"

It is obviously a satirizing that he was reluctant to renew his contract with the club some time ago and was going to Real Madrid to bid 150,000 pounds.

He could only pretend that he had not seen it and turned his eyes to the gray sky.

"Is this China?" On the way from the airport to the hotel, the Nottingham Forest teammates were curiously looking at the scenery outside the window.

"Sun! Sun!" The teammates greeted Sun Jihai enthusiastically, wanting him to be a tour guide. The introduction of the scenery along the way full of the flavor of China's Jiangnan. "What is that? And that...ah, this one is so beautiful too!"

This made Sun Jihai very embarrassed. Although he was Chinese, he was not from Ningbo, or even from Jiangnan. He knew nothing about Ningbo and Jiangnan.

If you really want to explain it to your teammates, you must start with China as a big country, so big that these foreign teammates dare not think about it. This way, the topic will be overstated and it is hard to explain it clearly in just a few words.

"Ha... Actually, I know nothing about Ningbo. I rarely come here..." He could only smile dryly and talk about his predicament.

My teammates were very disappointed. I finally had a Chinese teammate inside. I thought that when I arrived at the hotel, I could take him out for shopping and spending. How great is a free local tour guide!

Tang glanced at Tang En, and Tang En quickly glared: "Don't look at me, although I am... I know nothing about Ningbo either." He almost let it go, but fortunately Chris Lak, who was sitting in front, was busy taking a DVD to shoot the scenery along the road.

There were basically not many people sitting quietly in the seats in the car. Everyone held digital cameras or DVDs toward the outside of the window. Tang En didn't do this. He was not interested in what was happening outside, anyway, he was not here to travel.

However, he turned his head and saw a tall billboard on the roadside of the airport. The background was red, and the dark patterns were players of Nottingham Forest and the National Olympic Team. The slogan on it was a bit interesting and was written in Chinese and English. Warmly welcome the European champion and Premier League champion Nottingham Forest Club to visit the game in our city!

He smiled.  It really has "Chinese characteristics". Seeing this scene makes people feel friendly...

There are several billboards like this on the roadside. In addition to these directly promoting the Forest team, there are also sponsor brands related to Nottingham Forest, as well as advertising from Ed Company, which shows that Allen has put in a lot of effort. Although the game has not started yet, the promotional battle is very beautiful. Seeing such billboards, he, the head coach of the Forest team, also feels accomplished, proud and proud.

It was drizzling in the world outside the window, but this did not affect Ningbo's image in the hearts of these foreign guests at all. Because this dynamic Jiangnan style painting seemed more interesting in the hazy rain and fog, adding to the mysterious impression of many foreigners of China, which seemed to be real and virtual, and like dreams.

After arriving at the CITIC Ningbo International Hotel where we were staying, a press conference was held in the hotel. All members of the team changed their clothes in the room and attended, which was considered to be a formal introduction to the team to all walks of life in China.

Tony Donn became the protagonist at the press conference because his love for Chinese culture has long been no longer news, and even fans know it in China.

During the entire press conference, he was communicating with the media and fans present in fluent Mandarin. Every time he won applause from everyone present, everyone applauded and cheered for his fluent Chinese and familiarity with China.

Tang En was a little regretful about this. If he was going to Chengdu, Sichuan to compete, he could also say hello to everyone in fluent Sichuan dialect...

"...I love China, I love the culture and hospitality of the people here. I feel very honored and proud to be able to lead the team to Ningbo game! I also hope to introduce the best side of China to my players. I believe that this trip to Ningbo in China will definitely be an amazing experience for my players!"

His last words won him a lot of honor.

Evan Doggetty, who was sitting in the back, smiled and clapped, and said to Alan Adams next to him: "You are still worried that he will cause trouble for you. But look at his performance, he is so perfect!"

Allen nodded, "Indeed, I have to admit that he did better than I thought. He is such a natural orator..."

The press conference ends here. Next, the players will go back to their rooms to have a rest, and then take a group ride to the banquet - a welcome dinner that the Ningbo Municipal Government welcomes them.

When some journalists and hardcore fans were still staying inside and outside the hotel lobby and unwilling to leave, Allen had found Donn: "Tony, are you available now?"

Tang En knew that Allen had to talk to him about something, but he didn't know what was going on. Could it be that Berry was a while ago?

He nodded: "I have time. Is there anything wrong, Allen?"

"Go to my room, I want to talk to you about something."

Donn glanced at Evan Dogette, who was standing behind Alan, and nodded in agreement.
Chapter completed!