Zhao Zhenghao smiled and said, "Mr. Xia, don't worry about this. Before I came, I had already communicated with Lippi in advance through Mr. Xu of Hengda Group and reached a certain consensus with the coaching team. There shouldn't be any problems!"
It was rumored that the sky-high annual salary of Lippi's team was borne by Hengda Group. It seemed that it was true. It was probably because it would be difficult to get the other party's agreement if the Chinese Football Association communicated directly with Lippi's team. That was why they pulled in Hengda Group's Xu Jiaying, a big financial backer.
Zhao Zhenghao continued, "And everyone's goal is the same, which is to do our best to ensure that the national football team can advance in the World Cup qualifiers. In order to achieve this goal, it is definitely not a problem to make some changes. Lippi also specifically understood your situation and found the video of you representing RCD Espanyol last time to study it. He recognized your ability. It's just that there is too little information and he thinks that your representation is slightly insufficient. "
"Is that so?" Xia Ruofei said with a smile.
Zhao Zhenghao nodded and said, "When I go back this time, I will also bring back the highlights of your game against Barça edited by the RCD Espanyol's coaching team. In addition, the RCD Espanyol's manager, Rubi, seems to have a lot of videos of your training. I will also bring these back. I believe that Lippi's evaluation of you will rise by a lot! When the time comes, he will definitely give you the green light! "
"That's good!" Xia Ruofei said with a sigh of relief. "In that case, there won't be any problems."
Since Xia Ruofei was willing to play for the country, he did not want some off-field factors to interfere with him. If the coaching team did not coordinate well, it was easy to cause all kinds of disturbances and affect the national football team's preparation. Then, a good thing would become a bad thing.
This time, the Chinese Football Association spared no effort to coordinate with various parties, which also made Xia Ruofei very satisfied.
Zhao Zhenghao said happily, "It seems that my trip was really worth it! To be able to recruit such a strong player as Mr. Xia for the national football team, maybe it will go down in Huaxia's football history! "
"That's a bit exaggerated …" Xia Ruofei laughed.
In reality, the reality was that the national football team had become a second-rate team in Asia. Some of the Southeast Asian mediocre teams in the past had improved rapidly. Opponents that they could easily defeat easily in the past had become difficult to deal with now. It was not impossible for them to draw or even lose. Not to mention the traditional strong teams in Asia like Japan, Korea, Saudi Arabia, and Iran, as well as the Australian team that had joined the AFC. It was difficult for Huaxia's national football team to win against these teams.
Therefore, according to the evaluation of the outside world, although the National Football Team had good luck in the draw for the top 40 and had a good chance of qualifying, it was only limited to the top 40. After entering the second stage of the qualifiers, it was estimated that they would most likely have the fate of being a sidekick.
If the national football team could go against the odds and advance to the next round under these circumstances, it would obviously leave a mark in the history of Huaxia football. On the other hand, Zhao Zhenghao had traveled thousands of miles to Spain to meet with Xia Ruofei. Furthermore, he had successfully facilitated Xia Ruofei to join the national football team, which was bound to become a legend.
Zhao Zhenghao chuckled and said, "Mr. Xia, do you have any requirements for your jersey number? I see that your position in the game is relatively flexible, and it seems that you are more suitable to be behind the striker. It is also very suitable to be a midfield metronome. How about … I leave the number 10 jersey to you? "
"Hasn't the number 10 jersey always been worn by Zheng Zhi?" Xia Ruofei frowned slightly and said, "It's not good to take someone else's jersey. Furthermore, I am not particular about jersey numbers. I think the number 25 jersey I have for the RCD Espanyol is very good. If no one is wearing the number 25 jersey of the National Football Team, then leave it to me!"
"This …" Zhao Zhenghao could not help but show a hint of hesitation.
The number 25 was not a popular number. If Xia Ruofei was willing to take this number, Zhao Zhenghao was naturally 100% willing. Although he said it lightly, if he really wanted to give Zheng Zhi's number 10 jersey to Xia Ruofei, it would not be so easy to manipulate. Zheng Zhi's position in Huaxia football was also very important. Furthermore, he had been the captain of the national football team for so many years. Although he was "old" at the age of 38, he was still an indispensable figure in the national football team's defensive midfielder position.
At the end of his career, in the last World Cup qualifier, to take away his number 10 jersey and give it to a player who had never been on the national team before, even if he could persuade Zheng Zhi himself, he would not be able to stand the condemnation of the fans!
However, Zhao Zhenghao did not know whether Xia Ruofei said this from the bottom of his heart. If Xia Ruofei was just being polite and actually wanted a number like number 9 or 10 to symbolize the main force and core, and Zhao Zhenghao really pushed the boat along and gave him the number 25 jersey, then the good impression he had left before would be completely ruined.
To be honest, Zhao Zhenghao could not even care about whether the national football team could advance in this qualifier, but he could not ignore Xia Ruofei's feelings. Any one of the leaders who called him could decide his future. As for a figure like Xia Ruofei, he naturally had to deliberately make friends with him. This matter's priority was even higher than the national football team's game.
This was the real reason for Zhao Zhenghao's hesitation.
Xia Ruofei smiled faintly and said, "Vice President Zhao, you don't think that I'm lying, do you?"
"No, no!" Zhao Zhenghao said quickly. "How could that be?"
"The matter of the jersey number is settled!" Xia Ruofei said, "Vice President Zhao, you'll know when you learn more about the RCD Espanyol team. I really don't care about the number."
When Zhao Zhenghao heard Xia Ruofei say this, he finally believed that Xia Ruofei really did not want the number 10 and really did not care about the number of the jersey. He also let out a long sigh of relief in his heart.
"Thank you, Mr. Xia, for supporting our work!" Zhao Zhenghao said, "Then I'll immediately tell the national team to keep the number 25 jersey first! There are a lot of players in the team this time, and many people want to pick a number! "
Xia Ruofei nodded and said, "Thank you for your trouble."
"Don't mention it, it's no trouble at all!" Zhao Zhenghao said very politely, "As I just said, we will do our best to protect Mr. Xia so that you won't have any worries!"
The two of them talked thoroughly, and both of them felt relaxed.
Xia Ruofei had the heart to serve the country. Now that the Football Association could make so many concessions and deal with special matters, he had a lot less trouble. Otherwise, he would have to waste a lot of time talking to the people above him.
Of course, he did not know that although he did not say anything, Family Song and Family Liu had already done the work for him in advance. Otherwise, how could Zhao Zhenghao have such an attitude today?
Zhao Zhenghao breathed a sigh of relief. This trip to Spain could be said to be perfect, for the national team and for him personally.
After the two of them finished talking, they simply got up and went to the tea area. They drank tea and chatted with Zhou Leiyun, Ling Qingxue, and Song Wei. Everyone's topic did not leave football, but they mainly talked about yesterday's game.
In fact, yesterday's game had attracted widespread attention around the world.
In fact, as long as it was a Barça game, it would definitely attract attention, not to mention the gimmick of the Catalan derby. Although the strength of the derby was relatively disparate, the derby itself was full of topics of discussion. Teams from the same city were always full of hostility.
The result of the game was even more dramatic. Barça, who had few rivals in La Liga, was actually forced to score four goals by the Spanish team. It was also in their famous home ground, Camp Nou, and they eventually lost the game.
All the major sports media outlets around the world immediately reported on this match, and they reported from different perspectives.
It could be said that the game had become a feast for the global sports media. Everyone's angle of "coverage" might be different, but there was no doubt that it was a media carnival.
The domestic media in Huaxia, the headlines were as exaggerated as they could be.
Headlines such as "Huaxia's Twin Stars Shine in La Liga, the Giant Barça Is Cut Down," "Messi Was Dim Under His Starlight Last Night," "He Beat Barça Alone," "Xia Ruofei and Wu Lei Become Spanish Saviors, Together Perform a Soul-Stirring Final Kill," could be said to be endless.
Huaxia's media could not be blamed for making a fuss. In fact, Huaxia's football could be said to be in a slump in recent years. It was not easy to produce two players who were shining in La Liga, so how could they not praise them to death?
Moreover, in yesterday's game, the role of Xia Ruofei and Wu Lei was very obvious. If it were not for Xia Ruofei and Wu Lei, the Spanish team would have lost at least two goals yesterday. Therefore, although the headlines of Huaxia's media were a bit exaggerated, they were not completely baseless. Xia Ruofei and Wu Lei's performance also deserved such praise.
If the professional sports media had some restraint when writing articles, then the self-media, netizens, and fans on the Internet were even more unscrupulous. Yesterday's game really made the Huaxia fans high. Although it was already three or four o 'clock in the morning after the game, everyone was not sleepy at all. They kept watching various videos of the goal on the Internet, and there were also a lot of posts and replies on Weibo and forums. They were all related to Xia Ruofei and Wu Lei.
Interestingly, perhaps he was a little too excited when he was commentating yesterday. After finishing work at around four o 'clock in the morning, Shen Fangjian just casually posted on Weibo to congratulate the Spanish team on their victory and then went back to rest. As for whether he could fall asleep, no one knew. Anyway, he did not continue to speak on the Internet after that.
This made the netizens very uncomfortable — this should not be the style of "Hall Master Wu Chui" and "Hall Master Xia Chui"!
Therefore, a large number of netizens flooded in to leave comments on Shen Fangjian's Weibo.
"Hall Master Shen, wake up! Wu Lei and Xia Ruofei have both scored goals. Why are you still sleeping? Hurry up and brag! "
"Hall Master Shen, you should learn more from Hall Master Jia! Look at his dedicated attitude! "
Although Jia Tianning only posted one Weibo, he included a GIF of Xia Ruofei and Wu Lei's goal. Moreover, the Weibo copy did not hide his appreciation for the two players. He used a lot of words that some netizens thought were effusive praise.
In addition, various versions of the highlights also appeared on the headlines and TikTok. There were highlights of Xia Ruofei's every touch of the ball, as well as highlights of all the goals scored by both sides in the entire game, and so on. There were also netizens who specifically cut out the highlights of Xia Ruofei's last wonderful barb shot. They also tried their best to find several versions of the commentary on the Internet. There were English, French, Spanish, Japanese, Korean … The commentary in no language was considerately accompanied with Chinese subtitles. The title was "Look at how the commentators all over the world praise Xia Ruofei — Multiple Language Commentaries on Xia Ruofei's Final Shot."
Some of the highlights on the field also attracted a lot of attention.
Two of the videos rushed to the top of the rankings at one point.
One of the videos was also an official broadcast. It was the moment when Xia Ruofei scored the barb shot. As the RCD Espanyol players wildly celebrated around Xia Ruofei, the camera panned to the stands. It happened to capture a young man with an Asian face in the first row of the stands closest to the field. He was happily waving his arms and shouting something. Obviously, he could not contain his excitement about the arrival of the goal.
If it was just the Huaxia fans cheering for Xia Ruofei's goal, it would not be a big deal, even if it was at the Camp Nou. After all, Huaxia fans were all over the world. During this period of time, there would be Huaxia fans in the stands waving the five-starred red flag to cheer for Wu Lei in every game he played.
The key point was that the cheering Huaxia fan was wearing a Barça jersey and was in the stands of the Barça fans.
Obviously, this was a die-hard Barça fan.
However, he was wildly cheering and celebrating for the opponent's player who scored the final shot. This formed a strong contrast.
Some netizens' comments were spot on: At that moment, he was a Huaxia fan, not a Barça fan.
There were also people who joked: Barça is going to lose? Who cares! Boss Xia's goal is the key! Celebrate first! As for whether or not he will be beaten to death by the Barça fans after he comes off the field, who cares!
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