Young Football Player

Li Chenglong drove his cheap car, followed the navigation around several times, and finally found Southgate's house in the suburbs of London.

When Jackie Lee was parking outside the house, Southgate opened the door and came out to check.

After all, it was a pre-appointed visit, and the other party knew he would come.

"Hello, Coach Southgate." Li Chenglong greeted him first and shook hands.

"You're welcome, Bruce, just call me Gareth."

Li Chenglong followed the other party into the room, and immediately saw two little girls around ten years old chasing and playing with each other in the house. The sofa pillows in the living room were thrown everywhere, and a slipper had already been thrown at Li Chenglong's feet.

"Mia, Feline, hurry up and tidy up the sofa, there are guests coming." Southgate yelled pretending to be angry, but the two little girls were not afraid of him at all, and instead rolled their eyes at him.

"They are too naughty." Southgate smiled awkwardly, so he had to clean up by himself.

Soon, Southgate's wife also came out. She was a tall woman, not at all shorter than Southgate, who was in his early 1.8 meters.

Before coming here, Jackie Lee had specifically learned about Southgate's family situation. Southgate's wife, Alison, had known him since he was playing football at Crystal Palace. Has been doing well and has two daughters, Mia and Phylline.

Judging from the situation just seen, Southgate is probably still a daughter slave.

Li Chenglong first sat in the living room with the Southgate family for a while, and had lunch together by the way.

At lunch, the two little girls who had gotten to know Jackie Lee kept asking questions about the Elephant Cafe.

"Are there really elephants in there?"

"There is no elephant, but all kinds of things inside are related to elephants. There are many paintings of elephants on the wall, and cups and chairs are also made to look like elephants."

"Is there a wall to go through?"

"I checked and it really wasn't. The first time I went there, I saw someone writing on the wall of the toilet, 'This wall can go through', so I tried it, and for the next few days my forehead They all carry a big bag."

"Hahaha……"

"When we go to Edinburgh, we must try it for ourselves."

Jackie Chan's little humor made the two little girls laugh, and Southgate was also very happy, which was more effective than the two bottles of Scotch whiskey he gave just now.

The Elephant Cafe is located in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. It is the most famous cafe in Scotland. It is famous because it is the birthplace of "Harry Potter".

It was there that JK Rowling wrote the Harry Potter series. Later, with the great success of the Harry Potter movies, the Elephant Cafe became famous, and Harry Potter fans from all over the world came here every day. to visit.

Now the Elephant Cafe has been spontaneously decorated by Harry Potter fans into a Harry Potter themed cafe. There are a lot of Harry Potter fans’ message notes in the desk drawer, and there are various Harry Potters on the corridor walls. Graffiti, even every inch of the wall and every glass in the toilet are filled with all kinds of words related to Harry Potter.

The phrase "this wall can be passed through" that Li Chenglong just said was not made up by him, it really existed on the wall of the toilet there.

Of course, Jackie Lee is not so stupid that he would actually bang his head against the wall.

In general, the Elephant Cafe is very attractive to Harry Potter fans. The two little girls seem to be Harry Potter fans too, but Southgate has not taken them to Edinburgh to see them. So they were very curious and kept asking Li Chenglong.

※※※

After lunch, Coach Nanmen took Li Chenglong into the study.

The two want to talk about some issues about the Olympic team, of course they can't have an interview in front of the whole family in the living room.

Uh, Southgate translates directly into Chinese, that is Nanmen.

So when Li Chenglong saw his surname, he couldn't help but think of Nanmen. There might be some unknown connection with the Ximen family in China. Maybe their family was related to Ximenqing hundreds of years ago.

"Bruce, the Olympic team hasn't been fully set up yet, mainly because there are still some problems..."

After entering the study room, coach Nanmen began to talk about the Olympic team with Li Chenglong. The matter was not that simple.

In fact, a long, long time ago, Britain was also part of the Olympic team. At that time, the British Olympic team performed quite well, winning three Olympic championships, and tied with Hungary as the country that has won the most Olympic football championships.

But later, due to various reasons, since 1960, Britain has never participated in an Olympic football match.

The main difference between failing to participate in Olympic football before is that FIFA does not recognize that the four major football associations in the UK can represent the UK in the Olympics alone.

To put it simply, none of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland can represent the UK alone. The UK must be a comprehensive team.

In fact, there is no separate Olympic trials in Europe. Every time, the Olympic trials are held during the European Youth Championship.

If you get a certain ranking in the European Youth Championship, you can automatically get the Olympic qualification and represent the European region to participate in the Olympic football competition.

Both England and Scotland have previously qualified for the Olympics, but neither competed because of the disagreement.

But today's London Olympics, the United Kingdom is also the host, so its absence is a bit unjustifiable.

When Britain won the right to host the Olympics in 2005, the then Prime Minister Blair publicly stated: "It would be shameful for the host country not to have a team of its own", and he hoped that it would be best to have a joint British team.

So since 2007, there has been talk in the UK of discussing the formation of the British United Nations Olympic team.

It is a pity that Scotland and Northern Ireland have expressed their refusal, especially Scotland, they even said that they would not attend the meeting to discuss whether to form the British National Olympic Games.

Only Wales, which has always had a close relationship with England, reluctantly agreed.

The matter has been dragged on for 4 years until the beginning of this year, and FIFA sees that it will be delayed again. There will really be no hosts for the Olympics next year, and everyone will be reduced to a laughing stock by then.

So FIFA issued a mandatory statement, requiring Scotland and Northern Ireland to release the players unconditionally.

Under pressure from FIFA, Scotland and Northern Ireland had to acquiesce.

But in fact, players must always volunteer to participate in the competition, right? You can't force players to play, can you?

Players from Scotland and Northern Ireland have taken the initiative to express their views that they cannot go even if they are selected. After all, they can always find a "reason" why they cannot go.

Therefore, the selection scope of the current Olympic team that is preparing to be formed is actually only England and Wales.

Although the name is not worthy of the name, it is finally possible to form an Olympic team.

However, the British media did not let go of this opportunity, and they began to hype the question of who should be the core to build the team.

From the point of view of the British media, there is no doubt that the team should be built with Beckham as the core. After all, he is the most representative figure in British football.

In fact, Beckham has already been selected as the image ambassador of next year's London Olympics, and will be responsible for the torch handover and other tasks at the opening ceremony next year. He himself also publicly stated his position in front of the media, claiming that he is very willing to represent Britain in the Olympics.

However, as the head coach of the Olympic team, Pierce is not willing to build a team with Beckham as the core. He believes that Beckham is old and on the verge of retiring, and he is not suitable to represent Britain in the competition.

The FA also faintly have this view, and they seem to support Pierce.

But Pierce just implicitly stated that Beckham was not suitable in front of the media, and was immediately criticized by various media.

Fortunately, Pierce did not directly admit that Beckham was not recruited to form a team, and there is still room for change.

Pierce's real idea is actually to build a team with Gareth Bale, who is currently popular in the Premier League, as the core.

Tottenham head coach Redknapp Sr. has also stated that Tottenham will not set up obstacles to the recruitment of Bell to participate in the Olympics.

But when Pierce planned to discuss with Bell in person, he couldn't even see the other party's face, but Bell's agent sent him away.

Obviously, Bell doesn't like Olympic football at all, and he doesn't intend to waste energy on it.

So so far, the first priority of who should be the core of the British Olympic team has not been confirmed, and the rest is a mess.

"But Bruce, you don't have to worry. Your outstanding performance that day has already left a deep impression on Coach Pierce. I believe that no matter who is the core, the team will have a place for you."

"And I also have some right to speak in the team. I will try my best to help you when the time comes. After all, we are all from Crystal Palace."

Southgate's last words made Li Chenglong's visit today not in vain.