Chapter 447: Chapter 446: Chinese Sun Joins Manchester City, Suspected of State Asset Drain?
"Giving away signed footballs with various combinations including Figo, Matthaus, Schmeichel, Guardiola, Deschamps, me and Kaka, me and Ronaldo, me and Ronaldinho, Kaka and Ronaldo, me and Kaka Ronaldo Ronaldinho, me and Maxa and Trigella!"
"Come follow me now!"
FIFA was speechless about this blatant advertisement.
They decided not to invite Deng Kai next year.
After all, a sextuple winner doesn’t come around every year.
Deng Kai definitely wouldn’t have a chance to be shortlisted for the FIFA World Player next year.
The Golden Ball Awards commented, "What a coincidence, we were planning the same thing!"
...
"Figo achieves his dream! Becomes the first player of the new century to have won both the Golden Ball and FIFA World Player!"
"Beckham faces defeat! This year marks another peak after 1999!"
"Kahn settles for fifth place, controversy over FIFA World Player Awards fairness!"
"Real Madrid’s tactic of not putting all eggs in one basket succeeds! Sweeping this year’s Golden Ball and FIFA World Player!"
"Double tenth! Deng Kai becomes tenth in both Golden Ball and FIFA World Player, the most stable one in the top ten rankings!"
"King Kai’s award-winning goal! Best goal of the European season amazes everyone!"
"Deng Kai selected for FIFA’s Best XI!"
"Shock! FIFA changes Best XI formation temporarily for Deng Kai! Vieira and Effenberge almost squeezed off the list by Deng Kai!"
"Gained 500,000 followers overnight! The ’Real Deng Kai’ account becomes the most followed among football connoisseurs!"
"Website crash! Excessive fan traffic leads to the first server crash in Soccer Guru history."
"Soccer Guru CEO Jiang Yunzhu: We apologize for not providing the highest quality service to football fans worldwide. We have permanently expanded our servers to try and prevent future crashes. However, we also hope Mr. Deng Kai can communicate with his fan club, arranging fans to visit the site in an orderly manner, to avoid unnecessary troubles and expenditures, after all... you know what I mean!"
What she meant to say was, I’m buying the servers, but isn’t the money coming from you?
Next time, can you not tank your own website?
"Feng Te, leader of Deng Kai’s global fan support group: Fans have been divided into five major zones based on global geography, ensuring an orderly visit to Soccer Guru in the future, aiming to avoid any destructive impact!"
For a while, Kai once again successfully drew traffic, putting Soccer Guru on more football fans’ radar.
December 22nd, Sporting Lisbon wins 4-0 against Gil Vicente.
January 5th, 2002, Sporting Lisbon beats Belenenses 3-1, securing a five-match winning streak in the league.
The Premier League, Liga NOS, A-League, and a few other leagues do not have a winter break.
But Liga NOS’s winter transfer window had already opened.
According to Trigella’s understanding, Sporting Lisbon didn’t plan any major moves this window.
They certainly wanted to keep their players until summer to sell them at higher prices.
They also intended to bring in the best young players in the summer, as those available in winter were generally second-rate.
Sporting Lisbon was now highly successful, and young players were eager to join, a far cry from three or four years ago when they had to pick up the leftovers from Benfica and Porto.
On January 12th, Sporting Lisbon had a fierce battle with Mourinho-led Porto in the league, ending in a 2-2 draw.
As a result, Sporting Lisbon missed the opportunity to take the top spot and continued to follow Porto.
On January 20th, in the 19th round of Liga NOS, Sporting Lisbon defeated Santa Clara 5-2.
This wasn’t exactly breaking news.
But the story was that Porto’s schedule meant they faced Sporting Lisbon and then had to play Benfica.
Porto couldn’t hold out after consecutive big matches, losing 0-1 to Benfica and consequently being overtaken by Sporting Lisbon on the league table.
Their cross-town rivals had helped Sporting Lisbon climb to the top of the Primeira Liga standings.
For a moment, Benfica fans felt uncomfortable despite their victory.
On January 26th, Sporting Lisbon relied on Ronaldo’s individual performance to narrowly win 1-0 against Alvica.
By the end of January, the Mansour consortium’s acquisition of Manchester City finally came to a complete close from start to finish.
Mansour officially took over Manchester City.
At that very moment, Manchester City ranked fifth in England’s second-tier league.
There was a chance for promotion, but it was quite slim.
However, people should also note that this year the top six in Division One (before it became the Championship) were all very close in points, actually all belonging to the first group.
England’s winter transfer window still had some time left, but Manchester City fans did not make irrational demands to Mansour to bring in superstars.
They knew the real show for Mansour would be this summer.
As long as they could bring in two or three stars, including one with a bigger name, during the summer, Manchester City’s fans would actually be satisfied.
Only irrational fans would fantasize about Manchester City swiftly assembling a squad to rival Real Madrid’s Galacticos.
A club chairman who says such things is either a Wall Street scammer or a Silicon Valley con artist.
On February 2nd, Sporting Lisbon defeated Leiria 3-1.
On February 10th, Sporting Lisbon’s form became volatile, the young players hit a "weariness phase" with their performance collectively dipping. They ultimately conceded two own goals, resulting in a draw with Gil Vicente.
This forced Trigella to once again include veterans Matthaus and Guardiola in the starting lineup.
Previously, given the physical condition of the veterans, they had been put in rotation to rest.
On February 16th, it was another day of celebration for the Chinese fans.
Sun Jihai from Dalian Shide Football Club moved to Manchester City, which was fourth in Division One, for a record-breaking transfer fee of 3.26 million Euros!
This shattered the transfer fee record for an Asian player, surpassing stars from Japan, Korea, and West Asia.
All of Asia began to pay attention to this Chinese player, who had previously had a stint at Crystal Palace in England.
Because his jersey bore the name SUN, Sun Jihai also earned the nickname "Chinese Sun."
However, initially, many in China believed Sun Jihai had joined Manchester United.
After much confusion, it turned out to be only Manchester City.
Soccer News therefore made a sarcastic comment on the transfer: "Last summer, Fan Zhiyi, in order to secure his place on the national team, rejected an offer from Liverpool and went to Dundee Football Club in the Scottish Premier League."
"What a strong sense of patriotism!"
"At the end of last season, when Eintracht Frankfurt was relegated from the Bundesliga to the Second Bundesliga, Yang Chen could have sought to leave the team, but he chose to stick it out with Frankfurt through thick and thin."
"What noble heroism!"
"Yet Sun Jihai, on such a great day when the Chinese team was making its way into the World Cup, willingly joined the mere Division One! He’s significantly lowered the international status of Chinese players."
"He’s lost not just his own face, but the face of all Chinese! He’s made the world look down on Chinese football! He is a criminal of Chinese football!"
