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On August 12, Chu Zhongtian did not return to China to participate in the warm-up match between China and Thailand, but stayed in France to play in Ligue 1, and he led his teammates to defeat Le Mans 2-0 at home. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

The match was broadcast live to the whole country by CCTV Sports Channel.

Because Chu Zhongtian performed well in the Ligue 1 and cup competitions last season, CCTV has increased its broadcast efforts in Ligue 1 this season - in fact, the change from the previous one is that only the game of Metz is broadcast, and other games are even the national derby between Paris Saint-Germain and Lyon, they ignore it. They are well aware that the Chinese audience and Chinese fans are not interested in Ligue 1 at all, and that they are interested in a very small number of people, who have been ignored in the past. Now because of Chu Zhongtian, the French league has attracted attention all of a sudden, but in fact, they are not concerned about the French league itself, but Chu Zhongtian. Therefore, it is only necessary to broadcast the game of Metz to meet the needs of the majority of fans and TV viewers in China, and other games can not be broadcast. cctv5 has to broadcast three European leagues and a South American Argentine league every weekend, there are a lot of games, basically can't be arranged, it is not easy to ensure that there is a game broadcast of Metz every week, from the schedule of the schedule, if the game of Metz happens to clash with the game of Real Madrid, Barcelona and other big teams, it is really a dilemma for CCTV's sports channel - the games of those giant teams have a wide audience in China, but Chu Zhongtian's popularity is also very high...... The outcome of the battle between the two sides is often a live broadcast of the match of Metz, and the game of the giants with a conflict of time is delayed.

However, this arrangement did not attract many protests, because although there are many fans who like the giants, everyone is Chinese anyway, and they all want to see their country's players perform well in Europe...... and other giant fans, who are also willing to temporarily give up supporting their own teams and support Chu Zhongtian. Because they feel that it is worthwhile to support such a competitive Chinese player, even if they sacrifice a little bit of their hobbies.

In today's world, football has long been no longer a simple sport, but has become a totem that can boost the morale of a certain country. Similarly, there are other competitive sports, such as the fact that each Olympic Games is a showcase of the combined national strength of each country, and in recent years it has always been the powerful powers – the United States, Russia and China – that have dominated the top three in the medal table, rather than the smaller ones.

Over the past 20 years of reform and opening up, China's economy has made rapid progress, and it has also achieved a status consistent with their status as a great power in diplomacy, scientific research, sports, etc., but football is a pain in the hearts of the Chinese, and China's current status as a great power is really incompatible. Chinese fans all hope that Chinese football can get better, and at the worst of all, there will be a "national hero" who can perform well in the European League...... Just like Yang Chen in Frankfurt, he brought joy and good memories to every Chinese football fan with one goal after another.

Today's Chinese football has no such idols and players with strength.

Until the appearance of Chu Zhongtian.

His appearance at Wimbledon when he knocked Chelsea down was nothing short of 'fantastic', with a genius born out of nowhere to begin writing his own legend in the most spectacular way possible.

But then he sank again, and for a while everyone thought that this was another injury Zhongyong created by the Chinese football environment, but in fact, he didn't care that Chu Zhongtian at that time had nothing to do with the Chinese football environment.

Always, during that time, I was still looking forward to Chu Zhongtian, and there were very few people who still supported Chu Zhongtian, maybe even the most hardcore Chu Zhongtian fans didn't have any hope for Chu Zhongtian at that time.

It wasn't until Chu Zhongtian hibernated in Metz for more than half a season that the phoenix nirvana returned to everyone's field of vision.

His subsequent performance is no longer enough to be described as "magical", it has to be described as "mythical". A Chinese player who had only played amateur games before and became a monk halfway, after more than half a season of silence, was thought to be another meteor that could only be left in disgrace, but suddenly hit again like a comet, which all Chinese fans did not expect. He got better and better in Metz, matured and took only half a season to get to the heart of the team. This kind of performance is about only comparable to Yang Chen's craziest season in Frankfurt.

If the first season of Metz was just a thrilling relegation, the team's strength was still too weak, and Chu Zhongtian's performance lacked explanation, the second season can prove that Chu Zhongtian's success is not luck, but really has that strength.

Metz won the French Cup, qualified for this season's UEFA Cup, and was named the best player in the French Cup final. In these two seasons in Ligue 1, he has set many records for Chinese players: the first Chinese player to score in Ligue 1, the first Chinese player to win the best Chinese player on the spot, the first Chinese player to win a major cup in France, the first Chinese player to participate in the final of the French Cup, the first Chinese player to become the best Chinese player in the final, and the first Chinese player to be selected in the Team of the Season after the end of the season...... Such a player, you say that Chinese fans don't pay attention, who else can they follow?

Therefore, Metz chose to broadcast the match against Le Mans at home, which won the hearts of the people.

In that game, Chu Zhongtian did not disappoint the Chinese audience who stayed up late in front of the TV, he instigated a goal, and also performed well on both ends of the game. As soon as the football is handed to the feet, Metz's attack has a direction, and once the football gets around him, Mace's attack is a bit like "hit where it goes", relying on the individual skills of Ribery and Menez to solve the problem.

On the first home of the new season, Metz fans kept shouting Chu Zhongtian's name in the stands.

After Chu Zhongtian's new contract was signed, he became the highest-paid player in the team. And the original first salary, Ribery, became the second. It's an interesting coincidence that seems to signal a change in the status of the two men in the team and in the minds of the fans. In the past, Ribery was the well-deserved number one star of the Metz team, but with the "scandals" he had with many clubs this summer, as well as his public statement that "he will only stay in Metz for one more season, and he will definitely leave next season", his image in the minds of many Metz fans has plummeted. On the contrary, Chu Zhongtian, who made it clear that he would definitely stay in Metz at the end of last season and soon renewed his contract with the club, replaced him as the first person in the hearts of fans.

The way fans express their feelings is very straightforward, you just have to listen to them in the stands of the stadium to shout the names of the players the most, and which player has the highest cheers and applause when they have the ball, which player is the most popular with them.

Now when Chu Zhongtian takes the ball, there is a tsunami-like cheer and applause in the stands, and when Ribery takes the ball, some sporadic boos can even be heard in the stands...... Although the most popular among the fans, the best of the match went to Franck Ribery, as he scored two goals in this game and directly helped the team to victory.

※※※After the second round of the league, there will be a match of the Chinese national team facing Singapore in the Asian Cup qualifiers at home in Tianjin on August 16. In the previous two qualifiers, the Chinese team won one and lost one, and the results were quite optimistic, and Singapore was the weakest team in this group, so it stands to reason that winning this game will not be a problem.

Therefore, before the game, Chu Zhongtian did not receive a call-up from the national team, and no one cared about such news.

But when the game was over, many people found that they missed Chu Zhongtian who was calling for wind and rain in the French league.

The Chinese team beat Singapore 1-0 at home, the scene was not dominant, and the result was ugly, almost even a semi-professional team like Singapore did not win.

For a while, the stadium stands resounded "The Chinese team is disbanded!" Zhu Suishen is out of class! Roar.

After the game, the media flocked to ask Zhu Suishen why Chu Zhongtian was not called up to China to compete this time, and why he had to be called for a warm-up match like the Thai team, but he was not called for this game in Singapore.

Zhu Suishen talked about him at first, but then he was forced to ask him anxiously and simply said: "We think that to play an opponent like Singapore, we don't need to call in returnee players." ”

He can't say that it's a complete quibble, because he really didn't call a few returnee players, only Shao Jiayi returned to China to participate in the game, like Sun Jihai and Chu Zhongtian and others were not called, but Sun Jihai is just a fullback, and Chu Zhongtian's role on the court is obviously not the same.

The media can only explain this accident as Zhu Suishen underestimating the enemy, and the result of underestimating the enemy is a tragedy.

There is also a qualifier match on September 6, the Chinese team plays Singapore away, this time the media called in advance for Zhu Suishen to summon Chu Zhongtian and other returnee players into the team - they can't directly call Chu Zhongtian, this is too obvious, as the saying goes, the gun shoots the first bird, Chu Zhongtian doesn't want to be the first bird. Xu Xiaodi greeted his friends in the media circle, asking them to do things smarter, and not to trap Chu Zhongtian in an unkind and unrighteous place - "China has finally produced such a player, are you embarrassed to destroy him with your own pen?" Don't think I don't know, what have you done all these years, I was also with you all the way! ”

※※※The national team's difficult victory did not affect Chu Zhongtian's mood, and he continued to train and prepare for the game under the bright blue sky in Metz.

He can now occasionally see Lin Beiyao at the Holy Mountain Furian Training Base, and this little girl also graduated in the summer. But she abided by her original words: "Brother Chu, you stay in Mace, and I will stay too." ”

She stayed in Mace and chose to continue her graduate studies. Anyway, her family conditions are good, and she is not in a hurry to let her come out to work to earn money to support her family.

She said that she was studying for graduate school here, and that she was actually running around France with a camera, going to the neighborhood of Metz on the weekends, and running south on longer holidays.

She herself said to Chu Zhongtian that it was because of the photographing Chu Zhongtian that it completely stimulated her interest in photography: "I plan to travel the world after graduating from graduate school, haha!" Be a professional photographer! ”

It's just that now she has fewer times when she comes to shoot Chu Zhongtian. Originally, it was because the domestic media ignored Chu Zhongtian that she was made a cameo by Kang Jianbo. Now that everyone is paying attention to Chu Zhongtian, there is no need for her to guard Chu Zhongtian anymore, but her friendship with Chu Zhongtian has not faded. Sometimes when she went to other places, she would take pictures of the latest scenery with her mobile phone, and then send it to Chu Zhongtian, telling him where she was now.

However, Chu Zhongtian could still feel that when he had just arrived in Metz, the people who were with him during the most difficult time were gradually moving away one by one. Maybe that's life, because you have to meet a lot of people in your life, some of them will stay with you for a long journey, and some of them will just be passing by.

Is Mathilde a passer-by? Sometimes he thinks like that, but less and less often.

The Chinese national team's performance in the Asian Cup qualifiers was stumbling, but Metz's performance in Ligue 1 was remarkable.

After two consecutive wins in the first two rounds of the league, Metz won 2-1 away at Nantes on 19 August. Chu Zhongtian scored his first goal of the season in this game, which was a missed shot in front of goal. The goal made the Chinese media happy for a while, so the call for Zhu Suishen to find him to return to China for the match against Singapore became stronger.

Metz are also top of the league table with nine points after three consecutive wins, the first time they have topped the First Division table in recent seasons. They are also the only team to have won all three games this season. The likes of Marseille, Lyon, Lille and Bordeaux either drew or lost, and they were all left behind by Metz.

After three rounds of league games, the French press also exclaimed that this season's Metz was eye-catching. Fernandes' youth team has shown great strength and may be able to upset the Ligue 1 landscape.

On August 26, in the fourth round of the league, Metz finally ended their three-game winning streak and were held to a 2-2 draw at home by Toulouse. Maybe it's because the players want to win too much to make it four wins in a row and stay at the top of the standings. At the beginning of this game, Metz's performance was not very good, and Chu Zhongtian was also affected, and was scored twice by Toulouse in the first half. At half-time, they were beaten by Fernandes for fifteen minutes, and only returned to normal in the second half, fighting back and almost achieving a big comeback at home, but Chu Zhongtian's long-range shot in the last minute went over the crossbar without defending and missed a great chance to score.

Three wins and one draw in four rounds, scoring eight goals and conceding three goals, accumulating 10 points. Metz is third on goal difference, while Marseille and Lyon are in first and second place on goal difference.

After this game, the Metz team bought all the people they should have bought this summer, and the people they wanted to sell were also sold. One million introduced Sami. Traore, 1.5 million for Rodriguez, 700,000 for Cabo, 400,000 for Camara, 400,000 for Valbuena, 140,000 for Felicio, in addition to Tello, Jayovi and Obertan for free, Valasiac and Khalifa. Ba is on loan, and spent 4.14 million euros on the transfer of Mez this summer, which is not too much, and Fernandes is really a budget-conscious manager.

In terms of selling players, 750,000 sold Toom, Gueye also sold 1.1 million, 500,000 let go of Leka, and 1.5 million sold last season's main right-back Beria, bringing a total of 3.85 million euros to the team. Income and expenditure were basically equal, and there was no financial burden on the club.

※※※ After four rounds of league battles, the international break is coming, this time the national team is recruiting Chu Zhongtian, and Mace has no reason not to let go, so Chu Zhongtian packed his luggage and flew directly to Singapore to join the national team.

Despite being called up to the team, Chu Zhongtian still did not get the chance to start. Zhu Sui applied for him to join the team seemingly just to calm the media topic.

The core of the Chinese team is still Shandong Luneng's main midfielder Zheng Zhi.

Chu Zhongtian did seventy-five minutes on the bench, and in the last fifteen minutes, Zhu Suishen saw that the team could not open the situation and score goals, so Chu Zhongtian came off the bench. But Zheng Zhi is still on the field, he is still the core of the team, and Chu Zhongtian's position is a bit nonsensical, he is a right forward...... In a completely unfamiliar position, if Chu Zhongtian can still play at a normal level, then he is not a human, but a god.

So when the Chinese team was forced to draw 0:0 by the Singaporeans at home, Chu Zhongtian was not surprised by this result at all, or that none of the Chinese team players present were surprised...... Waiting for Zhu Suishen's certain advantages, the media and fans will criticize him, but as a veteran of a hundred battles, he must not be afraid to face such a scene. After the game, when a reporter asked him why he didn't let Chu Zhongtian start, and why he was sent on the field and let him play a completely unfamiliar position, Zhu Suishen's answer sounded like a drop in the air: "He just flew back from France to compete, and he only practiced with his teammates once before the game, and the jet lag was not completely reversed, so I can't risk letting him play......"

Chu Zhongtian flew back to France from Singapore the day after the game to join the team for the fifth round of the league on September 9.

Although the continuous long-distance flight did not cause Chu Zhongtian's physical fitness problems, it still affected his state. Metz lost away to Lyon in the fifth round, 0:2. Lyon finally avenged the loss of the Super Cup. In this game, Chu Zhongtian was replaced by Yayiovi in the 70th minute, and his performance was mediocre.

So the domestic media had something to say to Zhu Suishen: "You don't need to call someone, put the bench for 75 minutes, and the national team game played a humiliating 0:0 draw." As a result, Chu Zhongtian, who was tossing back and forth, lost his form in the league. Since you don't need to, you might as well not call him in the first place, so at least he can ensure his form in the league, and against Lyon, Metz doesn't have to lose so easily. Now this is really a two-pronged delay. ”

Metz suffered their first defeat of the season against Lyon, but the reaction of the Metz media was lackluster, and the whole team did not take the defeat too seriously.

Because on the evening of September 14th, they will go away to play a team called "Derry City" (derry_city), which is not well known, and indeed their first opponent in the UEFA Cup.

On September 14, Chu Zhongtian made his UEFA Cup debut in Metz and will be screened in Londonderry, Northern Ireland's second-largest city.

(To be continued)