Full-level pass, please call me the speaker of the Three Lions

Chapter 112 This is why I fell in love with football! [A four thousand word chapter]

In just the second game of his national team career and his first start, he had assisted and scored twice.

Three assists in two games!

Such an outstanding performance not only made Ling Feng the target of praise from the British media, but also allowed him to once again complete the achievement of [national team assists and score twice] and received a reward of some free attribute points.

As the first super star to be selected into the national team's World Cup squad without having played in the Premier League, and assisting and scoring twice in the second game, Ling Feng's popularity and fame have exploded under the media's publicity. increase.

Many fans compared him to Owen and Rooney who were born out of nowhere.

However, what the world remembers for Owen and Rooney is their goals;

What Ling Feng is remembered for is his extremely precise and imaginative assists!
The last supernova to have such high hopes was the "small threat" Wilshere who singled out "Habaibu" in the Champions League.

It's a pity that Wilshere has been affected by injuries in the past two years, his status has been ups and downs, and his development has not been as expected.

Even so, Wilshere is still only 22 years old and still has time to continue to realize his talents.
The domestic media boasts about domestic players. This is a basic operation in football.

However, other countries are not as slippery as the British media.

Owen, Woodgate, Rooney, Wilshere, and now Ling Feng.

In the early days of each British star's debut, the British media would spare no effort to praise them, eager to praise them to the sky and reap the benefits brought by traffic.

Once their career development is unsatisfactory or they suffer setbacks, they will mercilessly add insult to injury!
As for what the players think, these traffic-eating media can’t control that much.

Ling Feng was already used to this.

However, with the media's hype, Ling Feng, the "new Beckham", finally attracted my attention.

One year after retiring, the "heartthrob" David Beckham, who is focusing on developing his personal brand and investing, tweeted on his personal social media account and posted a sports cover of The Times.

Then, the caption said:

"Hey, great game, it's a pity I wasn't there. Look at this young man, what a perfect cross arc!"

After sending the tweet, Xiaobei did not forget to @Lingfeng.

When Ling Feng learned that his first football love and idol mentioned him on Twitter, Ling Feng was overjoyed and did not forget to tweet "showing love" as soon as possible.

He sent a photo of Beckham celebrating after assisting his teammates in the 2006 World Cup in Germany, and then @beckham and said:

"Thank you, David! This is why I fell in love with football!"

These words were spoken from the bottom of Ling Feng's heart.

If it weren't for Beckham, he might not have fallen in love with football at all.

The small interaction between the "new Beckham" and the "real Beckham" on social media made many fans feel that the youth has returned.

They began to miss Beckham's presence on the green field.

Beckham fans have posted things related to Beckham on social media and launched a wave of memorial meetings:

For example, jerseys signed by Beckham, England World Cup game tickets, underwear endorsed by Beckham, etc.

Then they all matched Ling Feng's sentence - "This is the reason why I fell in love with football!"

You know, Beckham is one of the most famous football players in the world.

His social media fans reach tens of millions, second only to the "peerless twins" Cristiano Ronaldo and Messi!

Therefore, after this small interaction between the two, Ling Feng suddenly gained hundreds of thousands of fans.

Coupled with his performance in the England warm-up match, his social media followers finally exceeded one million!
Then, this wave of memorial gatherings was captured by various media and reported immediately.

Then, get out of the circle directly!

This memorial meeting suddenly became out of control.

Not only fans of Beckham, but fans of other stars also spontaneously posted on their social media accounts why they fell in love with football.

For example, Messi fans posted a video of Messi copying Maradona’s one-stop goal after five passes;
Cristiano Ronaldo fans posted a video of his free kick against Portsmouth;
Zidane's fans showed off his extraordinary performance in the Champions League that year.
Ronaldinho, Ronaldo, Pirlo, Kaka, Xavi.
Every fan's first football love or idol is different.

Taking this opportunity, fans all over the world used social media platforms to "show love" to their first football loves or idols.

When expressing love, all fans will borrow Ling Feng's words - "This is the reason why I fell in love with football!"

With this, many fans who did not know Ling Feng before began to search for who said such sensational words, and thus began to understand Ling Feng.

Then be attracted by his wonderful deeds!

He is the only assists leader in the British Championship and the best player of the season in both categories.
As the core midfielder, he led Leicester City to win the British Championship, broke many British Championship records, and won the first FA Cup in the team's 130-year history.
The first super star to be selected into the national team's World Cup squad without even playing in the Premier League, and he assisted and scored twice in the second game.
They were surprised to find that this young man, known as the "New Beckham", not only looked like Beckham, but also had excellent football skills.

Under the publicity of the media and fans, Ling Feng's popularity and fame have exploded.

After learning about it, many fans of other stars became fans of this super new star.

The number of social media followers that had just exceeded 100 million was rising like a rocket!

Ling Feng, who was training at the St. George Park base, was holding his mobile phone and looking at the number of fans that was rising every moment, and the corners of his mouth could not be restrained from rising wildly.

Fortunately, you can only send private messages if you are related to each other.

Otherwise, his private message backend will be bombarded by thousands of fans and turned into rubbish!

. . .

June 2014, 6, Ling Feng’s 8th birthday, was also the day when the Three Lions went on the field.

The halls inside and outside the Heathrow Airport, the busiest airport in Europe, are already crowded with fans wearing Three Lions jerseys.

They held various blessing slogans and jerseys just to say goodbye to the players of the Three Lions, hoping that they could achieve good results in Brazil.

Unable to resist the enthusiasm of the fans, Hodgson gave the players a chance to interact with the fans.

Among them, the most popular among fans are naturally Rooney, Gerrard, and Lampard, these long-established Premier League stars.

Of course, there are many Ling Feng fans.

It is worth mentioning that among his fan base, the majority are female fans.

Among the ten fans, there are three female fans!

This also fits his nickname of "the new Beckham".

There is no way, in terms of appearance, Ling Feng is definitely the most handsome one among the Three Lions!

William and Bob from the "Fox Club" also came to the airport to bid farewell to Leicester's "heroes" Ling Feng and Vardy.

Ling Feng also discovered these two die-hard Leicester City fans. In addition to leaving signatures on their jerseys, he also took a photo with them.

"Ling, let's show off your talents on the World Cup stage!"

Facing William's congratulations, Ling Feng just smiled slightly, and then responded very seriously: "I will!"

Finally, with the blessings of thousands of fans, all members of the Three Lions finally boarded a special plane and embarked on the journey to the World Cup in Brazil!

However, their first stop was not Brazil, but Miami, USA!
Since domestic security in Brazil is not reliable, England and Honduras arranged a warm-up match in Miami.

This game is also the last warm-up match before the World Cup in Brazil.

The weather in Miami is similar to that in Brazil, both are on the hot side.

In this warm-up match, Ling Feng, who performed best in the previous game, did not continue to start, but came on as a substitute in the 60th minute of the game.

This time, he returned to the midfield and formed a new midfield partner with Milner.

In the three warm-up games, Hodgson used three different midfield partners.

Obviously, he is still experimenting with which midfield pairing can achieve the offensive and defensive balance of the lineup.

Perhaps due to the hot weather, even facing Honduras, which has a lower world ranking and is relatively weak, the Three Lions failed to penetrate their opponent's goal in the first half.

With no other choice, Hodgson replaced Ling Feng, Vardy and Lampard in the 60th minute.

It seems that in the eyes of the old coach, the young but creative Ling Feng has become a changing figure for the Three Lions.

After coming on as a substitute, Ling Feng went through an adaptation period of about 10 minutes and did not disappoint Hodgson on the sidelines.

In the second minute of Game No. 70, Sterling created a set kick opportunity on the right.

Ling Feng took a free kick in the frontcourt, then passed the ball into the penalty area, and Lampard scored with his head!

And this was the only goal in the game.

In addition to helping the Three Lions win three consecutive warm-up matches, Ling Feng also set a new national team record:

He became the first player in the history of the Three Lions team to provide assists in the first three games of the national team!
It is worth mentioning that in the two warm-up matches against Ecuador and Honduras, Vardy, who played a total of 10 minutes, still did not score.

Although there was a shot on goal during the game.

But he was still a little short of his first goal for the national team.

Vardy is very open-minded about this.

Because Ling Feng has promised him that he will feed him the ball in the World Cup!

Scoring is only a matter of time
. . .

After completing the last warm-up match on the eve of the World Cup that day, all members of the Three Lions took a special plane and flew to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

As the host, Brazil has done a lot of work for this World Cup.

Including fighting crime, cleaning up the streets, renovating the stadium and more.

Thanks to the global promotion and publicity of the Premier League, coupled with the strong praise from the British media, in addition to the home team of their own country, the team that fans from all over the world are most familiar with is England.

In order to ensure the personal safety of players from each team, the local police also arranged gun guards for each team to provide security services.

It can be said to be very considerate.

Upon arriving at Rio de Janeiro International Airport, the Three Lions immediately took the bus prepared by the organizer and arrived at the Pestana Atlantic Ocean Hotel.

Two military buses, one behind the other, escorted the bus all the way.

Watching the battle, Vardy, who was sitting next to Ling Feng, couldn't help but said to himself with some pity:
"In this case, we may not have a chance to go out for a walk."

Hearing this, Ling Feng twitched the corner of his mouth and reminded:

"Instead of going out for a walk, why don't you just sit in your room and think about how you can kick my pass into the goal during the game."

In this regard, Vardy just promised with a serious face:
"Don't worry, I will seize the opportunity!"

Arrive at the hotel and make room assignments.

Ling Feng was assigned to the same room as his national team roommate Luke Xiao.

The first thing he did when he arrived in the hotel room was to take out his mobile phone and call his mother:
"Mom, I'm at the hotel, where are you?"

Every time the Three Lions play in the World Cup, they bring a beautiful scenery to the World Cup.

That's the English Wives Team!
However, due to poor results in the past few competitions, Hodgson has banned players' girlfriends or wives from traveling with the team at this World Cup in Brazil.

As a member of the Three Lions, Ling Feng does not have a girlfriend or wife.

Therefore, he did not need to pay attention to this prohibition.

His parents also followed him to Brazil to witness his first World Cup trip and cheered him throughout.

And it was his super agent, Mendes, who helped him solve all the problems of his parents' schedule and accommodation!

After Lingfeng was selected into the England World Cup squad and made consecutive appearances, Mendes became more and more interested in this England supernova.

While he felt that his eyes were as vicious as ever, he did not forget to do the logistical work for Ling Feng.

In his opinion, as long as Ling Feng appears in the World Cup, he doesn't even have to perform too well, and his worth will definitely skyrocket.

What follows is commercial endorsement of high-end brands and considerable commissions!

Mendes doesn't take things lightly when it comes to making money.

Providing comprehensive services to player clients is also his attitude and purpose!
That night, the team held a make-up birthday party in the hotel for Ling Feng, who had just celebrated his 19th birthday.

They all hope that Ling Feng's birthday will bring good luck to the team.

As the protagonist, Ling Feng was smeared in the face with cake by his teammates.

However, when he returned to the room and took a shower, he felt that his relationship with his teammates was getting closer.
The next day.

The Three Lions went to the training base of the Brazilian team Fluminense to prepare for the World Cup.

It is worth mentioning that in England’s 23-man roster, Hodgson boldly used new forces. A quarter of the players have represented the national team less than 5 times. The average age of the 23-man roster is 26 years old. .

In the previous 13 World Cup participations, England only won the championship on home soil in 1966.

That was the only World Cup England won so far.

In addition, England's best result in the World Cup was No. 1990 in the 4 World Cup in Italy.

In this World Cup, England is placed in Group D, with Uruguay, Italy and Costa Rica as opponents in the same group.

The first game is scheduled for June 6th.

The opponent is their old rival who eliminated them from the European Cup two years ago on penalty kicks - Italy!

(End of this chapter)