Chen Yingxiong had now become a real disgrace to the St. Petersburg media. This time it was not because his background was still unknown, but because he openly provoked the media during the competition and slapped the faces of this group of "uncrowned kings".
When had the media, which was used to criticizing others and putting out baseless accusations, ever had such an "encounter"? They were slapped three times by an 18-year-old boy, and their faces were swollen.
At the post-match press conference, Advocaat continued to pass the buck, claiming that he knew nothing about Chen Yingxiong's background because Chen Yingxiong was already in the youth team when he joined the team.
What he said was impeccable. People really didn't know. Chen Yingxiong? It wasn't his idea to bring him in. That happened during Petzera's tenure. How could he, a head coach who took over midway, know about it? To be honest, it was already very difficult for him to get to know all the players in the first team. What did the youth team have to do with him?
So the reporters were helpless.
How to write the post-match news?
Chen Yingxiong's hat trick was definitely a topic that could not be avoided.
Someone suggested that Chen Yingxiong scored a goal just because he was lucky, and it had nothing to do with his condition. He went to the nightclub, which must have affected his condition. As for why he was so sure that it affected his condition... Anyway, it must have affected him, it must have affected him! It was impossible that it didn't affect him! Otherwise... was there still justice in this world?
But what should we say now? Insist on saying that a player who scored three goals and completed a hat trick was not in good condition? You could expect the phone of the editorial department to be bombarded with protesters the next day!
Hat tricks were definitely not something that could be explained by luck, especially this time - Chen Yingxiong, who was good only at heading, encountered the strongest opponent he could encounter at this stage. The two central defenders were not short in height, were very good at heading, were very strong, and had rich experience.
In fact, Matthew Booth and Andre Hussin did cause Chen Yingxiong a lot of trouble.
But it was in this situation that Chen Yingxiong's three goals seemed so precious and hard-won.
If you said that he was lucky to score three goals in such a situation, did you think the tens of thousands of fans in the stands were blind? Or are you teasing the fans' IQ?
So this reality made the reporters feel extremely entangled...
Finally, one media outlet took the lead in making a choice. In the news published the next day, they used a big headline to state their position.
"Even in the nightclubs, he can score goals! Hat tricks are all amazing! The crazy and arrogant hero makes the Kirov Stadium boil!"
Many media followed suit, saying that Chen Yingxiong's performance in the game was perfect because even though he faced Booth and Hussin who were good at defending high balls, he still scored three goals with his head, which was very telling.
As for the nightclub incident...smart reporters had learned not to mention it at all. To them, it was as if that incident had never happened.
Chen Yingxiong looked at the newspapers and smiled happily.
It felt good to slap those reporters in the face.
Of course, the more benign reason for his smile was that he was about to be upgraded.
The reward for completing a hat trick was far beyond his expectations. He thought it was just doubling the experience of scoring three goals.
Who would have thought that it would increase so much in one go, that it was almost approaching the upgrade threshold?
He not only had the experience of scoring three goals, but he also completed several tasks in one go - "three consecutive wins", "the necessary hat trick", "the ridicule of the media", "the appreciation of opponents", "the appreciation of teammates", and "playing the whole game".
The experience rewards for these tasks varied, but none of them were small.
Just these mission experiences had greatly increased his experience. Adding the experience accumulated from previous training, he was only a little over a thousand experience points away from reaching level 5. With this little experience, he could basically level up by just doing one all-nighter.
After upgrading he needed to add the talent point to "knockdown".
Chen Yingxiong had already tasted the sweetness of this talent. In the match against Soviet Wings, it was precisely because of "knockout" that he was able to initiate so many collisions without committing a foul, which ultimately allowed him to defeat his experienced opponent with his body.
He discovered a problem as well - talent was not omnipotent. It did not mean that if you chose this talent, you would immediately become a top player in this area. So thinking that as long as you choose a talent, you would become invincible was definitely not correct. The correct way was to make full use of talent and maximize its role.
He told Yesenin about his feelings, but Yesenin just smiled without commenting.
However, Chen Yingxiong was not the kind of person who would only do something if he got others' approval. He did it according to his own understanding.
…
St. Petersburg was not a small city, and Zenit St. Petersburg was not a small team, so what happened in this team could not be ignored for too long...
Especially with the catalyst of a hat trick.
In football, hat tricks were definitely a topic worth talking about. When a striker scored one, he would instantly become the focus of media reports, even if he had been unknown before.
So Chen Yingxiong's name, photo, and goal videos began to appear in some media outside St. Petersburg.
"…In the last round of the Russian Premier League, a striker from Zenit St. Petersburg scored a hat trick!"
"…It is worth mentioning that the striker was just transferred to the first team three rounds ago. This was his third game for Zenit's first team…"
"... Chen Yingxiong, wearing the No. 99 jersey, was the biggest contributor in this game. He scored three goals in the game and completed the first hat trick in his career!"
"... This 18-year-old young player has black hair and yellow skin... Yes, he is a player from China... But what the St. Petersburg media still can't figure out is how this Chinese player came to Zenit in the first place. You know, no media knew about his joining... Chen Yingxiong is simply a mystery..."
"Three headers, all of them were brilliant! But this was not a sudden explosion. In the two league rounds before this, he started all the games for Zenit St. Petersburg and scored in every game... But if it weren't for this hat trick, maybe he would have been known to us now..."
"... 18-year-old Chen Yingxiong is Chinese. He is 1.92 meters tall and weighs 93 kilograms. From this photo, you can see how strong he is. His speciality is that he is very, very good at heading the ball, which can be verified from his last three opponents. He played three times for Zenit and scored five goals, all of which were headers!"
There were news reports about Chen Yingxiong in newspapers, on television, and on the Internet.
Although Chen Yingxiong's fame was far less than those of long-established football stars, at least many people throughout Russia now knew that there was such a person in Zenit St. Petersburg.
More and more media were interested in Chen Yingxiong, but foreign media were flocking to St. Petersburg, while St. Petersburg media were running out - they already knew that they couldn't get more information about Chen Yingxiong from Advocaat and Popovich. So they still had to go to the Czech Republic to find Petzela, who introduced Chen Yingxiong when he was in office. He at least should know Chen Yingxiong's background...
…
When the training was over, Chen Yingxiong wanted to do some more training as usual, but he was stopped by Advocaat.
"You should take a rest today, hero," said Advocaat.
"But..." Chen Yingxiong was thinking about levelling up. He had already reached level 5. It took 90,000 experience points to go from level 5 to level 6. He wanted to level up earlier and max out his knockdown talent.
"You're joining me for the press conference today."
Chen Yingxiong was surprised.
"Be prepared, because a lot of media will be interested in you." Advocat smiled.
"I'm not afraid of them." Chen Yingxiong said, shaking his head. He had never participated in a press conference, but it was not the first time he met reporters face to face. He thought of the confrontation with reporters during the game that day.
If there were still some blind reporters who want to bring up irrelevant issues today, I wouldn't mind giving them a slap again.
…
As expected, Chen Yingxiong became the focus of the reporters at the press conference. Even they did not expect that Zenit St. Petersburg would invite this striker who had suddenly become popular to the press conference.
They had so many questions they wanted to ask Chen Yingxiong.
For example, how he came to Zenit.
"I was brought here by Mr. Panchenko." Chen Yingxiong still respected Mr. Panchenko, the scout who brought him to Zenit from the CSKA Moscow training ground. Although he was arrogant, he understood basic courtesy and gratitude. Panchenko gave him a chance when he was in his most difficult time, and this opportunity benefited him a lot. Of course, he remembered such a great favour.
"I passed Zenit's test and joined the youth team." Chen Yingxiong briefly explained how he joined Zenit.
"How did you feel about completing a hat trick in the last round?"
"It was so cool!" Chen Yingxiong's choice of words left many reporters speechless. How could someone be so direct? Can't you be a little more tactful?
"What about five goals in three rounds?"
"Even better!"
The reporters below were all silent...
Advocaat smiled beside him, looking down.
This was the Chen Yingxiong he knew. He dared to change his arrangement without permission during training, dared to come to him and make demands when he didn't get what he wanted, dared to confidently say that it was his personal freedom after hanging out in a nightclub, and dared to... complete a hat trick when facing a strong enemy.
This was his style. Reporters from other places would need to adapt to it if they wanted to continue reporting on him...