Chapter 498: From Three-Legged Standing to Standing Alone (Part I)
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Le Teng Long was born in Moscow on January 6, 2001, to a Celestial Empire mother and a Vietnamese father, but because he was born in Russia, he was able to choose the nationality of three countries after his 18th birthday. It's just that the Celestial Empire does not recognize dual citizenship, and taking into account the economic conditions of Vietnam as a country and the factor of its status in the international arena, he will either become a Chinese-Russian, or return to an identity that matches the color of his skin.
In the previous limited reports, his mother, like Hou Yongyong's mother, very much hoped that her son could wear the jersey of the men's national youth team of the Heavenly Empire, and submitted materials to the relevant domestic parties many times. Unfortunately, due to various reasons, this wish has not been realized. However, Li Tenglong's luck is better than Hou Yongyong, first, he is younger, and second, the relationship between heaven and Russia is close, and exchanges are very frequent, so with the help of many people in the football circle, it seems that he still sees a glimmer of light.
At the end of July, he was finally called up to the national youth U17 team and participated in a friendly cup, which was a preliminary entry into the football circle of the Celestial Empire. It's just that in a few months, when he turns 18 and can choose his nationality, there will still be all sorts of variables.
Li Tenglong, who is 1.80 meters tall and plays as a center forward, can also make cameo appearances as a shadow striker and a forward midfielder, joined the middle when he was six years old. The youth academy of the Central Army, and step by step upgraded to the current U18 team, has always been the main force of echelons at all levels. Judging from the various ability data given in the FM system, his breakthrough ability and shooting skills are still very eye-catching, and with mental attributes such as above average prediction, imagination and overall situation, he still has the opportunity to grow into a top player in Asia.
In May of this year, the domestic media of the Celestial Empire once broke the news that AC Milan intended to bring him to Milanello, and also claimed that it was already a sure thing. As a result, half a year later, Li Tenglong is still wearing a medium. The team of the Central Army Youth Team fought the field and did not reveal the trend of changing the Ming Court.
And after careful inquiry, Li Mudi found the truth. The Rossoneri did have an interest in the youngster who had not yet decided on his nationality, but because no matter which country he chooses, he has to be considered a non-European player.
It's better to stay in the youth team, but once promoted to the senior team, you will occupy a non-European spot, which is not good news for your own use (which is unlikely) or sold to other teams. Even though Lai Tenglong finally opted for a Russian ID card that accepts dual citizenship, it was difficult for him to obtain Italian citizenship because he missed out on the best age group, which basically reduced his chances of survival in the major European leagues to the lowest level.
So after thinking about it for a while, the Rossoneri gave up the opportunity to bring in the youngster, even if the club's owner at the time was also a Celestial Empire, but they couldn't get the sports department to do something that was not in the team's interests.
And considering that the Celestial Empire does not accept dual citizenship, once Li Tenglong returns to the embrace of his mother's motherland as he wishes, then his future seems to be limited to the Tianchao League, maybe it will not take two or three years, he will either be kicked out or assimilated into an ordinary person, and the original good foundation will be wasted.
It's just that if he finally compromises with reality and chooses to join the fighting nation, maybe the future development path will be slightly better, but the prospects for the yellow-skinned Russians do not seem to be very optimistic. The most important thing is that this does not help the future development of Celestial Empire football in the slightest, which makes Li Mudi and other people who care about Celestial Empire football feel very sad.
So one day in mid-September 2018, the Torino coach teamed up with Le Teng Long and his mother. After the game, the youth team of the Central Army had the opportunity to rest for a night in Italy, found an inconspicuous café near the hotel, and chatted together for a short time. Now Li Muddy is not able to help his young compatriots solve any decent problems, he can only give appropriate guidance in the daily training of the players themselves, but as long as his plan to buy an English club can be implemented in a short period of time, it will be different, but hopefully it will not be too late......
Returning to the Red Bulls, the Torino men who enjoyed a lot of self-confidence and morale boost on their Champions League debuts continued to work hard four days later in the league to thrash promoted Malempoli 5-0 at home. And took advantage of the opportunity of Juventus being forced to draw by Inter Milan and Napoli losing to Sassuolo in the gutter in this round, with a record of 15 points from five wins, occupying the top position in the Serie A standings alone, in order to be the biggest focus of domestic football in the next few days.
However, their leading role did not last long, and three days later, Torino faced tough rivals Inter Milan in a double match of the week. As a result, after 90 minutes of hard fighting, the two sides drew the first game with a score of 1-1. After two consecutive draws with Torino City, the home side survived a small and difficult early season and laid a good foundation for the future. The away team, on the other hand, was quickly erased by the city's rivals after enjoying a round of leaders, and had to fall into the struggle of chasing me again.
Although Li Mudi's team ushered in the first defeat of the new season in the eighth round of the league, losing away to the Roma team that is sometimes in a sluggish state and sometimes explosive, because Juventus and Inter Milan have not been able to maintain the pace of consecutive wins, and the Torino team has also won all the planned opponents in the league in the following more than a month, so when the time enters early November, the Serie A title situation has shown a relatively clear trend.
At the end of eleven rounds, Torino both won 9 wins, 1 draw and 1 loss, and the goal difference was exactly the same, and finally the defending champions occupied the top position of the standings with a narrow advantage of scoring more goals, followed by Inter Milan with 8 wins and 3 draws by one point. After that, Napoli and Roma, who were in fourth and fifth place, were a little bit different, with 23 points from both teams, although it was a good result, but from the performance of the early season, there was still a certain gap from the top three.
The Italian media has begun to tout the new situation of the three-legged victory, with many believing that the obvious improvement of Torino and Inter from last season will put huge pressure on the seven-time league winners to force the strongest Juventus team in history. From this tone, it can be seen that although everyone wants Serie A to look better and better, the vast majority of people still believe that the final championship must belong to the Bianconeri.
And the reason why this argument has a large market in the Apennine Peninsula is naturally justified. Before the quarter-finals of the Coppa Italia, the three title contenders were faced with a two-front battle in the domestic league and European competition, and it was relatively easy to compare their overall quality differences from their overall records.
Let's take a look at the Serie A hegemon Juventus, after the introduction of Ronaldo, who has the attributes of the king of Champions League DNA, the Bianconeri have become the number one favorite in the Champions League this season, and they are the ultimate killer who is the most optimistic about ending the Real Madrid dynasty by the outside world. Due to the draw to give force (or rather dry. Dad's care), the old woman who was assigned to a weak group naturally will not waste this opportunity to brush up, and after four rounds of battles, she won the right to qualify two rounds in advance, and then as long as she gets one more point, she can secure the top spot.
Considering the quality of their opponents, Allegri can already consider sending most of his substitutes in the Champions League, which will naturally be of great benefit to their league preparations before the winter break.
In stark contrast to them is the city-rival Torino, who won at home. After the Central Army, the Red Bulls went to Schalke Stadium in the second round of the group stage, and under the interference of the home team's fans who were up to 120+ decibels, they managed to get a draw and get two good situations with four points.
However, in the third and fourth rounds, they played back-to-back meetings with their newly formed rivals, Atletico Madrid, perhaps because of the distraction of the league, and the Torino team failed to play as expected by the outside world, resulting in a draw at home and an away loss, so that they only gained 5 points after four rounds, and saw Atletico Madrid dominate the group and could only tie with Schalke 04 for second place in the group.
Considering they travel to Moscow in the final round at the start of December, a win at home to the German Shakhtars on 21 November will have to be slim or their hopes of progressing to the knockout rounds are slim. Even if you're not careful, you might even lose the chance to defend your Europa League title.
In the case of playing on two fronts at the same time, Juventus can achieve excellent results on both sides, while Torino can only show a situation of abandoning the car to protect the coach, which clearly proves that the strength of the two teams is not yet at the same level.
Inter Milan, who went to the Europa League, also played well in European competitions, although they failed to lock in the right to qualify in advance like the old lady, but the unbeaten record of 3 wins and 1 draw and the "help" of other teams in the group still gave Spalletti's team a very advantageous position, and it is almost impossible to have a big reversal.
In this way, amid extensive discussions among fans in the media about the future prospects of the "top three", Serie A has its twelfth round of fixtures, with two of the main events on the weekend: Juventus away to Napoli and Torino hosting AC Milan.
Putting aside the attention that has been brought about by the fierce rivalry between the Zebras and the White Dolphins over the previous three seasons, let's take a look at the background on the matchup between the Red Bulls and the Rossoneri.
In mid-to-late July, due to the failure to pay the loans and interest due to the account, "Brother Li" had just sat in the position of AC Milan president for a year, and was replaced by the Elliott hedge fund, which had long been eager to sell.
Objectively evaluate the performance of Li Yonghong in the past year after he became the owner of this traditional giant club in the world, although the reason he gave before to buy the club's equity because he loves Milan does not seem to be reliable (some media analysis said that it should be a group of Chaoshan businessmen who want to carry out a super international resale and make a profit), but just looking at the big spending of more than 200 million euros last summer, even if the effect is very unsatisfactory, at least it shows the desire to support the club to improve its competitive level.
It's just that for various reasons, this middle-aged man of the Celestial Dynasty ancestry, whose ancestral home is in Nanyue Province and whose main business circle is in Shenzhen, Hong Kong and Macao, has never been even the slightest welcome from Milan fans. Coupled with the assistance of the original senior management of the club and UEFA, this nominally Chinese-controlled giant finally returned to the hands of European and American capital. (PS: The reason why the nominally Chinese-funded term is used is because the company used by Li and the businessmen behind him to buy Milan was registered in Luxembourg, and most of the funds did not come from domestic companies, which is completely different from the acquisition of Inter by Su Ning Group)
And after being stepped down, "Brother Li" was naturally 10,000 unwilling, and repeatedly bombarded the American Elliott in the media for deceiving him and designing to make him embarrassed after losing a huge amount of money. As a half-fellow relationship, Li Mudi also expressed his view in an interview with reporters later that he did not want to see frequent changes in Milan's top management. And Torino President Urbano Cairo is even more open-mouthed, after learning that his old friend Fasone was fired by Elliott and that he is not far away to pay compensation, he directly bombarded the layman Yankees in public to destroy the century-old foundation of the Rossoneri, so that the relationship between the two clubs instantly fell to a freezing point.
And during the transfer window, there were also rumours of trade plans between the two teams about a number of stars such as Belotti, Locatelli and Cutrone, which made their direct conversations even more explosive.
However, this much-anticipated game did not bring much surprise to everyone in the result, due to the change of the American club that has always been stingy in the summer, AC Milan has been with Benzema, Zaza, Immobile and other stars after the scandal is finally presented a thunderous rain and little rain, without any powerful new signings to join. On the contrary, several players were poached before the transfer window closed, and their strength was weakened to a certain extent compared to last season.
As a result, in front of the Torino team, whose overall strength was a notch higher than his own and had the advantage of being at home, Gattuso, who led the team to only play 4 wins, 4 draws and 3 losses, was still not lucky to escape this catastrophe and suffered a 0-4 defeat. While handing over the third-biggest defeat in the 100-year history of the two teams (in the 40s, the Torino gods won 5-0 and 6-2 against the Rossoneri in the cup and league), they also almost sent their own manager a notice to be sacked.
Fortunately, the team immediately scored a morale-boosting three points against fellow Roma, and then after ten days of adjustment in the national team break, they won two consecutive victories in the Europa League and the subsequent league, alleviating the crisis of changing managers.
However, a month later, the situation in the standings did not seem to be the same as it had been expected before the start of the season, which was somewhat embarrassing to those who had been touting Juve's invincibility.