Chapter 531: Chapter 530 Chinese-style Hero
May 15, 2002.
Deng Kai led the Lisbon Sporting football storm, sweeping across Europe, and claimed the summit of the European Champions!
Deng Kai surged to the first place in the Golden Ball award real-time rankings!
Becoming the youngest player in history to briefly hold the world number one football ranking!
This brief moment lasted... less than a month!
June 13, 2002.
Deng Kai and the Chinese team suffered a humiliating elimination at the Korea-Japan World Cup, with three defeats in the group stage.
Everyone believed this was Deng Kai’s Waterloo in his professional career.
Deng Kai slid to second place in the Golden Ball award real-time rankings, overtaken by the rampant world’s top striker, Brazil’s absolute main force, the extraterrestrial Ronaldo.
But the very next day, the world was shocked.
Because the football storm that had toppled the whole of Europe appeared in China!
And it did so in such a non-football manner!
June 14, 2002.
Deng Kai unilaterally announced his permanent retirement from the Chinese national men’s football team.
Five minutes later.
Maxa unilaterally announced his permanent exit from the coaching staff of the Chinese national men’s football team.
One hour later.
The Portuguese Immigration Department confirmed that Deng Kai had obtained Portuguese nationality through the Portuguese football talent introduction system!
He completed lightning-fast immigration!
Aside from the support of the Diamond Generation, another group advocating for the revitalization of Portuguese football through immigration also supported this move.
Additionally, those backing Ronaldo during his national team induction, who benefitted from Deng Kai’s assistance, also facilitated Deng Kai’s smooth transition.
This led to what everyone saw, Deng Kai’s lightning-fast induction into Portugal!
The majority of domestic fans understood this.
This was what everyone wanted to see.
It’s just that no one could have imagined it would all happen so fast.
Of course, there were also those snickering in the shadows, seeing it as a scapegoat sent by the heavens.
This way, couldn’t all the dirty water be splashed on Deng Kai?
After all, Deng Kai was now an outsider!
It was Deng Kai refusing to play, it was Deng Kai refusing to follow the coaching staff’s plans... Let the more sensible players in the team do some interviews, gripe a little about Deng Kai, and even if it’s fake, it becomes real!
But...
June 15.
Media reports claimed that the person in charge, XX, was taken away for investigation during an internal summary meeting!
June 16.
The officials made a statement, indicating that including XX, nine individuals such as coaches and players were all taken away for investigation.
Subsequently, there were rumors that higher-ups were also taken away.
June 17.
The football industry was earth-shattering.
The official report announced that Lanbo Bay and his four deputies were taken away for investigation!
It was reported that due to the involvement of a wide range of people, other controlling personnel would not be notified for the time being.
June 18.
The editor-in-chief of "Soccer News" was taken away to assist with the investigation.
On the same day, officials from six Jia-A league clubs were also taken away to assist with the investigation.
June 19.
Officials from lower-tier clubs were taken away to assist with the investigation.
June 20.
Several senior officials were taken away to assist with the investigation.
June 21.
Multiple departments and personnel across the country were taken away for investigation.
The storm began in football, but it didn’t stop there.
The entire industry was in turmoil.
These days, the thing football-related athletes feared most was seeing their own names in the news.
Today, a few more names were spewed out.
The day after tomorrow, some more valid clues were provided.
The day following that, someone was taken away again.
It was as if the Grim Reaper was calling the roll.
Many football players were panicked.
Someone wanted to flee, but upon reaching the airport, they discovered they were banned from leaving the country.
Officials immediately took them away from the airport.
This was walking into the net, not turning oneself in.
Too many names, countless.
The question wasn’t who had problems, but rather, who didn’t.
The officials would make judgments based on the specifics of the case, and wouldn’t harm the innocent by investigating too aggressively.
Even when dealing with vulnerable groups, such as football players, they often turned a blind eye.
However, this time, officials conducted a severe crackdown on institutional personnel, senior management, and organizational staff, tracing to the root of the problem, investigating thoroughly!
Interestingly, even though these events were happening nationwide, many people were moving toward the capital; what’s the deal with that?
Subsequent details were hard for ordinary people to know.
But this time, the officials’ resolve was too firm.
They understood that if not handled properly, mainland football would forever lose its credibility.
In turn, the officials’ credibility would also be doubted by the public.
Therefore, this time, they had to take harsh measures!
July 1st.
On this special day, an announcement was made:
All organizations were declared disbanded!
It was declared that the Chinese football player Deng Kai was awarded the "Yellow Emperor First-Class Medal"!
The football world exploded in an instant!
This was almost the biggest thing to happen in football in the last twenty years.
Without exception.
Today, with the growing economic scale of the mainland, and even more so in the future, mainland football is one of the biggest sources of economic input in the world football plan.
In the European Football Association, some even think that in twenty years, the sugar daddies of European football will be half from the Middle East and half from the mainland!
Such an important football sector... had dissolved!
Florentino, a titan who dominated multiple areas in football and the business world, could see that this was about saving Chinese football.
Chinese football... was alive!
And it wasn’t just football.
According to what Florentino learned from private, special channels, the amount of assets seized by mainland officials this time was frighteningly large!
This was a vast fortune.
No matter who it belonged to, fundamentally it belonged to all the people here.
But once it’s out... it belongs to the foreigners!
You have no idea where they got all this money from!
This has nothing to do with football; it even exceeds the capacity of football in any strong football country in the world.
Now, the giant has fallen.
And the puppet has been set free.
Considering what Deng Kai said before about "when dawn breaks."
The role Deng Kai played is not hard to guess.
You could say he is "the gravedigger of Chinese football," but also "the Prometheus of Chinese football"!
He is "the heavenly way of football," destroying everything that existed.
But also the "Pangu of football," creating everything for the future.
This can be inferred from the medal the officials awarded him.
As a Chinese native, a Chinese national of Portuguese descent, an "outsider," Deng Kai received the "Yellow Emperor First-Class Medal" which historically, has only been given to nationals.
You could say Deng Kai is the first foreigner to receive this medal.
But... is there a possibility that he isn’t the first Deng Kai?
He is just the one hundred seventy-eighth Chinese-style hero!
Or maybe, there are far more than one hundred seventy-eight such Chinese-style heroes!
[PS: There will be five more Chapters late tonight!]
