Time is like a murmuring stream, inadvertently slipping away from you and me, taking away countless memories with you. And when we came back to our senses, we realized: Ah, it has been so long!

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Clear water runs down from the tap, flooding the rice grains in the basin. Sophie, who was washing rice, leaned out, and her husband was watching TV on the living room couch, and his voice was loud.

"Zhang Jun, you're out of gas, go buy a barrel of oil!" She yelled at the living room and turned off the faucet.

Zhang Juntou didn't look back: "Let Jiarui go!" ”

As soon as the words fell, the son came out of his room: "Want to buy oil?" Our family eats oil too fast, right? I'll buy it, Mom. With that, he turned around and was about to go back to his room to change his clothes.

Unexpectedly, Sophie came out of the kitchen and shook her head firmly: "No, Jiarui, you play your go, let your father buy it." ”

Jia Rui was stunned for a moment, then he looked at his father and mother and smiled, obediently returned to his room, and did not come out.

Zhang Jun looked back at his wife, "Is it okay not to eat oil tonight?" ”

Sophie shook her head.

"Can you do it later?"

Sophie continued to shake her head.

"......" Zhang Jun stared at Sophie for a long time, and finally raised his hand to surrender, "Okay, I'll go...... Really, I can't even watch TV......" He got up and went upstairs to the bedroom to change out of the door's clothes.

Sophie smiled mischievously as she looked at his nagging back.

When Zhang Jun changed his clothes and went downstairs, he found that Sophie had also taken off her apron and threw it aside, and was about to put on her shoes. "Huh? What are you doing? ”

"I'll go with you."

"Ahh That's great, you go by yourself, I'll watch TV, ......" said Zhang Jun's ass and was about to sit on the sofa.

"You dare!"

He jerked to his feet again. "It's just a joke......" Under Sophie's "obscenity", Zhang Jun honestly went to the door to put on shoes.

After the two of them walked out of the gate, Sophie immediately hugged Zhang Jun's arm with both hands, and the bird was on Zhang Jun's shoulder. This frightened Zhang Jun again: "Hey, hey...... Do? How bad is it to be seen...... The old husband and wife are still playing this! ”

"The old husband and wife are still shy!" Sophie didn't care about Zhang Jun's words. She snuggled up to Zhang Jun with a happy face.

※※※

yes, since that farewell game. Fifteen years have passed.

Time flies.

Three years after Zhang Jun announced his retirement, Xiang Tao, then Chinese New Year's Eve, ended his career at Liverpool. In his 18-year career, he has won a World Cup, four European Cups, three Serie A titles, three Coppa Italia titles, and two World Club Cups. One Premier League title, one FA Cup, two UEFA Super Cups. Two-time Italian Super Cup winner. Although the fierce left-back spent most of his career on the bench, he was able to make his defence solid every time he came on the pitch. Sabato rated him as Maldini and Robert? Carlos is the best left-back in the world after retiring.

After retiring from the army, Xiang Tao and his Canadian-Chinese wife Youyou returned to Sichuan, where they settled in Chengdu and opened a small land restaurant, which was a thriving business. After marriage, the two had a son and a daughter, and the whole family lived a happy life in Chengdu.

Crewe, the youngest of Florence's "Three Chinese Musketeers", played until he was thirty-four years old. He devoted most of his career to the club Fiorentina, until he was thirty-two years old when he had to take care of his wife's business. The family moved to the United States and played in the Major League for two seasons before announcing his retirement in the summer of 2022. Later, he and his wife moved back to London and settled in the British capital, where they stayed with their parents.

He and the famous French actress Isabel? Karina's love was a topic of conversation in world football and showbiz back then. And the road of love between him and the actress was not all the way, but after several love changes, the two finally came together. Although their married life is not peaceful, and they will always be affected by such and such scandals, no matter what the outside world thinks of their relationship, the two are still holding hands and are not separated. After marriage, the two had a son, and now the child is handed over to her father - Karina is not at ease about this, afraid that the child will grow up to be autistic, but she has no choice - due to work, she has to travel back and forth between the United Kingdom and the United States frequently. In order to relieve the pain of his wife missing her children, Crewe will often take her son to live in the United States, and they have properties in the United States and the United Kingdom.

Now their family is living a happy life.

Kaka also announced his retirement when he was thirty-five years old. He played at AC Milan until he hung up his boots, and the Milan club wanted to give him a position in the club like Inter Milan did to retain Li Yongle, but he refused. Because he has a better place to go than he did at Milan.

Zhang Jun promised him that after he had enough rest, he would let him go to his football school in Brazil to be the principal.

At the moment, Kaka hasn't rested enough...... He and his beautiful and lovely Brazilian wife travel back and forth between Brazil and China, living happily ever after.

Zhang Jun's rival in his football career, Li Yongle hung up his boots at Inter Milan, and he spent his entire fifteen-year career at the Meazza Stadium. When he decided to retire at the age of thirty-seven, his status in Meacha was perhaps higher than that of the club's president. And when he decided to leave the pitch, he gave his future to Inter Milan: he became an assistant coach of Inter's youth team. A year later, his title was changed to "Inter Milan Youth Team Manager". The year after that, his title was changed to "Assistant Coach of Inter Milan's First Team". Two more years. His title became "Inter Milan First Team Manager...... Two years later, at the age of 44, he became the head coach of the Chinese national team and led the then underdogs to reach the round of 16 at the World Cup in Great Britain.

After the World Cup, he resigned as the head coach of the Chinese national team, and at this time. People have to change their nickname to him: "General Manager of Inter Milan".

For work reasons, he and He Wen live in Milan, Italy. He Wen returns to China every summer and Spring Festival to visit relatives, but Li Yongle rarely comes back and is too busy with work......

Currently, the two and their twin daughters live happily ever after in Milan.

Anke embarked on their "honeymoon around the world" after marrying Lin Jia, and when he returned to China with Lin Jia, who was three months pregnant, Zhang Jun gave him the position of principal of the "Champion Football School", which had been vacant, as promised. Although I can't play on the court in person, I enjoy the feeling of the wind blowing in my face. But when he saw those children under his management, one by one with dreams and hard work. He felt as if his professional life had been extended in them.

was originally Zhang Jundi's football school, but Anke had the deepest feelings for her.

Five years later, the Champions Soccer School opened its first overseas branch in Florence, Italy. Another year later. The football school has branches in Brazil, facing all of South America. The soccer school has since become a force to be reckoned with in international football, where they continue to provide talent for China's professional leagues and national teams at all levels. In Brazil, they collect the talented seedlings, cultivate them systematically, and send them to Europe and China. In Italy, their school has even become the home of scouts from quite a few European clubs.

At present, Huafang is already planning to open a third branch in South Africa. And Anke is happily busy back and forth in three countries, and I can get my value on another court, and Lin Jia is also happy for him.

Now Anke and Lin Jia, as well as their sixteen-year-old daughter, live happily together.

※※※

Originally, I wanted to buy a barrel of oil land. But when Zhang Jun walked out of the supermarket, his hands were full of things, from food to daily necessities, and Sophie took this opportunity to make another big purchase.

"I knew you were going to make a big purchase, we should have driven the car......" Zhang Jun said with a crying face.

"Go. Walking more is good for the body. "Sophie was elated next to her like a child.

"Didn't I exercise enough in the first half of my life?" Zhang Jun muttered quietly, he didn't dare to let Sophie hear.

Sophie stopped suddenly, then turned his head to look at Zhang Jun, startling him, he thought that his words had been heard by Sophie.

"Zhang Jun, did you agree to Yang Pan's invitation?"

"Which invite? He invited me a lot. All day long here and there...... One moment for the vice president of the professional league, the other for the head coach of the national team......"

"You are invited to a dinner to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Chinese national team winning the World Cup."

"Ah, you said that. I haven't seen those people in years, so I don't know how they're doing now. As soon as he talked about it, Zhang Jun was a little excited. At that time, Li Yongle and Krewe, who have not returned to China all year round, will come back, but some of them will be lively! ”

Sophie covered her mouth and smiled: "Zhang Jun, you look like a child." ”

Hearing this, Zhang Jun reached out to scratch his head very cooperatively, but he forgot that his hands were full of things, and his left hand stretched out, and the cooking oil he bought fell down......

"Ahh Oil ......" Sophie hadn't finished shouting, when she saw Zhang Jun's feet raised, and when the oil drum fell, he stretched out his foot out, and the handle of the oil drum was hanging on his foot, and the oil drum had not touched the ground at this time.

Zhang Jun smiled proudly at Sophie: "Don't worry, your husband's demeanor has not diminished." ”

Sophie took a bucket of oil from Zhang Jun's feet and carried it in her hand.

"I didn't expect that 20 years have passed." Sophie looked at the sunset in front of her and sighed, "Sometimes I look at the photos of that year, and I think it seems like it was yesterday, and it has been fifteen years since you retired." She looked back at Zhang Jun again.

Zhang Jun nodded: "Everyone has a lot of changes...... At that time, who would have thought that Li Yongle could become the general manager of Inter Milan Club? ”

"But the most promising place is still Yang Pan, right?"

Zhang Jun was stunned for a moment, and then nodded heavily: "That's right...... But I'm not at all surprised at his status today. He likewise looked up and westward. It's not early, let's go home. It's time for Jiarui to shout hungry, right? ”

"I think you're hungry, right?" Sophie laughed.

The two of them were on their way home side by side, and the oncoming sunset dragged the shadows behind them for a long, long time. Next to the large supermarket behind him, there is a huge billboard:

The full-body portraits of 11 Chinese national team players are printed on it, half of them are from famous foreign clubs, and the other half are from the best players in the domestic league. Led by the famous coach Luo Shengmao, these people are now the new hope of Chinese football.

In the upper left corner of these people. It is a dragon-shaped logo with a football coil, and the following two lines of text are written in English and Chinese:

2030Chinaorldcup。

2030 World Cup in China.

※※※

Yang Pan is indeed the most promising of all the retired golden generation players.

At the age of 35, he refused to renew his contract with AC Milan for life, instead returning to China to join his hometown team, Henan.

He played for Henan for three seasons and helped Henan win one domestic league title and one FA Cup. In his final season, he was rarely seen on the pitch. At this time, his identity was "Manager and Player of the Athletic Department of Henan Football Club".

When he completely retired at the age of thirty-eight, he was not as touching as Zhang Jun when he left, and he did not have much impact in football. Just a small press conference was held. Announcing his retirement. Because he has hardly participated in many competitions in the past year, everyone is still mentally prepared for his departure, and it is impossible not to retire at the age of thirty-eight...... Only a domestic television station made a commemorative feature to review Yang Pan's career.

And Yang Pan himself did not bother to think about his retirement ceremony. For him, retirement is the real beginning, the beginning of another stage.

It only took two years for him to sit in the position of general manager of Henan Club. During his four years in office, he helped Henan become a very competitive club in the Chinese league.

Four years later, he was poached by Dalian Football Club with a high salary. It has helped Dalian football rise in an all-round way and regained its position as the "first brother" of Chinese football. Subsequently, he began to advocate for the formation of a new body in Chinese professional football, the "China Professional Football League", which was completely separated from the Football Association.

This league is fully responsible for the operation of China's domestic leagues, while the Chinese Football Association will only manage matters related to national teams at all levels. In this way, the professional league has truly separated from the official body, the Football Association. With their independence, they no longer have to make way for the national team's World Cup events and the Olympic team's Olympic strategy.

With the efforts of Yang Pan, the appeal of Zhang Jun, Li Yongle, Qiu Suhui and others, and the joint support of the CEOs of 36 super and first-class clubs in China, this plan finally became a reality, and Yang Pan also naturally served as the first president of the professional league.

2026 is a year worth writing about for Chinese football. This year, after a long-term downturn, the Chinese national team was led by Li Yongle to enter the World Cup finals, and reached the round of 16 when the outside world was generally not optimistic, re-proving the competitiveness of Chinese football.

This year, Qiu Suhui officially took office as the new full-time vice chairman of the Chinese Football Association, fully responsible for the work of the Football Association. Fortunately, the sentence left by Chen Wei was faithfully implemented: "We must carry out the professional reform of Chinese football to the end!" "No matter what the achievements of Qiu Suhui's predecessors are in office, at least they have not stopped or regressed the reform of Chinese football, no matter how much they have advanced, Chinese football is indeed moving forward!

At the end of this year, the Chinese Professional Football League was officially established, Yang Pan was inaugurated as the first chairman of the league, and the situation of the Chinese league continued to rise. It is steadily catching up with and surpassing the Japanese J League, which is known as the "No. 1 League in Asia".

This year, Yang Pan said in an open letter to the majority of fans after he took office: "...... Someone asked me, what is your goal in doing this, and in the past two years, we have done a lot of work to get such a professional league, and it has been very hard. He asked me, "What are you doing this for?"

yes, what are we doing this for? What is our goal?

Here I can tell you out loud what our goal is! It is the No. 1 league in Asia that makes the Chinese league continuously output excellent players! It is to let everyone really see a fair, just and open league, so that fans can return to the stands of their own league and cheer for their players! It is to let Chinese football have a real, its own hematopoietic mechanism! In the long run, Chinese football can become a strong force to be reckoned with in international football in the future, so that every World Cup will list us as seeds! Listed as the favorite to win the championship! I never talk empty words, I Yang Pan does what he says!

…… What kind of champions do we need? Is it the generation of players who have been born out of nowhere to help become champions and then plunge into endless internal friction and darkness? Or let's start from ourselves, start from improving the domestic football environment, move forward step by step, and finally come to fruition? I think the answer to this question is so simple that you all must know which one to choose...... Wait until the day when we can not laugh at the world champions in the unexpected that the Gold Cup is the rise of *a generation of players, *shit lucked, when we can proudly and with a clear conscience say: 'We are champions!' I think it's worth it for all of us......"

Two years before that year, our country won the right to host the 2030 World Cup. But that's not because of how high our own football level is, but because our economy is developing rapidly and has become a force to be reckoned with in the world. The World Cup is not so much for the development of football as it is the inevitable result of China's rapid economic development and for the expansion of China's international political influence and status.

In the four years since then, everyone from the president of the Football Association and the president of the professional league, to ordinary fans, players, coaches, and even Zhang Jun's football school, has been working hard to make China win the right to host the World Cup again in the future based on its own football strength. They knew that the road was long and arduous, but everyone did it without hesitation. Four years later, when we were waiting on our doorstep to greet the 31 marches from all over the world, we could already hold our heads up and say "elcome" under the eyes of the world.

In a few years, every Chinese fan will be able to proudly say "I am a fan of the Chinese team" under the eyes of foreigners! We can also make those gringos excitedly say when they see us: "We are also fans of the Chinese team!" ”

Yes, there will be a day, there will be a day......

※※※

As the sun sets, the street lamps light up one by one, illuminating the way home.

As everyone can see, Zhang Jun and Sophie live together peacefully and happily.

As for the others, everyone is living happily ever after......

End of book