What put a temporary end to the rumors that Lee Kang-in may switch to the Bernabeu was the answer given by Real Madrid's football director Hierro in an interview with the media after the team's league match with Levante. He said that the ability of the Kimchi National star is very good and has the ability to gain a foothold in the Galaxy Battleship, but the team is very satisfied with the current lineup and has no intention of making too many personnel changes in the winter window for the time being. As for the transfer window next summer, it is still too far away, and everything is still unknown.

So this transfer, which seemed to be very likely to make the entire kimchi country boil, appeared inexplicably and ended in such a way, leaving only the media in the country that still used reports such as "next summer is the best time to join Real Madrid" to anesthetize themselves, and the media in the country are willing to pay a certain amount of attention to the discussion that has no meaning.

Just when this "East Asian power" has just stopped, his biggest rival in various fields, Japan, has also set off a wave of media offensive, and the next Champions League Group D third round matchup has become a hot spot. Because the Sint-Truiden team has as many as five players from the country, including international central defender Yuta Nakayama, the topic of "Japanese stars vs the world's number one giants" has naturally become a topic of concern in this football populous country and even the entire Far East.

As mentioned above, since the 2002 World Cup, under the recommendation of the then head coach and Dutchman Hiddink, the Kimchi Country players have become more and more formalized, and the scale has become larger and larger, until there are now nearly 100 players playing in Europe, which is definitely a milestone event worthy of their pride.

However, even if their football career has developed well enough, the number of players in Europe alone still lags behind Japan, which is almost the same level in Asian football, with a daunting 101 players playing in Europe this season.

It's just that compared with the "elitist" way of traveling to Europe in Kimchi Country, Japanese players still exist more in second- and third-rate leagues like Belgium, Russia and even Austria, and only about 14 people can get contracts in the five major leagues, which is almost half of Kimchi Country. And it's mostly concentrated in the Bundesliga, where few people in the Premier League and La Liga are considered to be the strongest, which is a bit peculiar.

The reason for this situation is mainly inseparable from the European channel they have created for their own players.

In 2017, a Japanese company called DMM Group bought the management rights of Sint-Truiden, a veteran team in the Belgian league, and soon built it into a "base" for Japanese overseas players. Through various means such as transfers and loans, this team that could only be at the middle and lower levels of the league at that time, without affecting the results, took out the largest number of non-European places to introduce players from Japan, so that they could get the baptism of European football culture, and finally send those outstanding talents who can adapt to this environment to a stronger league.

Hearing this, I believe many people will feel extra familiar, because this is not exactly the most favorite "buy!" Buy! Buy! "Well. Inter Milan, Parma, Espanyol, Rayo Vallecano, Wolves, Asveraton, West Bromwich, Sochaux, Toris, Lechon Ish, The Hague and other teams that have already had Chinese "blood" many years ago, plus new players such as Lecce, Girona, Middlesbrough, Coventry and Nantes who have joined the family in recent years, the number of clubs with more than 50% of the shares in the European continent has soared to 41.

And in addition to the Bundesliga, which does not accept foreign investment, there are at least three Chinese-controlled teams in the remaining four major leagues, which are the best in the world in terms of quantity and quality. As for the other team controlled by Li Mudi, Ebro, it should be considered one of the lowest grades, even if it is a team in the third division of Spain.

It's just that after Celestial Empire Capital acquired the team, due to various factors, it has never been able to achieve the goal that fans are most looking forward to, that is, to allow more domestic players to play in Europe, and finally it will become a pure investment, which is in stark contrast to Japan, which followed their example and became popular.

This is not to say that our entrepreneurs are all selfish people who only value personal interests and do not understand the general interests of the country, but the main reason why the players of the Celestial Empire cannot export European football on a large scale like Japan is actually the problem of positioning and ability.

Because our company's vision is too high, the acquired teams are all those league teams ranked in the top seven in Europe, and all of them are not top leagues and are concentrated in countries with a very strong overall level of football such as Spain and England, resulting in the Celestial Empire players not having the ability to match at all. Over the years, in addition to Sun Jihai, Zheng Zhi and other top domestic stars, only a few players such as Zhang Linpeng and Wuqiu Wang have the ability to gain a foothold in the sub-division powerhouses such as La Liga and the English Championship or the relegation teams of La Liga and the Premier League.

On the other hand, Japan, they have acquired small teams such as Sint-Truiden in European football, which can be used to cultivate those good seedlings that have emerged in the J-League, and a large number of former or current international players such as Daichi Kamada, Kenhiro Tomiyasu, and Yuta Toyokawa all started from leagues like Belgium and Austria, and eventually went to play in the five major leagues. And to be honest, like Kimchi Country, the ability of their players is indeed above the Celestial Empire, and on the whole, there is a difference of about two levels.

Fortunately, our players did not give up, and some domestic people of insight did not give up, and the main purpose of Li Mudi's investment in the purchase of Coventry City and Ebro was to provide a platform for his compatriots to learn and show. Although only Li Tenglong and Hou Yongyong have obtained stable playing time, as time goes by, he believes that more and more Celestial Empire players will be able to come to the world's top football environment and become one of the participants in the future, and then it may be the time for Celestial Empire football to break out of Asia and go to the world again.

Let's turn our attention back to this Champions League game, when we saw the names of four Japanese players in the 18-man squad submitted by the opponent, Li Mudi, who finally put down his envy for the development of football in Kimchi Country, couldn't help but feel mixed feelings in his heart again.

Compared with the kimchi country that has to rely on the United States to protect his national security, he hates the Yamato nation that once brought endless painful memories to his motherland, so he was able to make a move to fall in love with Lin Yuna when the whole country boycotted the Korean Wave, but he never had any form of interaction with the Japanese side, and refused a lot of valuable commercial endorsements for this reason.

It's just that the Real Madrid coach has never underestimated the strength of Japanese football, and the endurance of this nation is definitely "cattle level" - not derogatory, just used to describe the tenacity of their character, they can always complete the silent accumulation, once they have the opportunity to burst out, the power is absolutely not to be underestimated.

And after decades of training, their country's football philosophy is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, and you can see a very clear self-confidence in the Japanese players, which is where they dare to take on any opponent on the field. As for our players, most of them still give people a particularly restrained feeling, and they hardly dare to do any fancy moves in the game, and they can't play their full strength. Coupled with their already weak basic skills, it is not surprising that they can't win against Thailand and the Philippines.

Therefore, in the tactical arrangement before the game, Li Mudi deliberately emphasized to his disciples that he should focus on several key figures of Sint-Truiden, including their Japanese midfielder Honda Sei and shadow shooter Hisashi Hisashi.

Born in 2000, the former is a short midfielder/centre-back with excellent speed, agility and dribbling ability, and is a powerful tool for disrupting opposition defences. The latter is a year younger, but as soon as he debuted, he was recognized in Japan as having the potential to become the main player of the national team, and has steadily scored 15+ goals in the previous two seasons of the league, and has been focused on by the five major league teams such as Atalanta and Celta, and it is almost certain that he will switch to a stronger team next summer.

Similar to his compatriots, the technical characteristics of Jiu Zhiying, who is only 1.75 meters tall, are also small and fast, and the evaluation in the FM system is very eye-catching, 15 speed, 17 explosive power plus 16 flexibility, with 14 off-ball running and shooting, is indeed an excellent scorer who can bring pressure to Real Madrid's goal.

Therefore, in the starting line-up for this game, Li Mudi chose Jose Martinez, who has better speed ability, and Zori to form a central defensive pairing, just to prevent the Japanese striker from taking advantage of the start to break his own defense into a sieve. In terms of actual results, his strategy has received relatively satisfactory results.

Although it is the league champion of the European Red Devils, which can be ranked in the top five in the world all year round, on the one hand, the strength of the national team does not mean that the strength of the league is very strong, especially in Belgium, which specializes in providing talent training bases for the five major leagues, almost all outstanding stars have been sold, and the competitiveness is naturally very limited, which can be concluded from the fact that the team in their country has never won the Champions League.

On the other hand, last season's victory at Sint-Truiden was helped by a lot of luck, and the situation of several domestic powerhouses Anderlecht, Club Brugge, Gent and Genke falling into a low ebb at the same time is probably a few decades and the last time, the last time when the above four teams did not win the league title was back in the 2008-09 season Standard Liege, the latter at that time had the fledgling Witsel, Fellaini and Steven DeVell, and the strength should not be underestimated.

Therefore, even if it is an away game, Real Madrid is also a more favored side by the outside world, because the overall strength gap between the two sides is still relatively obvious, as long as it can limit the number of offensive moves of the opponent, it is relatively easy to get at least a draw.

However, a point was certainly not acceptable for the Galacticos, who were still hoping to win the group, so in the first hour of the game, they still took the initiative firmly in their own hands and used their strong attacking ability to successfully squeeze the Sint-Truiden players within half time.

As a result, goals from Kuchi and Vinicius Jr. also helped the team to a long-planned victory in the third round of the Champions League group stage, allowing Real Madrid to keep their hopes of catching up with Manchester United. The Red Devils, who have been in great form since the start of the new season, are currently on three wins and have basically secured a place in qualifying, depending on the final standings.

It's just that Li Mudi, who returned to Madrid with the team, still didn't get much joy in his heart, except for the victory over Sint-Truiden, which was a matter of course, so it didn't bring any surprises, and the situation that the opponent made three Japanese players appear on the field at the same time after substitutions in the final stage of the game also deeply stimulated him.

Although the ability of those Japanese players is still a little insufficient compared to these big-name stars in the Real Madrid team, at least they have this platform to show themselves, and this is also a way to promote national strength. But on the other hand, our Celestial Empire, in addition to endless failures, and then all kinds of ruffles, and then back to the old road to usher in new failures, and an infinite cycle continues, it is really a lot of tears.

However, Li Mudi, who would be disgusted at the mention of the Japanese, still couldn't suppress the feeling of wanting to suppress them, so when the two sides met for the second time at the Bernabeu two weeks later, they sent a good attacker and used more aggressive tactics to beat the defending champion of the first division to a bruised nose and swollen face, and a 5-0 victory also completely announced that the Japanese-controlled Sint-Truiden became the first team in this group to miss the next round of knockouts.

After four rounds, Manchester United won all four games, followed by Real Madrid with 3 wins and 1 loss; Eintracht Frankfurt in third place are 1-3, and although there is still a chance in theory, it is more likely to get a ticket to the round of 32 of the Europa League; Only St. Truiden is at the end of the four-game battle, and there is little to look forward to.