I Want to Be the King of Football

On the evening of March 6th, in the twenty-ninth round of the Premier League, Manchester City faced Wigan Athletic at home.

After the team attacked several times in a row to create a threat but failed to score, Su Dong turned around and sent a wonderful pass with his left foot in the 32nd minute after receiving a pass from his teammate at the top of the penalty area.

David Silva passed by Sudong, slid the ball straight into the penalty area, shot low with his left foot, the ball passed between the legs of goalkeeper Habssi, and scored the only goal of the game for Manchester City .

In the end, Manchester City beat Wigan Athletic by a single goal.

…………

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On the evening of March 10, Kyiv, Ukraine.

Shevchenko was sitting on the team bus heading for the Nobalovsky Stadium, looking at the rainy Kyiv outside the window, and he couldn't help thinking that Britain should be similar at this time.

It rains all year round in that country.

Kyiv is different. Shevchenko has lived here since he was a child. He knows that this place is about to turn from cold winter to hot summer.

In fact, it rarely rains in Kyiv in March, but I don’t know if it’s because of the upcoming Premier League team, it actually drizzles today, which makes the city where the temperature always hovers around the zero line even more. sub-chill.

However, this should not be very adaptable to the team from the United Kingdom.

Britain has warmed up, but Kyiv is still cold.

Just like the past two years, Shevchenko's state of mind is still the cold winter and twelfth lunar month.

When he went from Milan to Chelsea with great ambition, he encountered the first Waterloo in his career. He returned to Milan for a while, but it also failed to improve. In the end, he chose to return to Dynamo Kyiv.

It's already the second season, and he still hasn't gotten out of that nightmare.

He returned with the full expectation of Dynamo Kyiv fans. Everyone hoped that he could play a role and lead the team to defeat Shakhtar Donetsk, but as a result, last season, they lost to their opponents and handed over the championship. This season After only 20 rounds, he is already ten points behind his opponent, and the possibility of reversal is almost zero.

Fortunately, Dynamo Kyiv reached the round of 16 in the Europa League, which was barely a consolation.

Came to Dynamo Kyiv for two seasons, so far, Shevchenko has achieved nothing.

And he also felt the antagonistic mood of the fan community, especially from the hostility between Kyiv and Donetsk.

It wasn't just a derby between rivals at football level, it was deeper.

For all this, Shevchenko was powerless.

He is no longer the same Ronaldo who was in the Europa football world back then.

Now he is just a veteran who is about to retire and is full of injuries!

...

The Nobalovsky Stadium was packed tonight.

Although everyone thinks that Dynamo Kyiv beats Manchester City and is unlikely to advance to the quarter-finals of the Europa League, in this stadium, Dynamo Kyiv has enough confidence. For example, in 2003, they were in the Champions League. In the game, they defeated the mighty and powerful Arsenal at home.

This also makes Dynamo Kyiv fans look forward to tonight's game.

At the same time, many people are looking forward to the duel between Shevchenko and Su Dong, the two new and old European striker kings.

Everyone can see that Su Dong is in the prime of life, and Shevchenko is already very old, but the nuclear warhead is the hero of this city and this country, and the fans here still believe that he is stronger than Su Dong.

...

When the bus from Dynamo Kyiv arrived at the Nobalovsky Stadium, Manchester City had just arrived.

They arrived in Kyiv on a charter flight from Manchester yesterday.

For a Europa League, only the rich and powerful Manchester City are willing to invest so much.

The players of the two teams entered the locker room, packed up and were about to walk into the stadium for pre-match training when they met at the exit of the player tunnel.

Hey, Su. Shevchenko saw Su Dong first and raised his hand to greet him with a smile.

Hello, Andrei. Su Dong greeted him, first shaking hands with Shevchenko, and then the two hugged.

When Shevchenko was playing for AC Milan, he actually had a lot of contact with Su Dong. The two had two or three joint sponsors, and they often met at some events. It was only because of Chelsea's sake and the media hype, It caused some embarrassment between the two.

There is no contradiction with each other, and it is clear that it is the hype of the media and the operation of Chelsea, but I feel embarrassed.

Since then, even in some public occasions, they have basically maintained politeness and courtesy, but they have become a little unfamiliar.

But Su Dong has not seen Shevchenko for two years, and there is even little news about him in the newspapers. The nuclear warhead seems to have disappeared from the world of mainstream European media, which is really embarrassing.

This is also the sadness of the star after the old age!

In professional football, only new people laugh, and no one cares about old people crying.

How many Shevchenko fans were there back then. They would care about his every game, every goal he scored, and even his every move off the court, but now? Who cares?

On the contrary, at such a time, the two of them met, but they seemed to be close.

...

How is it? I read the data and said that you are not going well this season. Su Dong asked with concern.

Shevchenko is thirty-four years old, unless it is an alternative like Maldini and Costacurta, otherwise, Shevchenko's age is basically the twilight of his career.

After returning to Ukraine, Shevchenko's attendance rate was actually not high, and he spent a lot of time resting after a season.

In fact, it is no wonder that it is almost impossible to recover after suffering such a heavy blow as Chelsea at that embarrassing age.

At the beginning of the season last year, my knee was injured. Speaking of this, Shevchenko looked at Su Dong with an embarrassed smile, You know, it's an old problem, it hasn't gotten better. At the end of the year, I accidentally gave my back Strained, this time off for more than a month.

Su Dong heard him say it simply, but he could also understand his mood at this moment.

At his age, how could there be such a simple thing?

Don't sell it badly. After your comeback, you scored in two consecutive rounds of the Europa League, and Dynamo Kyiv made the cut. You have contributed a lot. I think you are suffocating and ready to score our goal tonight. Su Dong laughed.

Shevchenko smiled. After his return from injury, he was indeed in a good state.

The most important thing is to let go of a lot of things. After the mentality is relaxed, coupled with the support of the team's tactics and the surrounding teammates, his goal will come out.

Your momentum this year is very strong. I have always paid attention to it. Winning the Premier League is a high probability event. Make up for it during the winter break. It is estimated that you even want the Europa League in the second half? Shevchenko asked with a smile.

Su Dong did not deny it.

Manchester City introduced several high-level players during the winter break. If you say that you don’t want to get involved in the Europa League, and you don’t want to win a few more championships, how is that possible?

No one will believe it.

After laughing, Shevchenko smiled bitterly and said, Your career planning is better than mine!

Su Dong suddenly didn't know how to answer.

Although he has never worked together, Shevchenko is not his idol, but he really respects this senior.

All the players who can make a name for themselves in European football are not simple, let alone a ruthless role like Shevchenko, who was once close to the Golden Globe Award.

Sudong once studied Shevchenko's career planning with Nuno Cruz and others. From a purely competitive point of view, his transfer from AC Milan to Chelsea was a failure.

It wasn't because he didn't play at Chelsea later, in fact, it was difficult for him to play at Chelsea.

During his time in Milan, Shevchenko began to transform into a scorer or a second striker due to injuries and other reasons, focusing on running and scoring.

But there is a premise that AC Milan had a set of excellent midfielders, especially Pirlo and Kaka.

The existence of these two players has given Shevchenko very strong support, allowing him to complete such a role transformation.

But in Chelsea, everyone knows the midfielder of the Blues, let alone Kaka, and even a passer like Pirlo can't be found, which makes Chelsea's forwards more need to take the initiative.

That is, a type of center like Drogba, a role like Shevchenko is difficult to play.

If Shevchenko is in his prime, then his speed and technique still have room to play, but the problem is, he has been seriously injured.

It can be said that this transfer was doomed to tragedy from the very beginning.

Not only Shevchenko, in fact, for the current Torres, Manchester City technical department, Sudong and Nuno Cruz, etc., they are basically pessimistic, and feel that he is still copying Shevchenko. trajectory.

Of course, in the world of professional football, there is never just football.

The transfer of Shevchenko and Torres to Chelsea is likely to be a failure from a football perspective, but if analyzed from the perspective of interests, it may be the opposite.

Just like Shevchenko, with his age and state at the time, even if he continued to stay in Milan, how long could he last? Transfer to Chelsea, just to make a lot of money and earn a pension for yourself, isn't it also a success?

It is precisely because of this understanding that Su Dong's compliment to Shevchenko was mixed.

Players are often helpless.

Especially professional players.

Everyone can only make the best solution in front of them, and there is no way to dominate their own future.

It seems that no one can guarantee that in the next game, you will suddenly encounter a stunned young man and give you such a kick and let you retire directly.

Of course, such a small probability event rarely occurs, but what if it is so unlucky?

Su Dong didn't know what to say for a while, so he put his hand around Shevchenko's shoulder and sighed with a smile.

You have to show mercy tonight.

Shevchenko was also amused, You should be merciful with your feet.

Kyiv is too cold, some of us forgot to wear long sleeves. Su Dong laughed bitterly.

The hapless guy who forgot to wear long sleeves is David Lewis.

This guy probably didn't read the coaching staff's notice carefully. The temperature here in Kyiv is zero degrees, and it may even be below zero at night.

Thinking of this, Su Dong felt chills all over his body.

Shevchenko also noticed that David Luiz was wearing short sleeves and immediately laughed.

This kid is so funny!