There is a belief called football

Chapter 4 Why do you play football?
After sitting on the train for more than 10 hours, Li Qiao finally arrived in Guangzhou. As soon as he got out of the station, Li Qiao saw a tall foreigner holding a board with "Guangzhou Tianbao Football School" written on it. Li Qiao guessed that it should pick him up.

Li Qiao went over to say hello to the other party, "Hello, I'm Li Qiao", and then took out the admission materials. The other party took it and looked at it, then stretched out his hand and said, "I am your coach "Stankovic", you can also call me Stan."

"Hi Coach Stan",
The other party smiled and said, "Let's go, I'll take you to meet your life coach."

It turns out that there are two coaches in one class of Guangzhou Tianbao Football School. The foreign coach is in charge of football teaching, and the Chinese coach is the assistant coach and manages the life of the students.

When I came to a black Passat, I saw a tall and dark Chinese man wearing sunglasses standing there. Li Qiao went up to say hello, "Hi, coach."

"My name is Shi Mo, your name is Li Qiao."

"Yes, Coach Stone."

Gossip aside, the three of them drove to the school base, and Li Qiao saw the huge dome on the school building from a distance, which was in a Western style, and the whole school gave people the impression of grandeur.

"Coach Shi, are all our schools western-style buildings?"

"No, the combination of Chinese and Western, just like the coaches here, there are foreigners and Chinese."

Li Qiao glanced sideways at Stan, wondering if he could ask which country he was from, and finally summoned up the courage to ask, "Coach Stan, which country are you from?"

"Yugoslavia, now Serbia".

It turns out that coach Stan is 40 years old this year. He used to be an excellent player in Yugoslavia, but he retired due to injury at the age of 28, and has been engaged in youth training since then.

"Football in Yugoslavia used to be very good," Li Qiao said.

Stan said proudly: "It's not bad now, Serbia still has many excellent players."

Coach Shi said while driving: "I remember when I was young, Yugoslavia's "Belgrade Red Star" was just like the current Barcelona, ​​sweeping Europe."

"Coach Shi, you were also very good before," Li Qiao said.

"Haha, no, I haven't played football, I'm just a coach."

"Then you are the same as Mourinho," Li Qiao said. At this time, Stan and Coach Shi laughed at the same time.

Chatting and chatting, they have already arrived at the school gate. After Coach Shi routinely showed his credentials, the school's big iron gate slowly opened.

Li Qiao didn't know how long he had been waiting for the world behind this gate. For Li Qiao, it was a dream, a hope, a future, and the expectation of his parents.

Li Qiao thought: "It's finally here."

Coach Shi took Li Qiao to the dormitory building, and then told Li Qiao to gather in the teaching building at 1:[-] in the afternoon. Li Qiao asked, "Which classroom"?
"The door with the Marseille logo written on it".

Later, Li Qiao realized that Tianbao Football School has five grades, the lowest grade only recruits children aged 5 to 8, each grade has 10 classes, and each class has 20 students, and the class names are named after the teams of the five major leagues.

The name of the first-year class is randomly assigned. From the second grade, the class name can be selected. The order of selection is determined according to the league results of the previous year. That is to say, when No. 1 in the first-year league is promoted to the second grade, the first choice is the class name. For example, you can choose Juventus, AC Milan, No. 2 in the remaining 19 teams, and so on.

Everything in Tianbao Football School is based on strength and performance. Every year, scouts from all over the world come to the school to observe secretly. Players who perform well may be taken to Europe in the second or third year.

Of course, most players are signed by domestic teams after graduating from the fifth grade. If there is no team after the fifth grade, they can only give up the road of football, go to high school, and take the college entrance examination in the future.

Li Qiao came to the dormitory with his luggage on his back, and saw that someone was already inside, so he knocked on the half-open door, and the person inside immediately turned around, smiling brightly, "Come, I'll help you", and accepted Li Qiao's salute without any hassle.
"My name is Qi Bing, from Shandong, 8 years old",
Li Qiao saw that although the other party was younger than him, he was still taller than him, "My name is Li Qiao, from Zhejiang, and I am 10 years old this year."

"Hey, here's the rule, which player and team do you like the most, first report the name."

Li Qiao thought this is a rule you made up yourself, but Li Qiao has a free and easy personality, so he said: "I like Baggio, and the clubs are Inter Milan and Bayern Munich."

"And you"?
Qi Bing said: "I like the De Boer brothers. My favorite club is Ajax. My future dream is to play football in the Netherlands."

"Have ambition, Ronaldo's first stop is the Netherlands, and many great stars' first stop is the Netherlands."

Qi Bing smiled and said, "I like Total Football in Dutch football."

"What about you, why do you like Baggio? Do you want to learn from Baggio's melancholy and go to MM?"
Li Qiao laughed and said: "Baqiao doesn't pick up MMs, all MMs like Baqiao".

Qi Bing thought Li Qiao was funny, so he also smiled, and with that smile, the two formed a lifelong friendship.

When the two were talking and laughing happily, a foreigner with a high nose came in, and he was very shy. When he saw Li Qiao, Qi Bing just said: "Hello".

Li Qiao thought: "There are foreign students"?
It turns out that Guangzhou is an international metropolis, and many foreigners work in Guangzhou, so many people send their children to Tianbaolai.

"Hi, where are you from?" Qi Bing took the initiative to strike up a conversation.

"I'm Argentinian",
"You are not in the youth training in Argentina, come here"?
"I have been in River Plate's youth training for 2 years, and this year my parents came to work in Guangzhou, so I had to follow," he shrugged.

Li Qiao thought to himself, what a guy, he turned out to be a top student in the football circle.

Seeing that both of them were stunned, the foreign boy took the initiative to say: "My name is Sandro".

After the 3 people introduced each other, Qi Bing said: "Let's play a game. If we want to talk about our favorite players and teams, would you like to participate?"
Sandro was very refreshing. At this time, he had lost his shyness when he first entered the goal, and said: "My favorite player is "Caniggia", and my favorite team is River Plate."

"Then will you join River Plate in the future?"
"I don't know, but I think the last team of my career must be River Plate."

While talking lively, a person came in from outside the door. The three of them saw that it was a fat man. Qi Bing was the fastest and said: "You are so fat and you can play football"?
The other party was upset and said: "Hey, hey, what's the attitude? There are many slightly stronger stars in history, such as Chilavert."

Qi Bing nodded and said, "That's right, this figure can only be used as a goalkeeper."

Li Qiao and Sandro went up to shake hands with each other, and the other party said: "Our friends from Zhejiang and Argentina are more knowledgeable."

"My name is Qi Rate, from Hainan."

Qi Bing said: "My surname is also Qi, and Chilavert is really a family." After speaking, the four of them laughed at the same time.

In the afternoon, 4 people found the first-grade "Marseille" class. When they went in, they found that many people had already come, and it didn't take long for 23 people to arrive. Tianbao Football School has strict discipline, so no one dared to be late.

Just after 1:[-], Coach Stan and Coach Shi came to the classroom on time. Coach and students stood up and said hello to each other.

Coach Shi began to speak: "I don't talk about all the rules and regulations of the school. They are all in the handbook I sent to you. There is only one point. Those who violate the rules will not be tolerated by the school rules. I suggest that you do not defy the law by yourself."

"Okay, you can ask any questions you have now."

Qi raised his hand and asked, "How do you determine everyone's position on the field? Is it a lottery?" As soon as the words fell, everyone laughed, even Stan on the podium.

"This question is very good. The position on the court is divided into two parts. The coach's suggestion and your own choice. The coach's suggestion will be based on your characteristics and performance in normal times. After one semester, he will suggest you which position to play. Your own choice is based on the 1-meter score, No. [-] is the first choice, and so on."

In fact, this method is unscientific. After all, football is not track and field, and running fast does not mean everything, but this method is very fair. For newcomers, fairness is more important than everything else.

Qi led to ask: "When will the [-]-meter test be conducted?"

Coach Shi said loudly: "Tomorrow morning", when everyone heard that the big exam was just entering the school, they didn't let anyone take a breather, and their hearts beat.

The second question was from Qi Bing, "The school handbook says that the school's teaching is usually training and weekend league matches. When will the first league match be held? Is there a warm-up match before that?"

"Your second question is very easy to answer, the answer is no, your first question, the first league game is next week weekend."

Li Qiao thought that from today's Wednesday to about 10 days into next weekend, the people here look very powerful. Thinking of this, he couldn't help but feel agitated.

"Any more questions?" Coach Shi asked loudly.

After that, some people asked questions one after another.For example, the issue of scholarships, such as when the scouts will come.

About an hour later, seeing that no one asked questions, Coach Shi said: "Let's ask Coach Stan to tell you about football philosophy."

Stan walked to the middle and made a joke first: "Hello everyone, I have been in China for a long time, and I can be regarded as a Chinese. You don't need to treat me differently in the future. In fact, maybe my Chinese is more standard than many of you." Everyone smiled slightly.

Then Stan asks: "What do you play football for?"
Everyone has an answer to this question, but no one is ashamed to say it. Stan smiled, "I guess it's because of the two M's."
Everyone was stunned, and Stan continued: "money and MM".

Many people laughed, and Stan laughed too, saying: "I remember when I had my first football lesson in Yugoslavia, my coach asked me the same question, because Yugoslavia was very poor at that time, and many of our children played football to go to Western Europe."

"For many, many years, I played football just like many of you, for money and for a better life. It wasn't until the moment I was injured and had to retire that I realized that football is not just about money, but an inseparable part of my life, which has become my belief."

Speaking of which, the atmosphere in the classroom became serious. Perhaps this was the first time for these children to think about this issue so seriously. What they didn't know was that these words would eventually affect them for a lifetime.

(End of this chapter)