Chapter 226 Pressure

The next day's newspaper headlines were all: "Hero Says He Will Obey FA Summon," "Hero Enters National Team Key Actually Lies with FA," "FA Doesn't Respond to Hero!"

Of course, the FA wouldn't respond to Hero. What could they say? Say, "We wanted to find Chen Hero, but asked him to publicly apologize first, and he didn't"? Or say, "Chen Hero dared to demand that we publicly apologize before considering joining the national team, which is simply undisciplined and disorganized. Does he even have national honor and patriotism in his eyes?"

These words could be said, but saying them would only increase the FA's pressure. Otherwise, why would they be so low-key, so low-key that they didn't even dare to personally come forward to talk to Chen Hero?

It seemed they also knew their demands were a bit excessive, but, of course, the face of the bureaucrats was even more important. If they didn't get rid of this rigid way of thinking and looking at things, they would probably remain like this forever, scolded by the Chinese people without even knowing why…

Chen Hero didn't care about this matter after passing the ball to the Chinese Football Association. He didn't need the FA to respond. He just wanted to indirectly tell the FA through the media—don't think I'm easy to bully!

His actions did put the FA in a particularly passive position, and the problems they had been deliberately ignoring resurfaced again.

Anyway, the FA people had absolutely no goodwill towards Chen Hero.

At the same time, Chen Hero's actions once again proved how "disobedient" he was. If such a person entered the national team, always going against the FA, it was estimated that no one could stand it. If it got too big, it was estimated that everyone would lose their jobs, so let him stir things up abroad… Can't we afford to avoid him if we can't afford to provoke him?

Of course, some people had once suggested that recruiting Chen Hero into the national team would make it easier to manage him. Why? Precisely because he neither played football in China nor in the national team, the FA's management authority over him was almost zero, so they couldn't control him, and he wasn't afraid of the FA. But if he entered the national team, wouldn't he be a monkey in the hands of the FA? They could play with him however they wanted? If he dared to offend them, wouldn't he want to wear the national team jersey?

This proposal was quickly rejected. It was very simple—after being expelled from the national Olympic team, he dared to hold a press conference and confront the FA, scolding the FA people. Would he be afraid of the national team's threats? If they provoked him, he could directly hold another press conference, announce his withdrawal from the national team, and bombard the FA again… Wouldn't that be fostering a tiger? This proposal was unacceptable.

If Chen Hero entered the national team and was very good at scoring goals, making him very important to the Chinese team, it would be difficult to deal with him if they wanted to suppress him again. At that time, they might even have to cooperate and promote him as the national team's number one star… Wouldn't that be cultivating another soccer bully?

A soccer bully didn't matter much, as Chinese football had never lacked them. But a soccer bully who didn't listen to the FA was unacceptable and had to be nipped in the bud. Once the other party became too powerful, the FA would have to suffer in silence—unable to voice their grievances.

They knew exactly what was going on in their hearts…

※※※

Chen Hero didn't care how the FA saw him. The evening's match against Evergrande was his third game representing Liverpool, but this game had special significance for him—it was the first time he had played in his own country after achieving success. The days of fighting in the youth team were ignored, as they were meaningless anyway.

Chen Hero gave Evergrande enough praise, and the Guangzhou media also gave him face, touting him as a hero of Chinese football.

Some of these praises were even very saccharine, which naturally made people feel uncomfortable.

Evergrande's center forward, Chen Guofeng, had complex feelings towards Chen Hero—as a Chinese, he was also happy that a compatriot was promoting China's prestige in European competitions. This kind of happiness came from the heart and was not accompanied by jealousy.

After all, Chen Hero was playing football in Europe, so he purely appreciated him, and there was no conflict of interest between them.

But when the news of Chen Hero joining the national team was rampant, Chen Guofeng couldn't sit still…

If Chen Hero really joined the national team, his position as the main center forward would basically be gone!

This was a direct threat and competitive relationship, and Chen Guofeng would no longer be able to treat Chen Hero with pure appreciation.

Now, looking at the articles in the newspaper that were all praising Chen Hero, he suddenly felt a sense of disgust from the bottom of his heart…

Of course, Chen Guofeng didn't know that Chen Hero had completely fallen out with the FA, and it was impossible for him to join the national team for at least a while… So, in fact, he was worrying unnecessarily.

※※※

The evening's game was broadcast live by Guangdong TV, attracting countless people's attention.

The reporters who were interviewing on-site even put on the latest Liverpool jerseys with Chen Hero's name and number printed on them.

The tickets for this game were divided into several grades, the lowest being one hundred yuan, and the highest being two thousand, with grades of three hundred, four hundred, six hundred, nine hundred, and fifteen hundred yuan in between.

All the tickets were sold out, not a single one was left, and some people even bought tickets from scalpers at high prices.

In addition to the fact that Guangzhou Evergrande was already very popular in Guangzhou, Liverpool's own appeal and Chen Hero's influence were also very important.

The Guangdong region was a place where the English Premier League had a great influence. The fans here had been watching the Premier League games for more than ten years, and many of them were loyal Premier League fans. Perhaps in other places, benefiting from the broadcasts of CCTV, the fan base of Serie A and Bundesliga was large, but in the Guangdong region, the Premier League was the only dominant force.

Liverpool had also been prosperous in the past, so there were many fans in the Guangdong region.

In addition, Chen Hero had now joined, and even many people who had never watched the Premier League or Liverpool games had transformed into Liverpool supporters.

The packed stands for this game were easy to explain.

Chen Xing was very happy with the enthusiasm of the Chinese fans. In fact, not only was Chen Hero popular these days, but he was also very popular, with a lot of popularity. Because Liverpool was considered the first wealthy team that was absolutely controlled by Chinese people… Chinese bosses were not uncommon anymore. These days, Birmingham had a Chinese boss, but a wealthy team was still the first. Although Chen Xing had no relationship with China before, and he hadn't even returned to his hometown of Chongqing much, he was now very happy to play the role of a Chinese, speaking very unskilled Chinese and communicating with Chinese reporters, telling the story of their family's hard journey from China to England…

He didn't do this because he really loved China—their family came out when China was still in the Qing Dynasty—it was entirely because he wanted to make money from the Chinese market. Having the name of loving Chinese people made it easier and more upright to do this kind of money-making thing, and the way he ate looked much better.

The Chinese media particularly admired and were interested in two kinds of people, one was a real foreigner, and the other was a banana. Chen Xing, who had a Chinese face, but spoke fluent English, and whose living habits and cultural education were all Western "Chinese," was particularly popular with them. It could even be said that he was simply the most ideal object of their praise. They could put any flattering words on Chen Xing without any psychological obstacles. Rich, family, high-quality, fluent in multiple languages, handsome, single… He was simply the most typical "tall, rich, and handsome."

So, these days, there were also many media outlets that came to interview Chen Xing.

For the same reason, Lu Ang—that is, Niang, he naturally had to use his Chinese name when he came to China—also accepted several media interviews and showed his face well in the Chinese media.

Although they usually never talked about traditional Chinese culture or Chinese policies and politics in front of Chen Hero, only talking about picking up girls and football, they still praised China's reform and opening up, China's traditional culture, China's economic development, China's food, beauties… and football in front of the Chinese media.

"...Yes, yes, our visit to China is definitely not for the purpose of making money. We want to establish a deeper level of cooperation with Chinese football and help Chinese football develop and progress… For example, we plan to let scouts look for some potential talents in China, invite them to Liverpool for trial training, and if they perform well, they can sign with Liverpool's youth team and become a member of the Liverpool family…" When Chen Xing said this, he looked dignified and deliberately winked at the beautiful reporter who was interviewing him, causing the little beauty's heart to flutter. As for whether she got on Chen Xing's luxurious suite bed at the Star River Bay Hotel that night, no one knew…

In short, Chen Xing and Niang were very satisfied with Liverpool's trip to China so far. They had gained a lot commercially and opened up the situation in terms of publicity. Many Chinese fans who had never watched the Premier League or were interested in Liverpool were now wearing Liverpool jerseys and spending money to buy tickets to watch them train—although they might be knockoffs…

This shows that Liverpool has made the right move. Chen Xing plans to open authorized specialty stores for Liverpool's peripheral products and jerseys in several major cities in China. In addition, based on the characteristics of China's developed online shopping business, he will specifically open an online shopping business for Chinese fans, so that Chinese fans can directly buy many Liverpool peripheral products online—although they will be sold in stores in China at that time, I believe many people will definitely feel that it is more stylish and worthy of showing off to mail-order a Liverpool jersey from the store next to Anfield Stadium at a high price.

The jerseys of many teams generally don't sell well in China? That's because their managers simply don't use their brains to study the special situation of the Chinese market. If they can't adapt to the Chinese market, they can only be eliminated by the Chinese market.

Chen Xing naturally has a great advantage in adapting to the Chinese market. First of all, he is Chinese, secondly, he has Chen Hero, and thirdly, Liverpool itself is a wealthy team, and it already has a large fan base in China. They must start from scratch…

As long as Chen Hero is in Liverpool for one day, he can continuously make money from the Chinese market… and no one will ever say that he only pursues profits and is a black-hearted capitalist.

While building a beautiful blueprint for Liverpool's future in the Chinese market in his heart, he was awakened by a huge cheer. He poked his head down and saw that the players from both sides had already come out. The first one to come out from Liverpool's side was Chen Hero. The cheers just now were caused by him.

He was wearing a yellow captain's armband on his left arm, so he was the first to come out.

In order to please Chinese fans, Liverpool used all means, which some people who couldn't stand it called "too shameless."

Chen Hero had only played two warm-up matches on behalf of Liverpool, and he was able to wear the captain's armband. His appointment was not approved by a vote of all the players, nor did the coach make the decision. It was simply the meaning of the marketing department, and the team could only comply—anyway, it was just a captain's armband, and it didn't hurt—so Chen Hero became the captain like this. Isn't this a naked way to please Chinese fans, or rather, the Chinese market?

But it has to be said that this trick is quite effective.

When Chen Hero walked out first with the captain's armband, there was a huge cheer in Tianhe Stadium.

"Hero!! Hero!!"

Chen Xing turned to look at Niang, his university classmate and the team's general manager was giving him a thumbs up.

Liverpool's Chinese market development plan is going very smoothly!