Chapter 9 Welcome to Real Madrid
When Chu Zhongtian walked out of the passage, there was a thunderous cheer on the scene. When Chu Zhongtian looked up, he saw the five-star red flag flying in the stands, so conspicuous in a large white or black background.
He had become accustomed to seeing the Chinese flag in the stands in Hoffenheim. But it was the first time he saw it at the Bernabeu Stadium.
Starting today, the red flag will occupy this football temple.
He walked up the blue carpet with his head held high.
Photographers around the carpet took out their cameras and kept pressing them.
When C. Ronaldo came to this team, fans and reporters who welcomed him set historical records. Chu Zhongtian could not compare with C. Ronaldo in terms of number of fans, but in the media involved in the coverage, he completely defeated this Portuguese teammate.
As soon as Chu Zhongtian lowered his head, he saw many Chinese journalists, and there were some familiar faces here. The people he interviewed when he was playing football in Hoffenheim or the Chinese team. Of course, Lu Ming, who was shocked by his answer at the hotel door this morning, was also among them.
Throughout the journey, there were reporters on both sides, and Chu Zhongtian from China attracted enough attention.
When passing by the Champions League trophy, he stopped and looked at the nine trophys here. The one this year is not here, but went to Sinsheim and was displayed in Hoffenheim's honor room. Before the Champions League final begins next year, Hoffenheim Club will return the trophy to UEFA.
I just got a Champions League trophy, but before I could warm up, I abandoned it again and came to this place to start striving for a Champions League trophy again...Are you stupid?
Chu Zhongtian withdrew his gaze and continued walking along the carpet.
The cheers in the stands grew louder and louder.
※※※In Austrian training camp, Ibisevic is watching the live broadcast of Chu Zhongtian joining Real Madrid on TV.
"Hey! He really looks like a superstar!" Ibisek said enviously as he looked at the fans in the stands waving their arms when they appeared.
Salihovic next to him snorted. He still can't let go of Chu Zhongtian's abandonment of the team and transfer to Real Madrid. Ibissevic turned his head and looked at Salihovic who was having a quarrel there, and laughed. "Want to teach him a lesson? Pray that we will be in the same group stage with Real Madrid, Sayad!"
Salihovic snorted again. Ibisevic turned his head and continued to watch TV with a smile.
※※※When Chu Zhongtian walked to the rostrum, Florentino came up to meet him. After the two hugged him, Chu Zhongtian stood beside him, while Florentino stood in front of the microphone.
He is going to make a speech.
"Ladies and gentlemen, dear guests!" Florentino's opening remark was impeccable, which was very consistent with his identity as the chairman of a century-old wealthy family, and formed a distinct difference with Calderon's vulgar image.
"I'm very happy that you can attend such a welcome ceremony. I'm also very happy that Real Madrid welcomed a heavyweight player..." As he said that, he pointed to Chu Zhongtian next to him.
The Chinese journalists below were in a commotion: "What did he say just now? He is indeed a 'heavyweight player', right?"
"Yes, he is indeed a 'heavyweight player'!"
"Damn, this review is really high!"
"It's awesome! There's also a 'heavyweight player' in China!"
"Actually, after watching the Champions League final, you shouldn't be excited and surprised by this evaluation, right?"
...Florentino on the stage turned to look at Chu Zhongtian and said to him: "Chu, welcome you to the Bernabeu, welcome you to the place where the legendary battles are, welcome you to join Real Madrid!"
As soon as he finished speaking, a huge cheer sounded from the stands.
In fact, some people have questioned that the Bernabeu could not prepare for the third grand welcome ceremony in history for Chu Zhongtian. Because Chu Zhongtian is not as good as C. Ronaldo and Kaka in terms of strength and business image, and they believe that Spanish fans know nothing about Chu Zhongtian, and they may not see a few Spanish fans at that time, but they did not express any objection to many Chinese fans. So when Real Madrid Club officially announced that nearly 20,000 fans would come to Bernabeu to welcome Chu Zhongtian to join, these experts scoffed at this data, including some well-known footballers in China. They didn't believe that Espanyol would give a Chinese such a great face.
But in fact, they all forgot which team Hoffenheim led by Chu Zhongtian defeated in the final?
Barcelona!
This is Real Madrid's mortal enemy. Many Real Madrid fans fell in love with this Chinese player who never gave up until the last moment in that game and finally successfully defeated Barcelona. So when they heard that Chu Zhongtian joined Real Madrid, they were excited.
The so-called enemy's enemy is a friend. If you don't understand such a simple truth, those so-called experts are really useless... Florentino handed over the microphone to Chu Zhongtian. He walked to the microphone and smiled.
"I'm very happy to join Real Madrid." Chu Zhongtian said in Chinese. The Chinese journalists were stunned at first, and then laughed.
They used to think that Chu Zhongtian could use English, or to temporarily learn some Spanish to please Spanish fans. However, they thought that when they spoke, they were genuine native language and standard Mandarin!
Chu Zhongtian didn't care whether the Spanish fans could understand it at all. He continued to say in Mandarin: "Leaving Hoffenheim is not an easy decision for me, but I finally chose Real Madrid. I know the brilliant history of this team, and I also know how great this team is. This team has won nine Champions League trophys in history, and I hope that through my efforts, I can bring you the tenth one!"
Then Chu Zhongtian raised his arms and shouted: "hala!madrid!!"
The atmosphere in the audience reached a climax at this time.
Next, Chu Zhongtian performed a ball bump and showed the fans his football skills.
Next is taking a photo with Florentino and honorary chairman Di Stefano. He walked around the field and kicked the football he signed to the fans in the stands.
During this period, the enthusiastic Real Madrid fans in the stands kept shouting: "Chu! Chu! Chu!!"
Spanish reporters' comments on Chu Zhongtian's appearance are "not as exciting as imagined, but not bad. Chu seems to have not completely let go. He may still be immersed in his longing for the past team, so his first sentence mentioned Hoffenheim, which may make some Real Madrid fans feel unhappy..."
In fact, there are indeed some extreme Real Madrid fans who are dissatisfied with Chu Zhongtian's performance at the welcome ceremony. Not only fans, but also some media are the same.
※※※ Overall, Chu Zhongtian’s welcome ceremony was orderly and did not appear. When Ronaldo joined the team, fans kept jumping from the stands, crossing the blockade line of the security personnel, and approaching his idol indomitable.
After the welcoming ceremony on the court, Chu Zhongtian came to Florentino's presidential office, and then signed a five-year franchise contract with Florentino in front of the cameras of the reporters. During these five years, he will be a member of Real Madrid, and people will no longer see him scoring and assisting on the court in a blue Hoffenheim jersey.
He became a Real Madrid player at this moment.
After signing, Florentino gave Chu Zhongtian the fountain pen to sign the contract, and also gave him a watch and a model of the Bernabeu stadium.
Then, both sides came to the press conference hall of Real Horse, where Chu Zhongtian would have a face-to-face confrontation with the Spanish media, and he had to answer the other party's various strange questions.
At the grand welcome ceremony just now, the media did not get the opportunity to ask questions, and they all moved here.
Of course, before asking questions, the first thing is to showcase Real Madrid's jerseys, which is an indispensable environment for any player to join a new team.
Chu Zhongtian took the Real Madrid white jersey with his name but no number from Real Madrid honorary chairman Di Stefano, then leaned down and rubbed his face with Di Stefano, then got up and hugged Chairman Florentino.
The last three people held the jersey together and showed it to the media.
The flashes are connected into one piece.
After the jersey was displayed, Chu Zhongtian sat behind the table and accepted the reporters' "news" news.
The questions of Chinese journalists are generally "Are you excited to join Real Madrid?" "What does it feel like to create the history of Asian football?" "Who do you appreciate the most among Real Madrid superstars?" "The welcome ceremony just now was impressive. Do you think so too?"
These questions are easy to answer, but the Spanish journalists' questions are not so easy to deal with.
Real Madrid did not refuse media from Barcelona to interview Chu Zhongtian, so today several Catalan media came to ruin the situation.
A Catalan reporter asked as soon as he came up: "You helped Hoffenheim win the Champions League, but said goodbye dozens of days later. Hoffenheim fans were very sad, and some even burned your jersey..."
Chu Zhongtian replied: "I believe that is a very small number of Hoffenheim fans. The Hoffenheim I know are very friendly and they will definitely understand my choice. After all, I brought a league championship and a Champions League championship to this team. In fact, I did everything I could for this team. I didn't feel any guilt when I left."
His answer was neither humble nor arrogant, leaving Catalan journalists speechless.
The next question was a reporter from Marca. His question was not that strong in the gunpowder smell, but it was still very tricky. Chu Zhongtian played Hoffenheim at the beginning of the welcome ceremony, which made many people feel that the great and noble Real Madrid were offended. So they also wanted to take the opportunity to make things difficult for Chu Zhongtian. He asked Chu Zhongtian: "I have always heard that your relationship with Mourinho is not very good, so will this affect your cooperation in Real Madrid?"
Chu Zhongtian shook his head: "The relationship between me is not as bad as you think."
Next is the reporter of Ass: "What made you choose to join Real Madrid, Chu?"
"I think joining here is more challenging." Chu Zhongtian replied.
"What kind of challenge?" asked the reporter of Ashes.
"Help the team win the tenth European Champions League, and..." He paused, "and defeated Barcelona, I enjoyed the feeling of defeating them and winning the European Champions League." He wanted to embarrass him as soon as he came up, which made Chu Zhongtian not have a good impression of Catalan journalists, so he didn't mind taking a little revenge here.
Some people laughed, most of them were Chinese journalists and pro-Real Madrid journalists.
Although this Chinese did not kiss the Real Madrid team logo on his chest at the ceremony, he used this method to express his love for Real Madrid. Attacking his mortal enemy at the franchise ceremony can always win the support of new club fans and media.
You can see the smiles on the faces of those reporters who pro-Real Madrid.
Amid such laughter, the reporters from Catalonia could no longer sit still.
Someone stood up and planned to ridicule Real Madrid: "Real Madrid lost to Barcelona five goals at Camp Nou last season. How did that game give you?"
As soon as this was said, the pro-Real Madrid reporters present glared at him, while the Catalan reporters secretly gave a thumbs up and applauded this brave man.
Of course, Chu Zhongtian knew that this was to embarrass him and Real Madrid together - the team you joined lost to us 0:5 last season, proving that Real Madrid is not very good, so you who chose to join this team are not very good either.
But he won't lose to the other party here.
In fact, Chu Zhongtian and Barcelona media Liangzi had a grudge as early as after the Champions League final. At that time, several unconvinced Catalan reporters came to interview Chu Zhongtian and tempted Chu Zhongtian through language skills, hoping to hear praise for Barcelona football from him. As a result, Chu Zhongtian was very embarrassed and claimed that "Barcelona football is eternal, but the champion belongs to Hoffenheim". A group of Catalan reporters were in a mess and had nowhere to vent their anger.
Chu Zhongtian nodded: "I still remember a scene in that game now, where Ramos clashed with your players and was sent off by a red card..."
The reporters of the pro-Real Madrid were somewhat inconsistent with what Chu Zhongtian wanted to say. This scene was definitely not glorious for Real Madrid, because this was ironclad evidence that Real Madrid "losed and lost."
In fact, there was nothing glorious about that game for Real Madrid, and there was no way to find anything that could be shown off.
Just when everyone was confused, Chu Zhongtian continued to say: "I admire Ramos' spirit of losing but not losing!"
Many people seem to be able to hear the sound of their glasses shattering all over the floor. If you are sent off by a red card, you can still call it "loss or not losers"? It's not embarrassing to beat the other party in anger? It's not like this that it's not done with improper arguments, right?
"Even if you lose in the score, you must not admit defeat. Every ball must be fought with the opponent to the end. I think if it were me, I would have done that. Someone asked me why I chose Real Madrid, and I forgot to say one thing. Another reason is that I like the bloodiness of Real Madrid. In the 2006-2007 season, Real Madrid completed a reversal and won the championship when they were 15 points behind Barcelona. There were many classic games that season, and they were always backing and winning at the last moment of the game when they were behind. I like Real Madrid like this."
When Chu Zhongtian said this, a burst of applause suddenly came to mind in the lobby of the press conference, all from the pro-Real Madrid reporters.
Barcelona's reporters looked embarrassed and dissatisfied. They obviously could not accept that a player was so distorted by black and white, and was inseparable from right and wrong. However, they all forgot that Chu Zhongtian is now a Real Madrid player, so there is no need to sing praises for his mortal enemy... If you want to come here to disgust Chu Zhongtian, all you can get is to be disgusted.
Because of Chu Zhongtian's words, many Madrid media's attitude towards Chu Zhongtian was much more relaxed.
Later, Alfredo Rerano, the director of the Ass newspaper, praised Chu Zhongtian's style of doing things in his column articles, revealing a hint of cunning in his wisdom, and also being very friendly.
"This player from Mysterious China used a very clever way to resolve the embarrassing questions and reshape his image in the picky Madrid media. He has won the likes of many people, and can be heard from the spontaneous applause... At the Bernabeu, he can already be said to have a good start. But I need to remind this Chinese player that it is not enough to say it on his mouth. In the final analysis, he still needs to show his strength. Real Madrid fans all want to see the omnipotent judging in the Champions League final, rather than a title with a high salary and staring at the 70 million yuan worth of money, but can only sit on the bench as a spectator. Benzema is definitely not a role model he should learn from, Cristiano is!"
※※※ Chu Zhongtian put this Ass newspaper aside. He was having breakfast in the hotel room and looked at the newspaper. He could only understand Spanish newspapers in Portuguese. He had only a few understandings of it, but fortunately he simply stopped reading them. He could not understand how the Spanish media evaluated his transfer and appearance.
Today will be his first training session with the team. He did not get up early deliberately, but got up at 7:30 as usual according to his usual habits.
In fact, he has a lot of things to do. Joining Real Madrid is just the first step. First, he needs to find a house, secondly, he has to airlift his car to Madrid to get a home, and then interview his Spanish teacher. In addition, he also plans to invite his new teammates to have a meal. After all, he is new, so there should be such a little etiquette.
He has no particularly good friends in Real Madrid. The relationship here is brand new. If you want to make friends, you have to start from now on. He is always very popular in any team. But whether it is Wimbledon, Metz, or Hoffenheim, they are all simple small teams. Real Madrid is a century-old giant with countless superstars and many factions in the locker room. He has no foundation. Can he stand firm here?
(To be continued)
Chapter completed!