long live football

The war of words led by Ferguson was originally a drama that the European media was extremely looking forward to reporting, but in the past few days, the attention of the media has been attracted by another matter.

A 9-year-old fan named Anderson wrote a letter to the Munich 1860 club. In the letter, he said in immature writing that his father was a loyal Lions fan. Watching the game at the United Stadium, as long as it is a home game, there will be no match. The home has collected the home and away jerseys of the Lions for more than 20 years, and the walls are covered with posters of the team.

Anderson said that his father was very envious of his rivals Bayern in the same city who often played in the European arena. When he was four or five years old, he had extravagantly asked, "It would be great if 1860 Munich could also participate in the European Champions Cup one day."

"Last season, Mr. Oston fulfilled my father's wish. Although the team still played in the UEFA Cup, my father was very happy. On the night of winning the UEFA Cup, we held a small party at home to support the team. Celebrating, the whole family had a great time. It was the happiest holiday I can remember spending with my parents."

"Dad secretly told me that his biggest dream in life is that 1860 Munich can reach the final of the Champions League, and he will definitely take me to stand in the stadium of the final and see the club become the European champion with his own eyes."

"It would be even better if we could take a photo with Mr. Alston and the others!"

When writing here, Anderson’s writing style is a little more lively: “Although we live in Munich and often go to the Allianz Arena to watch football, we have never met the players. And Dad can't squeeze the others."

"If I can have a photo with Mr. Alston in the future, I will definitely hang it in my bedroom and look at it every day!"

"Speaking of which, I don't even have one of Koch's signatures! I have many, many people's jerseys, Beckham's, Koch's, Ozil's, Bender's... just none of them are signed named."

Next, Anderson used three pages of manuscript paper to describe a very sad event: his father was diagnosed with advanced liver cancer at the end of last year, and the doctor said that he had only half a year left to live. From then on, he began to regard the hospital as his home, and he never went to the Allianz Stadium with his father to watch the game.

"Dad's body is full of tubes, and he takes a lot of medicine every day. I ask him: 'Dad, is the medicine bitter? Does it hurt?' He always shakes his head at me in a manly way, and then bites his lips until his hair white."

After entering May, Anderson's father was in a coma for a long time every day. Anderson once secretly heard a conversation between his mother and the doctor. At a young age, he already knew clearly that his father might not even be able to survive this month. Can't get over it.

"Where do people go after they die? Heaven?"

"My mother said that my father will definitely go to heaven, and he has been guarding me in heaven."

"But I don't want to live a life where my dad sees me and I don't see him. I also want to see him every day."

"Is heaven far away? Is it possible to get there by train, or by plane?"

"I will always do housework for my mother to save pocket money, and then buy a ticket to see my father in heaven."

But before fulfilling that great wish of "seeing Dad in heaven", Anderson has another wish to be fulfilled, which is why he wrote to the Munich 1860 club.

Anderson wanted to fulfill his dream for his comatose father - to watch the Champions League final at Moscow's Luzhniki Stadium - but UEFA allocated too few tickets to the club, and neither he nor his mother could book one.

Anderson once wanted to buy a final ticket from someone else, but the scalpers' asking price was too high. The cheapest ticket was more than 1000 euros, and the more expensive one was more than 7500 euros.Little Anderson couldn't afford it even if he broke all his piggy banks.

In desperation, Anderson could only write a letter to the Munich 1860 club, hoping that the club would sell him a ticket at the original price after reading his letter. machine, to go to Moscow to fulfill Dad's greatest wish.

"Dad's eyes haven't been opened for a long time, but the doctors and uncles said that he hasn't gone to heaven yet. Dad's ears can still hear me talking to my mother."

"My mother said that heaven is a very good place, and my father will be happy when he goes there. Many other uncles and aunts also said the same."

"Since heaven is so good, why doesn't Dad take the train there now? It must be that he still has his wish unfulfilled, so he is reluctant to leave."

"But Dad couldn't even open his eyes, so he definitely couldn't sit up and watch the game with me."

"So I'm going to Moscow instead of Dad, and I'm going to record everything I can see and hear, and play it back for Dad."

"If Dad knows that I have helped him fulfill his wish, the corners of his mouth will definitely smile again."

This letter was sent to the Munich 1860 club two weeks ago. The staff saw it when they were dealing with a sea of ​​letters from fans a week ago. After reading Anderson's letter, the staff were deeply moved. A letter was delivered to the top, wanting to be seen by the higher-ups.

However, within a week after the letter was discovered and submitted, none of the club executives helped Anderson fulfill his wish-because they simply ignored the fan letter.

So another staff member took back the dusty letter from the board of directors' secretariat, and then secretly stuffed it under the door of the team's head coach's office.

……

Carl saw the letter the next morning.

He immediately decided not only to give the ticket to his box to the little fan, but also to invite Anderson to fly to Moscow with the team.

If this is the case, then the story of a fan who wrote to the club begging for tickets and was finally satisfied, probably can get a small piece of tofu in the "Munich Daily" the next day.

But Carl does much more than that.

He contacted Anderson's mother, and on a rest day, he took the entire team and the German Cup championship trophy he had just won to the hospital.

All the players signed their names on a football and gave it to Anderson as a gift, along with an autographed jersey from each.

Then all of them gathered in front of the hospital bed, quietly and carefully asked the photographer to take a group photo - in this group photo, there is the entire Lions team, and Anderson Jr. holding the German Cup trophy instead of his father, and Anderson Mom, and old Anderson who is still in a coma.

The door and window of the ward were full of doctors, nurses and patients.

Someone secretly notified the media of the entire Lions team appearing at the hospital.

The swarming reporters did not block the members of the Lions team. After taking a group photo with his players and giving Anderson Jr. tickets, jerseys and footballs, they bid farewell and left.

But the media interviewed the Anderson family.

Little Anderson happily hugged the football and said: "If Dad wakes up, he will be very happy to see the group photo!" Then he held up the things in his arms: "He will definitely envy my signature football!"

Many female reporters were in tears on the spot.

Reporters don't just love to report on games and gossip about stars, they also love such sad and heartwarming stories.

The letter that Anderson sent to Munich 1860 was finally intercepted by the media and published in the newspaper.

This letter moved the entire European football world.

Club 1860 Munich has also received widespread acclaim.

……

There are many ways to deal with Ferguson's psychological warfare.

The worst thing to do is head-to-head.

The middle policy is not to accept the move.

The best strategy is to work both internally and externally, while eliminating the impact of psychological warfare on players, and diverting the attention of the media.

When Carl started Ferguson's efforts, he conducted closed training for the team, and then gave the players a gag order, forbidding them to talk about the finals to the media-the players couldn't see the messy news from the outside world, and they didn't accept it. Interviews by reporters will naturally not be affected by psychological warfare.

Just to divert the attention of the media, Karl didn't think of a good solution for a while.

Until he saw Anderson's letter.

So everything that follows is logical.

The team travels together to help a dying loyal fan and his lovely son fulfill his wish.

The team doesn't even have to notify the media themselves, and naturally there will be reporters with a keen sense of smell to report this matter.

It is a win-win situation to achieve other goals while doing good deeds.

In the next long time, although Ferguson was far away in Manchester, he never stopped his saliva attacks.

But apart from the two local newspapers in Manchester that would publish his provocations, few other media would support Ferguson's psychological warfare.

Because now all of Europe is busy reporting the story of Anderson's young fans.

There is even a foundation in Germany that provides funds to cancer research centers, which contacted the Anderson family and offered to use the latest scientific research results to treat the old Anderson free of charge.

It is said that if the treatment is successful, the old Anderson can not only wake up from the coma, but also prolong his life for several months.

For a whole week, the head coach of Manchester United has been desperately launching a psychological war against Karl, the coach of Munich 1860. From Beckham to Irving and then to Karl, from bluntly saying that the Lions cannot beat the Red Devils to making suggestions for the opponent with good intentions, Ferguson It can be called full of tricks.

The tricks of the Red Devils coach made British newspapers a big seller. Most reporters praised Ferguson as always, but there were some exceptions. The reporter of "The Sun" Gary Jeb "praised" in his column: "Sir Ferguson's psychological warfare There are endless tricks, the CIA should invite him to work in the Guantanamo prisoner-of-war camp, and learn from Jazz how to subdue the opponent without spending money..."

This comment is superficially admirable, but combined with the reality, it inevitably has a bit of irony: the coach of the Lions is not a prisoner of war in Guantanamo, and Ferguson’s psychological warfare has no effect on Munich 1860. Who in Europe would fight with Munich 1860 for Manchester United?Everyone is busy reporting warm and touching Lions fan stories!

Even Ferguson himself has now died down, no longer playing tricks, but actually closing the training ground to prepare for the game.

……

32 Munich hosts Hertha Berlin in the 1860nd round of the Bundesliga.

When the game was about to start, the Hertha Berlin players came out first. When 1860 Munich walked out of the player channel, they lined up to welcome the new Bundesliga champions.

It is also a European football tradition to line up to welcome the league champions. It is a move to express a noble meaning to the opponent. It can be traced back to the 1954-1955 season. Manchester United collectively lined up to welcome Chelsea, but this kind of etiquette generally only occurs in the league champions In the next game just after birth, it doesn't mean that the Lions won the league three rounds ahead of schedule, and the opponents in the next three games will line up to welcome them.

The game against Hertha Berlin 1860 Munich finally won easily 3:0.

In the 33rd round of the league, 1860 Munich defeated Frankfurt 2-0 away.

On May 5th, the Lions ushered in the last chance to play at home, and it was also the last round of the Bundesliga this season. Their opponent was Leverkusen. Because they were worried about the Champions League final five days later, 17 Munich played in this game. There were some reservations in the game, the kicking scene was not very brilliant, and the final score of the game was also 1860:0. Leverkusen accomplished what many other Bundesliga teams failed to accomplish this season-the boredom at the Allianz Arena Flat Munich 0.

Although they only got a draw in the last league game, the Lions fans did not feel unhappy, because they had won the most gold-rich trophy in the country, the German Cup champion and the league champion, and won the Champions League final five days later. , They are also very likely to become the unprecedented triple crown in German football history!

The grand awards ceremony was held immediately after the game, and golden and blue fireworks were flying all over the Allianz Arena.

The German Football Association sent the league champion salad plate to the Allianz Arena before the start of the game. In this awards ceremony, the chairman of the Football Association Zwanziger personally sent the salad plate to the captain of Munich 1860 Beckham.

Holding the salad plate high, Beckham and his teammates walked around the field to display the trophy amid the singing resounding throughout Allianz, and then walked the second and third laps under the strong request of the fans, and then entered The traditional Munich-style championship celebration - beer bath.

Karl was very prescient this time, hiding on the sidelines to talk to Zwanziger before barrels of beer were moved into the stadium.

The German Football Association also attaches great importance to the Champions League final with Manchester United five days later, because once the Lions win the championship, German football will also have its own Triple Crown team, which will have a very positive impact on the rise of German football, so Zwanziger took advantage of this awards ceremony to tell Karl that on the day of the Champions League final, he and the national team chairman Loew will go to Moscow to watch the game together.

While chatting with Zwanziger, Karl paid close attention to the movement on the court. He had cunningly chosen a position facing the court and backed by the player tunnel.

When he saw three or four players holding tall beer mugs and sneaking over obliquely, Karl pretended to be talking to Zwanziger seriously at first, not noticing any other movements. When those players were only a few steps away from him, he suddenly smiled at Zwanziger, said a quick farewell, then turned and ran towards the channel.

Seeing that the fat in their mouths was about to run away, the players panicked, and they took a quick step forward and splashed their wine glasses at Carl's back.

Zwanziger had just recovered at this time.

"Whoa-"

A golden waterfall of beer fell from the sky, chilling the head of the German Football Association who was close at hand.

Holding empty beer glasses, the Lions players standing face to face with Zwanziger were suddenly dumbfounded.

Then each of them showed strange expressions of sadness and joy—regrets about whether they had teased their boss, apprehension that they just dumped the boss of the Football Association, joy after seeing each other's embarrassment, and fear The worry of being scolded by the other party.

Zwanziger's reaction was beyond everyone's expectations.

He first wiped his face with his hands, shook off the beer from his eyelids, opened his eyes, then looked at the Lions players standing in front of him like kittens, and then looked down at his clothes— ——The tailor-made three-piece suit originally wrapped his round figure with full momentum, but after taking a beer bath this time, the suit's shaping function disappeared, and Zwanziger's round beer belly was so exposed In broad daylight——finally he laughed out loud "hahahaha", and waved his hand indifferently to signal that the Lions players don't need to apologize.

The chairman of the Football Association was amused by his rare embarrassment, and the Lions players were also relieved, and laughed together.

The fans in the surrounding stands stretched their heads to this side, turned on the cameras and kept pressing the shutter, taking pictures of the joyous scene in front of them.

Karl, who had already hid in the player tunnel, couldn't help but twitch his mouth when he saw this scene.