Chapter 218 A Sixteen-Year Wait

With one round of the league left, Chen Hero was temporarily in first place on the top scorer list with twenty-eight goals, while Di Natale was in second place with twenty-seven goals.

It was the last round, and the difference between the two sides was still one goal. Although this season's league top scorer battle was not as thrilling as last season, it was still suspenseful and intense.

With one round left in the league, Di Natale could very well achieve a reversal in the final round and pull Chen Hero down.

Since Chen Hero had done it last season, why couldn't Di Natale do it?

As for Chen Hero, he had the chance to become the first player in sixteen years to win consecutive Capocannoniere (top scorer) awards in Serie A.

The last time someone managed to defend the league's top scorer title was sixteen years ago in the 93-94 season, when Lazio striker Signori scored twenty-three goals to successfully defend the honor. In the previous season, he had won the Serie A Golden Boot with twenty-six goals.

Since then, many people had become Serie A's top scorers, many of whom were world-class strikers, such as Crespo, Trezeguet, Del Piero, Bierhoff, Batistuta... But even these people couldn't win the Golden Boot twice, let alone defend it.

To date, only the "Ukrainian Nuclear Warhead" Shevchenko had won the top scorer award twice, in the 99-00 season and the 03-04 season respectively.

But even he was unable to win the award for two consecutive years. This showed how fierce the defense in the Italian league was... Many world-class strikers had never even managed to win a Golden Boot in Serie A, such as Ronaldo.

So if Chen Hero could achieve this goal, this alone would be enough to carve his name into the history of Serie A.

"Since this kid appeared in professional football, he seems to have come specifically to break records and create history..." *La Gazzetta dello Sport* sighed after analyzing the battle for the top scorer this season.

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The battle between Chen Hero and Di Natale for the top scorer was also one of the most talked-about topics at the end of the league season.

So after training, Chen Hero was always surrounded by many media reporters who wanted to talk about his thoughts on the league's top scorer award.

"I really like this honor. As a striker, it's a reward for myself," Chen Hero said very directly. This might not be very popular most of the time, but at this time, the reporters liked him saying this very much.

Because if he didn't say that, what topics would there be to hype up?

Those who always spoke smoothly and were good at hiding their true thoughts could not cause any topics. Only people like Chen Hero, who spoke without restraint, could excite the media, because many gimmicks could only be bio-fermented after being sprayed by his big mouth.

"I don't believe there is any striker in this world who doesn't like being the top scorer. Di Natale is a great opponent, but I won't give him my Golden Boot, and I won't share this honor with him," Chen Hero said into the microphone.

"You won the top scorer award last season. Will this award lose its appeal to you?" a reporter asked.

Chen Hero looked at the other person with a strange expression and said, "Do you嫌钱多 (xian qián duō - think there's too much money)?"

"Uh..." The reporter was speechless from the counter-question, and the other reporters around burst into laughter.

"Hero, if you can win the top scorer this season, you will be the first player to do so in sixteen years. What are your thoughts?" another reporter stepped forward and asked.

"Has no one really done it for sixteen years?" Chen Hero had heard similar snippets before, but he had not confirmed it.

The reporters nodded.

Seeing everyone nodding, Chen Hero whistled: "Wow! That's cool! I'm very happy to be the first person in sixteen years! So how many years has it been since someone won the top scorer award for three consecutive seasons?"

A group of reporters looked at each other, all surprised. Because Chen Hero didn't even know if he could secure the top scorer this season, how could he have thought about next season's matter?

"Has no one done it?" Seeing that no one answered after he asked the question, Chen Hero asked.

He was indeed starting to think about this question very seriously – this season's league top scorer, he had already directly assigned it to his name. So he began to think, winning the Serie A top scorer for three consecutive seasons... wouldn't that be even better?

"Uh... Twenty-five years ago, Platini did it... He won the top scorer award for three consecutive seasons," someone finally answered.

After hearing this name, Chen Hero was stunned. He never expected that he would hear this name, Platini, the person he didn't like very much, and who didn't like him either, actually had such brilliant achievements before.

He smiled.

This seemed to give him even more reason to win next season's top scorer award. How could he let Platini be the only one to have such glory?

He nodded to the reporters: "Thank you. Well then, let's be the first person in sixteen years first, and then the first person in twenty-five years."

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The next day, almost all the Italian media were talking about this matter.

"Napoli's center forward Chen Hero has pre-ordered this season's Golden Boot!"

"...Last season, Inter Milan coach Mourinho pre-ordered the league title. This season, it's Chen Hero who has pre-ordered the Golden Boot..."

"Hero said that he has already started thinking about next season's top scorer..."

"The above is what Hero said when he accepted our interview on the sidelines... This is truly typical Hero style, yes, he is always so arrogant and嚣张 (xiāo zhāng - domineering). Remember what he said at the Serie A Oscar awards ceremony? Facts have proved that he was not joking... Although arrogant, he has the qualifications to be arrogant..."

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"Antonio, training is over."

"Captain, aren't you leaving yet?"

The teammates were calling out to the figure on the training ground who was still working hard to shoot the footballs into the goal.

At Udinese's Pastum training base, the setting sun cast everyone's shadows very, very long, stretching all the way to the hillside.

"You guys go first, I still need to do extra training!" Di Natale waved to his teammates, then continued to turn around and kick the football.

A group of teammates looked at each other.

In fact, Di Natale didn't often give himself extra training. The team was going to Rome tomorrow to play a game, and usually in this situation, everyone would choose to maintain their physical strength and energy, and even more so, they wouldn't choose to do extra training.

But why did the captain give himself extra training today, contrary to his usual behavior?

Everyone knew very well.

Just yesterday, Chen Hero publicly stated his ambition for the top scorer.

Di Natale was not a big-name striker or a star player, and he wouldn't have so many media outlets interviewing him. But he wouldn't admit defeat either.

He certainly didn't want to give up the honor of top scorer so easily.

Hero was right: as a striker, who doesn't like being the top scorer?

He, Antonio Di Natale, had never been very famous in his life, and his annual salary wasn't even as high as the monthly salary of those superstars, but he still had a big dream in his heart. That is... to be the top scorer in Serie A!

This season was the closest he had ever been to this honor, and he would not give up no matter what.

During training today, everyone was indignant for him, and they thought Chen Hero was too arrogant. Di Natale didn't say anything, he felt that this was normal, because Chen Hero's performance was what a true striker should be like, and he felt the same way, so he naturally felt that Chen Hero's performance was very normal.

What did it take to not give up the league's top scorer award? In addition to determination, of course, there had to be enough strength.

He was a striker, and he could only try his best to hone his shooting skills, and extra shooting practice was the only way.

So today, even though the whole team had left, he still had to stay behind alone to do extra shooting practice.

Everyone understood the captain's thoughts, and they all hoped that the captain could win a top scorer award.

The captain had been with Udinese for six seasons since he transferred from Empoli. He could be considered an old member of the team. For a club that made a living by cultivating new players and then selling them, it was not easy for Di Natale to stay in this team for six seasons.

His prestige in the team now was second to none.

This season, seeing that the captain was in great form and had a great chance of winning the league's top scorer award, he happened to run into a Chen Hero... Last season, everyone thought that Chen Hero was just a rookie, and his opponents didn't know him well enough. This second season, he would definitely run into his "rookie wall", but no one expected that this kind of situation would not appear on Chen Hero at all, and he still scored goal after goal, and engaged in a fierce competition with Di Natale on the top scorer list.

Until the last round of the league, there was still no winner...

The team's substitute goalkeeper, Belardi, suddenly turned around and walked towards the field.

The other teammates were surprised: "What are you going to do, Emanuele?"

Belardi didn't answer, he walked straight onto the field, all the way to the goal in front of which Di Natale was practicing shooting. He clapped his hands and said to the captain, who was about to shoot, "To practice shooting, of course you need a goalkeeper!"

Those surprised teammates finally reacted.

Di Natale was surprised and happy at first, then readjusted the football and prepared to shoot.

But when he looked up, he saw that there was another person in front of him, the team's substitute defender, Ferronetti!

"Extra defensive practice will be more effective, captain," Ferronetti said to Di Natale with a smile.

"Not only that, but you also need someone to pass the ball to you," said forward Flores.

"One defender is certainly not enough, count me in," Pasquale also took a spot opposite Di Natale, standing with Ferronetti.

"At this time, you need me to create space for you, captain."

"I'll be responsible for the defense on the wing."

"Then I'll be responsible for passing the ball on the wing, haha!"

No one knew when, but those teammates who hadn't left were all standing beside Di Natale.

Di Natale looked at his teammates.

He didn't have tears of emotion in his eyes, he just nodded to them: "Good guys, there's not much time left, let's start now!"

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p.s., Second update is here!

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