Chapter 106: Chapter 21: Monster Among Geniuses (Part 2)

The Valencia fans in the stands were booing, like a volcanic eruption, and some even tried to climb down from the stands.

“Oh~” Schuster felt it all and said to Francisco, “This isn’t good.”

“Yes.”

“My suggestion is that we should slow down our offensive.” Francisco raised his eyebrows and said, “After all, they recently went through some bad times. If we keep up the attack, it might cause some unnecessary injuries.”

The Valencia players and fans were clearly seeing “red,” and when Albiol left the field, he even received some applause from the Valencia fans.

“Alright!” Schuster crossed his arms, calm now, and said, “You are right.”

“We just need the win, not to humiliate them.”

In Valencia’s home stadium, the team was already 5 goals ahead. The two clubs had collaborations in various aspects, and considering Valencia had just changed coaches and had their key players missing, continuing further seemed like taking advantage of the situation.

During the remaining match time, both teams seemed to have some tacit understanding. Real Madrid launched some offensives, but they were not sharp, instead appearing natural, while Valencia tried to score a goal to save some face, but unfortunately did not get the chance until the match ended.

Mata came on as a substitute in the 78th minute, replacing Joaquin, and Chen Zhong was substituted by Baptista in the 81st minute, while Van Nistelrooy was substituted by Gago.

As he was substituted, Chen Zhong received intense boos from Valencia fans and applause from Real Madrid fans.

“Well done, kid.” Schuster gave Chen Zhong a big hug, “Keep it up, you’ll soon become the brightest star.”

Van Nistelrooy chatted with Chen Zhong a bit about nothing in particular after he left the field.

Ultimately, the score stood at 0:5.

Chen Zhong was again, unsurprisingly, named the MVP of the match.

“Is today a wonderful night for you?”

“You’ve moved to the forefront of the competition among players your age.”

“Do you now feel like you’re the best player of your age group?”

“Hahaha.” Chen Zhong looked at the reporter with a smile, “This is certainly a wonderful night. I scored two goals and provided an assist while becoming MVP. Facing a team like Valencia and showing such performance, I’m quite satisfied with myself at this stage, but I hope to be even better in the future.”

“Competition among the same age?”

“In fact, I’ve always felt that I was the best player of my age group, and my goal has moved beyond being the best of my age group.”

“Oh~” The reporter exclaimed in surprise and then asked, “So what’s your goal? To become the best player in the world?”

“That is indeed my goal, but saying that now seems a bit arrogant.”

“I feel the goal could be set smaller, like surpassing Barcelona’s Messi, Manchester United’s Cristiano, Milan’s Kaka…”

Kaka, C. Ronaldo, and Messi are the three most likely to win the Ballon d’Or among the 50 candidates and are the best performers of the last season.

Chen Zhong’s words drew a playful gaze from the reporter, as if saying, kid, you really dare to speak!

After chatting a few more words, the reporter continued, “Your performance this season is outstanding. I don’t think any national team would give up on a genius player like you. Recently, there have been rumors that the Spain National Team intends to recruit you. What’s your take on that?”

“Hahahaha.” Chen Zhong laughed and shook his head, “That might be difficult, I cannot give up my current nationality, or my family would not recognize me as their son. Furthermore, I’m proud of my nationality being Chinese.”

“Oh~” The reporter was first stunned, then spoke, “Ah, right, your country doesn’t accept dual nationality. I heard you haven’t received a call-up from the national team yet, are you worried about that?”

“I’m not worried about that, and I want to focus on club competitions now. I’m very clear about the fatigue and state decline caused by traveling back and forth because of the national team matches. I’ve seen the situation of my teammates some time ago and don’t want to be disturbed by other friendly matches and warm-up games.”

The interview soon ended, and Chen Zhong’s remarks also sparked some controversy online, with some netizens even being nitpicky.

Perhaps they’re naturally argumentative!

They criticized Chen Zhong with the viewpoint of “My nationality is Chinese.” “I cannot give up my current nationality; my family won’t recognize this son.” thinking that Chen Zhong wasn’t patriotic and was already a banana person.

They felt if they were Chen Zhong, they would proudly say they are Chinese, without making a fuss about nationality, and express how much they love their country.

This is the attitude a Chinese person should have, not what he has said, and they even called for the national team not to recruit Chen Zhong. In this big country with such a large population, there’s still plenty more Chen Zhong’s.

This made some true fans feel angry and puzzled. Do these people realize what kind of performance Chen Zhong’s age exhibits in the Champions League and the league means?

…

At the post-match news conference, Valencia’s coach Koman, a former Barcelona player, faced the questions from reporters with an unpleasant expression.

Strictly speaking, Koman didn’t fit Valencia’s previous proclamation about looking for a “world-class coach’s” standard. In terms of fame alone, Koman didn’t meet Solari’s requirements for a “world-class coach,” and the clubs he previously coached like Vitesse, Ajax, Benfica, and Eindhoven couldn’t match Valencia in scale. Moreover, Koman was quite unfamiliar with La Liga, having only served a brief stint as an assistant coach during Barcelona’s Van Gaal era.

All of this became a rationale for the media to fire shots at Koman.

Facing the accusations from reporters, Koman responded adeptly. There was indeed a mistake in this match, and the most severe was the misjudgment concerning Chen Zhong.

Directly causing the team to seriously overlook players on the defensive end in the first half.

“The main responsibility for this loss falls on me.”

“I didn’t expect there to be such a player as Chen in Real Madrid.”

“Before the match, I did make some preparations and heard about Chen. I knew he was a genius but didn’t expect him to be a monster among geniuses.”

Currently, besides Messi, the most celebrated genius in Barcelona is Dos Santos.

He is regarded as the “second Ronaldinho,” outstanding among geniuses, even overshadowing Bojan, but his performance in the league, looking only from goals and assists, is far inferior to Chen Zhong, and in media estimates, it’s outstanding if Dos Santos manages 6-10 combined goals and assists this season.

Yet the younger Chen Zhong had already reached this standard with half the season still remaining.

Koman’s answer put it simply: this match was merely an accident; we didn’t lose on a tactical level, we just miscalculated Chen Zhong and lost to Chen alone.

Schuster, during his interview, seemed a bit smug, smiling as he said, “I’m very satisfied with the result of this match. I never thought a game against Valencia would be so easy.”

“Hahaha, a monster among geniuses?”

“Certainly, that’s why he belongs in the first team.”

Of course, some were dissatisfied with the result, such as Valencia fans, who expressed their opinions online…

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep