Football career: From winning the championship to becoming a legend

On Wednesday, May 2006, 5, all the male models of the Italian national team arrived in Iserlohn, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The team then checked into the VierJahreszeiten Hotel in Iserlohn and will train at the Hemberg Stadium during the World Cup. The Italian national team has successfully set up camp in Germany.

In fact, two days ago on Monday, the Italian Football Association staff had already arrived in Iserlohn in advance and conducted multiple inspections of the local living and training facilities. In addition to the national team, the gathering point for Italian fans and the media center are also located in Iserlohn.

This time the Italian national team changed its original itinerary. The original plan was to take into account the holidays lost due to participating in the World Cup. The Italian national team would gather on May 5 and stay in Milan, Italy for training on June 22, a week before the World Cup, to make it convenient for the national team members to meet their families and girlfriends.

However, because of the phone scandal, the national team training in Italy was visited by investigation teams or prosecutors every day, which made the team members panic and unable to concentrate. Therefore, the national team coaching staff headed by Lippi applied to the Italian Football Association and sent to Germany ten days in advance to set up an overseas training camp for training, which was naturally approved and implemented.

Of course, before the World Cup officially starts, relatives are not prohibited from visiting the national team’s training camp... Those who understand will understand, after all, they are a group of male animals with vigorous hormone secretion.

However, Ricciardo refused Chiara's routine weekend logistical support this week, and deliberately confused the concept by saying that this weekend was a closed training camp. It was true that it was a closed training camp, but it was during the day, that was to deal with the investigation team and prosecutors, and visits were not prohibited at night...

Because Julianne is coming to visit the studio this weekend, Ricardo thinks the Ice Goddess can't help it. After all, they haven't had sex for a long time, oh no, they haven't seen each other... So, next weekend, Chiara will come again! This scumbag is actually playing the game of equal treatment and showing kindness to the national team...

The FIFA World Cup, or "World Cup" for short, is held every four years and is attended by the member associations of the International Football Federation, i.e. national teams. The World Cup is broadcasted globally with an audience of over 35 billion people. It is the most well-known and influential football event, and symbolizes the highest honor in the football world.

2006年的德国世界杯（2006GermanyFIFAWorldCup）是第18届世界杯足球赛。这是继1974年后世界杯第二次在德国举行，也是继1998年后世界杯再次在欧洲举行。比赛于2006年6月9日至7月9日在德国境内的12座球场举行。

The 12 stadiums include the AOL Arena in Hamburg, the AWD Arena in Hannover, the Signal Iduna Park in Dortmund, the Auf Schalke Arena in Schalke, the Allianz Arena in Munich and the Olympic Stadium in Berlin, etc.

The qualifying matches for the German World Cup started as early as 2004. The six FIFA continental football associations competed for 32 seats in the 2006 World Cup finals through the World Cup qualifiers, and decided the seats for each continent based on the strength of each continent. The allocation of seats is as follows:

There are 51 teams in Europe, with 14 qualifying places, of which Germany directly enters the finals as the host;

Africa also has 51 teams, but only five qualifying spots;

South America has 10 teams and 4.5 qualifying spots;

There are 39 association teams in Asia, and there are also 4.5 qualifying places;

There are 34 teams in North America and the Caribbean, with 3.5 qualifying spots;

Oceania has 12 teams, but only 0.5 qualifying spots.

而在2005年的11月，所有的世界杯预选赛已经全部结束并顺利决出了32支参加2006年德国世界杯决赛圈的队伍；并于2005年12月9日，在德国莱比锡会展中心1号厅举行了2006年世界杯小组赛抽签仪式。

On that day, more than 4000 people, including the German President and Chancellor, as well as world football figures, attended the draw ceremony.

FIFA Press Director Ziegler presided over the draw. Eight world-famous football celebrities, including Matthäus who won the 90 World Cup for Germany, Brazilian football king Pele, Cruyff of the Netherlands, Milla of Cameroon, Karembe who was the main player of the 98 World Cup for France, Radebe of South Africa, Masashi Nakayama of Japan and Jones of the United States, drew lots.

入选的32支球队分为4档。第一档8支球队为种子队,其余3档按地域划分，与球队实力无关。同一大洲的球队尽量避免同组,欧洲球队最多只能有2队同组。全球三亿五千万球迷观看了抽签电视转播。各国2000多名记者、160家电视台报道了抽签仪式。

The final grouping results are:

Group A: Germany, Costa Rica, Poland, Ecuador;

Group B: England, Paraguay, Trinidad and Tobago, Sweden;

Group C: Argentina, Cote d’Ivoire, Serbia and Montenegro, Netherlands;

Group D: Mexico, Iran, Angola, Portugal;

Group E: Italy, Ghana, United States, Czech Republic;

Group F: Brazil, Croatia, Australia, Japan;

Group G: France, Switzerland, South Korea, Togo;

Group H: Spain, Ukraine, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia.

The first place in each group will be the seeded team.

Among the five African teams, except Tunisia, all of them are participating in the World Cup finals for the first time; in addition, Trinidad and Tobago and Serbia and Montenegro are also entering the World Cup finals for the first time.

The opening match of the World Cup will be held at 2006:6 on the afternoon of June 9, 18, German time, at the Allianz Arena in Munich, with the host Germany team facing the Central American powerhouse Costa Rica.

Italy's first Group E match will be held at 6:12 on the evening of June 21. Their opponent is Ghana, a mysterious African team that is making its first World Cup finals appearance.

So, with 13 days left before the opening of the World Cup and 16 days left before Italy's first group match, on the evening of Friday, May 5, after a closed training session, Ricardo drove a rented X26 to Germany's third largest airport, Düsseldorf International Airport, to pick up the Ice Princess.

After not seeing her for a few months, although she was only interning in the laboratory, the Ice Princess who entered the workplace began to tend to be closer to Chiara's style of white-collar beauty. However, under her unchanging stinky face, she still has a strong scholarly temperament, which makes her look very different.

Julianne was wearing all blue today, a cool and royal sea blue jumpsuit, a silk blue-gray women's shirt underneath a super low V-neck, and leather suede navy blue pointed stilettos under wide-leg pants. She also seemed to be wearing black crisscross shoes...

Too sexy... Ricardo's little brother couldn't help but react, and quickly adjusted the position of his trousers, which were stuck. He hurried back to the hotel, and the room was booked in advance. After all, he couldn't let his roommate De Rossi move out, right?

Including Sunday night, the two had been engaged in intense activity for three consecutive nights, and Ricardo immediately felt the full workload. However, he was in high spirits and did not lag behind in training. On the contrary, he was particularly able to resist wasting shots and refuse to make hasty passes on the court... This made the coaching staff nod their heads frequently, and it seemed that he could be used as a surprise weapon.

So in the World Cup warm-up match against the Swiss national team on Monday, Ricardo was arranged to replace De Rossi in the 60th minute of the second half, playing as a defensive midfielder, and instigated a goal for Italy to equalize the score, helping the team to finally draw 1-1 with the Swiss team.

It was almost midnight on Sunday when Julian, who had emptied Ricardo's inventory, reluctantly said goodbye and left for London, and agreed to go to the United States together during the summer vacation...

Just two days after Julian left, Ricardo welcomed his own agent team - Raiola and Pimenta.

Raiola came mainly to discuss Ricardo's sponsorship contract and the team's positioning, and also to take credit for his public relations skills:

1. Congratulations, Ricardo, you are the first player in your age group to be selected for the national team, especially at a special moment like the Calciopoli scandal. Did you know that? Our management team has done a lot of communication, you know...

2. Your winning goal in the Champions League final, coupled with the interview video you recorded previously, made your image as a top student and young genius completely popular. After all, no professional athlete has ever published an SCI paper. Now you have fans and a huge amount of attention all over the world, and even many parents and teachers teach their children to take you as a role model.

3. Especially since you played in La Liga for the past two seasons, which had nothing to do with the Calciopoli scandal, your current position in the national team is very stable... Well, you know, not the kind of stability that comes with being a starter, but it means that unless you are injured, it is unlikely that you will be replaced from the national team. Currently, you are the most popular player in the national team and a symbol of positive image.

4. Therefore, your commercial value will explode. Several existing sponsors will modify your existing contracts to increase your commercial radiation and coverage, that is, more commercial activities and authorizations. In addition, they will definitely want to extend the existing cooperation period...

Hahaha, Ricardo, you summed it up well. Yes, it is to help you extend the cooperation period, make it bolder, and expand the scope of cooperation, and make it harder, giving you more endorsement fees!

5. In addition, there are several new potential sponsors, including Italy's Versace. After seeing the final photos of the Italian national team, they are quite interested in your sunny and handsome image and academic persona, and are probably willing to pay a high price. There is also Allianz Insurance Group. This World Cup is held in their home stadium, and they hope to recruit all the big-name stars and rising stars...

Hmm? Do you want to finalize all the new sponsorship contracts after the World Cup? That's right, if the Italian team performs well, and it would be best if you can still play, the conditions of the sponsorship contract will be increased... Worst case scenario, in the context of the Calciopoli incident, Versace will still be willing to pay a high price for you, no loss, the gamble is worth it!

Oh, I understand, I understand. I understand, I understand. In the context of the current phone-gate incident, we should be even more low-key. Being too ostentatious will easily draw resentment.

6. In addition, all sponsors and even the Italian Football Association have told us that you must secure a first-team spot in the club next season. I will have a good talk with the club after the World Cup. If Barcelona cannot guarantee it, several sponsors have already guaranteed that they can help you switch to your favorite team and they will cover all the expenses.

7. Oh, finally, before the World Cup starts, we will do another exclusive interview with you. This time it’s with Italy’s most famous sports channel RaiSport and Gazzetta dello Sport.

(Ricardo thought: Oh, another interview. It’s a pity that I didn’t get to meet the beautiful lady from SportItaliaTV last time. I think her name was Michelle. She sent me a selfie a few days ago. I’ll ask her if she will come to Germany to report during the World Cup tonight when I have time.)

But even if Michelle also plans to come to Germany for interviews and reports, she will not have time to "visit" Riccardo alone recently, because just two days after sending off the agent team, Chiara also came to visit the set in high heels and twisted her buttocks. After all, it's time to hand in homework for the weekend...

As for the specific process of the visit, that is confidential!

During Chiara's visit, Italy had its last warm-up match before the World Cup opener, against Ukraine. Both teams played cautiously, with Ricardo getting about 30 minutes of playing time, but he was placed at right back as a tactical experiment. In the end, the two teams shook hands in a 0-0 draw.

With the end of the last warm-up match, Chiara's visiting time also ended, but the interview team also came. After all, there are less than 5 days left until the opening ceremony of the World Cup, and only a week away from Italy's first group match.

The reporter who interviewed Ricardo this time was a middle-aged uncle. It is said that he is a senior sports media reporter. His knowledge of football and the latest news are not comparable to those of the vase-like young ladies.

So it also helped Ricardo to understand some of the mainstream media's views before the start of the World Cup.

1、2006年世界杯开赛前的夺冠赔率中，拥有超豪华阵容的巴西以1赔3.75遥遥领先，被誉为“史上最豪华”的英格兰以1赔7排名第二。潘帕斯雄鹰阿根廷、东道主德国1赔8并列第三，意大利队以1赔9位居第五。

Ricardo definitely wants to praise his opponent: "Yes, Brazil with the 3R combination and Kaka is definitely the biggest favorite. Of course, England, Argentina and the host Germany team cannot be underestimated... But our Italian team is well prepared and hopes to challenge the world's strong teams, learn valuable experience from them, and then continue to grow."

2. Although Lippi is one of the most outstanding coaches in Italy and even in the world, it is undeniable that he is still a rookie as the head coach of the national team. He has never participated in the World Cup either as a player or as a coach. In the last two warm-up matches, Italy drew with Switzerland and Ukraine 1:1 and 0:0 respectively. Is the current Italian team facing difficulties in both formation and lineup?

At this time, Ricardo definitely wanted to stand on his own side: "Lippi and his coaching team are undoubtedly excellent. They have done a lot of work to arrange our World Cup work in an orderly manner. There is no doubt that the boss knows and is enthusiastic about the World Cup. As for the team's formation and lineup, I think this needs to be kept confidential. We can't let the opponent know more before the game, but it will definitely be better than your most optimistic imagination..."

3. It is said that the national team has reserved hotel rooms for the World Cup final...

4. Regarding the candidates for the brightest new star of this World Cup…

5. Italy has not won the World Cup since 1982. The early elimination from the 2002 World Cup and the humiliation in the group stage of the 2004 European Championships made the Italian team go through a painful period. What is our goal for this World Cup?

Regarding this question, Ricardo pondered for a moment, and unlike the previous two questions, he answered conservatively: "This question is not something I, a newcomer to the national team, should comment on, but I think our national team has the strength to make it to the end. However, we have to play one game at a time. My own goal is to be able to play and make no mistakes. If I can help the team win, that would be even better!"

……

The interview team unanimously agreed that Ricardo lived up to his reputation as a top student. Not only was the interview process smooth, but he also spoke elegantly and gave flawless answers. He must have reviewed his words with his agent team...

However, when Ricardo, who had just seen off the interview team and was about to focus all his energy on preparing for Italy's first World Cup group match, received news that Sarafina was also coming to visit!

……