Chapter 8: So tired

In the room on the 20th floor of the hotel, Donn and Allen were looking at each other. There was no one else in this standard room except the two of them, and they could talk about some very private topics. In fact, Allen Adams looked for Tony Donn not to reminisce about the past, but to talk about official affairs - there was almost no possibility of talking about private affairs between them.

"Is this true what you said?" Tang En's tone was full of doubt.

"You know I'm never kidding, Tony." Allen shook his head, his expression was very serious, and it really didn't seem like he was joking.

Hearing him say this, Tang En frowned.

He had never heard of such a thing, but it was truly placed in front of him.

Allen told Tang En that due to the recent domestic football environment in China, the Chinese Football Association hopes to rebuild its image through this game. Tang En almost wrote out when he heard this: "They still have an image?" So he listened to Allen's words as jokes. In fact, things about the Chinese Football Association are basically jokes, with nonsensical style, deep black humor, and of course cold jokes.

But then, what Allen said made Tang En laugh: "...They hope that we can tie the National Olympic Team in this game."

These words suddenly made Tang En frown.

Result of the scheduled match?

But technically speaking, this is not difficult. “It’s just a big rotation. I’m all on the second team. The Chinese National Olympic Team can always barely tie it? I’m also practicing…”

"No, Tony. If you are on the second team, our business game plan will be hit hard. Aid Company hopes that we will try our best to send all the main players."

"Ha?" Tang En stood up from the sofa. "Send all the main players to draw with the Chinese National Olympic Team? Are you insulting our team's strength?"

Allen waved his hand and gestured to him to sit down: "That's why I want to discuss it with you. I understand your temper, but I hope you can cooperate once, which is very important for us to open up the Chinese market. You know, in China, no matter who we work with, we can never avoid the official one..."

Tang En sat down again. He tilted his head to look at Alan Adams opposite: "You have really improved a lot from your understanding of China... I understand you."

Seeing that Tang En was not angry, Allen continued: "You can do something skillful, make the game very exciting, and you can score many goals. Then... in the second half you can start substitutions, replace the main players, try new lineups, and inspect new players. Didn't you bring a few youth teams? You can take this opportunity to observe their abilities... You are the head coach. You are more professional than me, and you should know how to do it. Then... in fact, it did not have any bad impact on our image. After all, the second team is actually the one who was tied..."

Tang En interrupted his words: "Does the Chinese National Olympic Team know about this?"

Allen shook his head: "They won't know that the Chinese Football Association's requirement for them is to work hard and carry forward..."

"Promote the style, develop the style, study hard, and summarize the experience..." Tang En helped him say it. He could recite this set of rhetoric.

Speaking of this, he suddenly thought of a dusty memory that had been away from the current ten years.

In the early stages of the professionalization of Chinese football, in addition to the emerging professional leagues awakening the enthusiasm of Chinese fans for football, there is another thing that is an important witness to that era... It can even be said to be a landmark building in an era.

That is the football business competition that has become popular in China.

From Sampdoria's visit to China in 1994, until Maradona led the Boca youth to China's "Great Wall Heroes Tour" in 1997. Chinese football has experienced a dreamlike era. "Unbeat in Workers' Sports" was the famous slogan of that era. Sampdoria, AC Milan, Arsenal, Penarol, and Gremio all lost to Chinese teams at the Workers' Stadium. During this period, the victory of foreign strong teams greatly enhanced the confidence and enthusiasm of Chinese fans, thus directly detonating the hot A-League in 1994 and 1995.

Many people are immersed in the joy of defeating world-class teams, and even believe that the level of Chinese football has reached such a high level. But when Gremio lost to China Guoan in 1996, due to the controversial punishments that were beneficial to Guoan in the game, the competitive Scolari's angry criticism at the press conference also completely shattered the beautiful vision of Chinese fans for commercial matches: "I finally understand why so many strong teams lose here. If you can only see the referee win, then I believe you will never have the right to enter the World Cup finals, never!"

Immediately afterwards, in order to prove that Scolari was definitely not venting randomly because of losing the ball, the English national team, with the full main lineup, defeated the Chinese national team three goals at the Workers' Stadium, completely allowing Chinese fans to see the essence of the commercial game.

After all, the world's strong teams come to China for money. Who will compete with a team that is behind the football country? What's more, players who play on the court have to worry that they may be injured due to the opponent's fierce movements, and their strength will naturally be greatly reduced.

As for whether the Football Association had privately traded with teams coming to China, I don’t know if the Football Association was promoted to the fight with the teams who came to China. But now, he has become the first one.

Under the Olympics, Tang En was not surprised at all. After all, the national Olympic team and the national team had scandals a while ago, and the image of Chinese football plummeted. At the beginning of the Olympics, if they could tie the world's strong teams, it would be a good stimulation to the fans and accumulating some confidence for the national Olympic team that was about to compete for the country.

From this perspective, it is understandable that the Football Association hopes that the game will be tied. After all, these people have never regarded football as football, and the laws of the football world are naturally just a fuck in their eyes. The football game in their minds should be able to obey their arrangements, whether it is the result or the process, whether it is the overall environment, the players, coaches, referees... they must obey them.

Seeing that Tang En suddenly fell silent, Allen did not continue to speak. He was waiting for Tang En to answer.

Tang En retreated from his memories, and he looked up at Allen sitting opposite him.

"Okay, Allen. I will definitely give them this face." Tang En blinked at Allen. He smiled.

Allen put down his shoulders and finally had a smile on his face.

Nottingham Forest only stays in China for five days, but there will be a lot of things waiting for them, and time is very tight. Ed Company and Allen arrange a intensive schedule for the Forest Team, which makes an ordinary person unconsciously think that these people can clone their skills?

The team attended the welcome dinner hosted by the municipal government on the night of arrival in Ningbo, and then returned to the hotel to rest.

The next morning, the team went to Ningbo Fubon Stadium for training to adapt to the venue. The training class was made public, but tickets were required to be bought to enter the venue to watch. The ticket prices ranged from 50 to 300 yuan, and the scalpers may make the tickets higher. Because Beckham is there, there are also many stars such as Van Nystruey, Van der Fate, George Wood, Frank Ribery... and many other stars, their attraction to fans is the tool for merchants to make money.

After the morning training, the team will attend a lunch meeting held by a sponsor of a sponsor in China who sponsored the event at noon. At the lunch meeting, Tang En and Allen will sign a three-year image endorsement contract with each other on behalf of the Nottingham Forest team. In the next three years, the image of the Nottingham Forest team will allow the company to conduct commercial promotion in China.

After a simple afternoon training, some people can go back to the hotel to rest, while others are busy. Beckham will attend the promotional event of a brand he endorsed. Tang was invited by China National Television to record a program to tell the story of his working and living in the Forest of Premier League champion Nottingham. George Wood and Tony Tang will attend the signing ceremony of the completion intention of the Armani store located on Yihe Avenue Commercial Street, Haishu District, Ningbo. Because both of them are the image spokespersons of Armani, today they are just signing the contract agreement. The store is really about to be completed and meet consumers and will have to wait until April next year.

Players don’t have to attend any event this night, and they have a random time to arrange their time. I believe that most people will choose to go out shopping together. But even so, they can’t be much more relaxed. It’s also because there will be multiple media followers along the way, reporting on how they consume shopping places, the next day, it appears on TV, newspapers, the Internet and other media platforms.

Tang En, on the other hand, had to follow the senior executives of the two clubs, Evan and Allen, to attend a celebrity party. This kind of event is what Tang En is the worst at, but he could not refuse.

There was no training on the third morning, and all the players had to change clothes to visit the Ningbo branch of the University of Nottingham located in Ningbo Higher Education Park. On the school stadium, the players would play a small game with local college students. For example, Beckham teaches free kicks and selects five people to play a simple 55 match with college students...

After having a simple lunch at noon, the team returned to Fubon Stadium in the afternoon to continue to conduct public training. Fans who bought tickets for the last day can enter the venue directly with the tickets, and those who lost or did not buy them will have to buy tickets again.

After the training, the players must immediately rush to Ningbo Enmei Welfare Institute to interact with the orphans there, give gifts, and dedicate their love.

In the evening. After having a simple supper in the car, the team had to rush to the TV station and record the program with the selected lucky fans, which took about three and a half hours to four hours. When these people returned to the hotel exhausted, it was already late at night.

The training continued at Fubon Stadium on the morning of the fourth day, but this training was not made public.                                                                                                                   �

After lunch in the afternoon, the players took a lunch break in the hotel. Prepare for the evening game. And Tony Tangen must attend a press conference. This is the press conference to announce the partnership between Nottingham Forest and the local professional football club Greentown of Zhejiang Province.

In fact, to put it bluntly, Greentown became the Forest team's satellite club in China.

This is a major event involving football in Zhejiang Province. Tang En must attend.

After a simple dinner at night, the team will take a car to Fubon Stadium. The highlight of the trip to China finally came - the Chinese National Olympic Team played a warm-up match at Fubon Stadium, Ningbo City, where they trained for several months.

Since Nottingham Forest won the Champions League for two consecutive years, it won the league championship this year and achieved a double championship.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                �

Aide's company operated in the past few years. When Real Madrid visited China for the second time, it lost its wife and soldiers. This time they finally made a profit from Nottingham Forest.

Early in the morning of the fifth day, Nottingham Forest will pack up and fly directly from Ningbo Lishe International Airport to Tokyo, Japan. They started their crazily making money in Japan for four days and four nights.

Just like the schedule above you have seen, these days have never been a difficult test for players - I was wrong, Beckham has had such an experience, so he is still very comfortable to deal with it - the others are much more miserable, and they are all as tired as dogs.

In front of people, under the spotlight, under the camera lens, and under the full attention of the media, they face various occasions with a smile, and they are tirelessly signing fans to meet their requirements for taking photos. Carefully and cautiously maintain their image in the public's mind.

When showing love in the welfare home, everyone was very serious, and no one was perfunctory because he was too tired. This was what made Done proudest. Especially Beckham, he was simply the best role model for other teammates. No matter how many people lingered him around him, no matter what requests the fans made, he always smiled and tried his best to satisfy himself. He had never seen him show an impatient expression when he was being watched because of fatigue.

In the welfare home, he, who is the most famous, is also welcomed by the most children. In front of children with abnormal intelligence and disabled people, he treats them like his own children.

George Wood was a little clumsy, but he worked very hard.

Only on the way to the TV station did these players have time to eat. But many people had no appetite to eat. After getting in the car, fans and reporters waved to the children who were seeing them off outside the window. When the car finally drove out of people's sight, these dedicated "actors" fell asleep one by one on the back of the seat.

Several years later, what can the only thing that remains in their minds when these stars recall their trip to China in the summer of 2008?

Tired?
Chapter completed!