Chapter 1 Chen Hero's Serie A Debut

Many people were eagerly waiting in front of their TVs for Chen Hero's first Serie A match, which was also the first Serie A match for a Chinese player.

But the result was disappointing.

Chen Hero didn't score, and although he tried hard in the match, the lack of a goal was still disappointing.

He started the match but didn't bring a goal to the team.

During the match, he also tried to coordinate with his teammates.

But it was obvious that Lavezzi didn't like to cooperate with him. Lavezzi only needed him to create space for him, and then he would break through and score.

Only Hamsik was willing to cooperate with him, but given Chen Hero's lack of tactical awareness and limited technical skills, the two's cooperation was unremarkable.

Napoli's most threatening attack still came from Lavezzi.

But he didn't score either, just like Chen Hero. The scorer was Hamsik, who helped the team equalize in the fifty-fifth minute.

Because defender Fabiano Santacroce was sent off with two yellow cards in the fifty-fourth minute, Chen Hero was substituted off by the coach in the sixtieth minute.

His first Serie A appearance ended just like that.

When he was substituted, many Chinese fans cursed Coach Reja for not substituting Chen Hero. But they also knew in their hearts that at this time, with one less defender, they could only substitute a forward, and Chen Hero's performance was indeed not as eye-catching as Lavezzi's. Who told Lavezzi to be fast, have excellent dribbling skills, and be able to create threatening breakthroughs as soon as he got the ball?

This made him more popular and more likely to be on camera than Chen Hero.

What did Chen Hero have? Besides a bicycle kick that he was still practicing, he could only shoot. Only shooting was his forte. Unfortunately, he didn't get many chances to shoot in this match. Napoli had nineteen shots in the whole match, and Chen Hero shot four of them, one on target, and the other three were either too high or too wide.

"He has been with the team for two months, played four warm-up matches, and four official matches. His performance is still like he just joined the team, and he is out of tune with the whole team's tactics." This was Zhang Lu, the guest commentator on CCTV, commenting on Chen Hero's sixty-minute performance.

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Chen Tao was sitting in front of a newspaper filled with reports and comments about Chen Hero's Serie A debut yesterday.

"... Perhaps we put too much pressure on him and had too high expectations. For Chinese players, being able to play in Serie A for the first time is already very good. Scoring goals, etc., should be relaxed and wait..."

"... Chen Hero was given a failing score of four points by the Italian media after the match. In Napoli's draw against Roma, his performance was lackluster..."

"Perhaps it has something to do with his previous scoring spree. His crazy state has left him far away, and it will take some time to recover. Generally speaking, after experiencing such a crazy first half of the season, players will fall into a short slump for a period of time..."

Chen Tao took out his mobile phone and called his son. He was worried that yesterday's match would hit his son hard.

As soon as the phone was connected, he heard Chen Hero's loud voice.

"Ah, Dad! Are you not sleeping?"

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Chen Hero was in special training in the instance dungeon when his phone rang, pulling him out. He was surprised when he found out that it was his dad calling.

Because he looked at the time on his phone, it was already past five o'clock in the afternoon. Italian time is six hours later than Beijing time, which means it should be past eleven o'clock in the evening in China.

"I thought you should have finished training, so I called you."

"We didn't train today, Dad. After returning from the away game, we disbanded directly. I stayed in the hotel all day today... resting."

Chen Hero was sweating profusely, trying to even out his breathing so as not to arouse his dad's suspicion.

"Oh, oh. That's good... Then have a good rest and don't be too tired. You should still go out and have fun. Your aunt told me that Naples is very beautiful and is a tourist destination. You are there, such a good opportunity, how can you stay in the hotel all day?"

Chen Hero chuckled, not knowing what to say to his dad. He didn't tell anyone about Mr. Aurora and the instance dungeon. This was completely his secret. Even his dad didn't know. As far as his dad was concerned, his son was a genius, and he didn't want to ruin the beautiful image of himself in his dad's heart.

"Or contact your girlfriend. How long have you not contacted her? Also, Naples is famous for its food, have you tried it..."

"Dad." Chen Hero coughed. "If you have anything to say, just say it directly."

There was a moment of silence on the other end of the phone: "I watched your match yesterday. Don't care about the media and fans' reactions, don't have any pressure or psychological burden..."

Chen Hero laughed: "I don't have any psychological burden or pressure, Dad."

"Don't be stubborn!"

"I really don't..." Chen Hero said.

"I just finished saying it, and you're already being stubborn."

Chen Hero shut up. Then he listened to his father babbling a lot of道理 (dao li, principles), such as how can you see a rainbow without experiencing wind and rain, how great people grow up from constant setbacks and tribulations, what goes up must come down, what "those who work hard, heaven will not let down, lie in the firewood and taste the gall, three thousand Yue soldiers can swallow Wu," what Washington cut down the cherry tree, what Franklin flew a kite... Regardless of whether it could be completely related to Chen Hero's current situation, he told Chen Hero all the inspirational stories of celebrities that he could think of.

This phone call was so long that Chen Hero's phone got hot, and Chen Hero, who had just come out of the instance dungeon and was still sweating profusely, ended up with all the sweat on his body drying up...

When Chen Tao finally finished speaking, Chen Hero was finally relieved.

Of course, he knew that his dad was doing this for his own good, but he felt that his dad didn't need to worry about anything, because he himself wasn't worried. It was just a league match, and there were more than thirty matches in a season. It's normal for a player's state to fluctuate. Just because I didn't score in the first match doesn't mean I won't be able to score in the future.

But he didn't dare to say that his dad's worries were unnecessary. He could only say to his dad: "Dad, don't worry. I am now lying in the firewood and tasting the gall!"

Special training, *Wo Xin Chang Dan* (lying in the firewood and tasting the gall - idiom for enduring hardship with perseverance), in the instance dungeon. For this reason, he gave up the opportunity to go out to have fun and visit famous places, and even neglected Sharapova again.

All for the sake of being able to roar at all those who had mocked him on the court one day.

The giant bear behind me has been sleeping for too long. One day, it will wake up. At that time, I will let its roar resound throughout the Apennines!

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When September passed, Chinese fans were certainly unwilling to relive Chen Hero's few league matches in Napoli - he started four times in the league, two of which he played the whole game, and two of which he was substituted midway. His goal count was... a glaring zero!

His problem was still not solved, and he was still out of sync with the team tactically. Although he was trying hard to make his runs more flexible, he was really not good at doing this.

The first Serie A match of Chinese players was no longer worth hyping. Now all the Chinese media and fans were waiting and guessing when Chen Hero would be able to score in the league.

The only thing worth comforting was that he broke his goal drought in official matches since joining Napoli - on September 18, in the third round of the UEFA Cup qualifier against Benfica at home, Chen Hero scored his first official match goal since joining Napoli.

In Napoli's corner kick tactics, he used his signature header to send the ball into Benfica's goal.

Although he was not the main scorer in the team's open play, Reja still treated and arranged him as the team's main scorer in set pieces.

Chen Hero seemed very excited after scoring the goal, and he roared loudly at the camera lens.

But this did not change the home fans' opinion of him. The boos only disappeared for a while before they sounded again. And the huge banner in the stands that read "You are not even worthy of shining Diego's shoes, bastard!" was still there.

A goal in the qualifier was really nothing to be happy about. For Chen Hero, it was just a small regret that he made up for - last year, he won the UEFA Cup Golden Boot at Zenit St. Petersburg, but he did not score in the qualifier.

So no one cared at all.

Naples' media only valued Chen Hero's performance in the league. For them, Chen Hero's performance in the league was no different from garbage.

Some media have already called for Chen Hero to be taken out of the starting lineup.

"We can't just give him the starting treatment because he is a player personally signed by Aurelio De Laurentiis. I think whether he can start in the weekend league game depends on only one factor, and that is his state and ability. In my opinion, Chen Hero does not meet these two requirements! Zalayeta has recovered from his injury, why not let Zalayeta, who is more adapted to the team than Chen Hero, start?"

So in the sixth round of the league, in Napoli's away game against Genoa, Chen Hero was finally put on the bench, and the person who replaced him was Zalayeta.

Perhaps even Lady Luck had abandoned Chen Hero, the "Naples discard." Zalayeta scored in his first start of the season!

Although the team eventually lost 2:3 to Genoa in the away game, suffering their first defeat of the new season.

But Zalayeta's goal seemed to foreshadow that Chen Hero would not only have to fight with the local media, fight with the fans, and compete with Lavezzi in Napoli this season, but now he had one more competitor, and he was still the most direct competitor in position - Uruguayan center Zalayeta.

In the last ten minutes of this match, Chen Hero came on as a substitute, replacing Zalayeta. Reja seemed to be telling everyone in this way - Chen Hero will rotate with Zalayeta.

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ps, I can say very responsibly - the depressing plot is about to pass, at most it will end in another day!

So in order to let everyone wait as little as possible, there will be four updates today! Even if there are not many manuscripts, there will be updates!

Four updates today! Three updates tomorrow!

By the way, take advantage of the burst of power to ask for a monthly ticket!