The news that Shao Yifan was going back to China to play soon reached his Manchester United team-mates. They all wondered why he had left Manchester United. Leaving the road to the top stage of your career?

In their impression, China is a barren land in the football world, and they have never seen their shadow in one World Cup after another, nor have they ever heard of any outstanding Chinese players in football.

Manchester United officials have long known about this matter, and they have had a lot of exchanges with Shao Shiping. They admire Shao Yifan's talent very much, and he is indeed an outstanding representative of Manchester United's junior echelon. However, in the face of Manchester United's official retention, Shao Shiping never relented, even if he had to compensate for the high liquidated damages, he insisted on letting Shao Yifan return to China to play.

Seeing that it could not be saved, Manchester United officials could only express deep regret. Moreover, he gave up asking for liquidated damages for Shao Yifan's departure, and the conditions were only one gentleman's agreement of "giving priority to Manchester United when he returned to Europe in the future". In this regard, Shao Shiping and Shao Yifan are naturally very grateful, and their family economic situation obviously has a lot of difficulty in repaying the high liquidated damages.

So, in the last few days in Manchester, Shao Yifan still went to the Manchester United training base every day to train, and at the same time said goodbye to his teammates who grew up together, to the coach who had always cared about him, and to Old Trafford.

He told his teammates that he wouldn't forget the vows they had made. The vow of "like Manchester United's Class of 92, the future will hold up the Red Devils Sky", even they have the name in mind, they will call it "Class 17", because they won their most important title this year - the Junior League Cup. On that early summer night in 2017, at the Dream Theater under the drizzle, the dreams of a group of teenagers flew into the distance with the joy of winning the championship.

For the rest of the time, Shao Yifan was constantly saying goodbye. Farewell to his Chinese teacher - the woman who has always been mature and steady can not help but feel sad and melancholy at this time, saying goodbye to the neighbors around her, and saying goodbye to the city where she has lived for more than ten years.

When the plane to China took off, sitting in front of the window, looking at the slowly getting smaller city, looking at the familiar land that was gradually moving away, Shao Yifan's nose was a little sour, and his mind was still recalling the picture of saying goodbye to his lover Catherine before boarding.

"Yifan, don't be sad," Mama Woolf stroked his hair, "China is a place full of charm, and you will love it." ”

Shao Yifan did not speak. He had mixed feelings about China. Emotionally speaking, he has half Chinese blood in his body, and even though he is in England, he is also influenced by Chinese culture. He was also full of curiosity and yearning for the sky he had never seen before and the people who lived beneath it. But football-wise, he doesn't like it, it's a football desert. The world's number one movement that has swept the world has few followers, few supporters, and few abusers. So he was a little afraid of the kingdom.

Finally, when the British Island was no longer visible in his sight, and only a white cloud was visible, Shao Yifan fell asleep leaning on the chair a little tiredly.

In his dream, he dreamed again that he led the Three Lions to win the Hercules Cup, only now that these images suddenly began to fade away, replaced by endless red.

Looking at Shao Yifan, who was asleep, Woolf sighed, turned her head to look at her husband Shao Shiping, and asked, "What to do when you arrive in China, have you thought about it?" ”

Shao Shiping nodded and replied: "I contacted the team of the Chinese Super League, and the overlord of the Chinese Super League, Evergrande, is willing to recruit Yifan, and will also provide us with temporary accommodation, so we can go directly to Guangzhou." ”

Woolf nodded, and she thought it was the best outcome.

But will everything really go as they planned?

After coming to Guangzhou, Shao Yifan's family, although they were warmly welcomed by the Evergrande Club, but the signing of the contract with Shao Yifan was repeatedly delayed.

While many fans were happy for him to return home, they also found out that something was wrong. Public opinion began to discuss the reasons why Evergrande had a negative attitude towards signing Shao Yifan. What's more, they directly scolded Evergrande for going back on its word.

It was also raised that perhaps it was a question of nationality. Although Shao Yifan has returned to China now, he is still a British citizen.

However, soon after, when Shao Yifan's naturalization application was approved and he successfully obtained Chinese nationality, Evergrande still did not sign a contract with him, and the previous promises became a dead letter, and the matter was just delayed again and again.

Soon, a month passed. Shao Yifan's family still lives in the accommodation provided by the Evergrande Club, but there has been no substantial progress in the negotiation of the signing.

Shao's father, who has never smoked, also began to smoke cigarettes one after another to dispel the depression in his heart. Woolf also sighed constantly, but still comforted her son.

In the past month, Shao Yifan has not received professional training, although he will also do some training by himself every day, but it is still very different from training in the club. In fact, he couldn't figure out why Evergrande was reluctant to sign him? Could it be that as a Manchester United youth academy and the captain of Manchester United's echelon, he can't enter the eyes of Evergrande's top management? However, Evergrande did not give an answer.

Time passed day by day, and Shao Yifan couldn't help but become pessimistic about the future. The usual training has also become negative.

Finally, another week passed, Shao Shiping found him and said: "Evergrande seems to be out of play here." Why don't we change teams? ”

Shao Yifan was silent.

"I tried to contact several other leading teams in the Chinese Super League, Guoan, Luneng, SIPG...... But I don't know why they all refused. Shao Shiping said a little depressed.

Shao Yifan looked at him.

"Only our hometown team, the Chixian Barefoot Club, which has just been promoted to the Chinese Super League this year, agreed to our application." Shao Shiping continued to talk about the current situation, "Maybe it's because it's a foreign holding. Regardless, this is the only option at the moment. What do you think? ”

"It's up to you to decide. I don't have much of an opinion. Shao Yifan, who had been silent, spoke, and then got up and left.

Looking at the night sky in Guangzhou, which was as dark as ink and there was not a single star in sight, Shao Yifan sighed with some disappointment, without a trace of fighting spirit. Now, he began to have some resentment in his heart. Why did you choose to come back? Now, it seems, isn't this pushing him into a dark abyss?

Even when he was once faced with a four-goal lead, he was never as helpless as he is now. He really didn't know what to do.

At this age, he shouldn't have to bear this.

……