Chapter 1 A Farmhouse?

The entrance to Barcelona's training base was always crowded with people, all fans of artistic football. They came from all over the world, like pilgrims to Mecca, to worship at the temple of artistic football.

They held up cameras and camera phones, eagerly pressing the shutter button even before entering, excitedly talking about Ronaldinho, Deco, Xavi, Iniesta... and of course, Messi was a must, the young Argentine genius who had captured the hearts of many fans with his superb skills.

But if they wanted to see the birthplace of artistic football, they didn't need to go to the crowded first team training ground at all.

On the other side of Arístides Street was the training ground of Barcelona's youth academy, La Masia.

Unlike the hundreds or thousands of fans around the first team, only a few people were watching the youth team's training sessions.

Today, the atmosphere here was slightly different.

Before the official training time arrived, a convoy consisting of a white bus and three SUVs parked on the side of the road where the La Masia football school was located.

"Aren't we going to La Masia? Why are we at Camp Nou?" Zhou Yi got out of the car, his eyes naturally drawn to the magnificent stadium in front of him. This was the world-famous home of Barcelona football, Camp Nou.

Not only Zhou Yi, but everyone else who got out of the car was also looking at Camp Nou not far away. It was so huge that people's eyes were involuntarily drawn to it.

Even He Ying turned his gaze to Camp Nou, somewhat lost in thought.

After all the young players got out of the car, they were greeted by Garcia, the technical director of the La Masia football school.

He led everyone to the left, away from Camp Nou.

"Welcome to the La Masia football school!" Standing in front of a two-story small building made of yellow stone, Garcia opened his arms in a welcoming gesture, while at the same time proudly showing everyone the small building behind him.

Unlike the exclamations of admiration from the other young teammates, Zhou Yi curled his lips and said somewhat disappointedly, "This is La Masia? Isn't this a farmhouse?"

On the way from the airport to the hotel, Zhou Yi and the others saw houses like this in the fields along the highway, and someone said at the time that they were farmhouses with Catalan characteristics.

Zhou Yi didn't expect to see farmhouses in the city of Barcelona.

He was indeed a little disappointed.

So the famous La Masia football school was just this small building and a training ground? And looking at it, it seemed to be... artificial turf!

"'Masía' in 'La Masia' originally means farm in Catalan." He Ying, who came down behind him, couldn't help but retort after hearing Zhou Yi's contemptuous tone.

He wasn't too surprised by the true face of La Masia in front of him, and had obviously done some research and was prepared.

"Uh, okay..." Zhou Yi spread out his hands.

He later learned that the book He Ying was always holding was a Catalan textbook. He Ying was studying Catalan so hard, it seemed that he was determined to play football in Barcelona, he was a Barcelona "brainless fan."

Garcia couldn't understand Chinese, so he didn't know what Zhou Yi and his teammates were talking about, and besides, his attention wasn't on these young players. After introducing the landmark building of the La Masia football school, he led everyone to visit the inside of the small building.

This was also part of the reality show.

Garcia led everyone to visit the La Masia football school. On the slightly yellowed white walls of the restaurant, there were many photos of players. They looked very young in the photos, but they were already world-famous superstars, some still playing, some already retired.

For example, there was a group photo taken in 1988. All twenty children had the long hair that was popular at the time. One of the thin children had now become the head coach of Barcelona's first team, Guardiola. In this photo, there were also two other people, Altimira and Vilanova, who were now assistant coaches of the first team.

"Barça has entered a cycle." Garcia said with great pride when introducing the people in these photos to his Chinese guests.

Although Barcelona's league title had been snatched away by their arch-rivals Real Madrid for the previous two seasons, this could not affect the pride of Barcelona's youth training staff. In terms of youth training, they had now surpassed Real Madrid's La Fábrica.

The Chinese young players followed the tour attentively, carefully observing what the superstars of today looked like when they were young in the photos on the wall.

Some were purely curious, while others had the mentality of pilgrims.

While Zhou Yi, who was purely curious, was looking around, he noticed that Guo Nu's expression was a little strange, and his body was slightly trembling. He couldn't help but pat him on the shoulder, "Hey, Lao Guo, what are you doing?"

Unexpectedly, this action startled Guo Nu. He turned his head and glared at Zhou Yi, but didn't answer Zhou Yi's question, and continued to scan the photos with a pilgrimage-like gaze.

Zhou Yi suddenly realized, "So you're a Barcelona supporter!"

"So what if I am?" Guo Nu's tone was not good, but it wasn't anger, but... a little shy. It seemed that he was a little embarrassed after being found out about the team he supported.

"Uh, nothing..." Zhou Yi raised his hand.

Guo Nu ignored him and continued to look at the superstars in the photos, matching them one by one with the famous people of today.

Iniesta, Xavi, Messi, Fàbregas, Piqué... he found them all.

As he searched, Guo Nu couldn't help but start imagining in his mind, if he could enter Barcelona's youth team... then would his photo also appear on this wall in a few years?

All of these Chinese young players hoped that they could impress the coaches of the prestigious youth academies they were challenging with their outstanding performance in the games, so that they could enter the youth teams of their favorite prestigious clubs and realize their dream of studying abroad.

Guo Nu obviously also hoped that he could perform well in the game and get the opportunity to stay at La Masia.

Just as Guo Nu was looking forward to this beautiful future, Zhou Yi's voice seemed to come from another dimension, pulling him back to reality.

"You want to be on the wall too, Lao Guo?"

Guo Nu glanced at Sun Pan, and found that Sun Pan was glaring at him, so he suppressed the anger of being interrupted from his dream, and asked back through gritted teeth: "So what if I do?"

"It's good to have lofty ideals, Lao Guo. But shouldn't we first think about how to get into the game..." Zhou Yi patted Guo Nu on the shoulder and sighed in a tone of sympathy.

When Guo Nu heard this, he couldn't get angry anymore, but instead shrank like a deflated ball... making him, who was already not tall, even shorter.

The starting lineup of the sixteen-man "Chinese team" was fixed and not a secret. Although head coach Hao Dong had not yet announced the starting lineup for this afternoon's game, everyone knew which eleven players would be playing.

Guo Nu had been a substitute during the domestic training camp, and it was absolutely impossible for him to get a chance to start in this game, unless a miracle happened.

But Guo Nu didn't believe in miracles. If there really was a miracle, could he first grow ten centimeters taller?

Like Guo Nu, Zhou Yi, who was known as the "weakest of the sixteen," was also unlikely to be a starter.

So his tone of sympathy was definitely not fake, he really sympathized with Guo Nu!

Two substitutes.

Compared to Guo Nu's baseless daydream that was purely wishful thinking, He Ying, who was also looking at the photos of those superstars as children on the wall, had a more realistic longing in his eyes.

While Guo Nu was still worried and annoyed about not being able to play in the game, He Ying was already a 100% confirmed starter. As a striker, he was also the most likely to be in the limelight during the game and attract the attention of La Masia's youth training coaches.

With his strength, if there was anyone in this "Chinese team" who was most likely to go to La Masia, it would definitely be him.

※※※

The tour ended quickly, because it was just wandering around in a two-story building.

This small building was what everyone called "La Masia," including a restaurant, six bedrooms, a library, and a computer room. You could finish watching it quickly.

After all, this small building was initially used as a dormitory for team players, not as a comprehensive building for a training base, so the scale was naturally limited.

So in this sense, Zhou Yi's first impression of La Masia was not wrong.

It was indeed a place the size of a farmhouse.

After visiting La Masia, the young players arrived at the youth team's training ground.

Just across from this small building, after walking down a gentle slope, was the training ground.

At this time, it was already half past four in the afternoon, the sun was hanging in the western sky, the sunlight was shining down diagonally, casting a huge shadow on the training ground, occupying nearly half of the area of ​​the training ground.

This huge shadow came from an even larger building next to the training ground.

Everyone looked up at it. This was the home of the world-renowned Barcelona football team, the UEFA five-star certified Camp Nou stadium!

Although they had seen it just now when they got off the car, they still couldn't help but turn their eyes to it now.

This was Camp Nou, its huge and magnificent body filled everyone's entire vision, rushing towards them, making them unable to avoid it, and could only accept the visual and spiritual impact it brought to them.

This famous football stadium was only a dozen meters away from the training ground of the La Masia football school.

Seeing that everyone's attention was attracted by Camp Nou, Garcia said, "Our home stadium and training ground are so close, which makes it convenient for us to motivate the young players. They can gain the motivation to move forward by looking up at this stadium."

Zhou Yi put his arm around Guo Nu's shoulder and said to Guo Nu, who was looking up at Camp Nou with a pilgrimage-like expression, "Lao Guo, it seems you're not far from Camp Nou, just a long kick away! Ha!"

Guo Nu was in no mood to joke with him, gave him a white look, and didn't say a word.

He continued to look at Camp Nou, even though he was in the shadows, his face, which looked a little prematurely aged, seemed to be able to bloom with holy light...

Zhou Yi saw him like this and didn't continue to make fun of him.

Even people who are not favored by the whole world have the right to dream.

Zhou Yi probably had a deeper understanding of this than anyone else.