Liverpool didn't stay in England for half a month. The main purpose was to conduct physical training, store physical energy for the new season, and then play two warm-up matches with local teams.

Chen Hero got the chance to play in both games, once as a starter and once as a substitute in the second half.

He scored one goal in each of the two games. With his cooperation with his teammates still unfamiliar, these two goals were all scored by his super personal ability. One of the goals wasn't even an opportunity at all. He used his body to knock away the defenders, grabbed the landing point, and then headed the ball into the goal.

Due to Chen Hero's joining, these two warm-up matches attracted a large number of fans. Seeing Chen Hero score a goal in his first appearance for Liverpool, the fans cheered.

At the same time, this was also the first time Chen Hero wore the Red Army's number nine jersey on the field. Although it was not an official match, it was still a memorable moment.

After playing two warm-up matches, Liverpool set off and officially began their commercial match tour this summer. Destination: China!

On July 16, Liverpool will face Guangzhou Evergrande, the most popular team in Chinese football today, in Guangzhou. Then comes the highlight—a warm-up match with the Chinese national team in Changsha. This will be the Chinese national team's last warm-up match before the Asian Cup qualifier playoff against Laos. After this match, they will face Laos at home. Only by defeating their opponents in the two-round match will they be eligible to participate in the top 20 of the Asian qualifiers.

If they can't even get past Laos...

For Liverpool, these two warm-up matches are of a very high standard. You should know that Liverpool is not the most popular team in China now. If teams like Real Madrid, Barcelona, ​​Manchester United, Inter Milan, and AC Milan come to China, they might be able to get such treatment.

Guangzhou Evergrande is now China's number one team, known as "China's Real Madrid." Not to mention the Chinese national team, no matter how strong they are, they represent a country's team.

In fact, when Chen Xing wanted to organize the visit to China, the warm-up opponents he was looking for were not these.

At that time, no one in Liverpool except Chen Xing himself and Niang knew that Chen Hero would join the team in the summer.

Therefore, when the business department arranged the schedule for the visit to China, one match was against Guangzhou Rizhiquan, and the other match was not even in China, and was no longer played in China. Instead, it was held at the Bukit Jalil National Stadium in Malaysia, and the opponent was the Malaysian All-Stars.

At that time, Liverpool wanted to play against Evergrande, but due to schedule issues, there was a Chinese Super League match on July 14, and the Chinese national team had a World Cup qualifier mission at the end of July. Evergrande's national players had to report to the national team, and at the same time, they had to take care of the Chinese Super League. So Evergrande was not very interested in this game.

In fact, the above are all excuses. The root cause is that Liverpool has lacked decent results in recent years, and its popularity has declined year by year. Evergrande is now known as "China's Real Madrid," and it seems to really have the vision of Real Madrid. It looks down on Liverpool a bit...

Since Evergrande was not very interested, Liverpool could only change to another opponent, which was Rizhiquan, which is also in Guangzhou. However, Rizhiquan is a China League One team, and its level is one level lower than Evergrande.

But there is no way, who made Liverpool's reputation unknown now?

As a result, the situation changed suddenly. The media suddenly revealed the news that Chen Hero and Liverpool were having an affair. What was even more deadly was that Chen Hero admitted it!

Suddenly, Liverpool became a popular commodity in the Chinese market.

Countless teams were vying to play against Liverpool and play warm-up matches. Because everyone knows that if they can play against Liverpool, they can definitely attract the attention of Chinese fans. The ticket revenue for that day alone will be astronomical, not to mention the advertising effect of media hype...

This time, even Evergrande suddenly became enthusiastic.

Taking advantage of the fact that Liverpool hadn't talked to Rizhiquan yet, they intercepted them halfway and pulled Liverpool over. The game time was changed to July 16, only two days after the end of Evergrande's league. But this time, what tense league schedule, what national players to be transferred to the national team to prepare for the World Cup qualifiers... These are not problems at all!

Although they felt that Evergrande was a bit snobbish, this was exactly what Liverpool needed—if possible, who would want to play against a team like Rizhiquan? Liverpool is here to develop the Chinese market, so of course they have to play against China's best and most well-known team to have a sensational effect, to fully promote their image, enhance brand value, win more attention in China, and help them expand a wider market later.

Playing against Evergrande is definitely more beneficial to Liverpool than playing against Rizhiquan.

However, the match with the Chinese national team was a bit unexpected for Liverpool—if they could play against the Chinese team, it would certainly be better than playing against Evergrande. But Liverpool had never thought about this before...

Who would have thought that at this time, a fax came from the Chinese Football Association, hoping to arrange a warm-up match around July 19.

Later, Liverpool learned that this match was arranged by Camacho, the soon-to-be-appointed coach of the Chinese team. He made a request, hoping that the Chinese team could have a warm-up match with Liverpool to facilitate his observation of the current level and personnel composition of the Chinese team...

Camacho is the new national team coach selected by the Chinese Football Association. He is the candidate to replace Gao Hongbo after the match against Laos. He just signed the contract, and the Chinese Football Association is naturally embarrassed to refuse his request. Moreover, he made the request through the Chinese Football Association's current major sponsor, Dalian Wanda Group. They just signed a cooperation agreement with the Chinese Football Association, providing funds to select coaches and to select young players to study abroad... The Chinese Football Association naturally did not dare to offend them even more.

So there was such a match invitation.

Being able to play against the Chinese national team naturally made the Liverpool club overjoyed. For other European teams, playing against the Chinese team should be no big deal, but for the Liverpool club, which is determined to make money from the Chinese market, playing against the Chinese team is simply the best way to promote them.

How could such an invitation be refused?

Immediately decided!

In fact, what they didn't know was that Camacho's request caused a lot of grumbling within the Chinese Football Association. It's very simple, they could guess with their butts how embarrassing this game would be for the Football Association...

A player who has been constantly spraying the Chinese Football Association and the General Administration of Sport, and has always been unable to be selected for the Chinese national team, is going to play against them in a commercial friendly match... What will the media and fans think about this matter? With their experience, it is very simple to imagine.

By the time the game hasn't even started, the overwhelming criticism will come—why don't you recruit such an awesome person into the national team?

What can the Football Association say? They can't say it's the opinion of the higher-ups, right? That's just courting death...

So they can only pretend to be turtles, shrinking their heads and not answering.

※※※

The officials of the Football Association were really prescient, because after this opponent was announced, all kinds of voices about Chen Hero and the Chinese team spread throughout the country. In these voices, unsurprisingly, without suspense, naturally, and even numbly... the Chinese Football Association became the villain.

"...Chinese football is fighting against corruption, and Wanda Group is spending money to create momentum, and famous coach Camacho is invited, etc., but these are all false! If Chen Hero does not enter the Chinese national team for a day, Chinese football will not be considered a rebound from the bottom!"

"Don't tell me that the league is the foundation, and pursuing the national team's results is just seeking quick success! As Chinese fans, we have endured for so many years. Our national team has not been able to enter the Asian Top Ten for two consecutive World Cups! The league is a long-term project, and it may take a long time to see results. So before that, do we have to endure the endless winter in vain? Maybe we won't be able to see the benefits of league reform until we die. We know that good national team results do not mean that Chinese football is good, but can't we Chinese fans get together to warm up and have a little hope in this difficult winter? Recruiting Chen Hero into the national team may not allow the national team to enter the Brazilian World Cup finals, but at least we can win a few more games and score a few more beautiful goals in the qualifiers, right? Can't even such a small request be satisfied!"

...

All kinds of voices converge into one sentence—let Chen Hero enter the national team! We want to see him playing in the national team jersey!

The Chinese Football Association continued to remain silent in the face of these calls.

Until Liverpool was about to set foot on Chinese soil, Chen Hero received a call from De Kela: "There is something, Hero... I have someone here who found me through our sponsor and wants to talk to you."

"Is it about signing an endorsement?" Chen Hero asked.

"No. He just said that he hopes to have a face-to-face meeting with you, and it's a private exchange that he doesn't want to be spread out... Oh, by the way, he is a Chinese, your compatriot."

"Didn't he say what he wanted to talk to me about specifically?"

"No."

Chen Hero frowned after hearing this answer. He couldn't figure out what was so mysterious about it. If it was because signing an endorsement deal, afraid that the opponent would know about it and obstruct it, it could barely be regarded as a trade secret. But when Nike asked me to sign a contract, they didn't do it like an underground worker meeting. They even found my agent through the sponsor. This is more curved than the Yellow River.

What's going on?