For the 19-year-old gardener, Adil Lamy, January 4, 2005, was a dreamy and unbelievable day.
At the end of such an ordinary amateur game, the Chinese man whom he had only met once in the afternoon came up to him and asked for his autograph, and then asked him if he wanted to play professional football.
At first, Lamy thought that the man was a scout, but when he learned about Li Ang's true identity from the man's self-introduction, he was dumbfounded.
At first, he could not believe it. He could not imagine that a Chinese man was the manager of a team in the top five leagues. Lamy rarely paid attention to football news outside of France, so he was not aware of the fame of China's Young Marshal in the Spanish football world.
However, it was not too difficult to prove Li Ang's identity. He just had to make a few more phone calls to ask, or he could go online and search for news and pictures of the La Liga stadium. The most direct way was to go to Sporting de Gijón's official website to take a look. There must be a picture of the team's manager, so he could distinguish the authenticity. Most importantly, Lamy was clear about his current situation. He was just an amateur player who played amateur football. The other party had no need to deceive him.
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Did he want to play professional football?!
The answer was self-evident.
It took almost no effort to convince Lamy. Li Ang's invitation was a life-saving straw for Lamy. In a sense, it was Li Ang who opened the door to the tall gardener's dream.
The Spinach Crew team that Lamy was currently playing for was just an amateur team. It was not even registered with the French Football Federation. Therefore, Lamy did not have any contract with the club and could leave at any time.
However, Li Ang eventually asked the Sporting de Gijón club to give the Spinach Crew 5,000 euros. It was not a transfer fee. Lamy was a free agent and did not need to pay a single cent. The money was considered a sponsorship fee to help the Corsican amateur club improve their equipment and lifestyle. It could also be seen that Li Ang was more particular about the amateur club. If Sporting de Gijón didn't pay a single cent, Spinach Sailor couldn't do anything about it.
Li Ang was very happy. He didn't think that his trip to Corsica would bring him such an unexpected reward. After recruiting Rami, Sporting de Gijón's center back position could be considered double insurance. Pepe and Hierro would start, Vermaelen could rotate with Pepe and Hierro at any time, and Rami could be used as a reserve at any time.
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Gatherings were always short-lived. Li Ang only stayed in Corsica for a day and returned to Gihon the next day.
However, he did not come back alone. Alice accompanied him back to Gihon. After leaving Spain for a few months, she also missed her brother, Carlos, and asked Shakira for two days off.
As for Lami, Li Ang gave Lami a day to settle his personal matters. After a day, he would report to Gijón, Spain. After passing the physical examination, he could officially sign the contract.
On the afternoon of his return to Sporting Gijón, on January 5th, Sporting de Gijón held a press conference.
This was a press conference for the newly joined players.
Juan Arango, Thomas Vermaelen, and Enrico Chiesa. These three players were the three players that Sporting de Gijón had brought in after the winter break.
At the press conference, Li Ang stood in the middle. On his left were the young Vermaelen and Arango, and on his right was the veteran Chiesa. The China coach had a smile on his face. He seemed to be very satisfied with the results of the winter transfer so far.
Sporting de Gijón had made a lot of moves in the five days after the winter transfer market opened. They had officially announced the arrival of three players and the departure of three players. However, none of the real main players had left. It could be said that this change would not cause any turbulence in the team. Li Ang had an accurate grasp of the strength of the signings.
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A day later, Lamy arrived at Sporting Gijón. The French lad successfully passed the medical examination. Later, Sporting de Gijón officially announced the signing of the 19-year-old French young center back, Adil Lamy. The 188cm tall center back signed a five-year contract with Sporting de Gijón.
This was also Li Ang's intention. For the players he was optimistic about, he would ask the club to sign as long a contract as possible. This way, whether the player wanted to renew his contract or transfer in the future, it would allow the club to have the initiative.
Originally, Lamy's arrival would not attract the attention of the media and fans.
However, under normal circumstances, after the announcement of a player's arrival was released, there would be a brief introduction under the player's name on the official website. However, because Lamy was only an amateur player before, he really did not have a resume to speak of. Therefore, the official website did not have a more detailed introduction of Lamy's resume.
This attracted the attention of some people with "ulterior motives," including the reporter from Marca, Phelps, who had a deep grudge with Li Ang.
One could not help but admire Phelps' ability. It only took him half a day to basically figure out Lamy's origin.
It turned out that this young player called Adil Lamy was not a professional player before. He had been playing in an amateur team before, and had no experience in the first team of a professional team at all. He did not even have the experience of playing in the youth team of a professional team. It could even be said that this player was completely born as an amateur player.
Although Lamy joined Sporting de Gijón completely on a free transfer, Sporting de Gijón did not spend a transfer fee to bring in Lamy. It was said that they only gave the amateur team that Lamy currently played in a "sponsorship fee" of 5,000 euros. It could be said that this deal had almost no impact on Sporting de Gijón.
However, under the lead of Marca's reporter Phelps, many Spanish media still made a big deal out of it. Many media questioned Li Ang's judgment. At the same time, they questioned Lamy's ability.
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Some media even got the fact that Lamy was only a gardener in the municipal department of Corsica before, and they began to hype it up.
"A gardener? Did Coach Li Ang hire a new gardener for the Mallorca training base? After letting Isma go, he first brought in a Belgian from Ajax who can't play in the game, and now he directly brought in a little gardener. Is this the reinforcement of Coach Li Ang's team's rear defensive line? If I'm not crazy, then the Chinese manager is crazy? "
These media outlets made a big deal out of this matter, doubting Li Ang's judgment, and ridiculing Lamy. The poor little Corsican gardener, who had just joined Sporting de Gijón and had not yet enjoyed the joy of joining a professional team for the first time, was treated like this for no reason. It was a little too much.
Not only did they attack Lamy, but some media outlets also brought up the old matter and expanded the flames of war again. They expressed doubts and criticism about Li Ang's trade of Juan Arango from Mallorca. They used examples and statistics, trying to prove that Arango was a big fake and would not bring any help to Sporting de Gijón.
Last time, they criticized and criticized Li Ang's trade of bringing in Arango, but at that time, Li Ang was still in China and did not respond. This time, with the ferment of Lamy's transfer, they finally caught a good opportunity. How could they let it go so easily?
Such doubts and noise could be said to be an unexpected disaster and a big blow to Arango and Lamy, who had just joined the team. It was not good news for Sporting de Gijón, who were preparing for the game, because they had a game in one day.
On January 7, 2005, the 20042005 La Liga season reignited after the winter break. Sporting de Gijón was about to face a strong opponent in the eighteenth round of the league, Sevilla.
At present, in the La Liga standings, Sporting de Gijón was ranked fourth in the league with 28 points, and Sevilla was ranked second with 31 points. In terms of the standings, this was the real focus of the game.
The first game after the winter break was such a heavyweight match, which was a very serious test for Sporting de Gijón.
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