Ender's Football

Although Schuylman's opening speech made the boys present could only be silent, Ender had to admit that the training plan arranged by the other party was very efficient and very compact, which made him feel the pressure of studying for a long time.

On the training turf of the Red Bull Youth Training Center, all the U16 boys experienced what it means to be "exhausted" and "too tired to move anymore" from the first day, which also successfully made these normal energy The exuberant boys slumped into a ball in the locker room, and everyone seemed to have just been lifted out of the water, sweating the entire jersey.

Ander was no exception. He leaned against the cabinet where his No. 19 jersey was placed, his body was sprawled backwards, and he collapsed into a cake on the spacious and comfortable bench in the locker room.

——Yes, No. 19. In the Leipzig Red Bull, Ender still failed to get his favorite No. 10 jersey. This number belongs to Jeremy, and the other party chose the number earlier than him, so Ender can only Falling back again to the number 19 he had previously worn at Uwensborg.

Jeremy, wearing his bold No. 10 jersey, sat next to Ender.

This time, the English genius didn't mutter his series of long speeches that were sometimes brilliant and sometimes unnutritious. Instead, he seldom let himself go for a while before turning to ask Ender who was lying on the bench next to him: " What do you think of Coach Jonathan Schuylman?"

Although Jeremy spoke in English, Ender took a look at the surrounding environment. Most of the teammates in the locker room were queuing up one after another to take a shower. At this time, he talked to Jeremy about the coach The words were obviously inappropriate-even if they were speaking in English, Ender didn't think that none of the teammates present could understand.

So Ender just lay there sleepily, and said, "It's very novel, I've never met such a coach before."

He meant to be perfunctory, but Jeremy's eyes lit up, as if he had found a soulmate: "It's true! Don't you think he's cool?"

"???"

Ender gave him a surprised look, completely unaware that this was Jeremy's conclusion.

"What's so cool about him?" he asked Jeremy.

The chatterbox from England didn't notice Ender's tone, and continued to say enthusiastically: "Don't you think, when he spoke today, I felt a bit like... yes, like Mourinho! You know Mourinho! Did you hear what this guy said to all the famous big names when he first went to Chelsea? He was like this... cough, cough," Jeremy cleared his throat , began to imitate it vividly, "'I, a coach with many achievements. And you, now are nothing'... And! And that!' Please forgive my arrogance, Chelsea have one of the best managers '*..."

Not to mention, the Mourinho imitated by Jeremy is quite similar, his tone, as if the madman himself was standing in front of everyone.

——"Madman" and "the most special one" are the nicknames given to Jose Mourinho by the media. The former head coach of Porto, Chelsea, Inter Milan and Real Madrid has a lot of halos, and the controversy surrounding him It is even more than his aura, so that he has now dismissed from Chelsea*, and there are still many media discussing who is the "inner ghost" in his team, or where he should go next.

He won the Champions League with Porto and made a name for himself in Europe, then brought Chelsea a league trophy the club had never held before, followed by a treble in Italy and against Cosmos in Spain , Chelsea, the old club who entered the palace for the second time, resigned sadly... Mourinho is indeed such a magical head coach. He can even steal the limelight from his players when he is commanding from the sidelines. When he was young, he was so arrogant , When confronting the British media and the Italian paparazzi, there were frequent golden sentences, but in the following years, the magical Mourinho seemed to lose his magic power, doubts about him came back, and the man who had been in love with him for more than ten years The English media even directly said that "the era belonging to Mourinho has passed."

Such a person is naturally famous in the football world.

But Ender has a bit of a disagreement: "Coach Schuylman is a bit... But he is still not the same as Mourinho... Well, look, he didn't face all of us on the first day. Saying 'I'm a champion, you're nothing'... and we don't even know his style of play yet..."

His voice gradually became quieter, because he found that the surrounding teammates had gradually gathered around.

A few smiling boys picked up the topic in English, clearly interested.

"I also think Coach Schuylman is a bit like Mourinho!" said a boy, waving his hands in the air twice. "He is so arrogant! Although I don't like his attitude today, I have to get it." Said, his rhetoric about the championship is so fucking hot!"

"It's just the champion of the Northern League," said another boy. He obviously lacked interest in it. "There are relatively few strong teams in the Northern League, right? Red Bull put a lot of effort into building this youth training center and invited Mr. Ahlbeck." , Is it normal not to win the championship? ——And, to be honest, I came here for Mr. Albeck, I didn’t expect our head coach to be like this.”

Someone immediately refuted him: "There is Bremen in the Northern League, as well as Hertha Berlin and Hamburg. Don't they have strong youth training?"

The man laughed: "Brother, let's watch the Western League more! There are Dortmund, Bochum, Schalke 04!"

Seeing that they had disagreements about the division, the others changed the subject.

The boy standing next to Ender smiled and said to Jeremy: "Okay, let's stop talking about 'Little Mourinho', brothers, have you seen those games he played at Chelsea before, I don't want to We did that too..."

"Obviously, Jeremy was just using 'Mourinho' to describe the coach," someone helped explain. "He was appointed by Mr. Albeck? I believe Mr. Albeck."

Jeremy was obviously very happy that someone agreed with his idea. He patted his teammates on the shoulder vigorously: "Guys! I used to live in England! Trust me, I think this guy is cool!"

Is there any logic between living in England and how cool you think Schuylman is?

Ender complained silently in his heart.

But the boys were chatting in full swing, so he didn't say this, but sat up, ready to take a bath.

Just as he was about to stand up, someone knocked on the open door of their locker room.

The boys were collectively shocked. They had just gathered in the locker room to discuss the head coach, but none of them remembered to close the door!The locker room door is still open!

Everyone looked towards the door tremblingly, for fear that standing there was the protagonist they had just discussed.

Fortunately not!

The boys breathed a collective sigh of relief when they saw who was coming.

Leaning against the door is a boy, wearing the same home jersey as them, but it is bright red that belongs to the goalkeeper.

It should be players from other echelons.

Through the crowd around them, Ender saw the boy at the door, who was also looking into the room, and happened to look over at this moment.

"Sig!" The eyes of the two met, and Ender immediately waved to him and greeted him with a smile.

He stood up and walked through the messy locker room.

"How did you come here?" he asked.

"I'll wait for you to go back together. By the way, I want to ask what you plan to eat tonight?" Sieghard said.

Apparently, their U19s had just finished training, because when Ender approached him, he smelled the fragrance of the shower gel emanating from Sigerhard's body. Harder had just come out of the shower in the locker room.

Ender unnaturally grabbed the jersey on his body. He hadn't showered yet. Maybe it was a psychological factor, but it was more an irresistible physical reason. At this moment, he felt that his sweat-drenched upper body felt a little sticky. , the smell in the locker room is also not very good - the boys have just gone through a strenuous training activity, so the sweat smell in the locker room is the effect of superposition, but everyone is sweating, so the indoors for a long time I can't smell it.

Ender couldn't help stepping back a little silently, and smiled embarrassedly.

"I haven't showered yet," he said, "wait a minute."

"No problem." Sieghard nodded.

After speaking, Ender hurried to his cabinet to get things.

But as soon as he walked over, the boys who had been around before quietly approached him again and asked him in a low voice: "Is that your friend, Ender? We all heard you call him 'Sig' just now, so Is he the Sieghard from U19? The one from Bayern?"

Ender wasn't surprised that Sieghard had only been here for three days and was already so famous.He just felt that the phrase "Bayern's" was a bit harsh.

In fact, the boys may not mean anything malicious when they say this. After all, Bayern is indeed Sieghard’s home team and the most eye-catching label of a wealthy family on him, but he always calls Sieghard like this, and then thinks about the past year. His situation... Ender felt a little uncomfortable for Sieghard.

"He's Sieghard," Ender said, "but he's not the 'Bayern one', he's the 'Red Bull one'."

After saying this, he hurried to take a shower with his bag, and his friend was still waiting for him outside!

***

The training schedule arranged by the Red Bull Youth Training Center for the boys is not tight. There are reasons for scientific training, and the Youth Training Center also attaches great importance to school courses. Most of the boys have not yet graduated from high school, so they have to continue Go to school to complete your secondary school curriculum.

Both Ender and Sieghard transferred to Red Bull Leipzig's youth training partner school during this month.Because of the cooperation with the Leipzig Red Bull, the school will properly consider the training situation of the boys to arrange the courses, so that the young players can train in the morning and attend classes in the afternoon, so that they will not be left behind by their peers.

Tuesday was the school's class time, and the youth training center did not arrange training on this day, so Ander and Sieghard set off to the middle school together, and then went to their respective classrooms to attend classes separately.After finishing the day's course, the two returned to the youth training center together.

Walking on the road, Ender was in a good mood. He hummed a song casually, then as if thinking of something, he bumped Sieghard's shoulder and asked him: "Tomorrow there is a match between the first team and the Salzburg Red Bull. Want to see it?"

Of course Sieghard knew about tomorrow's friendly match, but he was not very interested.

But Ander was very interested, so he nodded and immediately agreed.

"Okay," Sieghard said, "need to ask Red Bull if they can get a ticket?"

The good friend promised so readily, and Ender was even happier. The boy jumped up and said loudly: "No! I bought two tickets! Seeger! Let's sneak into the auditorium tomorrow!"

Sieghard was almost infected by his joy, and he smiled too.

"I have to remind you that we can't use the word 'in', we're the audience," he said, a smile in his blue eyes.

Ander shrugged his shoulders. He was walking on the road, but he was already looking forward to tomorrow's game: "Sig, you should go to the game often-I didn't watch many Bundesliga games live. Most of the time last year , I always watch the Bundesliga matches of Uwensburg at the Stein Energy Stadium..."

Sieghard understood that when Ander first came to Germany, he lived in Uwensburg and played football there. For a young boy, he must not be like them and even rely on his own income. Like the players who survived independently, they ran all over the country and then went to various stadiums to watch games.

——Of course, in fact, Sighard has not been able to go to stadiums all over the country. They usually have the double shackles of training tasks and learning tasks. In addition to playing with Bayern U17 and U19 in various places, he can only drive by himself to visit some stadiums near Munich or the national team training base.

The meeting with Ender was among them.

"Actually, I prefer to be on the side of the court," Sigerhard said, "It's very close to the court, as if you can touch the atmosphere on the court as soon as you reach out, and then you can see the players' actions at close range..."

"You used to be a caddy too?" Ender was a little surprised.

Sieghard smiled: "Of course I did, otherwise, how did Mr. Vogel trick me into Sebena's youth training center?"

Referring to the past, Sieghard's smile faded a bit.

But Ender was obviously very surprised by his past experience, and sighed: "It turns out that Sieghard also worked as a caddy! I thought you would be the kind of boy who sat in the VIP auditorium to watch games since he was a child!" "

"I was only eight years old when I put on the Bayern jersey for the first time," Sieghard said. I played in the children's club, and then slowly became a goalkeeper, and then went to the youth team... At that time, every kid in the youth team dreamed of becoming a ball boy at the Allianz Stadium..."

His eyes began to become deep, which is the unique appearance of people when they recall the past.

"You may not be clear," Sighard explained to Ander, "The Allianz Arena was put into use in May 2005. The opening ceremony of the 5 World Cup in Germany was held at Allianz. It has become the place where everyone’s eyes gather. I was very young at that time, but I have already begun to fall in love with this beautiful stadium... At that time, she was like a goddess looming in the clouds and mist, very mysterious, fresh, Attractive, so when Vogel said, 'Come on, we'll let you caddy at Allianz,' I went for it."

"The Allianz Arena is really beautiful," Ender said. "I always feel that she is wrapped in balloons. If possible, I would like to see it with my own eyes."

Sieghard smiled, but he didn't say anything more about Ender's words.

A year ago, he could say "I can show you" fluently and naturally, but now he can't.

***

On Wednesday, the friendly match between RB Leipzig and RB Salzburg will start.

After Ander came back from school today, he dragged Sieghard back to the youth training center in a hurry. They changed into the white home jerseys of Red Bull and wore the red and white scarves with the logo of the Red Bull Group. They set off not far away. Red Bull Arena.

This stadium has been introduced before. Its predecessor was the Leipzig Central Stadium, which was later renovated by the Red Bull Group and became the Red Bull Arena, which can accommodate 4 people.

A stadium of 4 people is actually not too small in the Bundesliga, but the Bundesliga, which gathers in large stadiums, is not enough.

Whether it's Dortmund's Signal Iduna Park Stadium (which is better known as "Westfalen"), which can accommodate 8 people like a tsunami, or Schalke 04's Veltins Arena (again, another name for this stadium is "Schalke"), or Bayern's perpetually packed Allianz Arena, Frankfurt's Deutsche Bank Park, Borussia Borussia Park, Stuttgart's May The Saides-Benz Arena is much larger than the Red Bull stadium.Every weekend, German fans will drag their families to watch the game together and cheer for the team they support.

The Leipzig Red Bull lacks such a fan culture.

They don't have a rich history, and their fans can't set up a huge countdown board in the stadium like Hamburg, and then proudly declare that they have never been relegated; nor do they have the shocking TIFO performances and shouts like Dortmund's South Stand.Many Red Bull fans have just been with the team for a few years, so there is no such thing as a grandpa holding a grandson's hand, wearing a ten-year-old jersey, and nostalgic for the glorious past.

When Sieghard and Ender were looking for seats, they happened to meet a young couple who were watching the game. They sat sticky in the row in front of the two boys, and even wore a scarf together. A kiss would make the scalp of a young boy like Ender tingle.

He felt a little embarrassed, so he turned his head to look at Sighard, and found that Sighard was calm and completely unaffected.Looking around again, they found that they just sat at the junction of the Leipzig Red Bull fans and the Salzburg Red Bull fans.

In fact, the two are both Red Bulls, and the logo of the famous red bull is used on the team emblem of the club. If a spectator who usually doesn’t watch the game strays into this place, and doesn’t look carefully, it’s just on the fans on both sides. Wearing fan supplies, in fact, it is not very good to distinguish which side is a Leipzig fan and which side is a Salzburg Red Bull fan.

But fortunately, the Salzburg Red Bull fans from neighboring Austria brought their characteristic flags, as well as that mouthful of Austrian German, and the stadium was specially designated for fans on both sides when selling tickets The stands, this is how people can barely know which camp they are sitting in.

"Salzburg Red Bull will wear away jerseys in the game later, right?" Ander asked Sieghard. "Is their away jerseys different from ours? If they are all black, it would be a little bit different." Can't tell the difference?"

A fan sitting next to them heard his question. The uncle is not bad, and he happily answered Ender's question before Sieghard: "Yes, today Salzburg wears black, we wear white, Don't get our team wrong when you shout for a while!"

Leipzig Red Bull's home jersey this season continues their classic color scheme, mainly white, with a red frame for the home jersey, and the away jersey is black which is very easy to distinguish from the home color; According to Ander's simple glance in the stadium today, the color of Salzburg Red Bull's home and away jerseys is probably similar to that of Leipzig Red Bull*.

In this way, when two teams play on the field, although one side wears the home jersey and the other wears the away jersey, if the colors are swapped, there seems to be no problem at all except for the home and away game. Ender, don't make a mistake for a while.

Soon, RB Leipzig, in their white home jersey, and Salzburg, in their away jersey, were on the pitch.

This Leipzig team is very young. The head coach is Rangnick, whom Ander has always liked. He also serves as the sports director of the Leipzig Red Bull.

The head coach is also well-known in German football. The nickname given to him by the media is "Professor" - which is different from the nickname "Professor" of Arsenal coach Arsene Wenger. It was just a title used to ridicule him, and later gradually evolved into a good name as the recognition of his coaching achievements gradually increased.

Originally, Rangnick was only the sports director of Red Bull. He was not only responsible for the sports affairs of the Leipzig Red Bull, but also the sports director of the Salzburg Red Bull. He was also responsible for building two teams for the Red Bull Group.But last season, the failure of the Leipzig Red Bulls made him decide to come out again and personally lead the team to the first division.

Now, this game against the Salzburg Red Bull has become the first stop for Rangnick to lead the team to test the results of the winter break.

"It must have been an amazing feeling," Ender said, "to take a team that I was in charge of -- and still be the head coach -- against another team in charge of."

"This kind of thing can only happen here." Sighard also lamented, "Right now, the only group that can own several top football clubs on the planet at the same time is Red Bull and the Arabs who throw money everywhere."

The "Arabs" in Sighard's mouth refers to the Abu Dhabi royal family in the United Arab Emirates. This "rich" oil family owns a "city football group". Like Red Bull, they also buy teams all over the world. Then it was renamed "XX City"*-of course, many teams, such as Manchester City, did not actually change their names, but the subsequent New York City and Melbourne City were integrated into the system of the City Football Group and became the assets of the oil family. part.

Ander tilted his head and thought for a while: "I remember that the German team and Bayern Munich once played a friendly match at Allianz, which is quite amazing."

Of course Sieghard knew about that game, and it was also a very unique game, but he didn't have time to continue talking about this topic with Ender, because a very interesting episode happened just after the game started.

Leipzig Red Bull got their first corner kick of the game in the 3rd minute of the game. However, during the kick-off, midfielder Forsberg kicked the entire corner kick. The cue was too light, and the strength of his kick was not resolved, so one leg was brought forward inertially, and the whole person fell to the ground in a twisted posture*.

A player from the Red Bull Salzburg was closest to him. Seeing this, he immediately stepped forward, stretched out his hand to Forsberg, and helped him up.

All the fans on the sidelines were laughing, whether it was Leipzig fans or Salzburg fans, everyone wore the same Red Bull LOGO jersey and started applauding the players.

Ander suddenly felt a magical power at this moment.

He couldn't tell what it was, but vaguely, he got something from the laughter of the fans.

The Red Bull Arena is new, the team is new, even their fans are new.

Leipzig Red Bull fans don't talk about history, they look forward to the future, because everyone in this team - from the executives to the players, from the coach to the fans - they firmly believe that this new team will be like the past few days. Like the triple jump in [-], he quickly dominated the league, then promoted, and finally became a member of the Bundesliga team, continuing to write a new chapter for East German football.

They don't need to look back in history, they just move forward.

***

This friendly football match finally ended in a more relaxed atmosphere, Leipzig Red Bull 2:1 won their cousin Red Bull Salzburg.Because there is not much smell of gunpowder on the court, when the game ended, the atmosphere of the fans on both sides was quite harmonious.

Ender and Sieghard walked out of the Red Bull Arena together with the crowd. The crowds of fans left the stadium one after another, but neither of them cared about it. They were still chatting about the game just now.

"I really want to play for Rangnick," Ender envisioned. "Look at the position he's given Forsberg. Of course, the player is doing well. He's a great number ten— —”

"The defender at Red Bull Salzburg is good," Sieghard said. "There were a few times his movement saved the danger in front of the goal."

"You mean their Number Four?" Ender asked.

Sieghard nodded.

Ender was happy again: "I think he is very good too! Of course, Seager, if I can be on the same team as you in the future, I will do my best to help you defend!"

"Never believe the oath given to you by a frontcourt player," Sighard sighed. "It's better to yell at the defenders in front of you. As long as they are awake, it will be easy to talk about."

"Hey! Am I reliable?" Ender protested.

The boys played and played back to the youth training center near the Red Bull Arena.