Chapter 343: Chapter 342: The Infamous Referee Gandour
On April 16th, in the twenty-ninth round of the Primeira Liga.
Sporting Lisbon made some player rotations.
Ronaldo scored twice, with Ibrahimovic adding more flair, as the team secured a dominant 3-0 victory over their opponent.
However, on the other hand, Porto maintained their strong winning streak.
Jia De’er’s goal tally reached a terrifying thirty-five, effectively quashing Ronaldo’s hopes of overtaking him.
In his five years since joining the Primeira Liga, Jia De’er’s goal counts were thirty, twenty-six, thirty-six, thirty-eight, and he has already scored thirty-five this year; he might very well break the forty-goal mark.
This year’s European Golden Shoe, as well as the Silver and Bronze shoes, will inevitably include Jia De’er.
He has already won the European Golden Shoe and the European Bronze Shoe once before.
When interviewed by the media, Ronaldo generously stated, "My goal has never been to become the top scorer, but to be a champion! Besides, the European Golden Shoe only counts league goals, if you added my Europa League goals, I am not inferior to anyone!"
Ronaldo said he didn’t care, but the explanation he added afterwards revealed his true thoughts.
How could he possibly not care about scoring?
That evening, upon returning home, Ronaldo even issued a strict demand to Deng Kai; in the upcoming matches, Deng Kai was to pass to him more and assist Quaresma less.
Deng Kai retorted, Is Quaresma leaving this summer, and are you?
Ronaldo was immediately silenced.
He still wanted to play with Terry for a few more years.
After all, Terry’s "thigh" was really sweet—er, that is... don’t get the wrong idea, it’s purely literal. As for the deeper implications of "sweet", perhaps only Hathaway really knows.
Hathaway: Hmph, thinking of me now? Do you bastards even remember that I’m the female lead? I haven’t appeared in thirty or forty Chapters! Long-distance relationships shouldn’t be like this!!!
Speaking of Hathaway, she had finished filming ’Tomb Raider,’ but immediately after, she rushed off to the United States for commercial shoots and to participate in some post-production work for other films.
Overall, she was very busy.
The personal time of a rising artist is compressed to a pitiful extent.
In fact, not just artists, but newcomers in all professions have a tough start.
Only when you achieve some level of success in your field will you have a bit more freedom.
Even then, you might not be able to relax, because the fruits of your effort are visible; rest for one day and you lose a day’s income, which is considerable, making it hard to give up.
Hathaway’s schedule is so full that being able to spend a mere half-month per year with Deng Kai is already a luxury.
Of course, Deng Kai and Hathaway make their own efforts, arranging some event times and locations together, so they can sneak in a day or two of couple’s time amidst their work.
The Golden Ball award ceremony was one such occasion.
On April 18th, Sporting Lisbon’s team arrived in Barcelona one day ahead of schedule.
Barcelona is a world-renowned city, which aside from its football team, is known for its unique urban planning.
The streets and buildings of Barcelona are square and straight, like a chessboard, clear and distinct.
While it stands out for its uniqueness, it also has major downsides in aspects like community and transportation.
However, it breaks away from the monotonous urban planning and has its own characteristic personality, which is commendable.
Sporting Lisbon doesn’t have many fans in Barcelona.
Reportedly, they will only have about five thousand supporters at Camp Nou tomorrow.
Camp Nou currently has a capacity of ninety-nine thousand people.
It is one of the largest stadiums in Europe.
The atmosphere there is absolutely hellish.
Just like when Lisbon Athletics initially went to Milan, surprisingly, there were Barcelona fans who came to the airport to welcome Quaresma.
They unfurled banners that read "Welcome to Barcelona"!
Quaresma felt a bit embarrassed.
However, Viana completely understood Quaresma and urged everyone to move quickly to give Quaresma some time alone with the fans.
In response to interviews, Quaresma was neither humble nor arrogant, "I’m very grateful to the Barça fans; they are very passionate, which I hadn’t anticipated."
"Of course, this won’t affect my performance in tomorrow’s match, as Kai said, the greatest respect you can show to a team is to give your all. I hope the Barça fans will be able to see my abilities more clearly."
Quaresma’s words did not displease the Barcelona fans.
Because the advantage in progressing still lay with Barcelona.
Frankly speaking, the Barcelona fans had already prepared everything for celebrating tomorrow’s victory.
For Barça to lose at home was truly difficult.
The condition of the players, the mood of the fans, the atmosphere at home, the home advantage—everything was in their favor.
Among these, the human factor was also reflected in the referee appointed for the match.
The main referee for this game was Jamal Gandour, a head coach from Egypt.
He could be considered a well-known referee in Africa, having officiated three African Cups, the 1998 World Cup, the Euro 2000, and many other high-profile matches.
He was also set to officiate at the upcoming Confederations Cup in South Korea and Japan in May.
This Confederations Cup was a rehearsal for the 2002 World Cup in South Korea and Japan; referees who performed well would earn the opportunity to officiate at the World Cup.
Gandour was undoubtedly capable of officiating at the World Cup.
In fact, he did indeed officiate at the Korea-Japan World Cup and even managed a rather crucial match—Spain vs. South Korea in the quarter-finals.
His controversial calls successfully helped South Korea make historic progress into the semi-finals of the World Cup.
Yet, this referee always insisted that he stood by his correct decisions, claiming he did not alter the outcome of the match, and that game was the pinnacle of his career.
With a past and future full of controversies, Gandour’s appointment to officiate the game set off alarms in Deng Kai’s mind.
Normally, the selection of head referees for matches is random.
But most of the games officiated by these special "black whistle" referees were specially arranged.
They all carried a mission with them.
Did Lisbon Athletics have the clout to bring Gandour in to officiate?
Clearly not.
So, Gandour’s arrival was not going to be beneficial for Lisbon Athletics, which naturally meant it would be advantageous for Barcelona.
Dammit!
Deng Kai discussed the situation with Gandour with Trigella and Maxa, letting them have some mental preparation in advance.
But it was not suitable to tell this to the players.
If they knew, it could easily affect their competitive state and mentality.
Early the next morning, Barça announced their starting lineup for today’s game.
Aside from substituting Gerard Lopez with Xavi, their starting lineup remained unchanged.
Lisbon Athletics did the same, fielding the same players as the last match.
Both sides were full of confidence in their starting lineups.
