Ajax was partying in the visiting team's locker room at the Estadio Valladolid.
You could not imagine a group of men in only their underwear jumping happily in a narrow space, playing music as if they were swaying on the dance floor of a nightclub.
Qin Xiong went back to the locker room to change into clean clothes. When he saw his teammates, it was as if he had seen a group of demons dancing. He quickly took a T-shirt and put it on before leaving.
After leaving the stadium, Qin Xiong seemed to have changed into a different person. He was no longer as wild and unrestrained as he was on the green field. He had lost his aggressive posture and became quiet. With a gentle smile on his face, he attended the post-match press conference with Kerman. After he sat down, he picked up the mineral water on the table and drank half a bottle. Then, he put the mineral water bottle back to its original place and quietly watched the reporters below the stage.
Most of them were football reporters from the Netherlands and Spain. There were only a few reporters from other countries in Europe.
They first interviewed Comain in a question-and-answer format.
Comain naturally answered the reporters' questions.
"Although the victory came at the last moment of the game, I think Ajax deserved the victory. Looking at the whole game, we played more actively than Celta. The chances we created and the number of shots we completed were far higher than our opponents. This represents our strong desire to win. We want to go further in the Champions League. I'm very happy that the players thought the same as me and achieved the goal with their actions."
"Who was the best player? Do you still need to ask? He was sitting next to me. People who have watched the game will never ask such a question with an obvious answer. "
Comain did not comment on Qin Xiong's performance with a "warning" attitude like he did more than a month ago.
After a series of big games, Qin Xiong's performance had given Comain an idea. He was convinced that Qin Xiong's spirit and temperament were far more mature than other players of the same age.
This might have something to do with the environment in which he grew up as an orphan and independent.
Comain did not hide his love and regard for him now, which further established Qin Xiong's position in the team.
This position had nothing to do with tactics.
Instead, in the locker room, Qin Xiong had the right to speak.
He should have because the amount of energy he could unleash at critical moments surpassed that of his teammates.
When the reporters changed the subject of the interview to Qin Xiong, Qin Xiong sat up straight and faced them in a rather formal and serious manner.
No European press would care about where Qin Xiong came from. They would not mock or deliberately make things difficult for him because he came from China. That would be a very amateurish and stupid behavior.
What else could he do?
Could someone have made things difficult for George Wei-ah in the past?
Would anyone look at Litmanen in a different light?
At the end of the day, football was all about ability.
Any use of irrelevant external factors to confuse or evaluate a player was unprofessional and absurd.
Just like Brazil, Argentina, Spain, Italy, Germany, and other football powerhouses, don't they still have a lot of unpresentable players?
Would people think highly of them just because they came from a football powerhouse?
For someone to judge a player with such a gaze, it could only be said that he did not understand football at all and was also insulting football.
The reporters were very interested in Qin Xiong.
A reporter asked, "What's your evaluation of your performance in this game?"
Qin Xiong shook his head and said, "The football philosophy I received at Ajax is to never be satisfied. We should never be satisfied with our performance on the field to promote our progress every day. As for the evaluation? That's not something I should think about. Maybe I think my performance is good enough, but in the eyes of the manager, it's far from enough. I think the manager's evaluation will be more objective and correct. At this point, I should listen to other people's voices. "
"So, after the game, what do you think of Ajax's future in the Champions League?"
Qin Xiong cleared his throat. He was still not used to facing the camera.
"Of course, we will fight for the victory of every game, whether it's the Champions League or the Premier League. The outside world can't affect us. After losing to AC Milan, I saw a lot of reports in the newspapers that claimed that Ajax had 'died' in this season's Champions League. However, through our efforts, we are now in control of our destiny again. Our terrible situation has improved. In fact, no matter what the standings are or what the qualification situation is, we will always pursue to defeat our next opponent! So, for the last game against Club Brugge, our idea has never changed. We will go all out to win. "
In fact, Qin Xiong was still mentally prepared to deal with the reporters. Freddy had given him some public relations coaching, teaching him what to say and what not to say in front of the reporters. Some words were taboo. At the very least, he had to learn a set of diplomatic words so that he would not cause trouble from his mouth.
There was one point that the European football media was similar to the Chinese football media, and that was their curiosity about Qin Xiong and the speed at which he rose to fame in Ajax. It could also be called the process of working hard to get to the top.
The only difference was that the Chinese football media might be building momentum with the starting point of bragging.
The European professional media was because senior reporters understood that it was very difficult to stand out in a club like Ajax.
Qin Xiong went from a young player who joined Ajax on a free transfer just before the summer transfer window to becoming a core player of Ajax three months later in a crucial Champions League campaign. The short span of time and the big leap in the team's status made the reporters very curious.
When talking about this point, Qin Xiong looked at Comain and said, "I am very grateful to the Ajax club for giving me the opportunity. Every coach has done their best to train me and promote my progress, growth, and improvement. To be able to get so many opportunities in the First Team is inseparable from the importance of the manager, Comain. He gave me the opportunity to show myself and prove myself."
Qin Xiong still did not know about the fierce battle between Comain and Louis Van Gaal in the club, but he was not implicated in the power struggle between the top management.
If he put himself in Comain's shoes, he would not be willing to be a puppet in the manager's position. Louis Van Gaal forced a person to him and he accepted it directly.
Comain's professional attitude was to understand, discover, and then make a judgment. If he thought Qin Xiong was qualified to enter the First Team, then he would not hesitate to recruit Qin Xiong. This had nothing to do with the conflict between Louis Van Gaal.
Louis Van Gaal only recommended Qin Xiong to Comain from a technical and tactical point of view as a role-player. But Comain really had a lot of considerations and concerns, and he gave Qin Xiong more, including the tactical position of the team and the current position in the locker room.
Qin Xiong and Comain acted out the story of "master and disciple working together" in the interview. In the eyes of outsiders, they were harmonious and could be regarded as a positive example of the relationship between master and disciple in the football world.
The senior reporters in European football were well aware of the trajectory of success in the football circle.
You were not guaranteed to succeed just because you were talented.
That sentence was extremely apt: A horse of a thousand miles was common, but a Bo Le was not.
Comain was not a famous manager, and he did not have a high position in the coaching circle, but he valued Qin Xiong and promoted Qin Xiong. Qin Xiong would remember this for the rest of his life.
He was Qin Xiong's guide at the most crucial step in his career to take off!
The reason was simple.
Comain did not give Qin Xiong a chance, and Qin Xiong had a contract with Ajax. He could not get the training of games. He could not improve just by training.
And Qin Xiong could not get the chance to show himself, so there were no clubs in the outside world that would be interested in him. Where would he go after leaving Ajax?
God knows …
Even if he was gifted and talented, he might only waste his time at the most crucial age and eventually sink into oblivion.
There were too many such examples in the football circle. A player destroyed himself with a wrong decision and went in the direction of delaying his youth at a fork in the road. When he needed someone to "discover" and "give a chance" the most, this person did not appear. Then, the story of the fall of a genius becoming a wounded person was commonplace.
At the end of the press conference, Qin Xiong returned to the locker room. His teammates had already showered and changed their clothes. They were still humming songs and chatting happily in twos and threes.
Qin Xiong took a quick shower, then changed into casual clothes and left the Valladolid Stadium with his teammates. They boarded the team bus and rushed to the airport. They would return to Amsterdam overnight.
There was still a big game waiting for them on the weekend.
The third most powerful club in the Netherlands, Feyenoord, would be a guest at the Amsterdam Athletic Stadium.
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