From the man behind the football king to the football king.

Chapter 273: A good start (I wish book friends a prosperous 2024)

PS: The last update in 2023, as the title says, I wish all book friends a good start in 2024 and a prosperous journey to the end!

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Guidolin accepted Bruno's suggestion and planned to sign Immobile from Dortmund. In fact, he also planned for the future of Udinese.

The Italian striker will not turn 2 until February, so he is of prime playing age. Under normal circumstances, players can still maintain their peak form for four or five years.

Udinese's current forwards can be said to be old and young.

Di Natale is 38 years old. He has made it clear to the club that he will hang up his boots after this season and will not continue playing football.

Another forward of the team, Taylor, will also turn 4 in April and is also entering the twilight of his career.

The other three forwards, Duvan Zapata, is 24 years old and is about to enter the golden period of his career. However, the Colombian forward has never been known for his efficiency. He has played for Naples for two seasons and has never scored more than 10 goals in a single season.

Udinese loaned him from Naples last summer, but he has not performed at a high level yet. In the first half of the season, he played a total of 13 times in Serie A and the Champions League, including 8 times as a substitute, scoring 3 goals and 1 assist.

As for Aguirre and Perica, they basically didn't get any opportunities, and they couldn't count on them who were only in their early 20s.

………………

Dortmund does want to raise the price, rather than really wanting to keep Immobile in the team. After all, it has been proven over the past more than one season that the Italian forward cannot adapt to the Bundesliga game, so what is the point of staying?

It's better to take advantage of Immobile's young age and sell him for a little more transfer fee.

In fact, for a team like Dortmund, there is no such thing as not for sale. As long as the money is available, what players are non-negotiable?

In the end, after bargaining, Dortmund agreed to Udinese's offer of 1100 million euros for Immobile.

A year and a half ago, Dortmund spent 1850 million euros to introduce Immobile. After this year and a half of downturn, Immobile's value in the German transfer market has fallen below 1000 million euros, only 800 million euros. Now that he can be sold for 1100 million euros, Dortmund is quite satisfied.

Of course, this also has a lot to do with the fact that Udinese has no competitors.

Although Immobile's old club Turin is interested in him, the Red Bulls only want to have sex for free and have no intention of paying for someone.

The only one who actually made an offer to Dortmund was Udinese.

Under such circumstances, even if Dortmund wants to raise the price, there is no room for speculation.

If it really goes too far and Udinese doesn't want it, then Dortmund will have to smash it into their own hands.

On January 2016, 1, Udinese Club officially announced that it had acquired 5-year-old Italian forward Ciro Immobile from Dortmund for a transfer fee of 1100 million euros. The two parties signed a five-year contract.

After Immobile joined Udinese, he put on the team's No. 9 jersey. This number originally belonged to Muriel and has been vacant since his transfer.

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At noon on January 1, Udinese ushered in the first game of the New Year and faced Atalanta at the Friuli Stadium.

This is the 2015th round of the 2016-18 Serie A season.

In the home team's locker room, Bruno sat in his seat and tightened the laces of the red boots on his feet.

After all, it is the first game of the new year, and everyone in Udinese attaches great importance to it.

Guidolin also played with all his main players in this game. The goalkeeper is Kanizis, the defense is Cancelo, Danilo, Maguire and Cancelo, and the midfielder is Badu and Wade. Mon and Itura are on the two wings, Bruno still appears in the attacking midfielder position, and the double forwards are Di Natale and Taylor.

As for the three new players Vidic, Ashley Cole and Immobile, they all entered the squad, but Guidolin did not let them start.

"The players from both teams entered the court one after another under the leadership of the referee."

"The home team's fans immediately gave a huge round of applause and they obviously want Udinese to get off to a good start in the new year."

"And we saw that many fans at the scene were also cheering for Bruno. A week later, the 2015 FIFA Ballon d'Or will be announced, and the Udinese fans are obviously cheering for Bruno."

"In 2015, Bruno's performance was fantastic. He scored 63 goals throughout the year. This number even exceeded Cristiano Ronaldo and Messi! At the same time, he also sent a total of 2015 assists in 36, also the player with the most assists. .”

"Because of Bruno's outstanding performance, Udinese won the Serie A championship, the Champions League championship, the Italian Super Cup championship, the European Super Cup championship and the Club World Cup championship, becoming the five crown champions again!"

"The new year has begun, how will Bruno perform?"

“Let’s wait and see what happens in tonight’s game!”

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With the referee's whistle, the game officially kicked off.

Tello quickly kicked the ball to Di Natale, and the Udinese captain passed the ball back to the midfielder and then to the back line.

Udinese did not rush to attack at the beginning, but patiently passed the ball from the backcourt.

Atlanta intends to take advantage of the opening momentum and take the initiative to put pressure on Udinese.

After several passes, Piris got the ball from the right and kicked it forward directly to the feet of Bruno in the frontcourt.

<divclass="contentadv">Bruno took the ball with his back, and behind him was the defensive player Andrea Conte. He did not dare to let the ball stay at his feet, and quickly knocked it back to Itura, but he suddenly turned around Sprint behind you.

Itura understood the idea and kicked a half-high ball over Atlanta's defense and fell behind him.

"Udinese threatened immediately from the start."

"Bruno caught up with the ball on the left, Atlanta's defensive players were chasing back, and Bruno passed to the back point."

"Follow Di Natale and hit the door directly!"

After an exclamation, all the 40,000 fans at the Friuli Stadium sighed in unison.

Facing Bruno's pass, Di Natale did not stop the ball, but hit it directly. As a result, he failed to suppress the ball and hit it high.

A good opportunity was wasted. The Udinese captain himself was a little depressed, but he still gave Bruno a thumbs up.

This ball is really not Bruno's responsibility, it is mainly because he did not handle it well.

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After losing the lead to Udinese, Atalanta no longer dared to blindly attack and began to consciously shrink their defense.

Whether it was from pre-match intelligence or Bruno himself knowing the situation, Bruno understood Conte's characteristics. He has good defensive ability and has obvious advantages in preventing high balls, but he is often inattentive and likes to be distracted, which makes him easily thrown away the moment Bruno turns around.

The one that went straight behind him just now is the best example.

But it is a pity that Di Natale failed to seize the opportunity, otherwise the game would have been much easier to play.

Now, with Atalanta paying attention, Udinese's offense is also in trouble.

Bruno also began to feel that his opponents began to strengthen their defense against him, and they obviously paid more attention to him. This is all because he is likely to be the winner of the Ballon d'Or in 2015 and is the strongest in football at that time. Who dares to underestimate him?

Bruno also knows very well that this is a stage that he must go through, and he must break through the opponent's attention and layers of defense, prove his strength, and prove that he is worthy of the Ballon d'Or.

Under this situation, Bruno was also very involved on the court, actively running through spaces and patiently waiting for opportunities.

But Atlanta is not a fuel-saving lamp. Under Rhea's training this season, its defensive strength has been greatly improved.

Because they sold three main players last summer, Atlanta had always been considered a favorite for relegation before the start of the season. However, before the winter break, they were ranked tenth in the standings and could be called a dark horse in the first half.

But this time, facing Udinese, we struggled for half an hour.

It wasn't until the 31st minute that Bruno found a gap in Atlanta's defense.

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This was a pass from Udinese's backcourt. Taylor in the penalty area grabbed the first shot and passed the header to Bruno at the front of the penalty area.

Facing the incoming ball, Bruno dunked with his left foot, passing the Atalanta player who was returning to defend. After bringing the ball into the penalty area, he grabbed the ball before Conte came up to block it. He volleyed with his right foot and the ball flew straight. The ball goes away.

Atlanta goalkeeper Sportiello made a flying save, but was still unable to prevent the ball from entering the net.

"GOOOOOOOOOOOOL!!!!!"

"In the 31st minute of the first half, Udinese finally broke through Atalanta's goal!"

"Goal from Bruno Fernandez, 1:0!"

"This is also Udinese's first league goal in 2016, a good start!"

After Bruno scored, he quickly turned around and rushed out of the stadium, rushed all the way to the bottom of the stands, opened his arms high, and asked all Udinese fans for their applause and cheers.

In the stands of the Friuli Stadium, Udinese fans were not shy and gave out huge cheers, which even seemed to overturn the stadium.

Behind Bruno, the Udinese players also swarmed up and surrounded him.

"No one should doubt now that Bruno is becoming an increasingly important key player for this Udinese team."

"In the first thirty minutes, Udinese had the advantage, but was unable to score. The most threatening shot also came from a pass from Bruno, and Udinese captain Di Natale failed to press it. We kept the ball going, and then Bruno tried hard to create opportunities, but failed to break the deadlock."

"Perhaps seeing that his teammates were not very effective, Bruno simply went in on his own and scored Udinese's first goal in 2016. It was also Bruno's 20th league goal this season."

"I believe that by now, the worries about Bruno will be over."

"We can tell everyone with certainty that judging from the first thirty minutes, Bruno has basically continued his excellent form in the first half, and his outstanding performance is bound to drive Udinese forward."