Borussia Dortmund was in Beijing, and the entire team participated in a large-scale interview program on CCTV, including players, coaches, and dozens of club staff. CCTV also gathered Dortmund fans from all over the country, as well as people with connections who came to the scene to see the stars and ask for autographs. The studio was crammed with two hundred people, and counting the TV staff on site, it was truly "extremely crowded."
Although the entire Borussia Dortmund team came, not many were selected to interact directly with the host on stage. Qiu Xingrong selected a few representative ones from Dortmund's first team to come on stage.
Of course, no matter how they chose, Zhou Yi was definitely the first person on CCTV's list.
Next were Reus, Mark Wagner, Hummels, and goalkeeper Weidenfeller, plus head coach Klopp. Six people, basically covering everyone in each position.
Actually, Hummels and Weidenfeller were added temporarily later. The original list was not like this.
Borussia Dortmund's visit to China was scheduled long ago. At that time, CCTV invited the entire Borussia Dortmund team to record a program. The Borussia Dortmund club was very supportive of participating in the activities of China's national television station. They accepted all the guests CCTV suggested to be on stage without any objection.
On the initial list of guests provided by CCTV, Gotze and Lewandowski were prominently written.
But unfortunately, at the end of the season, Gotze and Lewandowski left the club one after the other, so naturally they could not follow the entire Borussia Dortmund team to China, so this list had to be discarded.
CCTV and Borussia Dortmund club discussed and finally changed it to the current list.
The star power of this list is weaker than the first one, but from a professional point of view, it is not bad, because it also takes care of the defensive players, and the coverage is wider.
Because there was Zhou Yi, no translators were arranged in the interview program. The translation work was handed over to Zhou Yi. Moreover, the CCTV host could also speak the most English, and the Borussia Dortmund players also knew some English, so simple communication was no problem. For more complicated situations, Zhou Yi would be a guest translator.
Zhou Yi also asked CCTV in the program that he should be paid for the translation because the workload was too heavy—he was doing all the translation work for communication and exchange with the entire team.
This naturally caused a burst of laughter from the audience.
The stars talked about their feelings about coming to China, Chinese football, and their experiences in the Bundesliga and the Champions League.
In order to prevent the interview program from becoming a boring situation where the host and guests only asked and answered questions, the program production team took great pains and added many small games to the interview.
Some of these small games were purely for Borussia Dortmund stars to show their level, and some were for competing or cooperating with lucky fans on the spot.
For example, letting lucky fans shoot, and Weidenfeller guarding the goal. Wearing a casual t-shirt, jeans, and sneakers, Weidenfeller symbolically made a few diving saves on the temporary artificial turf five-a-side field, saving all the fans' shots, only letting one in—Weidenfeller was obviously letting that ball in, and the diving action was much slower.
There was also Reus and Mark competing to shoot the accuracy of the goal, hitting the cardboard hanging in different positions on the goal. As a result, Reus was slightly better and won.
Because Zhou Yi himself is Chinese and has the advantage of language communication, he played the "You Say, I Guess" game with a lucky fan. The two cooperated tacitly and helped the fan win a football signed by Zhou Yi.
Host Zhang Bin joked: "As expected of an organizing master, he can quickly and tacitly cooperate with anyone!"
This lucky female fan not only got a football signed by Zhou Yi, but also asked Zhou Yi if she could have a hug at the end.
Amidst the cheers of the host, Zhou Yi opened his arms. Then, in the envious exclamations of the audience, the female fan blushed and hugged Zhou Yi.
Because of Zhou Yi, the communication was smooth, the atmosphere was relaxed and harmonious, and the program was recorded very smoothly.
After the program was recorded, Zhang Bin, who had worked in the CCTV sports department for many years, said while chatting with Zhou Yi: "I have participated in a lot of work for European teams and stars to come to our CCTV to record programs. Today is the most relaxed, happiest and smoothest one. Thanks to your help!"
Zhou Yi waved his hand modestly and said, "I used to like watching our CCTV's *Haomen Shengyan* very much. At that time, I never thought I could participate."
Zhang Bin laughed loudly: "At that time, I didn't expect that our China could produce a Zhou Yi, right? No one would have thought of it. I hope we can cooperate again next time."
"Definitely, definitely."
The two of them only said these two sentences, and then Zhou Yi was surrounded and separated by fans who asked for autographs and photos.
The tall and burly Zhang Bin looked at Zhou Yi, who was surrounded, and quickly took charge of maintaining order, and said loudly: "Don't worry, don't worry, there's something for everyone, there's something for everyone!"
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In addition to recording the program, Borussia Dortmund also had a game in Beijing. Their opponent was Beijing Zhongxin, the only Chinese Super League team in Beijing.
In terms of strength, Beijing Zhongxin is not as good as Guangzhou Hengyuan, but slightly stronger than Shanghai Chongming.
But they also failed to pose any threat to Borussia Dortmund.
Borussia Dortmund won this game just as easily. Of course, this is thanks to the last game against Chongming, which made them put away their contempt for Chinese teams, so they prepared more fully for this game, and the players' attitude was more correct.
So this left Beijing Zhongxin with no chance to take advantage of…
In the end, Borussia Dortmund defeated Beijing Zhongxin 4:0—this was the result of Borussia Dortmund obviously reserving their strength in the second half. If they had maintained the rhythm of the first half, Zhongxin might have lost 0:6.
After the end of all three games in China, the entire Borussia Dortmund team set off to leave China and return to Germany. They will do the final adjustments in Germany and prepare for the new season.
In the three games in China, Borussia Dortmund achieved a complete victory and did not concede a goal. This is taken for granted for Borussia Dortmund.
Chinese media is also more rational than it was twenty years ago and did not think that Borussia Dortmund was not giving Chinese football any face. In the past, when Chinese teams played against foreign teams, it was easy to involve patriotic emotions. The undefeated myth of the Workers' Stadium that year was a manifestation of this emotion.
Now it is not the case. In the world of football competition, winning or losing depends on strength. The team with strength wins the game, and everyone has nothing to say.
Moreover, if the European teams that come to China to play do not put in the effort, they will be criticized instead—we spent so much money to invite you here, but it is not for you to lie down and make money!
Borussia Dortmund's professional and friendly performance won unanimous praise from professional media and fans—Zhou Yi also contributed to this. Because of Zhou Yi, the other players of Borussia Dortmund are more affectionate and friendly to Chinese fans, making Chinese fans feel like they are bathed in the spring breeze. They praised this Borussia Dortmund as the most unpretentious of the European powerhouse teams that come to China to make money.
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The entire Borussia Dortmund team left Beijing by plane amidst the enthusiastic farewell of hundreds of Chinese fans.
Everyone thought that Borussia Dortmund's trip to China was over, and the impact should dissipate quickly.
But the next day, Chinese media revealed a blockbuster news—"Borussia Dortmund Club officially seeks to purchase young player Yan Min from Shanghai Chongming Club!"
When this news first appeared on the Internet, netizens and fans refused to believe it and thought it must be a boring rumor or self-delusion by some unscrupulous Chinese media.
But soon the Shanghai Chongming club came out to confirm that they had indeed received a transfer application from the Borussia Dortmund club, but they did not state whether the club intended to agree or reject it, only saying that they were still studying it.
The news was confirmed, and the Internet completely exploded.
What the hell? It's not wishful thinking, it's real?!
"Did Borussia Dortmund discover the benefits of Chinese players from Zhou Yi? Do they want to buy Chinese players?"
"But Zhou Yi is very special. Zhou Yi can play the core in Borussia Dortmund, which does not mean that other Chinese players can also succeed..."
"Don't underestimate yourself so much upstairs. Our country has indeed produced a lot of good seedlings now. Not to mention Zhou Yi, just look at He Ying, Sun Pan, Guo Nu, and Yang Muge, which one is not playing as a main player in a European team? Don't just say Borussia Dortmund, even if more European teams take a fancy to our Chinese players, I wouldn't be surprised!"
"After being a Chinese fan for so many years, I really didn't dare to think that there would be such a happy moment now..."
"It's normal for Yan Min to be favored by Borussia Dortmund, right? Based on his performance in that game, I think if he wasn't favored by Borussia Dortmund, it would mean that Borussia Dortmund's vision is not good... Now it depends on what Shanghai Chongming Club thinks. I personally still hope to see more Chinese players can go abroad and prove themselves in Europe and gain a firm foothold..."
"Yan Min's performance is indeed very good, and he really deserves to be favored by Borussia Dortmund. I am still worried that Chinese clubs are short-sighted and delay players for their own private interests... Hasn't there been less of this kind of thing in Chinese football these years?"
"Should we launch a petition on Weibo, asking the Shanghai Chongming Club not to make things difficult for Yan Min on the transfer matter for the sake of the future of Chinese football?"
"Good idea, Chinese clubs should be more open!"
"Speaking of which, *Green Field Successor* is really a masterpiece. It only produced two seasons, and as a result, there are players studying abroad... It's a pity that there are only two seasons... Now seeing singing and slapstick variety shows all over the screen, I miss those years..."