Chapter 1 Fang Shuai's Efforts

Fang Shuai's efforts had yielded some results. The Zhou Yi fan forum was more popular than before, especially among the netizens who were already there. They were ecstatic to find out that Zhou Yi was doing well in the Borussia Dortmund youth team and had even been called up to the first team. They posted one after another to express their excitement.

Various enthusiastic posts filled with blessings appeared on the forum's homepage.

Of course, Fang Shuai's approach of posting everywhere also drew some scorn.

In some forums, his posts attracted suspicion.

The skeptical voices were all the same, basically not believing that an amateur player who had never received any professional training could become a member of Borussia Dortmund's first team in such a short period of time.

"Fake news, right?"

"Rumors! The media hasn't reported it!"

"Zhou Yi? I know him. Didn't he not receive professional training? How long has it been? He's already in the first team? Is that possible? It obviously doesn't conform to the laws of soccer!"

"Here we go again... Can we stop bragging? Wouldn't it be better to do something practical instead of launching satellites every day?"

There were still many people who didn't believe that Zhou Yi could be selected for Borussia Dortmund's first team.

Fang Shuai was powerless to do anything about this. He couldn't possibly go to every forum, every post, and fight with the skeptics, could he?

He didn't have that kind of time or combat power.

But there were always people and things that could prove he wasn't lying.

Just one day later, several major domestic sports websites published a news report in a prominent position.

The report was about Borussia Dortmund's team starting their pre-season training camp in Radkersburg, Austria.

This was normal. Every season's pre-season training camp, especially for major teams, would attract media attention.

But this alone wouldn't be enough to make it to a prominent position on the website.

What was the key point?

The key point was that there was a Chinese player!

"...According to our search of the first-team player list on Borussia Dortmund's official website, we saw Zhou Yi's photo and some basic profile information. Moreover, when the German media reported on Borussia Dortmund's training camp, they specifically mentioned that two youth team players were training with the team, one of whom was our young Chinese player, Zhou Yi..."

"...I think that fans who watched the popular soccer reality show *Green Field Successors* last year probably all know Zhou Yi. As the only amateur student player who had not received professional training, he was selected for that team, and eventually became the best player. His appearance changed the team's fate and the fate of the reality show, and of course, it changed his own fate... After the reality show ended, we reported that he signed with Borussia Dortmund and joined the Borussia Dortmund youth team. But after that, there was no more news about him... Now, when we hear his name again, we find that he is already a first-team player!"

"This is surprising. So our reporter went to check the German news reports and finally found Zhou Yi's footprints in Borussia Dortmund's youth team. Click on the link below to see the performance of Zhou Yi in Borussia Dortmund's youth training camp that we have prepared for the fans..."

"...Zhou Yi only played one recorded official match in the U17, which was the famous Ruhr Derby. At that time, the Borussia Dortmund U17 team led by him defeated Schalke 04 U17. By the way, Yang Muge, a Chinese player who also participated in the filming of *Green Field Successors* with Zhou Yi, now plays for Schalke 04..."

"In the match against Schalke 04 U17, Zhou Yi performed well and completed two assists. With this outstanding performance, he was promoted to Borussia Dortmund U19. He had almost no adaptation period in U19. We looked through the schedule of the German U19 league at that time and found that Zhou Yi had just been promoted to U19 and immediately participated in the U19 league as a starter. And he secured the position of starting main player. His performance can also be seen from the simplest technical statistics of each game - almost every game has assists. This really surprised our reporters when they investigated. Why can a player who has never received professional training have such a performance? Unfortunately, there are not many reports about Zhou Yi in the youth team, so we can only guess his performance from these game data."

"Zhou Yi's most glorious moment in the youth team should be helping Borussia Dortmund U19 win the German Youth Cup and the U19 National League Championship in succession. Especially in the U19 National League Championship final, Zhou Yi actually completed a hat trick in the final! It is really unexpected that an attacking midfielder player who mainly assists can explode with such an outstanding scoring ability. The reporter speculates that perhaps Klopp saw Zhou Yi's stable and outstanding performance in the youth team, and then decided to transfer him to the first team?"

"No matter how Zhou Yi was transferred to the first team in just a few months without receiving professional training, his performance data in the game is placed here and will not lie. His number of goals and assists are all real."

"Chinese players once experienced a very high-profile wave of overseas players. At that time, we had Sun Hai, Fan Zhiwei, Zhang Hua, Li Tiyi, Li Feng, and Yang Zhen, Zhou Ling, Xie Zhaohui... Later, only Sun Hai was still persisting among these players. The others ended their overseas careers one after another for various reasons. Seeing that our neighbors, Japanese and Korean players, are becoming more and more popular in Europe, but Chinese players are nowhere to be found on the European stage, we can't help but feel a little regret in our hearts, and at the same time, we can't help but fantasize - when will we be able to see our Chinese players in the top European leagues again? Now, Zhou Yi's sudden emergence provides us with a space for fantasy. So even if he only appears on the first-team list, it is enough to make us excited and...expectant!"

These websites are all well-known and top-notch websites in China. Although they each write different articles, the main content is the same, that is, to tell all Chinese fans that there is now a Chinese player in the first team of the Bundesliga powerhouse Borussia Dortmund!

The power of the portal website is huge. Before, Fang Shuai worked so hard to reprint the articles from the Dream Cabin blog and advertised in other forums, but only increased the forum by more than a hundred followers.

But when the article on the portal website came out, Fang Shuai was surprised to find that the number of followers in the Zhou Yi fan forum began to surge!

Of course, many people also said that they initially found the "Zhou Yi Forum", and found that it was not about the player Zhou Yi, but the forum about the *I Ching* (Zhou Yi), and then they found this one.

The influx of these people brought a lot of popularity to the forum. Every day, many people gathered in the forum to post, discuss, and look forward to Zhou Yi's future in the Borussia Dortmund first team.

Seeing the forum becoming more and more popular, Fang Shuai was relieved - this forum won't die.

At the same time, he was also more concerned about Zhou Yi. The media only reported that Zhou Yi had entered the first team, but there were no reports about his training in the first team.

He went to the Dream Cabin blog again, but there were still no updates.

So what is Zhou Yi, who is now training in the first team, actually doing?

He thought for a while, found Zhou Yi in the QQ friend list, and left him a message: "Hi, old classmate, long time no see. How are you doing in Dortmund? It's been reported in China that you've entered the first team, congratulations! But there is still a lack of channels to understand your news in China. I am now the administrator of your forum. Not only me, but many people want to know your recent situation. If it is convenient, tell me something, so I can show off in the forum!"

***

"Zhou Yi, your heart rate is dropping, speed up, speed up! Keep your heart rate up!" Bartlett glanced at the heart rate monitor and roared at Zhou Yi on the treadmill.

Zhou Yi was already out of breath. Hearing the fitness coach shouting like this, he had to grit his teeth and speed up again. But he felt that with every step he took, his lungs were burning, and the air was the accelerant. How much air he inhaled, how red the lungs burned.

Bartlett turned his head to look at the heart rate monitor and continued to shout: "Come on, come on! Come on, come on! There are still fifteen minutes!"

Hearing that there were still fifteen minutes, Zhou Yi wanted to die...

Zhou Yi, who had previously been coached by Bartlett in the youth team, thought he had seen the training of the first team, but he found that his actual experience far exceeded his imagination. Compared with now, his physical training in the youth team was simply child's play...

This is the real training intensity of the first team!

But in fact, Zhou Yi was wrong. This is Borussia Dortmund's training intensity, and it does not mean that the first team of all teams has such a training intensity.

Looking at the entire Bundesliga, there are not many teams that conduct physical training like Borussia Dortmund. I am afraid that only the team of that madman Magath can compare with it...

If other coaches trained like this, the team would probably rebel.

You must know that it is not only Zhou Yi who finds it difficult to endure, but the other players of Borussia Dortmund also feel that this year's physical training is much more difficult than in previous years.

But it is still difficult to hear complaints during training. Everyone tries to complete the task goals set by the coaching team.

Why is this?

This is actually due to their head coach, Jurgen Klopp.

This extremely charismatic person allows his players to unite around him and willingly work hard for him.

Regarding this point, Zhou Yi can observe and experience it at any time during the training camp. Although Klopp is very serious during training, he always chats with the players on the sidelines during the time outside of training.

There is a German saying that "you can steal apples and horses with him," which roughly means that you can sit down with him for a couple of beers and have a good time.

He is very happy to mingle with the players.

Zhou Yi felt deeply about this. His contact with Klopp was before he came to Borussia Dortmund. At that time, Klopp flew to Barcelona privately to invite him to dinner and persuade him to join the team.

From this one thing, it can be seen that Klopp is actually an unpretentious person - which first-team coach would come to be a lobbyist for a youth team player?

***

ps, I went out the day before yesterday for a checkup, because my left wrist, which was injured before playing football, was still hurting. I couldn't exert force at certain angles and couldn't do the "support" movement.

So I went to the hospital to see it. The doctor told me that the tendon sheath was injured. Even if it is cured, there will be sequelae. I can't lift heavy objects and can't be overworked.

Hearing this, my heart went cold. I asked the doctor: "What about me playing football?"

He said playing football does not affect it, "You use your feet to play football, not your hands..."

"I'm a goalkeeper."

The doctor was speechless, and then said to me: "If it doesn't work, just let the ball in. It's amateur football. Why be so serious."

But if the goalkeeper just stands in front of the goal and lets the opponent shoot and score, even if it is amateur football, there is no fun in playing it...

I said before that the most important thing when playing football at this age is not how good you are, but not to get injured. As a result, I got injured, alas, depressed!