Chapter 5 (8) (I)

In the blink of an eye, it's midsummer.

Summer in the provincial capital is always hot, but this summer is especially better than usual.

It's all because of football, because of the professional league, because there is Mingyuan Professional Football Club in the provincial capital.

We know that in this province and this city, football is a sport that few people care about, and there has never been any good results to boast about in history, since the provincial sports committee cut all football teams of all ages in one fell swoop in order to protect the medals of the Games and the Olympic Games a few years ago, the influence of football has plummeted, and it has gradually become a football desert. Therefore, the provincial city of Mingyuan has been making great efforts to develop the market since the day they settled in the provincial capital, but no matter how they have a good relationship with the media, no matter how they communicate with the fans, even if their ticket prices are among the lowest in the league, the attendance rate of home games still hovers at the bottom of all 18 A teams. Speaking of which, Mingyuan, who only participated in the A League last year, did not perform badly on the field, and finally ranked fourth is also a good result, and this year's league is the first home stadium to stage a 6-0 "slaughter" Sichuan Hongsheng wonderful scene, but the audience and fans just don't buy it, the ball market is still not improving, every home match day, the stadium is always empty of large stands, huge stadiums, sparse crowds, fierce games, the combination of the three, always makes people feel an indescribable funny; Even the cameras of the TV stations that broadcast the games rarely shift their cameras to the stands one by one, because there are so few spectators.

However, with the progress of the league, the situation has finally improved, and in the fifth round, when Mingyuan defeated Beijing Fangyuan 4-1 at home, the club was surprised to find that the home attendance exceeded 50% for the first time; In the 10th round of the home game against Shanghai Taixing, more than 32,000 tickets were sold from the stadium ticket window, and the final statistics recorded that the number of spectators who bought tickets was 33,763 people, which has exceeded 80% of the stadium's capacity; In the 14th round of the league on June 15, the stadium was full for the first time! And this prosperity is not short-lived, on June 29, the seventeenth round of the league, last year's champion Dalian Runsen challenged Mingyuan four days ago, the stadium ticket window has posted a notice: Tickets for this game are sold!

Sunday evening's game was played amid the tsunami-like shouts of more than 42,000 fans who attended the game, and the provincial city of Mingyuan cleanly ended Dalian's record of seven consecutive wins and 19 games unbeaten with a score of 3-0! The victory immediately ignited the emotions of the fans, which were almost boiling!

On the night of the victory over the people of Dalian, it seemed that the entire provincial capital was immersed in a sea of joy, and in any restaurant in the city, whether it was a street food stall or a brightly lit hotel, you could see crowds of fans raising glasses and singing in celebration of victory, they were so happy and indulgent that many police officers did not get off work until late at night, and the noisy alarm hotline made the police very busy......

In the fifteenth round of the league on July 6, the provincial city of Mingyuan defeated Wuhan Yafeng 1-0 away, and the points jumped to the top of the league rankings. The three major newspapers in the provincial capital published the next morning all emphasized the news in a prominent position on the front page with large-character headlines, and the sports columns of the various newspapers were reported in detail with twice as much space as usual, and a large number of photos and articles were also distributed.

Seemingly overnight, football became the most fashionable topic, and tickets to the game became the most popular gifts. People are vying to talk about everything in the provincial city of Mingyuan, players, coaches, training, games, tactics, substitutions...... Sometimes there is an argument over a single detail. Not only are there arguments between fans and fans, but several newspapers also often have-for-tat articles, and the two newspapers even had a fierce quarrel when discussing who is more suitable for Mingyuan in the two formations of "442" and "532", so they criticized each other in their respective newspapers and fought a war of words......

The popularity of the ball market is not only limited to the attendance rate of the stadium, nor is it just to add some fresh topics to the lives of citizens, for Mingyuan Club, it means substantial economic benefits. Aside from the ticket sales revenue and the generosity of the sponsors, the benefits of the club's souvenir store alone are enough to make many merchants red-eyed and enthusiastic to look at the dolls in the streets and alleys who wear jerseys with the words "Provincial City Mingyuan" printed on their backs, and know how prosperous the business of the Mingyuan store is, even if only one-tenth of the jerseys are genuine, the money from selling clothes can be calculated! What's even more jealous is that the time for the Mingyuan League to reach the top is precisely the summer vacation of primary and secondary schools, and the football summer camp has also become a hot topic this summer, and the summer camp held under the banner of "Mingyuan" is even more popular with adult dolls. Think about it, these little campers of Mingyuan Football Summer Camp, each of them has a set of jerseys and pants bought from Mingyuan stores, how much is this? These summer camps also have to pay a lot of trademark fees to the Mingyuan Club, how much is this? Moreover, while making money, Mingyuan Club advertised for itself without spending a penny, promoted its own brand, and cultivated its own consumer groups...... Traveling all over the world, is there such a money-making business?

The few football schools in the provincial capital have also become the focus of attention.

Because of the lack of students, these football schools were originally in a state of being on the verge of closure, but they came to life in a blink of an eye; Not only have they all come back to life, but they also have spare money to advertise in newspapers and television, and even the Jiangjiang Football Branch of the Municipal Sports School, which has announced the liquidation of refunds and closures before the Spring Festival, also declared with great fanfare that they are not bankrupt, but rectified! They now have to take on new challenges with a new look! And they were the first to hang out the new signboard, hanging in the position of the "City Sports School outside the River Football Branch" that was just taken off half a year ago, and the new signboard is also more eye-catching, the first branch of the football school of Mingyuan Professional Football Club in the provincial capital! Not only is the signboard a new look, but even the school building and training ground are a new look, of course, the price is also a new one, and the total annual expenses are more than 30,000 yuan, that is to say, ordinary working families have to cope with their children's six years of football school study and training, and they may go bankrupt...... Some people have questioned the fee standard of Waijiang Football School, but the school has a strong argument: the whole country has such a fee standard, and in horizontal comparison, the fee of Waijiang Football School can only be regarded as below average. There was also an article in the newspaper in the provincial town discussing the issue of the fees charged by football schools, arguing that "football is a sport that originated with the working class" and at the same time is "the favorite sport of the working class", and that it "should not turn away the children of workers"...... The direction of the article is not only the issue of the fees of football schools, but also involves the service objects and market demand of football...... The league is still booming, the ball market is still booming, the football school is still booming, and the emotions of the fans follow the team's results, and the same is booming......

Gao Jinsong is not a fan, he will not feel angry because the provincial city of Mingyuan just lost a game yesterday, so when his colleague opened the iron railing of the gate and angrily denounced the black-hearted and blind referee in yesterday's game, he just smiled in agreement, and did not say a word of evaluation.

He is no longer working in the "Kangjiang People's Home" residential area, but in the "Waijiang People's Family" outside the Third Ring Road. The two "people" are real estate projects made by the same real estate developer, and the property management company is also the same, so he came here to work not to change jobs, but to transfer normally. Of course, it is not right to say that it is a completely "normal" transfer, at least Yu Fumin, the manager of the business department of the property management company, helped him a lot, and after he was transferred, he not only became a formal contract worker, but also became the small leader of the security team of the Waijiang family, with a lot of responsibility on his shoulders.

Waijiang is a community that was completed more than three years ago, covering a large area, repairing almost as little as a park, the environment is beautiful and quiet, full of green grass and green trees, ponds and gardens, but it is too far away from the city, it is inevitable that there are some fly in the ointment, so the houses in the community have been sold, but the occupancy rate has not been high. Because there are few residents, the property management work is relatively easy, and even the days of these security guards are leisurely and comfortable, at least when they are on duty, they can also watch the small screen black and white TV when they are in the gatehouse.

Two patrolling security guards happened to walk by, so the three pseudo-fans quarreled again over the goal that was blown off at the beginning of the second half of the game in the provincial city of Mingyuan, and the focus of the dispute was whether the goal was offside. The noise is getting louder and louder, and it seems that whoever has the loudest voice will have more reasons to overpower the opponent. It wasn't until Gao Jinsong glared at a few guys impatiently that they remembered that it was working time.

A patrol security guard sneakily approached him, handed him a cigarette, and gave him a look, meaning that something was said to the side.

Gao Jinsong walked away with the security guard, and the guy named Malala whispered that he wanted to leave work a few minutes early.

"A few minutes?" Gao Jinsong looked at his watch and glanced at Malala, who was full of nonsense. The hour hand was not yet three o'clock, and it was still early before the end of work at half past four.

Malala scratched her head embarrassedly, just smiled shyly, and said, "You don't know about that bit of, you don't know?" Those guys chased after me like they were urging me...... You lift up your hand and let me go. As he spoke, he stuffed two boxes of good cigarettes into Gao Jinsong's pocket.

Gao Jinsong frowned and said, "Have you ever squeaked where Wang Tou is?" "He knows some of Malala's situation, Fushun people, once played football in a sports school for a few days, went to the year before last when the Mingyuan club recruited people all over the world, he came all the way from Liaoning to try out, but he was not favored by the Mingyuan Youth Team, and he didn't have the money to go home, so he stayed in the provincial capital to work, and occasionally played wild football. This guy is not tall and his physical fitness is not satisfactory, but his ability to play football is also an outstanding top player among amateur players, and his brain is flexible and eloquent, so he is well-known in the provincial capital and field ball circle; Since the wind of football has blown in the provincial town, he has often been invited by various wild road teams to make cameo appearances. And because he particularly admired the Argentine star Maradona, and he was short, so a narrow guy gave him the nickname Malala, and over time, this nickname became his name, and few people knew the original name.

"Don't dare to talk to the king! There is also a game in the team this afternoon, and Wang Tou will not let me ......"

Wang Tou is the person in charge of the property management company in Kangjiang and the captain of the "security team". There are several residential communities around here, and there are hundreds of security guards together, and when they are bored, they often shout and play football for a while, and slowly a group of people who play reasonably well gather together to set up a team, even a unified jersey and pants, and a very domineering name, called "security team".

Gao Jinsong frowned and said, "You can't let me carry the black pot for you, right?" ”

"How is that possible! If the horse's head comes looking for me, tell him that he has not seen me. Seeing Gao Jinsong's depressed expression, Malala changed his words and said, "You just say I'm sick...... You just say I didn't come to work in the afternoon! "It doesn't work either! Absenteeism will result in a deduction of wages and bonuses. "Otherwise, you can say that I will go to the Du family market after work!"

Hearing him say this, Gao Jinsong laughed. Dujiaji is a town more than ten miles away, there is a very famous song and dance bar street in the town, all kinds of grades of consumption are available, it is a famous place in the provincial capital. As far as Gao Jinsong knows, although Malala doesn't play the ball well, his body is very cherished and almost never goes to that place. It seems that this afternoon's game is very important for Malala, otherwise he would not have picked up a basin and buckled it on his head.

"Bet so big?" He glanced at Malala. Although the size of the bet has nothing to do with himself, Malala is a colleague after all, and his situation is about the same, and he can't help but care about the so-called sympathy.

Malala smiled and said, "I didn't gamble, I just went to earn an appearance fee." However, the bets on both sides are too big, and there is this number," he stretched out three fingers and pinched them, and Gao Jinsong didn't understand whether it was 3,000 or 30,000. "My appearance fee is 600, it's none of my business to lose, and I can get a bonus if I win."

Since Malala was not involved in the money matter, Gao Jinsong was relieved, so he said: "Then you go." Be careful, don't go through Gate 2, you won't be able to walk if the king sees you. ”

Malala said a few words to his fellow patrolmen, and then went away in a hurry.