Chapter 645: The Golden Generation of the Chinese Team

Many years later, everyone agreed that the victory of this Asian Cup was a milestone event for Chinese football to begin to take off completely.

This year, Arsenal, who were ambitious to win the league, ended up with a poor follow-up and lost to city rivals Chelsea. When Lee left Arsenal at the end of December, Arsenal were seven points ahead of second-placed Chelsea and five points ahead of third-placed Manchester City.

But by the time he returned to Arsenal, it was the beginning of February of the following year, and by this time Chelsea had caught up. They were three points ahead of Arsenal and maintained that margin until the end of the season.

Arsenal missed a good chance to win the league title because of the Asian Cup incident. But Arsenal, who lost in the league, put their resolve into the cup competition, and they defended the FA Cup, as well as the UEFA Champions League!

This is the first team to be able to defend the title since the Champions League was restructured!

Although they did not win the league title this season, Arsenal are undoubtedly the team that has been in the limelight this summer. Especially Li Zihan, this time Real Madrid really shot directly.

The direct offer of 100 million pounds Li Zihan was rejected by Arsenal, and then the price of 120 million pounds was quoted again plus a German all-round Khedira.

Real Madrid knew that Arsenal had been trying to do Khedira for more than a day or two, so this time they added the German to the deal.

In the end, Arsenal still refused, and now not only Wenger, but even the owner and chairman of Arsenal know what Li Zihan can bring them. In addition to the championship, Li Zihan can also bring Arsenal a very considerable economic income.

100 million pounds? Li Zihan has been at Arsenal for two seasons, and now the bonuses and commercial endorsement cooperation he has earned directly for Arsenal have reached 80 million pounds, plus some indirect and invisible income, Li Zihan has gained so much money in two seasons at Arsenal, what reason do they have to sell Li Zihan?

Then Wenger directly said that he didn't look at Li Zihan's offer, and threw it all directly into the trash, and Li Zihan renewed his contract with Arsenal again this summer.

This is a five-year contract, and Li Zihan's annual salary in the new contract is about 10 million euros after tax. This can undoubtedly rank in the top five or top six in the world in terms of football players' salaries.

This also completely broke the record for the highest salary in Arsenal's history, and thus broke the current salary structure of Arsenal.

But now that Arsenal have deep pockets, Wenger has simply set new standards. Li Zihan is undoubtedly the top salary standard, and then followed by Sanchez, Mesut Ozil and Pogba, whose annual salary after tax is the first tier, and Wilshere, Ramsey, Hevedes and others are the second tier

Li Zihan's re-contract renewal means that the transfer is unlikely, although the Real Madrid staff contacted Li Zihan privately and offered many tempting conditions, but Li Zihan finally refused.

Arsenal can give him the top five salary in the world, can give the championship, when the money and honor Arsenal can be satisfied, why should Li Zihan go to a strange place to take risks?

Perhaps it would be more appropriate to use Li Zihan to bring the championship to Arsenal.

Therefore, Li Zihan made it clear to the media that it was impossible for him to leave Arsenal.

Real Madrid can't buy Li Zihan only to buy other players, in fact, Real Madrid has no shortage of frontcourt players, they now have Benzema, Cristiano Ronaldo, Bale, James Rodriguez (J Ronaldo) and Isco

But Florentino, everybody understands.

Arsene Wenger now has money in his hands, so he also wants to add to the squad, especially this season when Chelsea snatched the league title and the chances of leading the treble were dashed. And last season tasted the sweetness of making up for the shortcomings in the team, so this season Wenger wants to make up for the squad again.

Now Arsenal's shortcomings lie in two points, one is right wing-back and the other is goalkeeper.

Arsene Wenger has taken a fancy to the veteran goalkeeper Petr Cech who has not played in the arch-rival Chelsea, and there have been scandals since last season, but in the end Chelsea finally kept Cech.

But Arsene Wenger didn't give up and continued to attack Petr Cech this season.

But at full-back, Arsene Wenger is starting to act, and he values Brazilian right-back Danilo Luiz in Porto, although Bellerin is good, but after all, he is still young and cannot take on big responsibilities, and he is almost the same as a substitute and rotation.

After a lengthy bargain, Arsene Wenger packed Porto's main left and right wing-backs, Danilo Luiz and Alex Sandro, both Brazilians, for a total of €55 million.

Danilo Luis alone is worth 32 million euros.

However, it also caused problems for Wenger, as neither man had labour certification. Both of Brazil's full-backs have been largely occupied by Marcelo and Alves over the years, and the rest of the young players have basically no chances.

In the end, Arsene Wenger decided to use the "special talent clause" to bring in Danilo Luiz, Arsenal's much-needed right wing-back, and then Alex Sandro, Wenger decided to buy him and loan him to Porto for a season.

The latter was also very happy to agree, because the sale of the two main full-backs at once made Porto very tight in this position, so having a one-season buffer period is still very good for Porto.

After playing the full season next season, Alex Sandro will have been in Portugal for six years, and when the time comes, he will be able to obtain a second Portuguese nationality, and there will be no problem with the zài labor certificate.

As everyone knows, a few days later, Real Madrid fired the current head coach Carlo Ancelotti, citing that Ancelotti did not bring Real Madrid the title, and then the Spanish homegrown tactician Benitez took over.

And as soon as Fat Becky came up, he complained that Wenger had snatched his Danilo Luiz

The transfer market is destined to be buzzing this summer, with even Real Madrid's star Cristiano Ronaldo having a scandal with his former club Manchester United. Manchester United, who have managed to snatch a Champions League spot, do have to consider recruiting this season, but Louis van Gaal prefers his Dutch compatriots.

Li Zihan's club formed in Chengdu was also successfully relegated, and after the team changed its name to Sichuan Quanxing Team, it continued to use the traditional yellow jersey, but the LOGO of the team logo was redesigned. The team's stadium has also moved into the Chengdu Sports Center, and groups such as Red Bull, Huawei, and Puma have become partners.

After the relegation of Sichuan Quanxing last season, South Korean coach Lee Jang-so was sacked, and the team was led by former Arsenal coaching staff member Banfield to continue to compete in the Chinese League, and the team is currently in third place in the standings for more than half of the season, striving for promotion.

In the end, the team finally went deep into the Chinese Super League, and then Li Zihan increased investment to renovate the stadium and set up a first-class youth academy in Asia.

Then they cooperated with Guangzhou Real Madrid Evergrande Football School and Shanghai Genbao Football School to carry the banner of Chinese youth training.

These three youth training centers are entirely based on European youth training systems and training programs, and have produced many players for Chinese football over the years, most of whom play in domestic leagues, and some in European leagues.

With Li Zihan's network and the deep-pocketed Evergrande and Xu Genbao, who has extensive connections in China, these players have been sent to the top and secondary leagues in Portugal, Belgium, the Netherlands, France and other countries.

Li Zihan has a stake in La Liga team Eibar, and he simply bought the club as a wholly owned company. Then, with the Wanda Group, which has a stake in Atletico Madrid, the best of these players are gathered and then sold to other European mid-to-upper teams after making a name for themselves.

Such a virtuous circle, rather than the famous "export to domestic sales". With the efforts of several parties, they have established good cooperation agreements with teams such as Eintracht Frankfurt in the Bundesliga, Fiorentina in Serie A, Reims and Bordeaux in Ligue 1, Arsenal in the Premier League, Leeds United and Middlesbrough in the Championship, Benfica in Portugal, and AZ Alkmaar in the Eredivisie, and many Chinese players have gone to play in these teams.

The low price, high performance and cost-effectiveness of Chinese players are also very popular with them, and the only headache for them is the labor certification and foreign aid qualifications.

In South America, too, Boca Juniors in Argentina and Corinthians in Brazil have collaborated with a number of African clubs.

After 20 years of operation, these clubs have formed a community of interests, not only in the matter of player transactions, but also in the country's cultural exchanges, peace, charity, people's livelihood construction and so on.

Even the United Nations awarded Li Zihan the title of General for World Peace, Unity, Cultural and Charity Exchange, and the Queen of England also awarded Li Zihan the title of Sir and the title of Knight, which is almost a comparison between him and Ferguson.

In the construction led by Li Zihan, the results of the Chinese team are getting better and better.

In the 2018 World Cup in Russia, the Chinese team successfully entered the group stage, the only regret is that China still lost to the defending German team and the South American Colombian team.

In the 2022 World Cup, the Chinese team qualified for the knockout round with the second place in the group after being sandwiched between England, Ivory Coast and Honduras. Ivory Coast has not improved since the Drogba and Toure brothers and the old age, and Bony, Gervinho and Traore in the Mesozoic Era are also in their prime, so they naturally cannot compete with the golden generation of the Chinese team. At this time, the Chinese team has Li Zihan, who has a hat trick of the Golden Ball, Wu Lei, the main player of Atletico Madrid in La Liga, and Wang Shangyuan, the main player of Dodmund in the Bundesliga, etc., Li Zihan is twenty-eight years old at this time, and Wu Lei and Wang Shangyuan are older than Li Zihan.

This year's Chinese team is also known as the golden generation of Chinese modern football, in addition to the main squad that led the Chinese team to win the 2015 and 2019 Asian Cup championships, there are also many new generations of young talents. The post-zero players who were selected for the national team all have the imprint of Li Zihan, they are either graduates of Li Zihan's club or the professional football school established by Li Zihan, and some are the beneficiaries of the Chinese football youth training program promoted by Li Zihan in the past ten years. For example, goalkeeper Li Wenzhe from Guangzhou Evergrande Academy, who currently plays for La Liga Elche Club, and Wang Meng, an all-round midfielder from the youth training of Shanghai East Asian team Genbao Football School, is now the core of the Eredivisie Eindhoven midfield.

This year's Chinese team finally lived up to expectations, finishing second in the group stage, but killing the Greek team in the knockout round of the other group winner, the Greek team is in a group with almost no traditional strong teams, so the Greek mythology, which is good at defense and counterattack, finally won the ticket to the top 16 of the World Cup with the first place in the group, but their World Cup journey ended here.

After China reached the quarterfinals, the whole country celebrated, and it is said that the excitement exceeded the Chinese New Year's Eve of the Spring Festival in the last five years.

In the quarter-finals, they met Chile, and this year's Chilean team also went all the way, and it is also surprising that the Chilean team can break into the quarterfinals without Vidal and Sanchez.

In the end, the two sides maintained the score of 1-1 until the end of the 90-minute regular game, and the two sides went into extra time, and finally in the 112 minutes of extra time, Li Zihan Tong Guò scored the crucial goal of the final with a very beautiful individual performance.

The Chinese team broke the record into the semi-finals of the World Cup, and the whole country rejoiced, and even some people hung Li Zihan's poster in the living room to worship.

In the semi-finals, the Chinese team met the world-class powerhouse Brazil. This game is not known as a direct duel between Neymar and Li Zihan in the national team. After Ronaldo and Messi are getting old, Li Zihan is the only one in European football, and only the two geniuses of Neymar and Hazard can create some trouble for Li Zihan, but the fierce competition is indeed not as strong as that between Ronaldo and Messi.

When the 120 minutes of extra time were over, the score was still 3-3. The two teams that played offensive football provided a visual feast for the fans. The two sides entered the penalty shootout, and at this time the main goalkeeper of the Chinese team was Li Wenzhe of Elche. Although Li Wenzhe is young and outstanding, he also won the Golden Glove Award for the best goalkeeper in La Liga last season, after all, he is still young, he is only twenty-two years old! In the end, the Chinese team lost to the Brazilian team with a score of 4-5 in the penalty shootout.

When the penalty shootout ended, Li Zihan even fell to the ground with leg cramps, and after a simple treatment, Li Zihan, as the captain, immediately went to comfort the crying little players.

Li Zihan said in an interview with the media: "This is not the end, the Chinese team will make a comeback in four years!" Created the best result in the history of the Chinese team? I'd rather get a ticket to the finals than that! ”

Although the Chinese team lost the game, the outside media and fans still gave the Chinese team unanimous praise. Their ability to reach the semi-finals in a record is enough to illustrate what kind of teams are in the semi-finals? Germany, Belgium and Brazil! And this World Cup has also become the last chance for Belgium's golden generation.

And they also forced the mighty football kingdom of Brazil to a penalty shootout