Chapter 152 He Can't Always Let Others Treat Him

Advocaat was worried that Chen Hero would get carried away after performing well in the first game. In fact, he had already heard from assistant coach Potter that he, Denisov, Anyukov, and Kerzhakov had gone out for a drink together.

So, he originally decided to increase Chen Hero’s training load.

But he soon discovered that he didn’t need to do that himself… Because Chen Hero hadn't changed at all. He trained diligently and conscientiously during normal training every day, and added extra practice for himself after training… And more importantly, he heard that when the whole team had a day off on Sunday, he even came to the training ground with his translator to practice shooting! The training ground manager wouldn't let him in at first, so he threatened to climb over the wall…

As a result, he practiced for two hours in the morning, and then… for three and a half hours in the afternoon!

Chen Hero’s hard work left Advocaat with no reason to reprimand him or increase his training load…

Although this kid went out drinking and came back drunk, at the very least… he knew that he had to train hard!

In Advocaat’s mind, Chen Hero’s “crime” of going out drinking seemed insignificant…

After returning to training, Chen Hero saw Denisov, Anyukov, and Kerzhakov again. Although Martin Škrtel and Erik Hagen were also on good terms with him, Chen Hero only had these three people in the team who could really be considered friends.

The three young men had the same interests, shared common ground, and had similar, outgoing personalities. Naturally, they got along well.

“How was the holiday, guys!” Captain Denisov asked the other three.

“Too crazy!”

“Feels good.”

Chen Hero replied, “Couldn’t be better!”

What he meant was that after grinding AFK, his experience had increased by another two thousand points.

But the other three obviously understood it differently.

The four of them laughed tacitly, but their smiles looked a bit lewd…

Having friends to hang out with in the team allowed him to integrate into the team faster. Even if Chen Hero’s language skills had not yet reached the point where he could communicate as he pleased, he could still mingle with everyone.

Popovich found that there were suddenly many media reporters outside the youth team training ground today—it should be known that Zenit St. Petersburg’s youth training camp was very quiet, and so many media would not normally come.

The arrival of so many reporters excited the youth team players—this meant that they were going to become the focus of the reporters. Who doesn’t want to be famous? Who playing football doesn’t want to be a big star?

Chen Hero had become everyone’s role model. He only stayed in the youth team for a month before being transferred to the first team. After only two weeks in the first team, he represented the first team in the Super League and scored a key goal. This kid’s path to fame was simply rising all the way, unstoppable…

Chen Hero’s fame must have made the media realize that there were still geniuses to be discovered in the youth team!

The youth team players happily fantasized about the next scene—after training, they would be surrounded by reporters, who would praise their performance in the youth league…

When the youth team’s training ended, the reporters swarmed up, but they didn’t surround the players, but instead surrounded the head coach, Popovich.

“Mr. Popovich! How did he come to Zenit?”

“How long was he in the youth team?”

“How did you take a liking to him in the first place?”

“……”

Popovich’s head was buzzing. He shouted loudly, “Quiet! Everyone quiet down!”

All the reporters quieted down, and Popovich looked at them and asked, “Who is he?”

“Hero! Hero!”

“It’s that Chinese player! The one who is over 1.9 meters tall…”

“Hero!”

“It’s Hero!”

“He’s Hero!”

“Like a bear…”

……

Of course, Popovich knew that Chen Hero had scored a goal the day before yesterday, but he didn’t expect that these reporters would come to him… Of course, if they wanted to find him, it would be easy, because Chen Hero’s resume of playing for the youth team was there for all to see. Anyone could check it. It wasn’t a secret.

Seeing this scene, Popovich knew that Chen Hero had become famous with one goal. But he didn’t plan to add fuel to the raging fire. He didn’t know how Advocaat dealt with these reporters, but it wasn’t the first time he had dealt with these reporters’ pursuit of Chen Hero. He was able to protect Chen Hero from being disturbed when he was in the youth team, otherwise those reporters wouldn’t still not know Chen Hero’s detailed information…

He directly raised his hands: “Sorry! I can only say that he is a very talented player! And he has the potential to become an excellent player. As for the rest… go find Advocaat! He is Hero’s head coach now!”

The reporters cursed inwardly: “Damn, he really is a football coach! He’s so good at kicking the ball!”

Advocaat kicked the football to Petrzela, who was dismissed. If they hadn't been smart, they would have really been tricked into going to the Czech Republic. Now they came to the youth team, and Popovich kicked the football to Advocaat again.

If they went to Advocaat again, it was estimated that Advocaat would have to give a big kick to send the football to the Czech Republic.

Immediately, many reporters retreated. Now that they thought about it, they were too impatient—Chen Hero had only scored one goal, and they were praising him so much. If he didn’t perform well in the next game, wouldn’t they be slapping themselves in the face?

Forget it, forget it, they were all overwhelmed…

Most of the reporters left directly, and only a few reporters were still unwilling to give up and continued to question Popovich.

“At least you can tell us how Hero came to Zenit, right? Which Chinese club did Zenit bring him from?”

“No comment!” Popovich’s attitude was tough.

He didn’t want to say it, and no one could force him to say it.

He had been the director of Zenit’s youth team for four seasons and had been a coach for nine seasons. But Chen Hero was definitely the most special player he had ever seen. His abilities in other areas were very mediocre, but his shooting was unbelievably good.

In addition, his personality also made people full of expectations for his future.

He didn’t know what level Chen Hero would develop to, because Chen Hero had already surprised him too many times.

He felt that all he could do was watch Chen Hero perform quietly from the sidelines. Like a Siberian brown bear, smashing open everyone who stood in his way.

Of course, Chen Hero didn’t know that his goal had caused Popovich to be harassed at the youth team training base.

His life was busy and simple now—every day was training, then chatting and joking with his new friends, and discussing where to go next time. Denisov and Anyukov often boasted to him about the fun places in St. Petersburg, which nightclubs had the best girls, and which nightclubs had the most tricks… Chen Hero was very envious.

But he could only be envious, because there were many places he couldn’t go—he had no money. It was really embarrassing to say, although he had already made one appearance in the first team and scored a goal for the team. But Chen Hero’s current contract was still the one he signed when he first joined the team, with a weekly salary of 19,000 rubles, equivalent to 500 euros a week.

Such a salary was indeed low…

But at that time, Chen Hero was only immersed in the joy of being able to become a professional player, and didn’t pay much attention to how much the salary was. What’s more, the contract was printed in Russian… Neither Chen Hero nor his father could understand Russian. At that time, Borovickyia explained to him how much money he could earn a week. When he heard that he could earn 500 euros a week, equivalent to more than 5,000 RMB, Chen Hero and Chen Tao both felt very good and didn’t raise any objections to the weekly salary.

You know, five hundred a week is two thousand euros a month, equivalent to more than 20,000 RMB. How many people in China can find a job with a monthly salary of 20,000 when they are eighteen years old?

What was Chen Tao’s purpose in training his son to play professional football? On the one hand, his son liked to play football. On the other hand, the domestic professional league was very popular at that time. Newspapers were full of reports of professional stars getting rich, living in villas, and driving luxury cars, making everyone think that playing professional football could make a lot of money. Who would have thought that in 2006, when his son was about to become a professional player, the domestic football environment would take a sharp turn for the worse… The media began to be filled with news of clubs owing wages, players having to retire and unable to find jobs, having no skills, and no one wanting to play football.

So, Chen Hero and Chen Tao were very satisfied to be able to earn more than 20,000 RMB a month in Russia.

Of course, Chen Hero didn’t think so now. His salary was the lowest in the first team.

This little money was enough to live on, but it wasn’t enough to go out and have fun every now and then… After all, he couldn’t always let Denisov and the others treat him, right? Denisov paid for the last outing, which was fine, to celebrate his first goal, the captain personally paid for it.

He couldn’t always let others treat him when he went out to play in the future.

Chen Hero thought that after he scored more goals, he would definitely ask the club to change his contract!

In addition to training and chatting with the three members of Zenit St. Petersburg’s Eating, Drinking, and Having Fun Group, Chen Hero was also looking forward to one thing this week.

That was the announcement of the starting lineup for the weekend league.

He didn’t expect to be on the roster anymore, because he didn’t think there was any suspense.

Tekke was still recovering from his injury, and the team’s situation was the same as last weekend. All three forwards would be selected for the roster, otherwise there would be no substitutes.

He had worked very hard in training this week, and Advocaat should be very satisfied with him. In addition, he scored a goal in the last league game, and his form was very good. Therefore, if there were no accidents, Chen Hero would definitely be selected for the roster.

The only suspense was the starting lineup—could he continue to start?

Yesenin told him that he had received a new task—to start for the first team twice in a row.