Football career: From winning the championship to becoming a legend

At 6 am on June 6, Ricciardo arrived at AC Milan's training base, the Milanello Sports Center, one hour early to report to the Italian U9 national team and coaching staff.

Ricardo was quite familiar with the registration process, which was not much different from the previous U17 and U19: it was mainly a simple physical examination... Before he had time to communicate with the coaching staff in detail, he was rushed by head coach Casiraghi to practice with his teammates.

It turned out that the players who did not have club first-team assignments or were in the secondary leagues last season had been training here for almost a week in advance, and the teammates who had club first-team assignments only reported in and started training in the past two days... Ricardo was the first U20 team player with club first-team assignment to arrive.

This is not the first time I have come to Milanello. Although Ricciardo is more familiar with Inter Milan's training base, Pinetina, the national team and the youth national team often use Milanello for training. Every time I visit Milanello, I feel it is great. No wonder this team has such good results in the European competition...

Founded in 1963, Milanello is one of the largest sports training centers among European clubs, with a total area of ​​11.4 square meters. In addition to regular training grounds and equipment, the entire center also includes a forest and a small lake, which is very comfortable.

There are 6 regular football fields in the training center, including three indoor fields and three outdoor fields, but these six football fields are not the same. They are made of different grass and soil to adapt to any game conditions...

After training in the morning, I went to the sports center in Milanello to take a shower, have lunch, and rest. In the afternoon, head coach Casiraghi made an appointment with Ricciardo to communicate at around 3 o'clock...

The main building of Milanello Sports Center is a two-story building, including a training hall, TV room, bar, restaurant and two canteens, as well as two locker rooms, two swimming pools, and a Finnish steam bath. The second floor is a conference hall and meeting room. It was in the meeting room that Ricardo met with the head coach and several assistant coaches...

First of all, we learned that the 20-man roster of the U21 national team is as follows:

3 goalkeepers:

No. 1, Gianluca Cursi (July 85, 7, 12cm, Roma, played 191 times for the first team last season);

No. 12, Emiliano Viviano (December 85, 12, 1cm, left foot, Brescia, played 195 times in the first team last season);

No. 21, Daniele Padelli (October 85, 10, 25cm, Sampdoria, no first-team appearance);

7 defenders:

No. 2, Marco Motta (May 86, 5, 14cm, right foot, Atalanta, played 188 times for the first team last season), mainly plays as right back;

No. 3, Andrea Coda (April 85, 4cm, right foot, Empoli, 25 appearances for the first team last season), mainly plays as a central defender;

No. 4, Marco Andreoli (June 86, 6, 10cm, right foot, Inter Milan, played once in the first team last season), mainly plays as a central defender;

No. 5, Domenico Criscito (December 86, 12, 30cm, left foot, Juventus, no first team appearances), mainly plays as left back;

No. 6, Lino Mazzolati (October 86, 10, 12cm, AC Milan, right foot, played once in the first team last season), mainly plays as right back;

No. 13, Salvatore Bocchetti (November 86, 11, 30cm, left foot, Lanciano, second division league), mainly plays as a left back;

No. 14, Michele Canini (June 85, 6, 5cm, left foot, Cagliari, played 187 times in the first team last season), mainly plays as a central defender;

Midfield 7:

No. 7, Ricardo Montolivo (January 85, 1, 18cm, right foot, Atlanta, played 181 times in the first team last season), mainly plays as a defensive midfielder or winger;

No. 8, Antonio Nocerino (April 85, 4, 9cm, right foot, Genoa, second division league), mainly plays as defensive midfielder;

No. 10, Ricardo Liqi (June 86, 6, 6cm, right foot, Barcelona, ​​played 183 times in the first team last season), mainly plays as a midfielder or attacking midfielder;

No. 15, Daniele Desenna (May 87, 5, 10cm, right foot, Parma, played once in the first team last season), mainly plays as a defensive midfielder or winger;

No. 16, Flavio Lazzari (September 86, 9, 5cm, right foot, Lodigiani, second division league), mainly plays as a midfielder or winger;

No. 17, Simone Bentivoglio (May 85, 5, 29cm, left foot, Juventus, no first team appearances), mainly plays as left midfielder;

No. 20, Luca Cigarini (June 86, 6, 20cm, right foot, second-tier league), mainly plays as right midfielder;

Front 4:

No. 9, Graziano Pelle (July 85, 7cm, right foot, Catania, second division league), mainly plays as a center forward;

No. 11, Andrea Rossi (November 86, 11, 7cm, left foot, Roma, 177 appearances for the first team), mainly plays as a striker or winger;

No. 18, Giuseppe Cozzolino (July 85, 7, 12cm, right foot, Lecce, second division league), mainly plays as a forward or winger;

No. 19, Roberto Acquafresca (September 87, 9, 11cm, right foot, Turin, second-tier league), mainly plays as a center forward;

Among them, goalkeepers Cursi and Viviano both had more than 10 appearances in the first team last season. They are relatively stable links, and it doesn't matter who is chosen as the starting player.

However, the head coach may be more convinced of the idea of ​​using goalkeepers for weak teams, so Viviano, who plays for Brescia, has the upper hand.

The back line of Motta, Koda and Canini were also the players with the most appearances last season. Koda was originally a "parallel import" star of the Italian U20 team.

In addition, although Bocchetti played mainly in the second-tier league last season, he has a lot of game experience. However, Ricciardo still appreciates Criscito and Andreoli more...

The most outstanding forward is definitely the talented star Ricardo Liqui who plays for Barcelona in Spain; but in fact, because Ricardo does not play many first-team games, in fact, in the eyes of outsiders, Liqui is not much more famous than Montolivo and Nocerino...

The local media in Italy believe that the midfield of the current Italian U20 team is also one of the top players in this World Youth Championship in the Netherlands.

Relatively speaking, the striker who has received the most attention is Rossi, who has been a regular player in the first-team lineup in Roma. However, Ricardo believes that Pelle, who came to Catania in Serie B, has more advantages in this age group. After all, a big man over 1 meters tall can be a great deterrent when he goes into the penalty area, even if he has the attributes of King Zhuang of Chu...

This lineup is different from the lineup that attended the U20 World Youth Championship in the Netherlands in history. Although old Li Qi's future memory cannot remember the specific lineup, Ricardo is very clear that he started planning through his uncle Charles and La Pang a few years ago when he was at U17. There must be changes, but I don't know which ones are due to my own variables...

Winning the U17 European Championship, the U17 World Championship, the U19 European Championship, and many other cup and invitational championships along the way has accumulated enough confidence for many young teammates of the Italian youth team; and Ricardo has intentionally or unintentionally fed the ball to more players who he thinks have high basketball IQ, high ceiling, and are compatible with him (actually, the ones whose names Li Qi remembers)...

So no matter what the original history is, players like Andreoli (Inter Milan's junior), Criscito, Montolivo, Nocerino, De Sena, Lazari, Pelle, Acquafresca and others are all Ricardo's iron team; especially De Sena and Acquafresca, the two youngest players in the team, who were able to squeeze out the original candidates of the 85-86 class, and it was also thanks to Ricardo's strong recommendation with the blessing of many youth team championship data...

…………

Head coach Casiraghi began to explain: "Ricardo, we plan to play 442. You will be in the middle, the hub and metronome of the transition between offense and defense... If we fall behind, we may promote you to the front line and change to 433..."

Casiraghi, who had not yet received a positive answer, continued without stopping: "Okay, that's no problem, right... You should guide those who have less competition experience more, and suppress those troublemakers who like to stand out more..."

也不管里卡多有没有听明白，卡西拉吉连珠炮似的继续说：“然后说说赛程，本届世青赛的揭幕战是在6月10日，由A组的澳大利亚对阵贝宁；我们E组的比赛是在6月12日开战，第一场我们是对垒哥伦比亚；第二场是4天后的6月16日对垒叙利亚，第三场是2天后的6月18日对垒加拿大……”

Casiraghi had obviously done a lot of homework: "In this World Youth Championship finals, there are 24 teams divided into six groups. The first and second place teams in each group will directly enter the round of , and the third place teams in the other four groups with the best results will also advance. Therefore, it is very likely that only one win in the group stage will advance to the knockout stage..."

“如果晋级淘汰赛的话，我们所在的E组将在6月21日或者22日，进行1/8决赛……”

“6月25日-26日是1/4决赛，6月28-29日是半决赛，7月2日是三四名决赛和决赛……基本上就是3-4天一场比赛，小组赛中我们还有一场对加拿大的比赛是在对叙利亚的比赛之后的2天内……”

Suddenly, Casiraghi stopped talking and asked: "Hearing this, as the captain of the team, what do you think?"

Ricardo thought for a moment, pinched his chin and answered: "A game every 3-4 days, even if the youngsters recover quickly, they will definitely be very tired in the later stages and their condition will be affected; and the rules for qualifying from the group stage are relatively loose, so we should use the group stage to make more rotations and prepare for the next games..."

Ricardo expressed his opinion without shame: "In addition, it is not necessarily a bad thing to qualify as the third in the group and play against the first in the other group... because the first in the group with 3 wins is likely to have exhausted its form and will be a little tired in the knockout stage..."

Seeing that the head coach had no intention of stopping, Ricardo continued to speak shamelessly: "I know my peers quite well. At this age, the level of strength is actually not much different, and the physical advantage is not as obvious as it was when we were U17. In general, the strength of each team will not differ much. It mainly depends on tactics, morale, mentality and physical condition..."

"If we play too hard and too excitedly in the first two group matches, it will easily affect our rest afterwards. We young people can't sleep easily when we are excited... Without a solid mediation plan, it will be difficult for this state to last more than a week..." Ricardo, who was getting more and more excited, was finally interrupted by Casiraghi.

Then Casiraghi gave a summary: "Well, very good, Ricardo, your ideas coincide with those of our coaching staff! Let's discuss it. I will find you to discuss it in detail when we arrive in the Netherlands..."

(Ricardo couldn't help but complain in his heart: Hmm? Isn't it a coincidence? What are you still discussing? Why don't you just tell me directly...)

Finally, Casiraghi explained: "Oh, by the way, Ricardo, you and Montolivo are also old teammates. You are both in this team... From now on, we will call you Li Qilai in the team to distinguish you from Ricardo Montolivo..."

Ricardo nodded readily: "No problem, boss! You have the final say! I'll take my leave..."

Before he completely walked out the door, Ricardo turned back again: "By the way, boss, I brought some Spanish specialty nougat and chocolate for the coaching staff. I'll bring them up later..."

The coaches who remained silent throughout the entire process: “Oh! Thank you so much, Li Qi…”

…………

After paying tribute to the coaching staff, Li Qi began to greet his teammates who were already in the center and distributed benefits: "Guys, here we have it! Everyone gets one, a signed photo of the new World Footballer of the Year Ronaldinho!"

Pelle kissed the autographed photo: "Thank you, boss! That's great! I'm a Ronaldinho fan!"

Lazari: "Thank you, Boss! You are so kind..." Then he looked at the autographed photo carefully, "But, Boss, why is the autographed photo a photo of you and Ronaldinho?"

Ricardo replied with a look of disgust: "So much nonsense! Aren't you guys not at the scene? Why don't I take a group photo on your behalf first? Otherwise, you could have flown over at that time..."

Criscito: "Boss, what you said seems to be right... But it always feels weird... Also, besides Ronaldinho's signature, why is there also your signature?"

Ricardo pretended to deal with the two troublemakers who raised objections: "You two are the only ones who talk too much! Aren't two signatures more valuable than one?"

…………

In the evening, Li Qi also brought his newly bought 14-inch IBM TKpad T43. This is the first TKPad notebook released by Lianxiang after it acquired the IBM PC department. It was rated as "the most secure notebook in the world" by the American magazine "PC Magazine": "When I have free time, I have to do my homework and write some code..."

"However, we can't play games with these guys all night long, right? It would be embarrassing if we get abused..."

"I'll teach them after I've mastered the micromanipulation techniques..."

……

After surfing the Internet, Ricardo closed his computer and was about to pick up a book to read without typing any code. Oh no, he changed his mind before he even stood up. He picked up his phone and started playing: "Send a message to Sarafina to tell her that we will play against Canada at 6:1 pm next Saturday..."

"Send another message to Chiara to ask if the new account has been opened..."

"Well, it's a pity that my parents both have work arrangements and can't go to the scene to cheer me on... My brother will definitely not go either... Well, just watch my performance on TV..."

Li Qi silently complained and fell asleep...