Chapter 118: Discussion with Guardiola's 'Friendliness'
Although Lin Quan had a brief moment of fame due to the Puskas Award, tonight's stage belonged to the two footballing giants.
After presenting the FIFA Women's World Player award, former World Cup champion, Ballon d'Or winner, and FIFA World Player Fabio Cannavaro stepped onto the stage with a smile.
He was about to announce the most prestigious award of the evening—the winner of the FIFA Ballon d'Or!
Cannavaro knew all eyes were on him, but he was aware that the audience's focus was on the unopened envelope in his hands.
So, as he approached the podium, Cannavaro made a playful gesture of peeking into the envelope, eliciting laughter from the audience.
The camera then focused on the final three nominees for the Ballon d'Or: Iniesta, Ronaldo, and Messi, capturing their somewhat nervous expressions.
Iniesta knew he was just there as a formality, but he couldn't help but feel a glimmer of hope: What if? After all these years of being a runner-up, what if the judges recognized the importance of midfielders and voted for him?
As for Ronaldo and Messi, the odds of either winning were close, with Messi having a slight lead.
Ronaldo couldn't help but glance at Messi. Messi had already won three consecutive Ballon d'Or awards, and with each loss, Ronaldo felt he was getting closer to winning.
After three years of preparation, it was surely his time to shine, right?
Meanwhile, Messi felt a bit uneasy. He hadn't had much to boast about in 2012—poor performances with the national team and losing both the Champions League and the league title with Barcelona. But his personal goal tally had reached new heights, even breaking world records, which was a significant boost.
Cannavaro didn't prolong the suspense and quickly announced the winner: "The winner of the 2012 FIFA Ballon d'Or is—Lionel Messi!"
The cameras then captured Messi and Ronaldo in the audience.
Ronaldo pursed his lips, feeling a mix of emotions, but still applauded Messi.
At 27, he only had one Ballon d'Or, while Messi, at 25, had already won four.
Could he catch up to him?
As Messi went on stage to receive his award, Lin Quan, along with Xavi, Fabregas, and others, applauded Messi's win. As he clapped, Lin Quan glanced at Ronaldo's determined figure.
Once considered football's twin titans, Messi's four consecutive Ballon d'Or wins now clearly surpassed Ronaldo.
The usually competitive Ronaldo surely felt uncomfortable.
With his personality, to prove himself against Messi, he would surely play even harder in the upcoming matches!
...
After the awards ceremony, Lin Quan didn't join Fabregas and others to congratulate Messi.
They weren't very close, and since he wasn't planning to return to Barcelona to play, he didn't see the point of joining in the celebrations.
Taking advantage of Guardiola and Del Bosque's conversation, Lin Quan found Del Bosque.
"Coach, congratulations on winning the Best Coach award!"
"Hehe, just lucky. I'm also pleased to see you've progressed during this time!"
Del Bosque had just won an award and was in a great mood. Seeing Lin Quan, he gave him a warm hug.
Seeing a player who was both talented and improving, lively and injury-free like Lin Quan was the best news for Del Bosque.
With only six months left until the Confederations Cup, it was crucial that the team's core players remained injury-free, especially avoiding serious injuries.
Otherwise, they might not be able to play in the Confederations Cup.
The other positions in the Spanish team were fine, with strong depth in midfield and defense. But up front, especially in Lin Quan's position, there were no other options.
This meant that every time Lin Quan played, Del Bosque was very nervous, hoping he wouldn't get injured and he could breathe a sigh of relief only after confirming he was okay.
In the past, when Lin Quan wasn't on the team, Del Bosque was never this tired.
But the fatigue was worth it, as Lin Quan's progress was visible to the naked eye.
And as he grew older, Del Bosque noticed improvements in all aspects of his body's abilities.
Like in the recent match between Werder Bremen and Bayern Munich, Lin Quan's physical condition in extra time was surprising to the coach.
Seeing Del Bosque in a good mood, Lin Quan took the opportunity to mention his desire to play more matches.
"Coach, there are World Cup qualifiers and the Confederations Cup next year. The Confederations Cup is always a preview of the World Cup, and the opponents are strong. So, I think we need to go all out. I'd like to join the national team for the Confederations Cup and play as a starter."
Del Bosque thought Lin Quan was concerned about his position as a starter, so he made a promise to him:
As long as he remained uninjured, he would be taken to important matches for Spain.
"But there are no matches for the national team in the next few months. As you know, there are few matches for Werder Bremen. So, I was thinking, could I go play with the youth team? They're playing in the European Youth Championship, right?"
Del Bosque looked at him in surprise. "Isn't that a bad idea? Playing with the youth team would be meaningless for you. Those matches wouldn't be challenging for you and wouldn't help you improve."
After all, he was a star nominated for the Ballon d'Or. Would he be comfortable playing with a bunch of teenagers in their early twenties?
Oh, wait, this kid is barely 17, younger than those teenagers.
Del Bosque suddenly felt speechless.
In his mind, Lin Quan sighed: Why not? Winning a match against weaker opponents would at least earn me a point!
These easy victories were what he dreamed of, right?
The only downside was the back-and-forth between club and national team, which was a bit of a hassle, and the points rewarded were too few—a mere 1 point per match.
If each match were worth 2 points, he would definitely play with the youth team, and no one could drive him away!
Seeing Lin Quan's seemingly low spirits, Del Bosque didn't want to dampen his enthusiasm and asked, "So, you really want to play matches?"
"Yes, I want to compete against more opponents, gain experience in matches, and achieve better growth!"
"Well, that's a good idea and very ambitious. But let's forget about the youth team matches. Beating weak opponents won't help you improve. If you want to compete, do it against top-tier teams!"
Upon hearing this, Lin Quan's eyes lit up. He had been waiting for Del Bosque to say those words!
"We're going to Brazil for the Confederations Cup this year, and all the participating teams are champions from major continents, so they're all very strong.
So, we need to exchange more with strong opponents, especially those with similar styles to the teams in the tournament, to adapt to their rhythm.
That way, when we get to the Confederations Cup, we won't be caught off guard!"
The participating teams for the 2013 Confederations Cup were almost confirmed: hosts Brazil, European and World Cup champions Spain, Asian champions Japan, Copa America champions Uruguay, CONCACAF champions Mexico, Oceania champions Tahiti, and Euro runners-up Italy.
The teams with the strongest line-up were Brazil, Uruguay, Italy, and Mexico.
They were typical representatives of European and American football.
So if Spain wants to choose opponents for warm-up matches, they would pick teams with similar geographic locations and playing styles.
Del Bosque immediately thought of several suitable teams, but whether they could be contacted depended on negotiations between the Spanish Football Association and the opposing football associations.
After attending the FIFA awards ceremony, Lin Quan disappeared again.
During his absence, Guardiola made an appearance.
On January 16th, Guardiola appeared in Munich and officially signed with Bayern Munich.
The contract was for three years, expiring in 2016.
Guardiola's signing with Bayern disappointed many teams that were trying to recruit him.
Especially Chelsea, it was said that Abramovich got so angry in his office that he threw things.
And after he calmed down, he thought of Mourinho, who was equally famous as Guardiola.
"Give Mendes a call, tell him I want to invite Mourinho to Stamford Bridge to watch a game!"
If they couldn't get Guardiola, they could only invite Mourinho.
Chelsea's performance in the league this season was poor. After the 22nd round, they were 13 points behind the league leaders Manchester United, basically giving up hope of winning the league title.
Not only that, but their spot in the Champions League was also not very secure.
Currently ranked third, Chelsea had several teams chasing closely behind them.
Among them, Arsenal, especially, made them uneasy.
Arsenal was currently ranked fifth, trailing Chelsea by 5 points.
Although the point difference was significant, whenever the end of the season approached, this "fight for fourth" mania always erupted, and they miraculously secured their spot in the Champions League.
This made Chelsea's lead seem less secure!
Their poor performance and shaky position in the Champions League made Abramovich's patience with Di Matteo reach its limit.
Although Di Matteo helped the team win the Champions League trophy last year, fulfilling his Champions League dream, he couldn't tolerate him forever just because of one Champions League trophy. Giving him a year was already generous.
Now it was time to part ways with him!
Mourinho's days at Real Madrid were also tough. Only halfway through the La Liga season, Real Madrid trailed Barcelona by a whopping 18 points!
This point difference basically meant Real Madrid was out of the running for defending their title.
Fortunately, they hadn't been eliminated from the Champions League yet, so there was still a chance to win the trophy.
But if they were also eliminated from the Champions League, Mourinho would surely be sacked.
He knew this very well, so when faced with Chelsea's suggestion, Mourinho didn't refuse.
If he hadn't suffered setbacks at Real Madrid, with his temperament, he wouldn't have returned to Chelsea.
...
The currents in the football world had nothing to do with Lin Quan. During this time, he had been focusing on training, preparing for the second half of the season.
In addition to daily training, he had been studying the video tapes collected by Guardiola these days.
Occasionally, he would discuss football tactics with Guardiola.
Guardiola had a progressive understanding of football. The tricks he came up with during matches were a manifestation of his understanding of football.
However, not all of his understandings were necessarily correct. At least, many of his tricks ended in failure.
"In modern football, especially in European football representing the direction of football development, the emphasis on the team as a whole is increasing, and the role attributes of individual players, such as the attacking midfielder, are being weakened. Classical attacking midfielders are basically extinct now."
"Like the striker-less formation created by Barcelona and the Spanish national team, where everyone has attacking ability and can take on the responsibility of organizing attacks. Their positions are not fixed, making it harder to defend!"
Lin Quan countered, "Isn't Barcelona's possession-based tactics powerful because of Messi? With almost the same lineup, the striker-less formation of the Spanish national team doesn't work as well!"
Before he joined the Spanish national team, Spain's attack was so weak that they couldn't even break the goal of fish-belly teams!
Although everyone could attack, no one could score goals, and their shooting skills couldn't compare to professional strikers.
Guardiola was momentarily speechless. The striker-less formation of Spain did play a bit unattractively, but they had still won several major championships, so their results were not bad.
Guardiola had his own understanding of the trend of football development.
He insisted that possession football was the future direction, but Lin Quan felt that tactics like the high-pressing of Atletico Madrid and Borussia Dortmund, using players' extensive running to cover the space on the field, would have a place in the future football world, and might even become mainstream.
Borussia Dortmund and Atletico Madrid, with less financial resources and weaker player lineups compared to top-tier clubs, could achieve such results, indicating the superiority of this style of play.
Perhaps for top clubs, this style of play was not attractive enough, and they wouldn't lower themselves to play this kind of football.
But for mid-to-lower-tier teams, this style of play was very instructive.
Possession football could only be a luxury privilege for top clubs. It wouldn't work well with slightly weaker lineups.
But the tactics of Simeone and Klopp could be learned by small teams.
The number of top clubs in the league was limited, but there were many ordinary teams, so possession football might not necessarily become popular compared to the high-pressing style.
The two disagreed and had a heated debate, but neither of them was stubborn. After the argument, both of their viewpoints changed slightly.
Especially Guardiola, he seemed to have thought of a new trick again and couldn't wait to try it out.
If he wasn't currently without a team to coach, he would definitely use his own team as a test subject and verify it on the field.
Seeing Guardiola's eager expression, Lin Quan felt a bit nervous:
I wonder if Guardiola's ideas will work. If they don't, I'm afraid I'll suffer with Bayern in the future!
The winter break quickly ended.
After a month of training, Lin Quan's weight increased by 1 kilogram, reaching 74 kilograms, and his physical fitness also improved significantly.
With the help of his Level 2 Physical Talent, he could now play a full game without any problems.
Even when faced with tight marking from opponents, he had the ability to shake them off through active running.
In addition to his daily training, he had been sparring with Guardiola and learning some defensive experience that Guardiola had summarized.
Guardiola was originally a defensive midfielder. He was a traditional No. 4 at La Masia, responsible for both organizing attacks and defending.
His physical qualities were not outstanding, but his defensive awareness was top-notch, and he made significant contributions on the defensive end.
And this kind of defensive style, relying on experience and awareness rather than physicality, was very suitable for Lin Quan, who was somewhat slender.
After following Guardiola for a month, Lin Quan, who was originally terrible at defending, had now evolved to a somewhat decent level of defense?
Although still not very strong, at least he wouldn't be easily dribbled past like in the first half of the season.
After packing up and bidding farewell to his family one by one, Lin Quan boarded the plane back to Germany.
When he returned to the club, many teammates had already arrived early.
Lin Quan had been very careful about maintaining his physique during the winter break. His weight had only increased by one kilogram, and it was muscle mass.
But his teammates, especially those who didn't pay much attention to diet, had clearly gained weight.
This guy Petersen, he gained a whole lot of weight in just one month.
When Lin Quan saw him, he almost didn't recognize him.
"Uh, Nils, did you swell up?"
"Hmph, this kid doesn't control his diet at home, and he gained 8 kilograms! It's only been a month, if he had a year, he'd probably be too fat to walk!"
Coach Shaff, on the side, was furious, saying bitterly.
This guy was getting fat like a balloon, even faster than the pigs on the farm!
"Injustice! I actually paid attention to controlling my weight, and I only ate a little bit for each meal!"
"How much is a little bit?"
"Just a few hamburgers, a few fries, a couple of sandwiches, and a bottle of soda..."
"And you still dare to drink soda!"
Shaff was thoroughly enraged:
"Go run 20 laps around the pitch, starting now, before every training session from now on, you'll run 20 laps before training!"
Petersen had a tearful face, looking towards Lin Quan, as if seeking Lin Quan's help.
Lin Quan pretended not to see his plea for help, and turned to chat with De Bruyne and others.
Bro, you can't abandon me!
Petersen's plea for help was in vain. Under Shaff's murderous gaze, he could only obediently go for a run.
After three days of recovery training, the second half of the Bundesliga season resumed.
Werder Bremen would face the challenge of Borussia Dortmund at home.
Encountering a strong opponent right from the start, this match wouldn't be easy to play!
(End of this chapter)