Chapter 1 Chen Hero's Goal Opens the Record

Chen Hero's goal helped Zenit open the scoring, but the greatest significance of this goal wasn't just that it gave them a one-goal lead, but that it showed Krylya Sovetov that all their efforts against Chen Hero had been in vain!

With their current abilities, completely freezing Chen Hero in the air wouldn't be as easy as it had been before.

Chen Hero was more experienced than he had been then, and more importantly, he was more well-rounded. His abilities in other areas had also improved. Although his header was still his most prominent weapon, he also had a long shot now, and he wasn't as useless in other aspects of the game as he had been before.

High-level training wasn't for nothing. His abilities in all areas had improved, such as shooting...

At the very least, he rarely blasted a shot from close range into the sky anymore.

A gradually maturing Chen Hero was no longer someone a mid-table Russian Premier League team like Krylya Sovetov could handle!

When their carefully prepared tactics failed to prevent Chen Hero from scoring, the Krylya Sovetov players began to doubt their tactics and made adjustments.

The result was...they became even more confused. Some wanted to stick to the tactics the coach had arranged before the game, while others felt they should abandon them decisively and improvise.

Next, Zenit seized the opportunity of the Krylya Sovetov defense being in chaos and scored another goal, killing the suspense of the match.

The scorer was Domínguez, the Argentine midfielder who had performed well since joining the team and had now squeezed Radimov onto the bench.

After Radimov couldn't play, he naturally couldn't be the captain either. The captain's armband was now on the left arm of Ukrainian midfielder Tymoshchuk. Being able to be the captain of a team right after joining showed that he indeed had leadership talent.

In fact, there was no dissatisfaction within Zenit about him being the captain. Arshavin and the Pleasure Seekers took the lead in supporting him, and the others had nothing to say. Chen Hero didn't care who was the captain anyway. He didn't want to be the captain, so it was all the same to him...

In his time with Tymoshchuk, he found that this Ukrainian was a pretty good guy, and that was enough.

Although Chen Hero almost never participated in defense during the game, he never looked down on defensive players who couldn't score as much as he could because he knew that it was these defensive players who worked tirelessly behind him, doing the work he didn't want to do, so that he could continue to score goals in front.

Chen Hero understood this much, even though he was arrogant and conceited...he understood basic principles of conduct.

Or rather, since being kicked out of his domestic club and experiencing so many things, he had become more sensible.

After Domínguez scored, the game was only in the first half, but it had already basically lost its suspense.

With Zenit's current state, perhaps someone could stop them, but definitely not the current Krylya Sovetov.

In the end, Zenit defeated Krylya Sovetov 2-0 at home. Although Chen Hero didn't perform another hat trick, he had scored eight goals in eight league games, including one game where he didn't score, and another game where he scored twice. These goal statistics were terrifying.

Currently, the second-highest scorer in the league, Pavlyuchenko, had only scored five goals, three goals behind Chen Hero.

The league had only started for two months, and Chen Hero had already begun to show signs of leading the way. Was he really going to fulfill his pre-season "boast"?

After the game, the Saint Petersburg media sang praises for Chen Hero.

"Although he didn't complete the record of scoring in eight consecutive league games, scoring eight goals in eight league games is still a remarkable achievement!"

"...Hero scored again? Can this even be considered news anymore? If you ask me, now you have to say, 'Hero finally didn't score!' That's news, okay?" The Saint Petersburg media joked.

"Originally, not scoring in the game against Tom Tomsk made many people start to worry about Hero's form...but Hero once again told the world in his own way—don't worry about him! Worry about yourselves! Yes, worry about yourselves, before the game, many media outlets claimed that Hero's goal drought would continue. What was the result? Now he's been slapped in the face again..."

This was said to the Moscow media, because the Moscow media had been the loudest about the topic of "Hero being stuck in a goal drought" before the game. What was the result now?

Slap!

So loud.

In the eyes of the Saint Petersburg media, it was truly satisfying and relieving.

For a long time, whether in sports culture or economy, Saint Petersburg had been suppressed by Moscow. Now that they were finally stirring up a storm on the football field, they, as mouthpieces, had to desperately encourage and fan the flames, turning the current small waves into a towering wave!

The Moscow media seemed very disappointed: "...After a brief stop, Krylya Sovetov was also unable to stop him from continuing to move forward! It seems that only a Moscow team can do this..."

They really hoped that Krylya Sovetov could continue to block Chen Hero, preventing him from scoring for two consecutive games, so as to greatly dampen Zenit's morale and interrupt Chen Hero's excellent form. Who would have thought that Krylya Sovetov would be so unhelpful, and Chen Hero would score again.

Everyone turned their attention to the eleventh round of the league two rounds later, the highly anticipated battle between Moscow CSKA and Saint Petersburg Zenit at CSKA's home ground.

With the past grievances and feuds between Chen Hero and CSKA, this game was simply too sensational.

If it hadn't been for Ratish's arrogance back then, perhaps CSKA would now have had a super center forward who gave headaches to opponents throughout the league. But now he had gone to Saint Petersburg Zenit, a strong enemy of CSKA in the title race, and also had a very fierce conflict with CSKA fans in the game against CSKA last season, for which CSKA was banned from playing two home games and paid a fine of 500,000 rubles.

CSKA fans hated this guy to the bone—his celebration of feeding bananas to monkeys on the sidelines made all CSKA fans feel like they had been slapped hard.

This time, CSKA happened to be playing at home again.

Although the game was still two rounds away, some CSKA fans were already clamoring to give Chen Hero a hard time during the game.

They had ample reason to do so, because Chen Hero's banana-feeding celebration had made all of Moscow CSKA's extremist fans a laughing stock throughout Russia.

So this game, for the fans of Moscow CSKA, was a battle of revenge!

It was a crucial battle related to their glory and dignity.

They had even thought about how to deal with Chen Hero.

Racist remarks were of course not allowed to appear again, as repeated offenses would result in more severe penalties.

But non-racist words and slogans were not a problem at all!

At that time, Moscow CSKA's home stadium would be filled with all kinds of trash talk and boos. It was conceivable that Chen Hero's every touch of the ball would be greeted with enthusiastic "greetings".

Chen Hero would face enormous pressure playing this game away from home.

But he wasn't afraid.

After training, when faced with this question from reporters, his answer was very much in his style: "Moscow CSKA? Are they our next opponent?"

The reporter was a little embarrassed: "No, Zenit's next opponent is Kuban (kuban_krasnodar)."

Chen Hero suddenly realized: "Then don't pay attention to them, let's talk about Kuban!"

The reporter cried...

But this interview reached the ears of Moscow CSKA fans, naturally causing even greater indignation—you yellow-skinned monkey, how dare you ignore us! We'll let you know how powerful Moscow CSKA is!

While actively preparing for the next round of the game against Kuban, Chen Hero also worked hard to learn to drive, wanting to be able to drive independently as soon as possible. Otherwise, it was too pathetic to have to take a taxi to the training base every time—everyone else had their own car, but he had to take a taxi every day...

At this time, he received a call from Dekura again.

"Hero, when you were having a scandal with Sharapova, did dealing with reporters make you particularly upset?" Dekura asked.

Chen Hero nodded: "A little."

"Hero, I have a question." Dekura asked on the other end of the phone.

"Yeah, go ahead." Chen Hero didn't take it seriously. What kind of question could Mr. Aurora have?

"What do you think of agents?"

"Huh? What are you asking this for?" Chen Hero was surprised. He never expected Dekura to ask this question.

"I just want to hear your understanding of agents."

"This...they help me negotiate contracts with clubs, help me contact new teams when I transfer...ah, and commercial endorsement contracts or something...anyway, they help me make money! Make money!" Chen Hero repeated the last sentence with emphasis, yes, money! Agents are there to help him make money!

"Hmm..."

"What's with the 'hmm'?" Chen Hero could tell that Dekura wasn't very satisfied with his answer. He rolled his eyes, then realized that he was rolling them here, and the other person couldn't see it, so it was a waste of expression.

"Agents aren't just there to help players make money...they also need to manage the player's image, handle various relationships..." Dekura tried to explain.

"What's the point of managing the image and handling relationships?" Chen Hero retorted.

"To get more commercial contracts..." Dekura said halfway before realizing it.

"So isn't it still to make money?" Sure enough, Chen Hero immediately interjected.

Dekura was speechless. This kid had hit the nail on the head. Whether it was building an image or whatever, agents were, to put it bluntly, really just helping players make money, and also earning commissions for themselves. The more they helped players earn, the more they earned themselves.

"Hmm, have you ever thought about building an agent team?"

Chen Hero was stunned when he heard Dekura say this.

An agent team?