When Hulai was still a fan, he always felt very strange - why did those professional players in China obviously eat football, and they were all "insiders", but why did they not know as much about many things in world football as an ordinary fan, and they didn't see them watch European Leagues and Champions League events very much?

Now that he's a professional footballer, he understands a little bit why:

Most of the matches in Europe are played in the second half of the night, and this is especially true in the World Cup.

Professional players must strictly abide by reasonable work and rest regulations in order to ensure their good condition.

If there is a training session the next morning, how can a player stay up late to watch the game like a regular football fan?

At first, Hulay wanted to watch the World Cup without landing like ordinary fans.

But soon he realized that this was simply impossible.

The group stage is okay, because this World Cup is held in the Middle East, and the time difference between China is not too far, and two games in the group stage are played before 24 o'clock Beijing time every day, which are 6 o'clock and 9 o'clock in the evening Beijing time.

It was just half past ten after watching the scene at nine o'clock, and it was okay to wash and go to bed.

But with the remaining two games kicking off at 0:00 and 3:00 a.m. the next day, Hulai, as a professional player, will not be able to watch the live broadcast anyway - although the rest of the team is still on holiday, he has been required to go to the training base for targeted training, so it is impossible to stay up late every day to watch the game. Wang Guangwei couldn't stay up late to watch the game because he had to hurry up to learn to drive.

The two were only able to get a glimpse of the outcome of the two matches through the news reports of the second day.

But whether it's a news report or watching highlights, it's far less intuitive than watching a live broadcast.

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With the World Cup going on, the French team led by Louis Francis, the eldest of the "Four Heavenly Kings", surprisingly did not even make it to the knockout round, and went home after the group stage.

It's embarrassing.

Although he has the title of World Cup winner on his personal honour list, his desire to truly win the World Cup on his own merits may never be fulfilled – four years later at the 2026 World Cup, when he will be 38 years old, he will almost certainly not be able to participate again.

After reaching the knockout stages, defending champions Germany were also knocked out in the quarter-finals, with Aylmer unable to complete the task of leading the team to defend their title. It also once again confirms the cruelty of the World Cup and the uncertainty of football.

The World Cup curse that the defending champions cannot defend will continue for another four years.

In the end, it was the two remaining kings who reached the World Cup final, with the Italian team led by Caesar taking on Spain in Cerrados.

In this much-anticipated battle between the kings, Hu Lai and Wang Guangwei did not see it.

For ordinary fans, this must be the battle of Tianwang Mountain that has already prepared a beer supper, called three or five friends, and stayed up late to wait.

But for professional players Hu Lai and Wang Guangwei, they are not qualified to stay up late to watch the game - the team has already assembled and started the first phase of winter training.

The World Cup is coming to an end, and all the players of Anton Shining Star have flown to Yunshan Gaoguan Shui City to prepare for the new season.

It was only through the news reports the next day that Hulay learned that the World Cup winner would ultimately go to him.

The Italians, with their excellent tactical discipline and defence, withstood the offensive of Spain's "golden generation" led by Cerrados, and went into extra time after a dull 90-minute game. In the second half of extra time, with the super individual ability of "the Great" Celius Caesar, the Italian team took a one-goal lead.

Then the Italian team quickly retreated from the defense, allowing the Spanish team to bombard indiscriminately outside, but they just didn't get out.

Even strikers like Kaiser acted as a centre-back, using his height and headers to help the team push away those wide crosses from Spain.

In the end, the Italian team managed to survive until the end of the game, and they also won the third World Cup in their history, and they can embroider three stars on their chests.

Needless to say, all kinds of articles touting the "Emperor" Caesar after the game, it is also normal for Caesar's fans and Cerrados fans on the Internet to quarrel.

In the midst of this noise, the curtain came down on the first World Cup in history to be held in winter, which had been lively for nearly a month.

But this is too far away for the shining stars who are far away in China's Yunshan Changshui winter training, who wins the championship is just the excitement of fans and the media, and professional players don't really pay much attention to the World Cup......

After all, the World Cup is a carnival for fans and a stage for the world's top players, but for those players who can't participate in the World Cup at all, it's just a big reality TV show.

You memorize the line-ups for every World Cup game and it doesn't help you improve your game.

So the excitement of the World Cup is over, and the life of a professional player continues.

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Zhang Zihao bought the game "The Godfather of Champions 2023" during the World Cup promotion on the Steam platform, and it only cost him one hundred and ten yuan, while the usual price of this game on the Steam platform is two hundred and three, no discount.

This discount can be said to be very large.

During the World Cup, all football games on the Steam platform were offered with discounts ranging from discounted to the event.

The latest version of "The Godfather of Champions 2023" can be discounted so hard, which Zhang Zihao didn't expect at all.

When this game first came out, he wanted to buy it, but as a college student who still had to rely on his parents for living expenses, he was still reluctant to spend 230 yuan to buy a game.

Fortunately, there is a big promotion for the World Cup.

After Zhang Zihao bought this game, he kept it in the game library and didn't play it, and now that the World Cup is finally over, he can continue his football dream in the game.

Unlike those players who coached the big teams in the "Godfather of Champions" series of games, Zhang Zihao chose to coach his hometown team Anton Shin Star after creating his own personal image in the game.

"Godfather of Champions", as a world-renowned football manager game, is produced every year, and in 2022, it is exactly thirty years, thirty generations. At first, it was called "The Godfather of Champions 1" and "The Godfather of Champions 2", but later because there were too many algebras, they simply used the year to represent the algebra.

The game prides itself on its detailed and realistic database, which can be found by almost every professional player in the world. Game production companies are said to have insured their databases with a high amount of money.

Based on this huge database, the game company has created a game that is almost comparable to the real world of football, and countless players have become world-class coaches in the game, enjoying the sense of accomplishment of commanding world-class stars.

There are really fairy examples of players of this game becoming the head coach of a professional team.

Of course, Zhang Zihao does not expect to become the head coach of a professional team, he plays this game purely because of his hobby and love for his hometown team, and wants to lead the shining star to become the hegemon of Chinese football. The World Cup is so lively, but there is nothing to do with the Chinese team, so he can only coach his hometown team in a virtual game, cultivate local players like Hu Lai, and then strive to become the head coach of the Chinese team in the game, recruit a descendant like Hu Lai, and then lead the Chinese team to impact the World Cup......

After choosing the coaching team and selecting the database, Zhang Zihao entered the game.

After a simple opening sequence, he enters the game screen.

The congratulatory letter from the president of the club and the expectations of the season were all thrown aside in the inbox, and he went straight to the squad without even looking at it.

This game was released in October, and Zhang Qinghuan was still in the Shining Star team at that time, and Zhang Qinghuan in the game was also there. But Zhang Zihao's start time is January 2023, Zhang Qinghuan is still in the team, it seems that this game is the default that Zhang Qinghuan can continue to stay in Shiningxing......

Zhang Zihao didn't care about Zhang Qinghuan, he just glanced at the name, and then looked for the person he was most interested in in the team lineup.

Hulai.

He quickly found the name and clicked in to see Hulai's attributes.

In the absence of installing the avatar pack and emblem pack themselves, most of the players' avatars are grey due to image rights and copyright reasons.

The same goes for Hulai.

Zhang Zihao glanced at Hu Lai's basic data:

Nationality Chinese, age 19, date of birth September 9, 2003, playing for Anton Shining Star, worth 500,000 yuan, position forward (middle), habitual foot right foot, height 1.75 meters, weight 60 kilograms.

One meter seven five tall?

Zhang Zihao remembered that before the winter training of Shining Star, he updated the basic data of each player on the official website, including height and weight, Hu Lai seems to have grown to 1.78 meters, and his weight has also increased to 66 kilograms.

That's really backward......

But think about it, this height and weight data should also be collected by the investigators from the official website of Shining Star, maybe Hulai's height last season was indeed 1.75 meters.

It doesn't matter, it will be correct to wait until the winter transfer database patch is made at the end of March next year.

Zhang Zihao pays more attention to Hu Lai's attributes.

In terms of technical attributes, 4 passes, 3 crosses, 1 marking, 4 penalty kicks, 3 technical kicks, 2 corner kicks, 1 throw-in, 2 dribbles, 1 tackle, 2 free kicks, 7 shots, 8 stops, 6 headers, 3 long shots.

In terms of mental attributes, defensive positioning 2, work commitment 3, concentration 4, determination 6, leadership 3, aggression 3, vision 4, teamwork 8, running off the ball 9, imagination 5, willpower 5, courage 4, anticipation 6, composure 7.

Physical attributes, explosive power 5, bounce 6, agility 8, stamina 6, balance 7, strength 3, speed 6, constitution 8.

"What the hell is this?!" After reading all the data of Hu Lai, Zhang Zihao let out a strange scream in the dormitory.

"Mouse, what are you yelling at, what are you doing so loudly?" The roommate was taken aback by him.

"Is the data on "The Godfather of Champions 2023" so inaccurate?" Zhang Zihao pointed to his computer screen and said excitedly, "What the hell is this Hulai?" Yes? Only seven shots on goal!? Only eight stops?! There were only nine runs without the ball! There is not even a double-digit number of all the data! Can you believe it?! ”

When his roommate heard him say this, he slipped out of bed and leaned over to his computer to read: "It's really miserable, this big gray number, I thought it was a gray player who came out of the system...... No, everything that comes out is stronger than this! ”

"The top scorer in the Sparkling Star team last season, Hulai, who scored eleven goals in half a season, is this it?" Another roommate also came up and was also upset after reading Hulai's data.

The third roommate was lying on the bed and didn't move, and his voice came from above: "It's normal, Shining Star is only a team in the Chinese League." Originally, the Chinese league was not very important, and the lower leagues in China were even more so...... Besides, even the Chinese Super League has not done that every team has an investigator, our flash star is in a state of trusteeship, and it is usually an investigator of Chongshan Qianfan to take care of it, how can people give the data of the Chinese team? It is estimated that the investigator didn't even watch Hulai's game, so he filled in casually with a few words on the news. ”

Zhang Zihao looked at the game interface on the laptop screen, frowned and complained: "Why did I spend more than a hundred to buy a "Champion Godfather 2023" just to coach Hu Lai?" As a result, Hulai is based on this data, so I'm still playing a fart! Isn't "The Godfather of Champions 2022" fragrant? ”

"Let's change it yourself with the editor......" the roommate advised.

"Nope." Zhang Zihao shook his head, "Hu Lai is such a great player, I don't allow others to think that he is a gray trash." If this data is posted on the Internet, Hulai will be ridiculed......"

"What can you do if you are ridiculed?"

Zhang Zihao remembered that he had seen someone recruiting investigators in the "Champion Godfather" section of the "Goal" network before.

"I'm going to apply for a job as an investigator for Shining Star! I want all Godfather of Champions players to know how good Hulai is! ”