Chapter 646: Green Knight (Finale)

It's the same thing that everyone didn't take Li Zihan's words, after all, it was not easy to get to this point in the World Cup, although many players in the Chinese team have potential. Therefore, everyone speculates that the Chinese team is likely to make it out of the group stage in the next World Cup, provided that they do not encounter the group of death. Now the Chinese team is the second-tier team in the FIFA points and brackets, and as for continuing to enter the semifinals of the semi-finals, everyone will "hehe".

In the end, the World Cup champion was the European Red Devils who insisted on doing youth training, and the Belgian golden generation of Lukaku, Hazard and others, and finally won the biggest achievement of the national team career in their careers.

But no one expected that the Chinese team would really make a comeback after four years, after qualifying from the group, they eliminated Colombia all the way, and the defending champion Belgium passed into the semi-finals again, and finally met the Dutch team in the semi-finals, with the overtime final, the Chinese team led by Li Zihan successfully broke into the final, and they will meet the French team in the final.

This World Cup is known as the contest between Pogba, the world's No. 1 midfielder, and Li Zihan, the world's No. 1 striker. This is 2026, this year Li Zihan is 32 years old, Pogba is 33 years old, which is also known as the last World Cup for this pair of world first talents. Because they will be 36 and 37 years old respectively in the next four years, as a striker and an all-round midfielder, it is impossible to meet such a competition at this age, and if they have no physical problems and are still in shape, they may be able to mix in a substitute position. Although Li Zihan is now known as the "ball bully", after all, the years are not forgiving.

Before the game, the Central Sports Channel also made a special feature of Li Zihan and Pogba, a short film that lasted for half an hour. The film focuses on the two prodigies meeting at Juventus in 2012, when Li Zihan had just turned 18 and Paul Pogba had just come out of Manchester United at 19.

In the end, Li Zihan transferred to Arsenal and became completely famous. Pogba followed in the footsteps of his best friend to Arsenal a year later, and that season they successfully defended the FA Cup and Champions League, becoming the first team to defend the Champions League after a restructuring.

The cooperation between the two is also known as the most aura and pleasing cooperation, and in private the two are also close friends. In 2016, Vidal, a friend of the two who had not won the Champions League at Juventus, planned to leave, and the two persuaded him to join Arsenal, and finally Vidal successfully joined, and Arsenal's squad went to the next level. In 2016 and '17, Arsenal won everything a club could win, except that Mesut Ozil had moved to Bayern Munich.

At the end of the 2018 World Cup, Pogba, who had a dazzling performance in this World Cup, was called by Real Madrid, and finally the core of the French midfield arrived. Unable to resist the temptation of Real Madrid to leave Arsenal, the fearsome Arsenal pair has since parted ways. Of course, they are still very good friends off the pitch, but every year Pogba's Real Madrid and Li Zihan's Arsenal have become the talk of the town in the Champions League.

Originally, Real Madrid wanted to package Li Zihan and Pogba, but Arsenal, which is not bad for money, directly rejected the acquisition of Li Zihan, and Pogba himself also wanted to join Real Madrid, so Arsenal accepted Real Madrid's sky-high transfer fee of 120 million pounds. Yes, Arsenal, who copied the myth of the Barça dynasty at this time, is no longer short of money.......

At the end, the video freezes on a single image. This image is actually two stitched together. The picture on the left shows a childish-looking Li Zihan on his shoulders with the equally childish Pogba, wearing a Juventus shirt from 2012. The photo on the right shows Pogba and Li Zihan in Arsenal shirts meeting closely at the award ceremony in the summer of 2017, when Arsenal were called "Crazy Nana" during the record-setting awards ceremony for Arsenal's fourth consecutive Champions League title.

There is a sentence at the bottom of the two photos: I met the best you at the most beautiful age!

This is the story of friendship between the world's No. 1 midfielder and the world's No. 1 striker.

Before the game, the final was publicized by the media as very warm, but when the game began, the two sides began to fight!

In the end, the French team came out on top, sealing the win with a long-range shot from Pogba in the 108th minute.

After the game, Li Zihan looked at the trophy that he had never touched, and finally couldn't help but shed tears.

Pogba came up and hugged Li Zihan, and both of them cried.

This scene was filmed by reporters and became the warmest moment in the World Cup.

Although they failed in the final, Li Zihan and his teammates, who returned to China, were treated like heroes.

Everyone thought that Li Zihan's dynasty was over, because the Arsenal led by Li Zihan was already prosperous and declining, and he was about to start going downhill at the age of thirty-two.

In the two years from Li Zihan being 30 years old to now 32 years old, Arsenal, as a frequent participant in the Champions League semifinals and even winning the Champions League, actually lost in the first round of the knockout round for two consecutive seasons. In the league, it has also been suppressed by its rivals Chelsea and Manchester City for a long time, not to mention that it has not been able to win the championship for two consecutive years, and it has also won the fourth place in the league every year.

The only consolation is that Arsenal are not without results, having won the FA Cup last season and the Carabao Cup this season.......

But everything seems to be a sign that the dynasties of Arsenal and Li Zihan are collapsing.

But Li Zihan and Arsenal's next performance completely gave those doubters a big mouth, and Li Zihan, who was disappointed in the World Cup, completely broke out at the club, and he led the team back to the league championship and the Asian Cup.

Finally, the following year, they regained the Champions League title they hadn't won for five years.

At this time, the club finally came out of the shadow of Arsene Wenger's retirement.

So far, Arsenal are a strong contender for the league title and the Champions League every season, and the only change is that Li Zihan's playing time is getting more and more year by year.

His current contract is also signed with the club once a year, and the club once persuaded him to retire from the national team, but Li Zihan refused, which once triggered a heated discussion about Li Zihan's imminent departure from Arsenal, and finally the club respected Li Zihan's decision.

Wembley Stadium, 2030.

Li Zihan was stunned and looked at the Hercules Cup that had been carved by the staff, he knelt on the ground weakly, his eyes were full of tears, and his expression was full of despair!

"The game is over!! Although I don't want to announce it, the final winner is the Argentine team! The Chinese team led by Li finally reached the final without being favored, which was the second consecutive year that they reached the final, but in the end they still failed to hold on to the end, and the Argentines who completed the reconstruction had the last laugh! ”

"Lee is 36 years old this year and this is his last World Cup. He has won many World Cup Player of the Year and Top Scorer, but never the Hercules Cup! His World Cup tally is a whopping 27!! Far beyond Ronaldo, Klose, Ronaldo and Messi and other superstars, from 2018, 2022, 2026 to the current 2030, his minimum World Cup goals is six, that is his first World Cup main match since then he has exceeded six goals in every World Cup. Since then, the Chinese team has failed to qualify from the group to the semifinals to the two finals, and they have been improving every year, once the Chinese team had to rely on Li Zihan, and now the overall strength of the Chinese team is far higher than the 36-year-old Li Zihan........ When Li Zihan first entered the Chinese team, the national team's ranking was ninety-eighth in FIFA, and now the Chinese team has never fallen out of the top ten in the FIFA rankings! ”

"Looking at the changes that Li Zihan has brought to China, not only the fact that he led the team to kill all sides on the field, but also his contribution to Chinese football - the youth talent training plan! Now in the 23-member squad of the Chinese team, 18 people are from the youth training program advocated by Li Zihan, maybe not all of these 18 people graduated from Li Zihan's football school, but all of them are from Li Zihan's Chinese football youth plan! ”

"Asian Cup, Chinese Footballer, Asian Footballer, Golden Ball, Premier League Champion, League Cup, FA Cup, Champions League, Serie A Champion, World Cup Best Player, World Cup Top Scorer..........." Li Zihan has won as many honors as the stars in the sky, and the only honor he has not won is this Hercules Cup. Perhaps heroes have been sad since ancient times, such as Roberto Baggio, one of Li Zihan's mentors of the national team, and Gianluigi Buffon, the Italian goalkeeper who has never won the Champions League....... Now, there is one more Li Zihan who has never won the World Cup, although he has led the team to the final twice! ”

Although the Chinese team has never won the World Cup, they are a force to be reckoned with on this stage, and they have been able to break into the quarterfinals or even the semi-finals in every World Cup! Everyone used to be afraid of Li Zihan of the Chinese team, but now they are afraid of the Chinese team as a whole!

After the World Cup, although Li Zihan did not announce his retirement, his state is not as good as it has been year by year. In the end, Li Zihan, who played at Arsenal for two years and was still unwilling to retire, chose to return to play in China, and he returned to his hometown and his own team, Sichuan Quanxing Team!

Now the Quanxing team is already a contender for the league championship, and even on the AFC Champions League stage, they have not missed the quarterfinals of the AFC Champions League since they entered the AFC Champions League in the first year, and a Chinese team that has never missed the quarterfinals is Guangzhou Evergrande.

There is no monopoly in the current Chinese Super League, Guangzhou Evergrande, Sichuan Quanxing, Shanghai SIPG, Shenhua, Beijing Guoan and other teams are competing for glory, of course, of course, there is Li Zihan's support for these clubs, Li Zihan of course knows how boring and depraved a league is not competitive, the most convincing is La Liga, French Ligue 1, Bundesliga and Serie A in those years.......

And Li Zihan's return to play in China was not understood by many fans, and even many Arsenal fans scolded him. Because the fans and the club hoped that Li Zihan would retire after the World Cup at the age of 36, but Li Zihan had a conflict with the head coach and insisted on not retiring. And Li Zihan, who has played for Arsenal for more than ten years, has a great influence, just like Totti in Rome before, in the eyes of outsiders, Arsenal is even Li Zihan's team, and even the club's senior management is inconvenient to intervene.

In the end, the head coach resigned, and Li Zihan did not lead Arsenal to continue to compete for the league title and the Champions League in those two years, and finally became a frenzy for the top four.......

After returning to Sichuan Quanxing, Li Zihan won the league and the AFC Champions League for two consecutive years, and was finally selected for the national team again with his stable state of being old and strong.

Of course, there is a saying from the outside world that Li Zihan's influence in China has now surpassed that of the Football Association, and he can make the president of the Football Association and the head coach out of class if he says a word......

So it's not easy for him to continue playing in the national team?

Even many people already have "the last ball bully of the Chinese team!" slogan.

But Li Zihan is still Li Zihan, otherwise there would not be a statue of Li Zihan at the National Stadium in Beijing, the Yellow Storm Stadium in Chengdu (the home stadium of the Quanxing team, the former Chengdu Stadium), the Emirates Stadium in the Premier League, and the home stadium of the La Liga powerhouse Elwa Club.

In the end, Li Zihan, who could only play 30 minutes per game, led the Chinese team to the final again, and with Li Zihan's brace after coming off the bench in the last 25 minutes, the Chinese team defeated the Brazilian team to win the World Cup for the first time!

When Li Zihan, the captain of the Chinese team, lifted the Hercules Cup high, many Chinese fans, Arsenal fans and Li Zihan's fans wept silently and burst into tears!

The on-site narrator wanted to use gorgeous words and language to describe Li Zihan, but in the end he found that he couldn't speak, and there was only his choked voice in the microphone.

At the age of 40, Li Zihan, who won the Hercules Cup as the main player, set a number of records, just like many records he broke at the club.

In the face of everyone's doubts and even abuse, Li Zihan did not justify, he used this championship to interpret everything.

And Li Zihan also drew a perfect end to his career, the next day, when everyone was still immersed in the celebration of the Chinese team's victory, Li Zihan suddenly announced his retirement........

At this time, everyone remembered that Li Zihan was already forty years old.

CCTV Sports gave Li Zihan a retirement feature, from he stepped into the Apennine Peninsula at the age of eighteen to retire at the age of forty, a full twenty-two years!

"After Maradona and Pele and Fontaine have long become a history unknown to the new generation of football kids, Li Zihan appeared, and his achievements and contributions undoubtedly surpassed the three predecessors!"

"Lee's career is a legend, and he is a legend in his own right, he is a great player, he has done a lot to international football, he is like a knight, a knight on the field!" The then International Chairman summed up Li Zihan's career like this!

End of book