long live football

Although Carl is not in the UK recently, he has been greatly loved by the British media. His name and news frequently appear in various newspapers, magazines or TV programs, as frequently as if he himself lives in London.

There is no other reason, but because the recent hot news in European football happens to have some contact with Karl.

First, Alba, the reporter of "Mundo Desports", made a joke of himself in the interview, which made the media colleagues all over Europe see it as a joke. The British media felt that the rise of the Spanish media in recent years threatened their status, so they laughed the most. It’s amazing, they want to let the whole world know that Spanish journalists like to bite everywhere like mad dogs, tell black and white, and even the local coaches will not let it go...Of course, no matter how ruthless the western media is, the British media themselves can’t become white Lotus, they don't have such lofty ideals, but they are more satisfied by making themselves appear more upright compared to Western media.

Another thing that has become popular in Europe and even made headlines in many national newspapers is related to Beckham and the England national team.

Since he resigned as captain after the World Cup in Germany and was rejected by the national team coach McLaren, Beckham has actually been looking for opportunities to return to the national team. He often performed desperately in the key matches of Munich 1860. Just being able to impress McLaren.

But why is McLaren so impressive?He can even be regarded as the last person in the England national team who does not want Beckham to return.

McLaren was actually not well-known before he became the coach of England. He was the head coach of the Premier League Middlesbrough team for five years. His achievements during his tenure were mediocre. The Football Association insisted that "the coach of the national team must choose a local coach", so he was able to be strengthened after Eriksson stepped down and served as the new helm of the Three Lions.

The first thing the head coaches have to do after taking office is basically to "hold their position firmly", and McLaren's means of consolidating his position and winning the hearts of the people is to clean up the reputation and influence of the national team. old players.

If it was the past, the coach of the national team would clean up the big-name superstars in the team as soon as he came to power, and the players and media fans would have to fall out?But McLaren chose to do it after the World Cup in Germany, but it was a smart choice, because at that time the national fans were looking for the "culprit" of the Three Lions' collapse in Germany, although the former head coach Eriksson attracted away Most of the firepower, but some bullets still fell on big players such as Beckham.

Beckham has always been disliked by McLaren (when he was Eriksson's assistant coach, McLaren was always unhappy with Beckham's special status in the national team), coupled with the public opinion at the time, he was the first to be accepted by Mike Laren was cleaned off.

Victoria once publicly reprimanded McLaren, saying that his cruelty made her husband "cry like a child". My friend's voice was choked up, and I saw my friend's eyes with red circles.

From the first day Beckham transferred to Munich 1860, Karl said to his friends: "After you are fully prepared, start again in Munich, I will give you all my support, one day, you will let Let those who give up on you know what regret is."

Beckham's response at the time was a dignified nod.

Now that most of the season has passed, Beckham, who runs more than [-] meters per game and ranks among the top assists in the Bundesliga, has not only conquered German fans, but has even regained the favor of the British media and fans.

Real Madrid coach Fabio Capello publicly praised Beckham's "professionalism is admirable", and even Ferguson, intentionally or unintentionally, expressed this meaning to Karl: "Don't look at David who is alive and well under your hands now, he All of my skills are the foundation laid by me at the beginning!"

Beckham and Irving, the twin stars of England in the Bundesliga, radiated an unusually dazzling light, which made fans in their homeland salivate and look forward to it again. As early as January 07, a reporter from The Guardian made a prediction: "Wait Just wait and see, Owen and Beckham will be called up again by McLaren sooner or later!"

At the end of February, when England were beaten 2-0 by Spain in a national team friendly, McLaren called up Owen.

Yes, only Irving, not Beckham.

When the media raised questions, McLaren's answer was very heartless: "I recruited Irving because I felt that the national team's striker needs to be supplemented. Beckham? No, no, no, I don't want him to return to the team yet. Our center Lampard, Gerrard, Downing, Lennon... it's packed enough, I don't think there's room for him (Beckham)."

These words sounded very high-sounding at first glance, but McLaren was quickly exposed by reporters - the reason why he only recalled Irving and not Beckham was because he said in an interview in 06 to please the fans that " Beckham will not be reactivated during my tenure" or something like that.Having said all the utter words, how could it be possible for McLaren to go back on his word in less than a year?

Carl doesn't know how the English media fans reacted afterwards, but he still remembers that the day after McLaren's interview, Beckham came to training with swollen eyes again.

It was also on that day that Carl said to Beckham: "Since you can't move McLaren's heart, then...you should slap your face instead."

……

From February to April 2007, the England national team played a total of 2 games, a national team friendly match and two European Cup qualifiers. The record was finally lost to Spain, tied with Israel, and won Andorra.

Since McLaren took office last year, he has played a total of 12 games with the England team, including 5 wins, 4 draws and 3 losses... It is really not a satisfactory answer.

There are a total of 7 teams in Group E of the European Cup qualifiers. Only the top two teams in the final points can enter the finals of the 2008 Austria-Swiss European Cup. The current ranking of the England team is fourth, falling behind Behind Croatia, Russia and Israel.

This is almost the worst record achieved by the England national team in the same period of European Cup qualifiers in the past 20 years.

The sweet time between England fans and McLaren ended suddenly. The media bombardment that the previous Three Lions coaches had encountered finally gave McLaren a taste this time.

The biggest questioning and criticism among the media came from the "Daily Mail". They put forward a very novel point of view, and once it was published, it aroused huge discussions among fans in public.

That view is: "McLaren's poor England record is because he refused to call David Beckham?"

The "Daily Mail" did not put forward such a point of view out of thin air. They also used a lot of data to prove it. The most shocking one was a few paragraphs mentioned by Munich 1860 coach Karl Oston in an interview. Words: "I don't understand why Beckham is always excluded from the national team list. A player as good as him should have a place in the national team. David himself has expressed to me many times that he wants to return to the national team. The desire of the national team, I think you know this without me, because David has also said similar things to the microphone countless times."

It is rare for the Lions coach to answer a topic that has nothing to do with his team at the press conference. This time, he spoke freely: "As the coach of Beckham, no one can understand his physical condition better than me. , I think he’s at his peak competitively and mentally right now - maybe five or six more years at the top level.”

"If the reporters present don't believe it, I can use Beckham's field data in the past three months to prove it: the second in the Bundesliga assist list; the 13th in the Bundesliga scorer list; the average assist is 1.3 goals ; Average running 11000 meters per game; Free throw percentage..."

The media, especially the British media, came to life when they heard this: While McLaren led the team with poor results, Beckham actually produced such impressive statistics in Germany. Recruiting him back to the team every month, is it possible that the England team may rewrite the final score in the friendly match against Spain?Especially without Beckham's unique kick, England's current free throw percentage is indeed quite low...

Journalists are the easiest group of people to change their tone. With someone starting, everything will follow: the media began to list all kinds of statistics to prove that Beckham's return to the national team at this time is more beneficial to England than harmful ; and the fans were also instigated by various dazzling reports, gathered at the gate of the FA building and raised flags to protest "We don't want McLaren! We want David Beckham!"

Beckham's team-mates were a central part of the solidarity:

Owen: "With David passing the ball to me, I will perform better in the national team game."

Dante Santos, Beckham's club teammate and the only Brazilian in the first team of Munich 1860, also said: "David's technical and physical fitness can be selected for the Brazilian national team. I don't understand why he has not been selected. England call-up, it's a bit of a waste of money."

Rooney: "I miss playing with him (Beckham), very, very much."

In the almost one-sided voices of public opinion from all walks of life, McLaren's perseverance seems to be crumbling.

But he persevered after all: "I saw Beckham at 1860 Munich, but I don't think this is the time to talk about it (recalling Beckham) - he played too many games at the club, starting every game. And every game runs more than [-] meters. It is very energy-consuming to race like this. Even if I finally let him come back, he has exhausted all his energy in Germany, and he may not be able to do his best for the national team. All out."

"There should be no head coach in the world who likes his main players to be frequently called back by the national team to work hard." Thinking this way, McLaren kicked the ball to Munich 1860.

English reporters stared at Carl with wet puppy eyes, as if begging him for mercy.

The Lions coach did not make things difficult, on the contrary, he was very generous: "Mr. McLaren never called me to discuss the use of Beckham. If he really made such a call to me, I think I will agree to some of his normal requests, such as giving David some rest time before and after the England game."

McLaren never expected such a scene, as if overnight, the world turned against him.

But he can't really start to be hostile to the whole world, because he doesn't have the strength.

So McLaren chose to give in reluctantly: "England has a friendly match against Brazil in early June and a European Cup qualifier against Estonia. Before that, I will re-call Beckham into the team-if he If I agree."

Of course, Beckham agreed with 1 out of [-], although he was a little worried that he would be worn by McLaren after returning to the team.

"He won't." The Lions coach comforted his friends with convincing force: "The media all over England are now staring at the national team. McLaren's position is not as stable as last year, even a little bit. He dare not embarrass you easily. What McLaren values ​​most now is the European Cup qualifiers. If England fails to reach the finals, his position as head coach will definitely be lost. If you want to repair the relationship with him, then Play the national team well, if you help him complete the task, I am afraid that even if you want to quit the national team, he will do everything possible to stop you..."

……

In late April, Mendez showed up at Carl's house, all dressed in dust from the East Coast, and a copy of the European edition of Time, which was due to be released in May.

He carefully placed the magazine in front of Carl, with an unconcealable smile on his face: "Time magazine's New York dinner was great! It's a pity you didn't have time to go, I met Leonardo Dika Purio, Simon Fuller, Brad Pitt... oh, and Cranstone! He asked me about you!"

Carl flipped through the magazine, and sure enough, he saw that his name appeared in the list of "2007 Most Influential People in the World in [-]".

"Time Magazine" has selected the "2004 Most Influential People in the World" every year since 20, which are divided into "leaders and revolutionaries", "entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs", "scientists and thinkers", "heroes and icons". ” and “Artists and Entertainers” in five categories, with [-] candidates in each category.

Carl appeared on the cover of the US edition of Time Magazine in November last year, and he was qualified to be selected as one of the "11 Most Influential People in the World". into the "Heroes and Icons" category and invited him to the TIME awards dinner in New York at the end of April.

To be honest, even if he was selected as one of the "[-] Most Influential People in the World", Carl didn't think it would bring him any real benefits. He spared himself the pain of flying tens of thousands of miles to New York and let his agent do it for him.

Jorge Mendes was really happy with such an errand, and ran to New York non-stop to expand his social circle.

Karl knew his agent, Mendes was a guy with no profit, and a mere magazine was not worth his trip to Munich to meet him.

So Karl directly threw out his question.

Mendes laughed loudly: "I knew I couldn't hide it from you!" He opened his briefcase and took out a lot of documents from it: "Since the news that Munich 1860 will conduct a trip to China this summer, my company landline and The mailbox has never been idle, many Chinese companies approached me and wanted to cooperate with you, I picked out a few more suitable contracts, take a look when you are free, and give me an answer as soon as possible.”

Carl looked at the thick stack: "So many? Is it all mine, or is it the team's?"

"Of course it's all your own, Carl, don't underestimate your influence in Asia today." Mendes winked at him: "There are even Japanese and Korean companies looking for me, but I don't I know if you have plans to go to those two countries, so you didn't bring those contracts over."

Carl rubbed his eyebrows: "I will only go to China this summer."

Mendes sighed regretfully.

After a while, seeing that Karl had no intention of comforting him at all, he sighed a little louder.

Carl didn't even raise an eyebrow.Mendes tried to kill him with more contracts, but no way.

Mendez thought sadly in his heart: My heart is getting harder and harder...

After reading a few pages of the shampoo endorsement contract, Carl suddenly raised his head and asked, "Jorge, you don't understand a word of Chinese. When I sign more and more endorsements with Chinese companies, what are you going to do with those contract materials in Chinese? , can’t you always ask for a translator?”

When it comes to business, Mendes hastily put away the twists and turns he was planning in his mind: "I'm going to hire an employee who can speak Chinese, and I'll take him there when I go to China."

"Isn't it okay to just hire a part-time lawyer in China to be responsible for these contracts? You can also let them keep an eye on those companies in case there is a breach of contract." Carl thought: "Just like the Ronaldo incident at the beginning of the year."

What Karl said was the matter of Real Madrid star Ronaldo suing China Golden Throat Group at the beginning of this year. During Real Madrid’s trip to China in 03, Ronaldo received USD 30 as an appearance fee from Golden Throat Group to participate in a dinner. During the banquet, the manufacturer Arranged for him to put on a jersey with "Golden Throat Lozenges" printed on it, and took a few photos with the product. The advertisement was broadcast on TV for four years, and because China, Brazil, and Spain could not communicate with each other, it was only this year that Ronaldo’s agent found out about it, and he chose to immediately sue the breaching manufacturer.

As the official spokesperson of the Golden Throat Group, after the lawsuit was exposed by the media, the image of many players of Munich 1860 was also affected. Fortunately, the manufacturer quickly reached a settlement agreement with Da Luo's agent, so it did not cause any bigger damage. Bad influence.

But the Ronaldo incident has reminded many stars: When you pass by a country in a hurry and conduct business activities with companies there, you should look back from time to time to see if your image has been illegally used by others.

Mendes was also touched when he thought of this incident. His focus of work is in Europe and South America, and almost all of Asia is passing through without stopping. The Chinese market is so big, and it can save him a lot of effort to find a special person to watch over it. So Mendes nodded: "The candidate should be decided during the trip to China."

"I know a pretty good Chinese lawyer." Carl seemed to think of something, and was a little absorbed: "It's time to introduce you to each other."