Chapter 1 When Chen Hero Knew About This From Martin Škrtel, He Knew Something Was Wrong

He had told Chen Xing not to mention this matter. He was worried that Chen Xing, having just acquired Liverpool, would have an unstable position and find it difficult to convince the public, so he would push himself out as a gimmick.

Chen Xing also knew the stakes involved, so he patted his chest and assured him that the entire process would be conducted underground and that he would never reveal even a hint of information to the media.

Why couldn't this matter be disclosed in advance? It wasn't because Chen Hero felt embarrassed about leaving Napoli. He hadn't even considered that aspect; leaving was leaving. A professional player pursuing his goals didn't need others to point fingers.

The reason he didn't want to make it public was that he didn't want this matter to affect the team's performance in the Champions League and the league. He had originally planned to bid farewell to everyone in the Wembley Stadium locker room after the Champions League final. After working together for three years, they had feelings for each other, and he didn't plan to hide it from them, only to leave without saying goodbye.

But now, he had to say goodbye to his teammates in advance.

In fact, his teammates already knew about this matter because the Italian and Neapolitan media had begun to report it. However, the reports on this side were mostly skeptical, unlike the media in Barcelona and England, which were all in an affirmative tone.

The Italian media and the local media in Naples didn't quite believe that Chen Hero would go to Liverpool—they weren't surprised that Chen Hero would leave them. Even if Napoli won the Champions League title this season, for them, Napoli was still a small team, not enough to compete with the giants. Even Napoli's coach, Mazzarri, had once revealed that he hoped to leave Napoli one day and coach those real giants, so you couldn't blame the players for wanting to leave Napoli.

The key was that Liverpool was too unreliable... If Chen Hero were to go to Real Madrid, Chelsea, or even Manchester City, it might be more likely than going to Liverpool.

However, this news still caused a shock among Napoli fans.

During training, fans had already pulled banners to the Volturno Fort training base, hoping that Chen Hero would stay in Napoli.

The media believed that Napoli couldn't keep Chen Hero, based on calm analysis. However, fans were not calm animals by nature. They were emotional, impulsive, and unreasonable. They didn't care whether a player's pursuit of his ideals and goals was correct or reasonable. They only knew that the team's top scorer shouldn't leave the team. If he left... then he was a traitor!

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In the locker room of the Volturno Fort training base, all the first-team players were there. They were all sitting in their respective positions, and Chen Hero was standing in the center of the locker room. Everyone was looking at him.

"I have to apologize to everyone..." Chen Hero hadn't expected things to come to this point. He didn't expect his teammates to hear the news from the media first, rather than from him. He even knew that some people would definitely be unhappy about this, so he opened his mouth to apologize first. He was indeed sorry to his teammates for this matter, not because he was leaving, but because he didn't tell them before the media.

"I originally planned to tell everyone this news after the Champions League final. I was worried that saying it would affect, uh, affect our preparations..."

"So, Hero, are you really leaving the team?" Hamsik asked.

Chen Hero nodded. He didn't want to deceive anyone on this matter. "I lost a bet with a friend, so I have to go to Liverpool." He briefly explained the matter.

"This... is ridiculous..." Maggio said, frowning. "You don't have to pay attention to it at all. Who cares about betting?"

"But I care," Chen Hero said. "A bet is a bet. Anyway, I'm going to Liverpool. I'm sorry I didn't tell you all sooner."

"I would think it's normal if you were going to a team like Real Madrid, but Liverpool... how many years have they not won a championship?" Another teammate, Ranocchia, couldn't understand why Chen Hero would choose Liverpool.

"I didn't think about that too much..."

Arshavin interjected, "If Hero goes, won't they have a championship?"

He was helping Chen Hero out and also making his position clear. In this matter, he supported Chen Hero. Of course, it was also because he had confidence in Chen Hero, and this sentence could be considered the truth. Anyway, he didn't have any deep feelings for Napoli, and he could understand Chen Hero's choice.

"Anyway, I'm very sorry about this..." Chen Hero felt apologetic towards these teammates. Even when he was so annoying to the fans, his teammates were nice to him—those teammates who weren't good to him had already left, so the remaining relationships were naturally good.

Raúl, who hadn't spoken all along, suddenly said, "I was wondering why you were working so hard to score goals this season, Hero. So you had already planned it, didn't you?"

Chen Hero smiled wryly and explained his agreement with the boss again.

Trading a championship for freedom?

Although everyone knew what kind of person Chen Hero was, his arrogant idea still surprised many of his teammates. At that time, Napoli's situation on both fronts was far from as clear as it was now.

Cassano laughed. His laughter seemed very jarring in a crowd of people who were quieted by Chen Hero's arrogance.

Everyone turned to look at him.

"There's nothing to talk about." After laughing, he curled his lips and said, "Hero can go wherever he wants, that's his freedom. As long as he does his best for the team when he's with us. I think Hero has done nothing wrong in this regard."

Someone nodded. Cassano was right. In today's football world, to see if a player has professional ethics is not to see how long he can stay on a team. That has nothing to do with professional ethics, it only has to do with loyalty, and loyalty is not equal to professional ethics. Professional ethics is about whether he has done his best while staying on this team, striving for victory and benefits for his team.

Obviously, from this point of view, Chen Hero was impeccable.

To say that Chen Hero doesn't work hard, even the most extreme fans who hate him probably wouldn't agree...

Ten goals in six Champions League knockout games, if that's not considered working hard, then probably no one in the entire universe would work harder.

"Good luck, Hero. But before you leave, you have to help us win this championship," Cassano added.

Chen Hero was about to speak when Hamsik suddenly said again, "It's strange... Why did the Barcelona media break this news?"

Chen Hero was also stunned. That's right, he was so busy thinking about how to explain to his teammates that he didn't think about why the news was broken by the Barcelona media?

Cassano snorted, "What's so strange about that? Barcelona is our opponent, of course they want to create some trouble for us before the Champions League final."

Paolo Cannavaro pondered, "If that's the case, we have to be careful, we must not let the other party succeed..."

Chen Hero smiled after hearing Cassano's words, "If Barcelona thinks they can influence me like this, hahaha! I'm happy to have the opportunity to teach them a lesson!"

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When he saw the news in the newspaper, Andrea Posh couldn't believe his eyes—the Big Bear they loved so much was actually leaving the team this summer to go to Liverpool?

A big hand covered his shoulder. He looked up and saw Da Sorbino, the owner of the pizza shop, Scarne Carr.

"The Barcelona media broke the news first, so don't rush to believe it. Maybe it's a fake message specifically used to interfere with us?" he said.

Posh's eyes lit up and he regained his spirits.

That's right, how could I have forgotten this! The initial source of this news was indeed the Barcelona mouthpiece media "Daily Sports". This news was released after Napoli entered the Champions League final. What were they thinking? Did they still need to guess?

"Then it must be a rumor!" Posh slammed the table and angrily denounced the shamelessness of the Barcelona people.

"Whether it's true or not, wouldn't you know if you asked Hero?" Carr said from the side.

So Andrea Posh stood outside the parking lot, waiting for Chen Hero to walk to the parking lot. Like him, there were many people. They stood on both sides of the road, holding Chen Hero's posters or pulling banners, waiting for Chen Hero. The banners read: "Don't go to Liverpool, stay, Hero!"

Posh looked at these people and suddenly felt very strange for some reason.

When they clashed with those extreme fans because of a comic, not so many people stood up to support them so clearly... Those people were just standing by and watching the show. If it hadn't been for a football kicked over by Chen Hero, they might have fought with those football hooligans.

Since when did Chen Hero also have such a position in the hearts of these fans?

Of course, not all of them were people asking to keep Chen Hero. There was also a group of fans standing opposite the fans who were trying to keep Chen Hero. The two factions were clearly divided, separated only by a small road.

They held up various slogans and cartoon posters insulting Chen Hero, demanding that Chen Hero get out of Naples.

These people were all extreme fans of Napoli, and they were the most core, the most stubborn, and the most hardcore of the extreme fans. They did not change their perception of Chen Hero because Chen Hero kept scoring goals and even led the team to surpass the Champions League achievements of the Maradona era.

They stubbornly adhered to their dislike of Chen Hero, because this was their principle—they would never take the initiative to forgive the enemy until the enemy begged them for forgiveness!

The two factions confronted each other across the road, without any direct verbal conflict, but there was still a lot of hostility in their eyes.

In this situation, Chen Hero walked over from the direction of the locker room.

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ps, there will be three more updates tomorrow, then two days of normal updates, followed by two consecutive days of three more updates, awesome!

Then let's make the monthly tickets awesome too!