World Cup of Great Powers

Maojiawan Training Base is far away from the city, so remote that there is no mobile phone signal.

When Zeng Zheng saw Ladd again, he noticed at a glance that the white-haired old man was a little lame in his right leg.

"Mr. Ladd!"

Zeng Zheng took two quick steps and stretched out his hands.

"Hello, Zeng!"

Ladd also took the initiative to step forward and hug Zeng Zheng.

Zeng Zheng and some people in the national team looked down upon each other, but this did not include the 60-year-old man.

No matter what, he has given up his prestigious international career and came here to help the poor for so many years, which is worthy of respect.

When asked why the other person was lame, Ladd waved his hand.

"I had some lumbar disc herniation a few days ago, but now I'm fine."

Ladd said this, but Zeng Zheng could see at a glance that the opponent's protruding lumbar vertebrae had obviously compressed the nerves in his thighs.

If this continues, I'm afraid the entire leg will become useless.

Although he has medicine that can help speed up his recovery, the only treatment for lumbar disc herniation other than surgery is to rely on maintenance.

Seeing that this old man from southern China has been coming to see me non-stop since the Spring Festival, I'm afraid it would be a luxury for him to lie in bed and rest for a whole day!

"It would be great if he wasn't the national team coach!"

This was the first time Zeng Zheng had such an idea.

And it has nothing to do with the intrigues about the strength of Chinese football and bamboo shoes.

Unable to resist Ladd's request, Zeng Zheng had no choice but to slow down and follow Ladd towards the training ground.

Along the way, Zeng Zheng and Ladd started chatting.

"I also came to Chengdu seven years ago."

"Oh? Maojiawan too?" Zeng Zheng asked curiously.

"No, it was Peng County, 70 kilometers away from here." Ladd recalled, "I was leading the Olympic team at the time."

"Pengxian County doesn't see sunlight all day long, it's cold and humid, and the washed clothes don't dry even after hanging out for several days. There's no heating in the house, and it's just as cold as outside."

Listening to Ladd's reminiscence of this story about his support to the countryside, which was often heard from the older generation, Zeng Zheng suddenly felt that the other party was not a southerner, but a real Chinese.

Ladd recalled one by one the team members he had led back then, such as Yang Chen, Qu Shengqing, Xie Hui and others.

To this day, he still pays attention to the football careers of these players.

"At that time, the Chinese coaching staff opposed recruiting Qu Shengqing. They thought he had no brains and only had a good body."

"But I think Xiaoqu will be a good player that meets European standards."

Zeng Zheng nodded.

Qu Shengqing has proven himself last season, otherwise he would not be in the current national team lineup.

Zeng Zheng even felt that Qu Shengqing was no worse than Zhang Yuheng.

Following the conversation about the last National Olympics, Ladd recalled the scene that made him saddest the most.

In 1996, in Malaysia, China had a decisive battle with the South Korean Olympic team.

"Before the game, I felt that the mentality of the players was a bit unbalanced. I wanted to say something to the players, but no one listened."

Zeng Zheng also has a deep understanding of this.

The BUFF "Korean phobia" is really not something that ordinary people can fight against.

"As a result, we lost the game in the first half. During the intermission, coach Qi suddenly asked me to say something to the players and asked Xie Hui to be the translator."

"Looking at Xie Hui, who was covered in sweat and tired, and thinking about the English that neither of us was very familiar with, I really didn't know what to say."

"After thinking about it, I just said, 'What do you have to be afraid of? What do they have to be afraid of?'"

"Then, I can only watch helplessly as the team I have devoted three years of my efforts to is defeated by South Korea."

"My heart was just torn into pieces piece by piece."

Having said this, Ladd stopped and looked at Zeng Zheng seriously.

"Once, you were able to defeat South Korea head-on on the field."

"It really granted me one of my wishes!"

Zeng Zheng was shocked for the first time.

He did not expect that this old man from South Korea would be as obsessed with defeating South Korea as the Chinese people.

Hearing this, Zeng Zheng asked about Ladd's past.

This old man, who was over sixty years old, gradually fell into memories.

In 1943, the winter in Yugoslavia was extremely cold.

At that time, it snowed heavily, and the mountains, woods, and villages were covered in snow.

But the rumbling sound of gunfire prevented the villagers from admiring the beautiful scenery outside the window.

The French XS are attacking the Yugoslav guerrillas in the mountains, and this village is the only way to pass.

Facing the enemy's attack, the whole village was in a hurry to escape.

Among the crowd, a mother and a seven or eight-year-old boy were left behind.

Guns and bullets whizzed past the heads of the two men.

"Mom, I really can't run anymore!"

The boy begged, "I want to rest here for a while."

The mother held the child's hand tightly, with a determined look on her face, "Son, we must run forward. If we don't run, we will die here!"

This little boy is Ladd!

From then on, that scene was deeply imprinted in Ladd's mind and affected his life.

After World War II, Yugoslavia was in dire straits and people were still worried about food and clothing.

Young Ladd found a perfect solution - attend football training!

Although it is hard and tiring, at least I can have enough food and clothing.

At the age of 18, Ladd was selected for the Yugoslav national team for the first time and was admitted to the Department of Economics at the University of Belgrade.

With such an achievement, the burden on his shoulders is even heavier.

The training and studies almost overwhelmed him.

He once planned to give up football, but when he thought that his elderly mother and sister who were in college still needed him to support them, the football started rolling under his feet again.

"Zeng, you are also a football person. You should know that the time for football to make people happy is too short! It is only a few seconds after scoring a goal or a few minutes after winning. The rest of the time, I live under tremendous mental and physical pressure.

under."

"I may not say I love football, but as a profession, I respect it very much!"

"When I was a football player, I never smoked or drank."

"I come to every training session more than ten minutes earlier than others and leave more than twenty minutes later."

"Just this extra half hour made me become the best center in Yugoslavia, scoring goals in almost every game!"

This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! A reporter asked Ladd what is the secret to becoming a good center?

Recalling his mother's advice, Ladd replied: "Keep moving forward! Just shoot the ball into the opponent's goal when you catch it!"

Playing from the age of 18 to 36, Ladd's 18-year football career has left Ladd's body full of injuries and fatigue.

When he could no longer look directly at the black and white round thing, he resolutely chose to leave the football field.

Armed with a certificate in economics, Ladd arrived at the office of a large Swiss company.

But when he really said goodbye to football, he found that "it was really difficult to change the sea".

As the days passed, Ladd became more and more disgusted with the constraints of suits and leather shoes, the monotony of going from the desk to the wine table, and the intrigues of chasing profits.

After several nights of self-examination, Ladd finally decided to major in football coaching.

After obtaining two coaching certificates in Yugoslavia and Germany, he returned to the green field and began his second sprint in life.

From the beginning, Ladd was different from most football coaches.

"I am an intellectual coach, different from those barbaric coaches!" He said of himself.

Most football coaches stand in the middle and direct their players, either yelling at their players to "run!" or "knock them down!"

When Ladd is training, the stadium is always quiet.

No matter what the situation, he always insisted on running and jumping with the team members.

Ladd explained: "I just want to breathe and sweat with the players."

"That way I can get a handle on how they're really feeling and know when they're tired and when they're bored."

"UBIBENE, IBIPATRIA (Latin: wherever good is, home is home)" is Ladd's motto.

He wants to be the most glorious and difficult international coach.

It is a thousand or ten thousand times more difficult to work with strangers in a foreign land than in Yugoslavia!

But he always believed that his professionalism and courteous gentlemanly demeanor could help him overcome any difficulties.

In 1980, Ladd came to Cameroon to serve as the national team coach and stayed there for six years.

Uncle Mira in the civilized world was brought up by him.

Then, success came one after another.

In 1982, the Cameroon team entered the Olympic Games for the first time;

In 1985, Cameroon won the African Cup for the first time.

In just a few years, he trained an unknown team into a world-class team.

Since then, he has become a legendary coach.

At the same time, fate closely linked him with a large country in the Far East.

In 1992, China Bamboo Shoes requested FIFA to send a world-class coach as the head coach of the national team.

Ladd was selected by FIFA because of his outstanding achievements in Africa for more than ten years and his rich experience in training weak teams to turn them into strong teams.

Later, the Magic City public offered to provide financial support, but they had to hire a German coach.

So here comes Schlapner.

Although the level of Chinese football is low, it has always been the number one "hot spot" in Chinese sports.

The arrival of Uncle Shi that year directly made the blood of hundreds of millions of fans who are "disappointed every year and look forward to it every year" boil with excitement.

With the help of the director of the Sports Committee, the fans wrote their dreams and desires directly on Uncle Shi's car: "Reach out of Asia and go to the world!"

Back then, even a hair of Uncle Shi could be sold for a high price of 50,000 yuan!

However, the greater the hope, the greater the disappointment.

In 1993, in the World Cup qualifiers in Irbid, the Chinese team lost to the inferior Yemeni team and lost the right to qualify.

When the news came back, the whole country was in an uproar! Public opinion circles denounced Schlapner together.

Until then, Zhu Xie could only turn his attention to Ladd again.

Compared to when Uncle Shi arrived a year ago, the conditions Ladd received were much worse: he could not lead the national team, but could only lead the Olympic team composed of 18- and 19-year-old players.

The salary is only one-eighth of Uncle Shi's.

Not only that, the extreme disappointment at that time made the fans hate the foreign coach.

In this case, if it were you, would you come?

On August 26, 1993, Ladd was invited to China.

Everything here makes Ladd happy.

In other words, when he first stepped into this land, he felt a sense of intimacy and familiarity.

One summer night not long after arriving, Ladd pointed to the stars in the sky and sighed affectionately: "I want to know the stars here most."

"Before coming here, I have traveled to more than a hundred countries. I thought there was nothing on this earth that I didn't understand. Now I know I was wrong."

“If you don’t come here, your understanding of the world will never be comprehensive.”

From then on, Ladd told everyone he met that he was originally Chinese.

He began to learn to eat with chopsticks, and picking up peanuts became Ladd's best special practice.

The collision, communication and integration of cultures fascinate Ladd.

He worked hard to learn spoken Chinese, tried his best to soften his stiff tongue, and even added a Chinese pronunciation to himself.

After the Hiroshima Asian Games in October 1994, Bamboo Shoes decided to change Ladd to the position of technical advisor, and Qi Yousheng took over as the head coach of the National Olympic Games.

Overnight, their positions were reversed.

"The reasons for the exchange seemed to be two things." Ladd held out two fingers.

"At that time, the performance in several friendly matches at the National Olympics was not very good."

"The second one is that some people feel that the amount of training I lead is a little small."

Zeng Zheng nodded. Until now, there are still some coaches in China who follow the creed of high-intensity training to produce elites.

"Then how did you respond?"

"I was assigned by FIFA to come to China with the purpose of helping Bamboo Shoes complete all its work, not for honor and money."

"During my term of office, I will complete all the instructions of Bamboo Shoes."

Zeng Zheng also sighed.

Maybe this is why some people now like to use Ladd for bamboo shoes.

However, truly adapting to this change is difficult.

No matter which team he was in before, Ladd was always the head coach and the executor of his own ideas.

But after becoming a consultant, he could only stand by the side of every training class and could not interfere.

In order not to interfere with Qi Yousheng's work, he tried to avoid direct contact with the team members.

And once he finds a problem or has any opinions, he will also talk to Qi Yousheng.

Ladd didn't do this intentionally to ignore the players.

On the contrary, he believes that the most important thing in a team is not the coach but all the players.

Because no matter how high the level of a coach is, he cannot play the game himself. He must rely on the 11 players on the field and rely on their sweat and even blood to win the game.

Zeng Zheng also strongly agrees with this point.

There are people of all kinds in the football team, but they have one thing in common: they are very sensitive.

"I never have direct conflicts with the players!" Ladd said, "Even if sometimes their performance makes me angry to the point of knotting my intestines."

Speaking of which, Ladd recalled.

"When we were in Cameroon, one player had to stretch his stomach before going to sleep; another player had to ask a wizard for divination before the game. If the wizard said it was not appropriate to play, he would not play.

."

Zeng Zheng listened with interest, "Mr. Ladd, how did you handle it?"

"It's very simple, just convince and educate." Ladd said with a smile, "If it doesn't work once, I will say it ten times. If it doesn't work ten times, I will say it a hundred times. Anyway, I have a lot of patience!"

Zeng Zheng was speechless.

I really can't do this!

"Mr. Ladd, have any Chinese players made you angry?"

"No." Ladd still shook his head, "It's just that once during training, I saw a player's movements were not very standard. At that time, I asked him to do it again."

"But the player thought I was deliberately making things difficult for him, so he kicked the ball away in anger and spoke a few words in his local dialect."

"Although I couldn't understand it, I knew he was scolding me."

"I looked at him for a few seconds and then walked away."

"After the training, the team member came to me with a panic look on his face and apologized."

"I told him that during training, my words are law and you must implement them. If you want to curse, just curse in your stomach. It's best not to say anything."

After hearing this, Zeng Zheng finally understood why Ladd didn't want to leave as soon as he came here.

He is more Chinese than a Chinese!

Gentleness, kindness, respect, and frugality are all vividly reflected in Ladd.

Even now, he is still suffering the injustice of Bamboo Shoes and being treated as a pawn by Bamboo Shoes, but he still pays silently and works hard.

And this is probably the reason why although he has outstanding achievements and noble character, he has always been unknown and depressed!

Even behind the scenes, even Shen Xiangfu felt that Ladd was too weak and useless.

In February 1995, when the National Olympics were going to Hong Kong to play the "Dunhill" Cup, Bamboo Shoes suddenly and temporarily decided to replace Ladd with a Bamboo Shoes official.

"This is actually a blow to me. It's meant to keep me away from asking questions, but I can only obey." Ladd sighed.

Because of this incident, Ladd's translator at the time couldn't stand it anymore and resolutely chose to resign.

Ladd remained in office until August 1996 without an interpreter.

Two years later, when Ladd's translator returned home after completing his term at the embassy in Macedonia, the most surprising news he heard was that Ladd was still in the country!

Ladd did not play for Bamboo Shoes at that time, but came to an ordinary football school in Beijing as the head coach.

Hearing this, Zeng Zheng was also very curious.

"After the contract with Bamboo Shoes was terminated, I received invitations from several first-division clubs and other countries."

"But I have been engaged in professional football for 45 years. Whether as a player or a coach, I have already received what I deserve. Money and honors do not matter to me."

"Out of love and respect for this place, and considering my age, I want to stay here and work for a few more years to bring my football career to a successful end."

Speaking of this, Ladd's eyes lit up.

"Zeng, did you know? According to the latest results of international genetic research, Africans and Chinese people actually have the same ancestor!"

Zeng Zheng has a mouth full of gab.

This really touched upon his blind spot in knowledge.

While thinking about why the other person said this, Ladd continued: "You know, Africans and Chinese have very similar muscle types, movement coordination, and reaction abilities."

"This means that it is possible to cultivate a hundred 'Mira' and a hundred 'Bijek' in China!"

"well!"

"I wish I had trained a few of them."

Hearing this, Zeng Zheng couldn't help but be moved.

It seems that Ladd is not ready to go home.

"Mr. Ladd." Zeng Zheng took Ladd's hands, "If you can, please help me!"

"I swear, I can definitely fulfill your wish!"

At this moment, Zeng Zheng finally made up his mind.

Even if it is for the old man from southern China in front of him, he must "snatch" the head coach position!