At the end of the season, Chen Zihua and Xu Ziyi joined Orlando City in the United States at the same time, both signed a two-year contract with the team, and Vazquez returned to Espanyol. After scoring 100 goals for AC Milan, Yan Tao also refused to be retained by the club and decided to go to the United States for retirement, and the team he signed was the New York Red Bulls, and the contract period was a "1+1" situation.

In the past, AC Milan gathered four Chinese players, but now only Zhang Shujie is left. He also has the final year of his contract with AC Milan, and judging by his age, many media have analyzed that he may choose to retire next year.

It is unclear whether Zhang Shujie will retire next year, but the other two Chinese players have announced that they will leave their beloved football stadium for good. Huang Yu and Tang Ling announced their retirement after ending their contracts with the team. According to the original plan, they had planned to go to the Middle East to pan for gold again, but after thinking about it, they decided to end their careers this year.

The two of them once served as the assaulters of the Chinese national wing, enriching the Chinese team's playing style and giving the Chinese team more tactical means. Whether it is Tang Ling in Atletico Madrid or Huang Yu in Juventus, they have won many championships for their teams, the only pity is that Tang Ling won the Champions League with Atletico Madrid after all, but Huang Yu has never touched this honor.

Huang Yu also admitted: "Not being able to win the Champions League is the biggest regret of my life. I've fantasized about winning this title countless times, but it didn't work out. I'm too old to ask for this anymore. ”

Tang Ling also said: "I really want to stay on the court, but my physical condition and my age really don't allow it, so I decided to retire." ”

Tang Ling and Huang Yu also followed in the footsteps of Zhao Wenkang and Ma Junqiang, announcing that they would hang up their boots permanently. Chinese fans will definitely remember the world championship they brought to the national football team, and they will never forget it.

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This summer, the transfer market has been a mess, with Marcus Rashford coming to Milan, Anthony Martial going to Real Madrid and Mbappe wanting to leave Milan. But in the end, it turned out that it was all rumours and that the players were all staying at their original clubs. Especially Mbappe, the French star who just won the Champions League, really can't think of a reason for his departure.

Zhang Shujie enjoyed his vacation well, he pushed away all the advertisements and spent all his time with his family. He didn't understand that he was thirty-six years old, and his state was not as good as before, so why did he still have so many endorsements for him.

AC Milan have brought in a lot of strong reinforcements this summer, and the strong Rossoneri have ushered in the 2027/2028 season, Milan has this confidence, they not only have players at the peak, but also experienced veterans, and many rising stars, it stands to reason that such AC Milan is qualified enough to shout such a slogan.

In the pre-season warm-up matches, AC Milan also had a very good result, winning several club friendlies, scoring an average of 2.6 goals per game, the most of any team, which also made the outside world unanimously optimistic about AC Milan's journey this season.

However, the reality was shocking, first in the UEFA Super Cup, AC Milan lost 1:2 to Porto, lost the first title of the new season, and then lost 0:3 to Lazio in the Italian Super Cup, missing out on the second trophy. Some media began to question AC Milan, and the "Milan Sports Newspaper" wrote: "There is something wrong with AC Milan, especially at the back, the results of the warm-up game cover it all up, but many teams in the warm-up game may not do their best, so many people don't find out." The official competition is different, and every team will give it their all. Yan Tao's departure has deprived AC Milan of their biggest leader at the back, and there is no one in the team to replace Yan Tao's role. ”

However, Inzaghi disagrees, saying: "The quality of the two games doesn't mean anything, we are aiming for the league and the Champions League, and that's the most important thing. ”

It sounds like Inzaghi doesn't think much of the UEFA Super Cup and Italian Super Cup are very serious. Whether it's his real thoughts or his excuses, anyway, everything will be clear when the league starts.

AC Milan's results in the league seem to confirm what Inzaghi said, in the first three rounds, AC Milan won three in a row, scored seven goals, conceded only one goal, and temporarily topped the table with nine points. Zhang Shujie came off the bench for two games, making one pass and one shot, and the 36-year-old veteran performed well.

Then the Champions League started, and AC Milan defeated the Premier League giants Tottenham Hotspur 5:0 in the first round. The most commendable thing is that in the last 20 minutes of the game, AC Milan, which had already led 2:0, completely took the initiative, and Inzaghi replaced Zhang Shujie. In this short period of 20 minutes, Zhang Shujie broke through Tottenham's goal with his left foot, right foot, and header respectively, scoring a hat trick. Zhang Shujie scored four goals at the start of the new season and is currently the top scorer in the AC Milan team.

It may sound ironic that the top scorer in the Serie A giants is a 36-year-old striker, which is completely unthinkable in other teams. But this has a lot to do with the fact that it has just started, as the season progresses, the older Zhang Shujie will not be able to play in every game, and his goal count will slowly decrease.

Inzaghi was also a little proud of his players' hearty victory, and in his post-match press conference, he said: "I said a long time ago that our goal is the league and the Champions League, which is the most important arena for us. We didn't win the league last year and this year we have to try to get it back, and as for the Champions League, we have to try to win the competition again. ”

All of these scripts seem to be moving towards Inzaghi's expectations.

In the fourth round of the league, AC Milan met Lazio, the same team that won the Italian Super Cup. Inzaghi warned the team to win the game to avenge their Super Cup defeat.

AC Milan scored a goal in less than eight minutes from Mbappe, which was also Mbappe's third league goal of the season and fourth in all competitions, and tied with Zhang Shujie for the team's top scorer.

Mbappe remains the favourite to be the top scorer this season, scoring 32 Serie A goals last season and claiming the first league Golden Boot of his career. The 29-year-old is at the peak of his career and will be hoping for more individual and team honours.

(End of chapter)