Fox in the Penalty Area

"The 2025-2026 Premier League season came to an end yesterday. After thirty-eight rounds of fierce competition, Leeds City, which was not optimistic, finally won the Premier League championship this season... After winning the championship, the Flanders Stadium has become a happy place. Haiyang, after the team won the trophy, the fans were reluctant to leave for a long time... In the end they followed the team's bus and started a parade around the city... Of course, there were many accidents during the parade. Accidents happen from time to time. Considering that this is the first Premier League championship in the history of Leeds City, it is understandable that such a thing happened...Of course, I still want to remind everyone to pay attention to safety..."

The picture of Leeds City's championship parade last night was shown on the TV.

Little Matthew carried a sports bag with jerseys and sneakers, ran down the stairs and looked over there, and found that his father was not in front of the TV, so he asked his mother in the kitchen: "Mom, where is my father? Didn't he want to send me off?" Did you go to training?"

"He's packing the car outside." Mom pouted towards the yard outside the door.

Little Matthew ran out with his bag, and saw his father, David Miller, squatting next to the main driver's door of the Citroen car, carefully pasting a garland.

At the place where it has been pasted, little Matthew could see that it was the team emblem of Leeds City, and as his father smoothed out the pattern and pasted it next to the team emblem bit by bit, little Matthew gradually saw that it was the team emblem of Leeds City. ...the Premier League trophy!

"Okay!" Concentrated David Miller didn't know that his son was standing behind him. He looked at the results of his work with satisfaction, and the more he looked at the Premier League trophy that appeared next to the Leeds City team logo, the more delighted he was.

So he hummed the team song of Leeds City softly:

"We love you, Leeds, Leeds, Leeds...we've been through it together, through the ups and downs...we've walked together until the earth stopped turning...go on, Leeds...huh?"

While humming, he got up and walked back, and then he saw his son, little Matthew, who was stunned.

After the initial astonishment, he frowned: "When did you come out?"

Little Matthew came back to his senses and teased: "Dad, I heard everything. To be honest, your singing is comparable to Hu You's—I heard people in the club say that Hu You's singing is terrible!"

David Miller gave his son a hard look: "Is this your attitude towards our team's championship hero!"

Little Matthew's eyes widened: "Isn't it? Dad, isn't it? Who said he was only here to sell jerseys?!"

David Miller took a deep breath, then gritted his teeth and said, "If you don't want to walk to practice today,

Then you better shut up! "

Little Matthew put it away as soon as he saw it, and quickly opened the door of the rear seat, and threw himself and the sports bag in: "Dad is the best!"

Standing outside the car, David Miller laughed angrily when he saw his son like this, and decided not to argue with his son.

He also opened the main driver's door and got into the car, started the car and drove to the youth training base of Leeds City.

On the road, they saw a lot of cars with different brands, different models, different prices, and different grades... But they have one thing in common, that is, there are stickers related to Leeds City's championship on the outside of the car.

And when such cars meet, the two cars will honk at each other: "beep!" (forward!)

"Boom!" (Lies!)

This is a secret code belonging to Leeds City fans. As long as you press the horn twice and get two responses from the other party, everyone is on the same journey.

Then the drivers passed each other with a knowing smile and drove away.

Along the way, David Miller didn’t know how many times he honked his horn, and communicated with many Leeds fans in the air... He even saw someone on the side of the road picking up his mobile phone to take pictures of his car, and he knew it must be him driving The garland stickers outside the door attracted the attention of those people.

So he rolled down the window and gave those people a very proud thumbs up. Then his facial expressions were recorded together with the stickers...

"Wow!" Little Matthew, who was sitting in the back seat looking down at his phone, suddenly exclaimed, "Someone actually bought Leeds City to win the championship before the start of the season! The odds at that time were 5,000 to 1! This The truck driver who won the lottery said he was going to keep driving the truck... that's insane, if I had this much money I wouldn't go to school..."

"Huh?" Father's heavy hum came from the front.

"No, I mean, if I win so much money, I will definitely give you a car for Dad! He lost five thousand, and he spent two hundred pounds on a bet, and now it is one million...Ah! Dad, as a die-hard Leeds City fan, why didn't you think about placing a bet?"

"Who would have thought that Leeds City could win the championship?" David Miller snorted.

"This Neil Mullin didn't expect it either." Little Matthew said, pointing to his mobile phone, "He said in an interview that the bet was just to express his support for the team. Dad, look at his love for the club... ..."

"Shut up!"

Little Matthew grinned, then looked out of the car window, and then wowed: "There are many people in the red pepper!"

※※※

Wang Haoxi, Pei Yu and Song Xinghe looked up at the hotel signboard hanging on the wall.

"Red pepper!" Wang Haoxi said excitedly. "Tour to the Holy Land of Chinese Football! Let's GO!"

He waved his hand and took the lead to walk in.

Song Xinghe, who was following behind, complained: "What kind of tour to the holy land of Chinese football, he is clearly looking for an excuse to eat red pepper!"

Pei Yu laughed: "It's okay to eat Chinese food to commemorate the Chinese player's first Premier League championship... I don't think there's anything wrong with it!"

The three walked into the restaurant and collectively gave a "wow".

The restaurant was almost full, full of voices.

The waiters had to run to serve the customers so that the full restaurant wouldn't feel like they were being left out.

And looking around, there are many people who are not oriental faces like Wang Haoxi and the others, but native Leeds natives.

"I do know that 'Red Pepper' has a high status in the eyes of the locals in Leeds... I have never seen so many foreigners at the same time when I can come to eat!" Wang Haoxi was dumbfounded.

Song Xinghe said beside him: "Old Wang, why did you come to Red Pepper to eat? That's why they are here."

Just as they were talking, a waiter passed by them, glanced at them and said, "Sorry, it's full, why don't you go outside and line up?"

After finishing speaking, he ignored the three foreign students who were similar in age to him, and trotted towards the back kitchen.

Wang Haoxi, Song Xinghe, and Pei Yu still backed out and stood in line at the door consciously. Soon behind them, some more people came out and lined up with them.

"Forget it, the three of us will take a photo together first." Wang Haoxi took out his mobile phone, motioned the two roommates to come over and move closer to him, and then they took this group photo with the signboard of the Red Pepper Restaurant above their heads behind them as the background.

Then Wang Haoxi bowed his head and operated on the mobile phone, and sent out a circle of friends and Weibo:

"Chinese Football Holy Land Tour: Leeds City Celebration Banquet Designated Restaurant - Red Pepper!"

※※※

"...After the victory parade ended yesterday, the whole team of Leeds City appeared in the 'Red Pepper' restaurant soon. ...has to make people wonder if this is some new tradition for the Leeds City team...

"Of course after the dinner, Hu clarified in an interview with us that this was just a small bet between him and coach Clark - before the season, Clark had made a bet with him that if he could get the top scorer of the season, please He ate a meal of red chili... But for some reason, the news got leaked, so the invitation to only him turned into inviting the whole team...

"However, I think this is a good group activity. After each season, the head coach pays for all the players to have dinner together...It can unite people, boost morale, and also enhance the relationship between players and coaches, so that both sides can We will cooperate better in the next work... Although we guessed wrong before, I think maybe Leeds City can really seriously consider this matter as a tradition of the team and stick to it...

"After all, there is one thing that has become a tradition in Leeds City today-the panda doll who competed with Hu at the joining ceremony. Since Hu joined, every time Leeds City plays at home, this panda doll will appear On the sidelines, jumping and jumping to cheer for the team. Over time, Leeds City fans got used to having such a naive doll on the sidelines, and many fans even thought that it was the panda doll that brought the team With good luck, the team always wins the game... So what was originally a commercial activity has naturally become a new tradition of the club...

"So now why doesn't it become a tradition after the season to go to the 'Chili Peppers'? No matter what the original purpose is, when one thing is repeated many times, the tradition is established. Just Like the Christmas tradition of New Yorkers eating Chinese food, at first it was just because the Jews in New York did not celebrate Christmas, but most of the restaurants on the street were closed on that day, and only Chinese restaurants were open. So they The only choice is to go to a Chinese restaurant to eat... When this scene is repeated every Christmas, it changes from a habit of one person and a family to a tradition of a group of people and a city.

"So what if there was no tradition before? Now create a new tradition from scratch. Just like the past history of Leeds City, there is nothing to tell, and it is like a blank sheet of paper. But they now have the Premier League champion! Maybe in a few years, this champion will be Could it be the start of Leeds' championship tradition?"

——The Leeds City News reporter Jason Lowe's column "The Birth of a Tradition"