Xu Zhu's Successor's Football Journey

Chapter 540 The Fun Before the Game

Ferdinand was born in West Ham United and was bought by Leeds United for a record transfer fee. Since then, he has embarked on the road to fame. In the summer of 2002, he moved to Manchester United and became England's most expensive defender.In Manchester United, Ferdinand is the absolute main force of the defense and was once considered the best central defender in the world.

Ferdinand's first signing was at West Ham United, when he was only 14 years old, and he signed an apprenticeship contract with West Ham United that year.After leaving school at the age of 16, Ferdinand ignored the invitations of other clubs and decided to stay at West Ham, so he then renewed his contract with West Ham United as an apprentice.

On January 1997, 1, Ferdinand played for West Ham United for the first time. In the same year, Ferdinand entered the England team. In the second year, Ferdinand, who was only 25 years old, became a member of the England World Cup squad.

Ferdinand can achieve such an achievement at the age of 20. His strength must not be underestimated. His strong body makes him not afraid of any opponent in defense, and his tough style makes it difficult for opponents to pass Ferdinand. In addition, Ferdinand's The offensive ability is also good, his header ability is very good, and he is good at stealing and intercepting the ball with his physical advantage.

In world football, there may be many 20-year-old forward stars, but the defense, especially the central defender, is extremely lacking in any team. Such Ferdinand will of course become the target of many teams.

Until now, Ferdinand has joined Leeds United and Manchester United with extremely high transfer fees.
While playing for West Ham United, Ferdinand played a total of 158 games and scored twice.On November 2000, 11, he moved to Leeds United for £26 million.It is worth mentioning that Ferdinand's last game for West Ham was a 1800-11 away victory over Leeds United on November 18.
At that time, the transfer fee of 1800 million pounds was the most expensive transfer figure in English football, and five months later, Ferdinand led Leeds to the quarter-finals of the Champions League.He also scored three goals in the first season, which is a very gorgeous statistic for a central defender.

In the second season of Leeds United, the team's results were not very satisfactory, but this did not affect Ferdinand's fame at all, because his personal performance has been improving. In the 2002 World Cup in Japan and South Korea, Ferdinand's performance was the best It was even more outstanding. After the game, he became the most popular transfer figure. At that time, the popularity of Ferdinand's transfer even surpassed that of Barcelona captain Figo!

In the end, Manchester United, which won the Triple Crown in 99, won the financial competition with 3000 million pounds, which made Ferdinand once again surpassed Durim, who was worth 2200 million pounds, to become the world's most expensive defender.
After joining Manchester United, Ferdinand used his excellent footwork and ability to deal with aerial attacks to stabilize Manchester United's defense. In that season, Manchester United became the team with the fewest goals conceded in the Premier League.
It is a pity that in the 2003/04 season, Ferdinand was severely fined and suspended by the English Football Association for 8 months because of the absence of a drug test. race.

This may be a small regret.

For Ferdinand, who is in his prime, he still has many opportunities, such as this World Cup in Germany.

However, at the end of the World Cup group stage, when the England team performed the strongest, Ferdinand was injured. As for the cause of the injury, it was because he sprained his ankle while climbing a mountain.

After the entire England team returned to the hotel, each player's expression was not very good. Joe Cole and Rooney lowered their heads and sullen faces, because they were the ones who initiated the mountain climbing suggestion.

As a result, a group of people went whirring, but Ferdinand was injured.

The injury of such a strong main central defender has at least reduced the defense ability of the England team by a whole notch! !

Coach McLaren of course heard the news, he set off from Nuremberg directly to the Munich hospital in a hurry.Ankle sprain, this may be just a minor injury, but this kind of injury can make Ferdinand miss at least half a month of the game. If it is more serious, this general who is more important than Terry in the backcourt may not be able to participate in the next World Cup.

This is a very serious blow to Ferdinand himself and the England team as a whole.

"It's okay, Leo will be fine." Seeing Rooney and Joe Cole's frustrated and annoyed expressions, Wang Li kept persuading.

Wang Li and Ferdinand are not familiar with each other. They are just opponents in the Premier League. When Wang Li was in the England team before, Ferdinand was directly suspended.

And now, with the two in the England squad together, Ferdinand is injured again.

The two really can't play football together.

Wang Li admires Ferdinand very much. The two have been friends for a long time. At least Wang Li thinks so, because among the defensive players Wang Li has seen, there are two opponents that he clearly remembers. Among them, one is Chelsea teammate Ricardo Carvalho, a Portuguese player who stole Wang Li once in the European Cup, and his defense caused a lot of trouble for Wang Li.

The other is Ferdinand. Although the matches between Manchester United and Chelsea always ended with Chelsea winning, Wang Li felt that Ferdinand's defense was at least as strong as two ordinary players.

It is a pity that such a player is injured.

unfortunately
It's just a pity.

Wang Li was not as unfounded as McLaren. He felt that although Ferdinand's injury would affect the team's overall strength, if he played to his full potential, no team could challenge England in the World Cup.

He is very confident in his own strength.

So what if the defense is weaker?As long as you score more goals than your opponent, you can win. This is Wang Li's point of view.

Of course, he will not say these things, after all, Ferdinand is indeed England's defense general.

And McLaren has enough reasons to be angry and worried! !

At the beginning of the World Cup, the England team was in good shape and the players were well-organized. Thanks to the joining of several young players, the whole team had a kind of vitality, and the team's strength was indeed very strong.

After two rounds of the group stage, the facts proved that the England team is indeed very strong. With the terrifying offensive ability of 14 goals in two games, they gained an absolute advantage. They qualified for the group after two games and became the first team to advance to the top 16. team.

But Lampard was injured, which was nothing. In an official World Cup match, it is normal for one or two players to be injured, but Ferdinand was injured again.

If it was a normal injury, McLaren was just worried. After all, there was nothing he could do about it, but it was an injury caused by climbing a mountain during the World Cup, which made him angry directly——
"From today until the end of the World Cup, all players are not allowed to leave the team without permission, no matter what time it is!!!"

After returning to the hotel, McLaren directly imposed such a strict rule, and took the assistant coach and translator to the press conference.

He had to announce this matter to the media, because a lot of 'gossip' had already been spread, and it was already spreading in the outside world.

At nine o'clock that night, in the lobby of the hotel where the England team stayed, head coach McClaren held a press conference impromptu and told reporters that the team's main central defender was injured and that he might not be able to participate in the next World Cup. .

However, McLaren only said that he was injured in the team's internal training. He will not let reporters know what happened inside the England team, which really damages the image of the England team.

Such news has caused heated discussions among various media. The most important thing is that Ferdinand is too important to England's defense.

If England's defense with Ferdinand can rank in the top five of the 32 teams in the World Cup, then England's defense without Ferdinand may only rank outside the eighth place. After all, Ferdinand is too important. The position is by no means something that players such as veterans Campbell, Carragher, and Phil Neville can replace.

If one McLaren was bored about this, the other was even more anxious!That is Sir Alex Ferguson, the manager of Manchester United.

After McLaren held a press conference that night, the old Sir received the news that Ferdinand was injured. At that time, he directly smashed the porcelain cup on the table and cursed loudly: "... that annoying Englishman, I knew he would hurt Manchester United players! I shouldn't have allowed Leo and Wayne Rooney into the national team!"

Then, the old jazz called Ferdinand immediately, and half an hour later, Ferguson appeared in front of the reporter with a smile on his face.

why?
Because Ferdinand's injury is not serious, he will definitely recover after a month's rest, and this month is only the World Cup match, and it will not affect Manchester United's game at all. The most important thing is that the doctor said that this injury will not cause internal injuries. It doesn't affect the state after Ferdinand at all.

News like this is what made Ferguson happy again!

"I've always felt that England couldn't play well and I've always supported their opponents."

In the follow-up interview, Ferguson gloated and said: "The Englishman (McLaren) is very lucky. After he took over the coach from the Swede (Eriksen), the England team has many outstanding talents. Those talents that even I dreamed of. But now he has bad luck, England every time, but I'm happy every time."

"It's just that Rio is injured now. I don't think England's situation is very good. Without Rio, the England team's defensive ability will be much worse. Of course, this is what I want to see."

"...I would like to see that the England team will go home after the knockout round of 16." At the end of the interview, Ferguson said.

This statement made McLaren angry and powerless.

The whole of England knows that Ferguson hates the England team the most. Now that Manchester United players are injured in the England team, the old Jazz will definitely be sympathized by the media and fans when he says this, and all the responsibility seems to be on him.

If the England team is greatly affected by Ferdinand's injury, it must be all his coach's problem, but does it really have anything to do with McLaren?
It must be, "Do I want Leo to get hurt?"

After returning to the hotel room, McLaren shouted that he finally found out that being the head coach of a national team is indeed an honor, but it is not an easy task.

Fortunately, when he walked out the door, he saw Wang Li's figure.

Seeing the dark-haired boy and Beckham walking into the room while talking, this scene made McLaren feel a lot better.

Ferdinand was injured as soon as he was injured. Anyway, the team still has players who can make up for it. As long as this black-haired kid is there, England will be guaranteed to score goals. Why don't the team worry about not getting good results?
The thought put McLaren in a much better mood.

Swedish team.

This team is an outstanding representative of the Nordic team, they come from Scandinavia.The Swedish team has always been an important force in European football.

In the 1958 World Cup held in the country, the Swedish team made great strides all the way to the final, but lost to the then thriving Brazil team and finished second. This is the most impressive record in Swedish football history.In addition, the Swedish team also won the third place in the two World Cups in 1950 and 1994.

In the past ten years, the Swedes have integrated advanced technical play into the traditional Nordic power football style, creating a precedent for the "New Nordic Style".

At present, there are many technical players in the Swedish team: the tall Ibrahimovic is said to be able to use table tennis to jump the ball, and his excellent ball feel can only be described as "horrible"; Larsson is old and strong, and he and Ibrahimovic will form an invincible combination at the forward line; Ljungberg's personal skills have been verified in the Premier League, and his breakthrough ability on the wing is also the sharpness of the Swedish team. arms.

In the last World Cup, the Swedish team achieved a good result of 13th, and this World Cup, from the perspective of Group B, the Swedish team is still very hopeful to advance to the group --- as long as they beat the England team! !

However, will the England team lose so easily?

No one knows, but everyone thinks that England will use a substitute team, McLaren is likely to train for the World Cup, so everyone is optimistic about Sweden, and the other game, the fans don't care much up.

Perhaps two days ago, McLaren was indeed considering training. He hoped that the team's substitute players could all adapt to the atmosphere of the next competition and let the main players get a rest.

But after the Ferdinand incident, McLaren changed his mind slightly. He asked all the players to follow the team to Cologne. After that, only a few "obedient" players failed to enter the squad, including Wang Li.

McLaren couldn't be more relieved about Wang Lizai.

And Rooney and others have all entered the big list. It seems that McLaren wants to let these boys settle down and stop causing troubles and causing a lot of trouble for the team.

Of course, these have nothing to do with Wang Li, because he left Cologne on this day and went to Munich International Airport - because Angela came to Germany! !
Angela didn't come here this time by hiding her identity. She came to Germany in the name of the little princess of the British royal family. This approach was obviously to prepare for their marriage in advance.

And Wang Li also had to leave the team to pick up the plane at the airport. Of course, the more important thing is that the England team no longer needs him at least in the group stage.

As the little princess of the British royal family, her influence in Europe is still very large. At least on the day of the airport pick-up, many people with status and status from all over the world came to the airport. After Angela and Wang Li met , the two received a lot of invitations, most of them came from some rich and influential families in Germany.

This made Wang Li feel very irritated, so in order to reduce the trouble, he and Angela directly took the special car prepared by the German government to Cologne——he was in the name of participating in the competition.

The England team became Wang Li's sanctuary.

As a member of the England team, it is impossible for Wang Li to stay with Angela all the time. After arranging the hotel and so on, he returned to the England team hotel one day later, because the next day was the England team and the Swedish team game.

Wang Li did not enter the big list, so he was free the next day.

So, he and Angela came to the Rhein Energy Stadium together. As a member of the England team and the little princess of the British royal family, the two of them obviously have privileges. Before the fans entered the stadium, the two of them had already been led by the staff Next, came to a VIP box, ready to enjoy the game.

Without entering the team roster, Wang Li watched the game completely as a spectator.

It is worth mentioning that during the waiting time, there were only Wang Li and Angela in the VIP box. Although the two met yesterday, under the style of the British princess and the light bulb Cole , the two obviously didn't have time to solve the sorrow of missing together.

So, during the hour of waiting, the two couldn't help completing a primitive human movement on the sofa. Before watching the game on the spot, it really makes people feel happy to perform such a movement.

After the two teams entered the field, the two put on their upper body clothes, and Angela looked out from the box.

At this time, the stadium was already surrounded by fans. This stadium can accommodate more than 6 fans, and the scene has been filled with crazy fans. Outside Wang Li's box, some fans saw Angela and Wang Li Face, they immediately shouted in that direction.

The news spread quickly, and in a blink of an eye, all the fans in the stadium knew the location of the British princess and Wang Li's box, and they shouted desperately towards it.For Europeans, the influence of the British royal family is still great. At least at the scene, there are even more fans shouting Angela's name than Wang Li.

So, in desperation, Angela could only tidy up her clothes, put on a cap and stuck her head out of the window, smiled cheerfully, and waved to everyone.

But at this moment, Wang Li, who was standing behind Angela, had a smirk on his lips, so he controlled 'Little Wang Li' and aimed at the hole and stabbed it in.
(End of this chapter)