Football career: From winning the championship to becoming a legend

On Monday afternoon, bright sunshine filtered through the large floor-to-ceiling windows and the transparent modules of the airport dome, scattering on the ground in patches, adding a touch of early autumn tranquility and warmth to Seville's international airport.

Inside the terminal, people are streaming in and out. Suitcases of various colors leave traces on the ground, making slight noises, which are intertwined with the flight information coming from the radio from time to time, forming the unique melody of the airport.

The air in the waiting hall is filled with a faint aroma of coffee, and on the walls hang several paintings depicting the scenery of Seville, adding a touch of artistic atmosphere to this modern space.

Not far away, rows of seats were neatly arranged. Some passengers sat quietly, looking down at their phones, while others closed their eyes and waited for the upcoming journey. Occasionally, the laughter and noises of children could be heard, adding a bit of liveliness and vitality to this space.

Chiara, wearing a burgundy long-sleeved sportswear, was guarding her newly bought Prada silver-gray suitcase and Riccardo's Samsonite dark blue suitcase, reading a newly bought gossip magazine in the waiting hall; while Riccardo, wearing the Italian national team captain's training suit, was pretending to make a phone call in the distance...

Chiara had been so busy these past few days that I hadn't had much chance to reply to Sarafina and Julian's messages; especially since I received a text from Eva this morning.

Of course, unlike her girlfriends’ ambiguous text messages, Eva only briefly informed them: “Mr. Li Qi, your medical examination report is out, everything is normal, and you are waiting for the final underwriting of the insurance company to take effect. There are still 5 days of hesitation period, so please notify us as early as possible if there are any changes…”

It seems that Eva still has resentment. After being hurt by so many scumbags, Li also decided to continue to deal with it coldly, and carefully replied: "Got it! I'm going back to China to participate in the national team competition. I'll contact you when I come back. No change for the time being."

……

When I returned to my home in Milan, it was the traditional dinner to criticize Ricardo. It was because he rarely went home, so I couldn't find anyone to complain about him.

First, his brother Andre opened fire: He never returns calls or text messages, and no one knows what he does outside of training and competitions. He still hasn't gotten the 100 Ronaldinho autographs he owes...

Then it was Albert's turn to complain: The harder he struggled, the worse he got. He was doing well as a substitute in Barcelona, ​​but now he would rather go to a small club than go back to Inter Milan...

Finally, there is the blame from mother Callisto: other families’ youngest sons are with their parents all year round, but although this youngest son of hers is handsome, he is only at home with his mother for a few days a year. It has become even harder to catch him since he went abroad. It’s a waste of time to raise him so old…

Thanks to Ricardo's timely presentation of souvenirs such as Iberian ham, Sevilla ceramic tableware and posters of the Sevilla women's football team, the family's continuous concentrated attacks were interrupted and they started discussing current political affairs and football.

I also stayed at home for one night. The next morning, I went to the UBS Milan branch for a meeting accompanied by Chiara. At the meeting, Ricardo raised the following five topics:

1. Thanks to UBS for its efforts and help, the merger between Google and YouTube was a great success;

2. The Google shares currently held in the account have a one-year lock-up period. I hope to prepare a specific and actionable plan to sell all of them within three months after the lock-up period is lifted and exchange them for cash;

3. The plan to invest in Twitter has entered into substantive negotiations. The company plans to invest no more than US$600 million to acquire a stake of no less than 10% but no more than 30%. It is hoped that the investment can be completed before Christmas.

(Ricardo doesn’t want to become the actual controller and worry about the survival and operation of the company. He just wants to take what he needs and take a free ride.)

4. In principle, we agree to the temporary, occasional and early performance compensation settlement and withdrawal under special conditions before Christmas this year, but we need to discuss more details with Chiara in the next week, such as applying for the reduction of management fees and custody fees for this year;

(I can’t agree directly, and I can’t agree without any conditions. A 10% performance reward is about 2400 million US dollars. Wouldn’t it be good to invest it in US stocks? At least let Chiara accompany me for ten days at public expense…)

5. Next week, Ricardo will withdraw 100 million US dollars from his account to set up RR, a sports brand in cooperation with Nike. It is expected that he will continue to invest an additional 100 to 200 million US dollars by the end of the year.

(Ricardo will entrust his uncle Charles to be responsible for the establishment process and talent recruitment of relevant sports brand companies, mainly designers and sports science R&D talents. Financial and legal affairs can be directly outsourced to Uncle Charles' company, while Nike will be responsible for production and sales.)

(The main reason is that Ricardo can no longer hold back on changing the style and trend of his sports equipment, such as boots, shin guards and tights. At least he can change them to the style and design he wants...)

Then Ricardo left with a legitimate reason, while Chiara skipped work with pay. Oh no, it should be that during the intervals between Ricardo's attendance at the endorsement brand events, she also found time to discuss the details of the performance-based compensation settlement with Ricardo.

On Tuesday afternoon, Riccardo took Chiara to attend the commercial activities and advertising shoot of Italian Telecom TIM and Armani Armani...

It was not until the lights came on that Ricardo and Chiara took a flight to Rome to report to the national team and reunite with his teammates. During the five days in Rome, Ricardo had to attend commercial activities and advertising shoots for the remaining endorsement brands - Nike, Coca-Cola, Tissot and Ferrero, in addition to training and competition.

In the past few days, Chiara has become a tea girl, responsible for taking care of Ricardo's food, clothing, housing, transportation and sleep quality. As for the details of the early performance compensation settlement, aren't the colleagues in the Milan branch working overtime? Chiara is mainly responsible for serving the mood of the big customers, and what is needed is the final nod of agreement and the trembling of signing...

So time quickly came to 2006:10 on Saturday night, October 7, 21. The crucial battle of Group B of the European Cup qualifiers kicked off at the Olympic Stadium in Rome, with Italy playing against their old rival Ukraine in the World Cup.

At the German World Cup, the two teams met in the quarter-finals; that game was also the first time that Li Qi started in the World Cup finals, and he scored the last goal, helping the Italian national team eliminate the Ukrainian team with a big score of 1-4 and enter the World Cup semi-finals.

Before this game, Scotland, which is also in Group B, defeated France 1-0 at home. With three wins, they are 5 points ahead of Italy. France ranks second with 6 points. Italy only got 2 point in the previous two rounds, so Italy must win this game, otherwise the situation of qualifying will be very grim.

Fortunately, Ukraine's core player Shevchenko was out of action due to a high fever. On the Italian side, Materazzi returned from suspension and joined the best central defender of the World Cup, Cannavaro, in the middle. Zambrotta changed to the left to replace the injured Grosso, and Oddo filled the vacancy on the right.

The midfield is the main midfield combination of the World Cup: Pirlo partners with Gattuso and Li Qi's good roommate De Rossi; the forward trident is Iaquinta, Luca Toni and Piero.

There is no doubt that Italy still starts with the 4-3-3 formation that has been commonly used in recent years.

Li Qi and a number of star players including Camoranesi, Di Natale and Inzaghi started the game from the bench.

After the first half kicked off, Italy took advantage of the home court and had more ball possession and offensive power, but it was more noise than action. However, despite the absence of Shevchenko, the most threatening soldier of Ukraine, Ukraine also created some threats through counterattacks.

Just three minutes into the game, Ukrainian midfielder Tymoshchuk had a chance to take a long shot, but the angle and strength of the shot were poor, and Italian goalkeeper Buffon easily caught it after falling to the ground.

In the 7th minute, Ukraine created a threat again after a quick pass, but Gusev's right-footed shot at a small angle 8 meters away from the goal on the right side of the penalty area was once again blocked by Buffon's heroic side dive!

Italy didn't have its first shot until the 12th minute. Pirlo dribbled the ball over the top from the right, and Luca Toni cut in behind the defense and headed the ball 8 meters in front of the goal, but the ball didn't have enough power and went wide, bouncing off the ground and going wide of the right post.

Then it was not until the 20th minute that Italy had its first threatening shot. Italy made a cross from the right, Piero headed the ball and then made a forward run, Pirlo made a lob pass in front of the penalty area, and Piero flew with his left foot volley 8 meters away from the goal on the left side of the penalty area, but unfortunately the ball went over the crossbar.

In the 30th minute, Oddo made a cross from the right, and Luca Toni beat Shelshin to score 8 meters in front of the goal. He headed the ball and headed it to the far corner. The ball was about to cross the goal line, but Ukrainian goalkeeper Shovkovsky reacted quickly, flew forward bravely, stretched his body to the extreme, and used the fingertips of his right hand to lift the ball out of the bottom line!

This was Italy's most threatening shot since the start of the game. After missing this opportunity, Italy did not create any threatening attacks in the first half, and the two sides entered the second half with a score of 0-0.

In the first half, Italy had 60% of the ball possession time, but created very few chances. After the start of the second half, Italy still played mainly high balls and rarely played ground balls.

Donadoni was obviously dissatisfied with the team's condition and the situation on the field, so when the game reached about 60 minutes, Italy made the first personnel adjustment, with Ricardo Ricci coming on to replace the almost invisible Piero.

After Li Qi came on the field, Italy's midfield and offensive organization changed significantly. Li Qi frequently retreated to the midfield to get the ball, and through active running to pull the space, he held the ball at the edge of Ukraine's penalty area to support the attack. In this way, Italy's offense obviously had a three-dimensional rhythm, with high balls, low balls, long passes, short passes, quick attacks and slow cuts...

Soon, Italy got another chance to score. In the 68th minute, Li Qi cooperated with Oddo on the right side, received Oddo's pass, dribbled past the opponent in the corner of the penalty area and entered the penalty area diagonally...

When Li Qi was half-alone facing the goal, Rusol came from the side and back to tackle, hoping to interfere with Li Qi's possible shot; but Li Qi, who was triggered at the breaking point, did not kick hastily, but instead lightly dribbled the ball back and avoided Rusol's tackle.

The latter had no choice but to use his hands to pull down Li Qi who had already passed him cleanly... The referee decisively awarded a yellow card and a penalty.

So Oddo, who has never missed a penalty kick in the league this season, stepped forward to take the shot. He used a change of rhythm to deceive goalkeeper Shovkovsky and shot with his right foot into the upper right corner of the goal.

Italy finally led Ukraine 1-0 in the second half!

Ukraine, which was behind in the score, was forced to press forward in an attempt to tie the score.

First, in the 71st minute, Voronin turned beautifully in front of the penalty area and shot with his right foot, but Buffon blocked it with one hand. Then Ukraine coach Brozin replaced Voroby with Milevsky to strengthen the front line.

Donadoni also played his second card, replacing Iaquinta with Camoranesi, strengthening the midfield control and changing to 4-4-2, with Luca Toni and Li Qi forming a new forward combination.

Donadoni's substitutions and formation adjustments soon took effect. In the 79th minute of the game, Italy quickly counterattacked after stealing the ball in the backcourt.

Camoranesi received the ball from Pirlo on the left side of the center line and made a 50-meter diagonal pass behind the defense. After Li Qi successfully made an offside, he lightly unloaded the ball with his right foot at the right corner of the penalty area. Facing the goalkeeper who came out and the defender who came to defend, he clearly passed the ball back to Luca Toni who was ambushing at the top of the penalty area.

The latter was 20 meters in front of the goal, facing a half-empty goal, and he shot powerfully with his right foot, and the ball went straight into the upper left corner of the goal!

Italy extended its lead to 2-0 and almost secured the victory.

Then, Luca Toni was replaced by Di Natale amid applause. However, Italy's attack was not over yet.

As the game was about to enter injury time, Italy once again launched an efficient and quick counterattack. After Camoranesi and Gattuso teamed up to intercept Shelayev's ball, Pirlo received the ball and sent a straight pass.

After Li Qi retreated to support the opponent, he and Di Natale, who came on as a substitute, made two consecutive wall passes in front of the penalty area; and finally Di Natale made a fatal through-crotch pass, sending the ball to the corner of the small penalty area... Li Qi rushed in from behind at high speed, and lightly rubbed the ball with his left foot before the goalkeeper fell to the ground to save the ball.

In a flash, the ball and Li Qi took off together, passing the Ukrainian goalkeeper's selfless dive; but Li Qi fell out of bounds, while the ball drew a small arc and landed lightly inside the goal line!

"Ditch oooooh! Ditch oooooh! Ditch!"

"Li Qi, who came on as a substitute in the second half, was amazing! After creating a penalty and making a nanny assist, he scored another goal!"

"In just half an hour, we turned the tide and completely revitalized the Italian team's offense!"

"3-0! Li Qi's goal completely killed the game and made the best player of the game a foregone conclusion!"

"Is Li Qi, who won the nickname of Best Newcomer in the World Cup in Germany, going to take over the guns of his predecessors and carry the offensive banner of the Italian national team?"

“Maybe many people don’t know that in Italy’s youth teams, Li Qi is the core and soul of all levels of the team!”

"This European Cup qualifier is probably going to announce to the world that the Italian national team is about to enter the Li Qi era..."

At home in Milan, Li Qi's parents and brother were watching the TV broadcast and listening to the commentators' praises, all of them were very happy; Li Qi's performance in this game was so wonderful and he made us proud!

Finally, after a 4-0 victory over Ukraine in the World Cup, Li Qi led Italy to stab Ukraine again and eventually won 3-0 in this crucial European Cup qualifier.

This was also the first victory since Donadoni took office. Italy finally accumulated 3 points in 4 games and rose to third place in the group, still retaining the initiative to qualify.

……