Born to be a coach [soccer]

On December 2009, 12, the first working day after Boxing Day, ordinary people may still be celebrating the long holiday between Christmas and New Year, but various media are already busy.After all, the various events on Boxing Day require news reports and summaries.In addition, before the opening of the winter window, countless rumors about player transfers were widely circulated, and it was difficult to distinguish the authenticity from the false.In contrast, the appointment and removal of the head coach of a Championship club is not so noticeable.

When Ruben Smith, the executive editor of the sports column of the "Daily Mail", was reviewing a manuscript, he was attracted by a scrolling news at the bottom of the screen around him.

"Sunderland Football Club announce that manager Simon Grayson has ended his partnership with the club. The club thanks him for his dedication and dedication over the past five months and wishes him all the best."

"There is no way out, we can only break up!" Ruben muttered while staring at the line.

Ruben is very familiar with the situation of all league levels in England, and of course knows Sunderland's ranking in the British Championship.This team, which had just been relegated from the Premier League to the British Championship last season, had already fallen into the relegation zone of the British Championship before Christmas, facing the terrible situation of "back-to-back" relegation.The dismissal of the coach is a certainty, and the only suspense now is which coach Sunderland can hire to save the situation after Grayson dismisses get out of class.

"I guess it will take a while." Ruben immediately put the news behind him.

But about 45 minutes later, the rolling message appeared again: "Sunderland Football Club is pleased to announce that Mr. Antonio Lin has accepted the club's invitation to take up the post of head coach from now on..."

"Lin?" Reuben frowned suddenly.

He has been reporting on all levels of English leagues for many years and is very familiar with the practitioners, but he has never heard this surname appear in the position of the head coach.Lin, is this a Chinese surname?But Antonio sounds Italian, maybe Spanish...

"Jack, go check this man!" Reuben casually copied his name on a note and threw it to a young man named Jack McQueen, who was an intern at a newspaper.But after being busy for more than half an hour, Ruben almost forgot about it. On the way to pour coffee, Ruben saw Ben staring at the computer screen, with a lot of notes written in the notebook next to him.

"Love is really dead-brained!" Ruben remembered what his colleagues had said about this intern.

"Boss," Jack saw Ruben, and quickly raised the note in his hand, "I found this man, but he, he..."

Ruben went over and stared at the headshot of Sunderland's new firefighting coach on the screen with him. Ying Ting, with the corners of his mouth raised slightly, was smiling at Ruben.

"Can't find any record of him as a professional player or as a team coach." Jack was extremely confused.

Ruben thought for a while and said, "It doesn't have to be a professional player." Some of the emerging and rising head coaches in football today have never been professional players.

"But what if you've never been the head coach?" Jack asked.

Ruben thought: This is impossible. To get a club of the level of coaching Sunderland, the experience of leading a team is a prerequisite for obtaining a coaching license. "How is this possible? Quickly check his coaching license?" Ruben was interested for a moment, and stood beside Jack to watch him check.

Jack skilfully searched for various information on the Internet, opened a lot of pop-up windows, searched all the UEFA coaches with ABC card①, but found nothing, and finally found it in the highest-level license list issued by UEFA Found this strange name. "Lin, the license was issued by the Danish Football Association in 2009."

"Denmark?" A Danish fairy tale?Laudrup?Schmeichel?Besides these, what else has anything to do with football? ②

"By the way, I found out that this Mr. Lin had previously coached a friendly match between Denmark and Slovakia. It was very exciting." When Jack talked about this, he began to beam with joy. "It was the game where pure amateur players played against the national team."

Hearing what Jack said, Ruben also remembered that the game was originally viewed as a joke by everyone, but the result was a big surprise.

Although it was a friendly match, it was an open event recognized by FIFA, aiming to warm up for the World Cup qualifiers.Denmark and Slovakia each have a main central defender who plays for Liverpool Football Club. Denmark's Agger and Slovakia's Skrtel originally thought that this game would be staged. In the last two days before the game, Skrtel was told that his good teammate Agger would not be able to come——

The reason is that the Danish team is on strike!

At that time, the Danish Football Association and the Danish national team's players' union faced off.According to the Danish trade union law, during the announcement of the strike, the official members of the Danish national team withdraw from the national team and are "not allowed" to represent the national team in competitions. Even if the players want to take the initiative to play, they cannot do so.

But the tenacious Danish Football Association did not compromise with the union, but recruited a group of young players from the Danish low-level leagues, most of whom were non-professional athletes.In addition to these people, the Danish Football Association even recruited a group of players who specialize in futsal and flew to Slovakia to participate in the competition.

This lineup made the Slovak Football Association very upset, but all the game tickets have been sold, and the two teams can only bite the bullet and play.But what is surprising is that the final result of the game did not appear one-sided. In the end, it was a three-to-three draw.You come and go on both sides, the offense and defense are very exciting.The most embarrassing thing is the official coach and players of the Danish national team, because the head coach of Slovakia commented on the opponents after the game: "This Danish national team is very amazing. I think they are enough to represent Denmark in international competitions."③

This incident is still fresh in Ruben's memory, but he never expected that the head coach of Denmark in this game turned out to be this young man with no reputation—maybe no one except him would be willing to be the head coach of this impromptu national team .

However, with the Danish Football Association willing to endorse this "Lin", it is entirely possible for him to directly obtain a professional coaching license issued by UEFA without spending time coaching those low-level league teams.

"What else did you find?" Ruben suddenly became a little interested in this Lin, thinking that it might be a subject worth reporting.

"He is of Chinese-Italian blood, his father is Chinese, and his mother is from Italy..." Jack frantically grabbed his notes, thin beads of sweat dripping from the bridge of his nose.

This is equivalent to saying nothing - Ruben had guessed it a long time ago. He thought about it and made a decision: "Jack, I have an important task for you. I would not let him go to the field for ordinary interns, but You are different!"

Jack stared at Ruben excitedly: "Boss, please speak!"

"Go to Sunderland and find out what this head coach who looks like a movie star used to do!"

Sunderland, Stadium of Light.

The offices of Sunderland Football Club are located on the side of the pitch.Before the club owner and CEO took a group photo with people outside their stadium, they were blocked by fans.A large group of fans surrounded the owner Ellis Short, men and women asked angrily and loudly: "Where did the new head coach come from?"

"Simon is an experienced old coach, and he has brought the team into this state. Just find someone to succeed, isn't it pushing the team into the pit?"

"Mr. Short, please stand up and tell everyone, is the future of the team important to you?"

"Isn't it just trying to sell the club?"

Short's expression was particularly embarrassing. Facing the menacing fans blocking his way, he shook his hands and stammered, "No, that's not the case... No, I won't sell it, I, I just received an offer that I can't Declined offer..."

This sentence fell into the ears of the fans, but it had a different meaning: "Hey, the feeling is that some foreigner secretly went through the door and came to the team to be plated with gold, so that he can play in the English league in the future."

"You all get what you want, and the only ones who are unlucky in the end are the team and our group of desperate fans!"

When they were relegated from the Premier League last year, the fans had already experienced an unbearable pain. If they were relegated from the British Championship "back-to-back" this year... Oh my God, this would make people live!

There was a moment of chaos outside the stadium. The fans were not satisfied with Short's statement and repeatedly asked the club for an explanation.

"Everyone," suddenly, a young man who had been standing beside Short said suddenly, "Let me introduce myself, I am the new head coach of Sunderland..."

Short is not too short, this young man is even half a head taller than Short, wearing a slim wool coat, a red and white Sunderland scarf around his neck, and a pair of classic The tortoiseshell-rimmed glasses, the gray-blue eyes behind the lenses, looked at the fans quietly and sincerely.

Short next to him was even more embarrassed. He should have introduced this to the fans, so he quickly interrupted: "This is Mr. Antonio Lin..."

"Please call me Anton!" The man still looked at the fans in front of him.His eyes swept across the crowd, and the fans standing in the front, especially the women, felt like they wanted to speak but could not—

It took a long time for them to realize: He said his name was Anton?

"I have a few words, and I would like to ask everyone present to pass them on to your friends." Those gray-blue eyes seemed to be able to speak, and they were sending friendly signals.

"What are you talking about, Gilder!"

"Hey, you kid, who is so sacred?"

"Sunderland is really a great club. What qualifications does a nobody like you have..."

"Snap" - a few crisp sounds.

"Shut up and listen to Anton!" The wives or girlfriends all covered the mouths of the male companions around them, signaling for them to listen quietly.

The author has something to say: I have opened a new article, please bookmark it, thank you everyone! O(∩_∩)O~~

Note time:

① UEFA's coaching license includes ABC card and Pro professional card. Each license has corresponding acquisition conditions and validity period. The Pro license is the highest level of license. Generally speaking, the head coaches who coach the Champions League and Europa League teams need a Pro license.

②The Danish fairy tale refers to the fact that in the 1992 European Cup, the Danish national team, which had not qualified for the final stage, participated in the final stage as a substitute for the Yugoslavia team, but won all the way and finally won the European Cup.Similar to "A Danish Fairy Tale" is 2004's Greek Mythology.

The big and small Laudrup is a star of the Danish national team.Schmeichel is the goalkeeper of two generations of father and son, the latter should be familiar to everyone.

③The strike of the Danish national team is a real thing. It happened in September 2018. In the end, the Danish Football Association had to recruit players from the low-level leagues to participate in the competition, and also recruited several players from the futsal national team .Some "enlisted" players are completely non-professional players. They still work in the company in the morning, receive a call in the afternoon, and prepare for the game in Slovakia in the evening.

In the last game, Denmark lost 0:2 to Slovakia, but considering the completely amateur lineup of the Danish team, the performance has been very good.

There are also many stories about Sunderland, we will tell them next time.

BTW, these two days will be updated every other day, and the daily update will start in the middle of next week.