On October 5, 2004, the Spanish Professional Football League announced the Manager of the Month in La Liga for September. The Chinese manager of Sporting de Gijón, Li Ang, was elected. This was the first time in more than a decade that a manager of Sporting de Gijón had been elected as the Manager of the Month in La Liga.
In addition, Li Ang also became the first Asian manager to be elected as the Manager of the Month in the five major leagues. In fact, in the entire European football world, other than Li Ang, there was no other Asian manager in charge of the first team. It could be said that every step Li Ang took now was creating history in Asian football, and in China football.
The official website of the Spanish Professional Football League described it as follows: Mr. Li Ang, the Chinese manager of Sporting de Gijón in La Liga, was elected as the Manager of the Month for September's 3-1 record. Under his command, Sevilla defeated Real Zaragoza, RCD Espanyol, and Athletic Bilbao in September. After two consecutive defeats at the start of the season, the team achieved a surprising result. This newly promoted team is currently the most outstanding of the three newly promoted teams! In addition, Sporting de Gijón also broke the record for the largest goal difference in the last five years in La Liga in the game against Real Zaragoza!
Before the start of training that afternoon, Li Ang received the trophy for the Manager of the Month in La Liga for September. It was a crystal trophy, and there was no special award ceremony. A staff member of the Spanish Professional Football League brought the trophy to him. Li Ang held the trophy up for the official website reporter to take a photo. That was the entire process.
Although the process was simple, for a manager, it was indeed a great honor. Sporting de Gijón was a newly promoted team, and Li Ang was a Chinese. Under such circumstances, Li Ang could be honored as the Manager of the Month for this month's outstanding coaching results. This was indeed a great achievement.
After that, the excited players also congratulated their manager. The manager won the Manager of the Month honor. This was not only an achievement of Li Ang alone, but also an affirmation of the performance of the Sporting de Gijón team.
That night, the Sporting de Gijón team also held a small dinner to congratulate Li Ang for being the Manager of the Month. At the same time, it was also a reward for the outstanding performance of the players during this period.
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Because after the sixth round of the league matches, the national team matches would be held, and the league would be closed for two weeks.
It could be said that Sporting de Gijón team did not have a single national football player, so Li Ang did not need to worry about the FIFA virus virus.
Of course, the fact that a team did not have a national footballer showed that the current strength of the team was indeed very ordinary.
Since no players were selected for the national team, the players did not need to travel long distances to report to the national team. Li Ang simply gave the players two days off to rest well. After two days, they would gather again. He wanted to use these ten days to properly train the team.
Just as the team announced the break, Li Ang received a call. It was a call from the manager of the Croatia U21 national youth team, Bilic.
The call was to inform Sporting de Gijón that Modric had been selected for the Croatia U21 national youth team, and to ask for Sporting de Gijón's assistance.
Because it was the day of the national team match, the club naturally had to unconditionally release Modric. However, Li Ang had a good impression of Bilic. Bilic could have just sent a fax to Sporting de Gijón without a call, but taking the initiative to call to inform him was a good attitude.
Although Li Ang and Bilic could not be said to have a good chat, this was the first contact between the two sides, and it was considered okay.
Li Ang knew the current manager of the Croatia national youth team, Mr. Bilic. In the future, Bilic would become the manager of the Croatia national team. Therefore, for a long time to come, Li Ang knew that he would have to deal with Bilic about Modric representing Croatia. It would not be a bad thing if the two sides could have a good relationship.
Li Ang had a deep impression of Bilic. Of course, his impression of Bilic was of the future manager of the Croatia national team. Bilic was a very passionate manager, and could even be said to be multi-talented. It was said that he had even released a solo album, and was a fan of rock music.
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The call from Bilic was just the beginning. Then, Sporting de Gijón received a fax from the Serbia and Montenegro Football Federation. Sporting de Gijón's defensive player, Ivanovic, had been selected for the Serbia and Montenegro U20 national youth team. He would represent the Serbia and Montenegro U20 national youth team on the day of the national team match.
Unlike the Croatia U21 national youth team manager, Bilic, the Serbia and Montenegro U20 national youth team only sent a fax to recruit players, and did not call. This made Li Ang feel a little annoyed. The Serbia and Montenegro Football Federation had split into two in the future.
Soon after, Li Ang received another call. This call was from the head coach of the Spain U19 national youth team, Hulun Petrogi.
Then, Li Ang was surprised to be told that there were three players in his team who were selected for the Spain U19 national youth team this time.
They were Juan Mata, Juan Carlos, and the team's second goalkeeper, Roberto.
Li Ang was surprised by Roberto's selection. After all, the second goalkeeper meant that the team would be on the bench, and Roberto had very few chances to play.
However, Li Ang was not surprised that Mata and Carlos had been selected for the Spain national youth team. In his memory, Mata would always be a regular in the Spain national team at various levels. As for Carlos, the 16-year-old kid was now Sporting de Gijón's "Little Gattuso." Previously, the Gijón media had called for the Spain U19 national youth team manager, Petrogi, to recruit Carlos.
Now, as expected, Petrogi had "complied with the public's wishes" and recruited Carlos into the national youth team list.
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Li Ang was a little absent-minded. Carlos was a genius that he had discovered and nurtured after his rebirth. Roberto could also be said to have shown a certain amount of talent under his guidance. Obviously, in the original history of Spain, there was no trace of these two players at all.
It could be said that Li Ang had single-handedly created these two players. Li Ang was not sure about Roberto's future, after all, Roberto's talent was limited. However, Carlos's future was definitely worth looking forward to.
Even if Carlos was selected for the Spain senior national team in the future, Li Ang still thought that there was hope.
The Spain national team's Gattuso … Thinking of this, Li Ang could not help but click his tongue. He did not know how to describe this scene. It felt a little out of place …
Modric, Ivanovic, Roberto, Juan Mata, and Juan Carlos. Five players had been called up. My team can be considered a powerhouse of national footballers, Li Ang thought to himself.
Li Ang then found Carlos and looked at the young boy. "I just received a call. You've been selected for the Spain U19 national team."
Carlos was completely stunned. The boy widened his eyes as if to confirm that Li Ang was not joking with him. Then, he saw Li Ang smile and nod. This boy, who was always optimistic and could even be said to have a stubborn personality, suddenly cried.
Li Ang looked at the crying child and sighed. He handed the phone to Carlos. "Call your sister and tell her the good news."
Carlos took the phone with trembling hands and dialed Alice's number.
Alice thought that it was Li Ang calling. Then, she heard her brother's voice. Carlos used a trembling voice to tell his sister that he had been selected for the Spain U19 national team.
Then, Li Ang heard silence on the other end of the phone, followed by Alice's crying.
"Why are you crying?" Li Ang patted Carlos's shoulder and said softly, "Boy, you're now a Spain national footballer!"
The siblings on the other end of the phone cried even harder.
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