CHAPTER 43: CHAPTER 14: BANNER

"You have no idea how famous you are at the Sports City."

"Everyone sees you as a role model, as a goal to aspire to."

"Coach Hulun often tells us that only if you are like Casillas, Raul, or Chen Zhong can you skip through everything because they are truly exceptional."

What Nacho mentioned refers to the process of progressing from the U-8 children’s group to the youth group, then becoming a Castilla player, and finally moving on to Real Madrid.

Many people are eliminated during the promotion process, and even if you eventually become a Castilla player, there’s no guarantee that you can become a Real Madrid player.

At the Sports City, all levels of teams reside here.

There are about three or four hundred players in training, but very few have the chance to become Real Madrid players, and even fewer can enter Castilla.

The group of people surrounding Chen Zhong now are the "elite" who have reached the final steps.

Nacho, who managed to become the captain in every team he played for.

Parejo, who was valued by Di Stefano and even personally stated that if the club sold him, he would not watch the matches anymore.

Then there is Jose Callejon, who performed excellently in Castilla, and many people believe he could score over 20 goals this season and has the potential to compete for the Golden Boot.

Additionally, there’s the talented winger Vazquez and Carvajal, who joined the youth academy at age 10, skipping the youth C team and B team.

Not to mention those "wandering" outside like Negredo, Granero, and Mata.

These people, directly or indirectly, are already intricately linked to Chen Zhong, especially with the recent events.

Many are discussing the first team’s injuries, and Chen Zhong is very likely to start in the next few matches, even securing a mainstay position.

Such an achievement is enough for Chen Zhong to secure the title as the leading figure of the new generation.

He is their new banner.

Of course, they still respect Casillas and Raul, but Casillas was born in 1981 and Raul in 1977, they are the "old kings," the elders.

Eventually, the world will be for the "new kings," the young people.

"That’s too exaggerated." Chen Zhong rubbed Nacho’s head, only wanting to play well, stabilize his position, and improve his skills; these things were not within his range of consideration.

After signing his name for Carvajal and adding a note: "May we one day fight alongside each other at Real Madrid," Chen Zhong bid farewell to an excited Carvajal.

Nacho saw Chen Zhong’s utterly speechless look and couldn’t help but grit his teeth. He originally wanted to share with Chen Zhong that he might become the captain of Castilla and that the outstanding players around him would all become their "friends" in the future. But seeing Chen Zhong’s playful manner, he had to swallow his pride and digest it all himself.

Chen Zhong met with Julen Lopetegui in the office, who looked at Chen Zhong with some emotion, saying, "I really didn’t expect you to stabilize your position so quickly."

"There are many things you can’t expect," Chen Zhong waved his hand, appearing relaxed in front of Lopetegui, "When will you become the first team’s head coach? Then let me play center forward."

Lopetegui, seeing Chen Zhong like this, smiled and said, "I thought you’d ask me to bring back Mata and Negredo then! Hmm, you can discuss with Negredo about who plays center forward when the time comes."

After joking a bit, Lopetegui took Chen Zhong to see the young players of Castilla and other teams. During the process, he said, "Many people have played with you. After seeing you play for Real Madrid, they all felt motivated. To set a goal for them and because you’ve become a new idol for many young players, we think it’s necessary to have you back to inspire and motivate those young lads."

After the Zidane + Pavin policy’s failure, many youth players felt lost about their future.

Raul, Guti, Casillas are beyond discussion.

Look at the poor Roberto Soldado!

This man, assigned to the B team in the practice matches, joined Real Madrid’s youth academy at 13 and quickly showed his assassin-like nature on the frontline, becoming the most eye-catching presence in all teams.

After joining Castilla, he appeared 120 times, scoring 63 goals, even breaking Raul’s former record in Castilla, and was seen as the "second Raul" by everyone for a time.

Unfortunately, even Raul faced immense competition pressure at Real Madrid, let alone the "second Raul."

Despite his outstanding talent, Soldado had no position at Real Madrid, let alone other players, which caused many to start feeling lost about their future.

And all this worsened after Negredo, Granetto, Mata, and others left.

Finally, with Chen Zhong starting in the warm-up match final, the Spanish Super Cup, and being called upon during the first round Derby de Madrid, young players suddenly saw "hope."

Chen Zhong served as a role model, with people talking about him and learning about his achievements, coupled with Nacho’s instigation, Chen Zhong became a celebrity in the youth academy.

Throughout history, those who achieve great things often come with a "myth" or "package," under Nacho’s "fanning the flames," Chen Zhong became an idol for many people.

After leaving the Sports City and returning home, Chen Zhong checked the system; he had completed 15 out of the 20 tackles/interceptions/duels required for the season task.

He also evenly allocated two attribute points to acceleration and speed, bringing acceleration to 75 and max speed to 78.

Just as he was about to sleep, someone knocked on the door loudly, "bang bang bang."

Chen Zhong got up somewhat perplexed, and upon hearing Marcelo’s loud voice, he opened the door.

"Chen!" Marcelo stared at him with wide eyes, looking at Chen Zhong happily, "Do you know what Drenthe did?"

"You would never guess!"

"He got arrested by the police!"

"Wait, hold on." Chen Zhong, seeing Marcelo’s excited expression, said bewilderedly, "You said Drenthe got arrested by the police?"

What an unbelievable development, Chen Zhong’s brain couldn’t quite process it.

"Yeah!" Marcelo looked around with a mysterious look, "He hit a police officer with his car and got slightly injured himself; he’s in the hospital now, and folks are saying he might get put in jail."

"If I remember correctly, he was supposed to be driving his Audi Q7 out for fun with his girlfriend and friends tonight," Chen Zhong said incredulously to Marcelo, "Drunk driving, speeding, I might believe, but hitting a police officer with a car, isn’t that too outrageous?"