Chapter 546 The story that Wang Li and Maradona have to tell
At noon, the whole of England had arrived in Nuremberg by bus.
Nuremberg is the central city of the Middle Franconia administrative region in Bavaria, Germany. In Bavaria, it is the second largest city in the entire region after Munich. Nuremberg is very close to its two sister cities, Fürth and Erlangen, and the outer cities of the two urban areas are connected. Together, they are often referred to as the "Greater Nuremberg Region".
Nuremberg is a very famous city all over the world. The most famous event in its history was the trial of Nazi German war criminals held by the victorious countries here after the end of World War II.
Today, Nuremberg has become a symbiosis of a modern metropolis with a population of 500,000 and a medieval central city. It is a vibrant metropolis full of medieval style.
In Nuremberg, there are many famous medieval relics, whether it is Gothic churches, romantic half-timbered houses or cozy classical squares, all of which create an unforgettable atmosphere for this famous ancient city.
In the past, many famous artists such as Albrecht Dürer, Adam Kraft and Fethul Stoss created famous works of art in Nuremberg.
These are the characteristics of Nuremberg, but for the England players, the most interesting thing is the 'International Satirists' Gathering' held tonight.
This is a cultural activity left over from the Middle Ages.
The event takes place every July, and the day England arrived in Nuremberg was the second day of the 'Satire Poets' Gathering', which was held in the old town of Nuremberg.
After hearing the news, the English players became interested. On the afternoon when the team arrived in Nuremberg, they had free time, so many of them went to the old town to enjoy this strange gathering.
Wang Li was also somewhat interested. He had never seen such a strange activity in his three lifetimes.
Therefore, Wang Li, Beckham, Joe Cole, Rooney and others "dressed up" and walked out of the hotel and went to the old town of Nuremberg.
For these people to be together, there was really no point in disguising themselves like this. When they just walked out of the hotel, reporters followed them directly.
However, these people also knew that as long as the reporters did not disturb them, it would be fine. They were there to enjoy the German-style activities and they did not have any secrets that they were afraid of being known by the reporters.
When they arrived at the old town of Nuremberg, they saw that the square in the city was filled with German people. All of them were looking with great interest at a few people sitting in a circle in the middle and giving speeches.
Although there were many people in the square, it was very quiet. A man wearing a tall hat was giving a speech in German.
At this point, several people lost all interest.
All four of them were English, and none of them knew German, which meant that they couldn't understand it at all.
"I should have brought Irving along," Joe Cole said dejectedly.
This 'Owen' is not Michael Owen, but Owen Hargreaves. He has been playing for the Bundesliga giant Bayern Munich. Of course, he is familiar with German. Perhaps he can explain to them what these 'poets' are talking about.
After seeing that there was no fun at all, they decided to go back.
Most of the people gathered in the square were Germans over 40 years old. Young people seldom participated in this ancient activity. In other words, there were no beauties here. Several people could not even find the pleasure of appreciating beauties, so they voted unanimously to return directly.
This tour is really depressing.
"What? Look! Look! Look!"
Just when several people were about to walk back, Joe Cole suddenly screamed and pointed in a direction. Several people looked in the direction of his finger and saw a short middle-aged man with thick eyebrows and a baseball cap. He looked very strong. At this time, his hat was knocked off by the person next to him, revealing a face that most fans were familiar with.
Diego Armando Maradona!!
Beckham, Rooney and Joe Cole recognized him almost at the same time. They all walked towards that direction at the same time. Wang Li was stunned by the scene and hurried to catch up.
"Hello, sir?"
First, Beckham stepped forward and patted Maradona on the shoulder. Maradona reacted and subconsciously tried to get into the crowd. When he looked back and saw Beckham's face, he let out a long sigh, stopped and said, "Beckham?"
Without waiting for Beckham to answer, the middle-aged man turned around and looked at the other three people who followed him: "Wayne Rooney, Alan Wang."
"Um."
Maradona recognized the three people immediately, but he pointed at Joe Cole for a long time before hesitating and asking suspiciously: "Are you Robben? No, that kid seems to be from the Dutch team."
Joe Cole's face immediately turned black.
After they sat down in a restaurant box, Maradona was still apologizing to Joe Cole: "Hahaha, sorry, young man, it's hard to remember surnames when you get old. I forgot your name again."
"Joe~~~~~ Cole!!! Remember this!!!"
"Hahaha, it doesn't matter. I'll just call you Little Cole. You performed very well. You scored a goal last time. I watched that game from beginning to end." Maradona said with a smile. Joe Cole's depressed mood was relieved when this was mentioned.
But at this moment, Wang Li, who had been standing by in a daze, said something inappropriate, which shocked everyone present and even made Maradona want to vomit blood: "By the way, sir, who are you?"
Of course Wang Li didn't know Maradona.
If Maradona's name is mentioned, Wang Li must have heard of it, but he doesn't care about entertainment reports at all. In recent years, reports about Maradona have been very rare, and he will not take the initiative to look for Maradona's photos.
Although Maradona appeared at the opening ceremony of the last World Cup, Wang Li had no intention of watching it. Seeing so many veteran stars standing together, he would not pay much attention to them.
"Boy, don't you know me?"
Wang Li shook his head in confusion. He really hadn't recognized him. At least no one mentioned the name of this middle-aged man during the conversation.
"All right!"
Maradona stood up in the atmosphere, pointed at himself and said loudly: "Listen carefully, I am the idol of all Argentine fans, the conqueror of the football world in the 1980s, and the most famous football player in the world, Diego Armando!!"
After listening to this series of words, Wang Li narrowed his eyes and asked in confusion: "Diego Armando? I haven't heard of him? Who are you?"
Maradona almost fell to the ground after hearing this. He gasped and said, "Maradona!! I am Maradona!! Boy, do you know?"
Speaking of the latter, Maradona felt that he would be admired soon. It was always like this when he was in Argentina. No matter which player saw him, they would basically be amazed in disbelief, so he raised his head proudly.
Unfortunately, what I waited for was the sound of eating.
For Wang Li, eating is much more important than the middle-aged man in front of him.
The other three had already gotten used to Wang Li's performance, and they secretly sympathized with Maradona.
Although Maradona is recognized as the world's football king, it is almost impossible for him to use his fame to impress the black-haired boy in front of him.
Especially when eating, even if the England team loses, it is not more important than this black-haired boy eating.
This black-haired kid was indifferent to everything. As his good friends, they knew his personality very well.
"Okay, okay, kid, you are so rude! I curse you, No. 15, not to score a goal!" But Maradona didn't know that when he saw Wang Li's expression, he felt secretly unhappy and said.
At this time, Wang Li swallowed a mouthful of food, raised his head and said with a smile: "Thank you for your curse, I think I will score three goals next time."
"Impossible! You boastful brat!"
"How about we make a bet? If I score three goals, you will publicly admit in front of the media that your football skills are not as good as mine. How about that?"
Wang Li has long been secretly unhappy that the media always compares him with Maradona, Pele, Romario and the like. How could those former players possibly compare with him?
At least, he can score goals on his own, and his goal efficiency is unmatched by these people.
Why should they compare themselves with themselves?
This is what Wang Li thought, so he felt very unhappy. Although he had not won the World Cup trophy yet, from the perspective of football skills alone, these people were not qualified to be compared with him.
After hearing Wang Li's words, Maradona thought about it secretly and asked back: "What if you didn't score three goals?"
"One million!"
Wang Li held up a finger and said, "I lose one million euros to you."
"Okay, I take this bet!"
Hearing this, Maradona immediately responded that although he was recognized as the world's best player, his current income could not be compared with that of active stars. He could not earn at least 1 million euros in ten years: "You are at a disadvantage. If you win, I will also admit on behalf of Pele that he is not as good as you."
As the biggest "rival", Maradona felt that if he really lost, he should definitely drag Pele into it.
"Ok, it's settled."
Wang Li doesn't care at all. He has no special concept of money. He has earned more than 70 million euros this year. He doesn't care about one million euros at all.
After all, this money in the bank is just a bunch of data.
The three people nearby were stunned by the huge bet between the two people in such a simple conversation. Even Beckham, who had the highest income, was shocked by Wang Li's easy promise. Joe Cole was struggling: "Alan, can we also make a bet? If you don't score three goals, you also give me 1 million?"
"Wait until your reputation surpasses this uncle's."
Overall, this trip to the old town of Nuremberg was pretty good. At least Wang Li was satisfied. He had an agreement with Maradona, so it is likely that no media would compare him with others in the future.
The other three also felt it was great to be able to meet Maradona and chat with him, after all, such opportunities are very rare.
After returning to the hotel in England, the atmosphere within the team entered a tense period of preparation.
Although the next opponent is just a team that looks weak, the England team is still very serious. After all, if they win this game, they will secure their position in the group and they can relax for a while.
It looks like everything is moving in the right direction.
However, Trinidad and Tobago, which seemed to be very weak, was not willing to be left out. In the first match of the group, Trinidad and Tobago, with one less player, tied with the strong opponent Sweden team with tenacious spirit and won a group point. This also gave them great encouragement before the match against England.
Many British media feel that the England team should take this team seriously.
But before the game, McLaren said in an interview that he did not take this ragtag team, which was mostly composed of players from lower-level leagues in the UK, seriously. He said that if the team could win in the first half, he would send young player Harrison to the second half to experience the atmosphere of the competition.
"I don't want to put any pressure on Khalilson. If we are already winning the game, I will let him play."
In contrast, the England team as a whole was not worried about the game. Only Beckham gave Trinidad and Tobago a compliment when facing the media: "For a defender, York is always a dangerous man. He is still a great star and we will be vigilant against him."
York is Beckham's Manchester United teammate. Before Beckham became famous, York was already a superstar of Manchester United. When Beckham was young, he always lived under the aura of York.
However, Beckham can also face reality. He added: "But he is old now. I think it is impossible to beat England with just Yorke."
Amid such heated discussions, Trinidad and Tobago was not willing to be left out. In an interview with the media, their head coach Beenhakker compared the England team to Real Madrid last season, because both teams were full of superstars but failed to win the championship.
Beenhakker even directly declared that his team would defeat England and shock the world.
Beenhakker's assistant Lisbongen also added fuel to the fire and satirized the England team, but his main point was to counter Beckham's remarks and believe that Beckham is better at selling his jerseys than playing football.
"England has great players but they will not win a tournament like this. It's like Real Madrid last season. You can recruit the best players in the world, but if you can't play as a team, no matter how many stars you have, it's useless. Beckham is just a commercial pawn. He can bring commercial profits to a team, but on the pitch, he is not enough to help the team." These are Lisbon's original words.
At this time, the England team received bad news that Rooney would not be able to play in the next game.
Before the World Cup, Rooney broke his metatarsal bone, and no one knew how his injury had recovered. In the last game, McClaren let him start, which made Manchester United coach Ferguson very dissatisfied. So the old knight found the English Football Association and joined them to put pressure on McClaren.
"No one can take the responsibility if Rooney collapses due to his old injury."
Ferguson said this angrily and emphasized that Rooney would never be allowed to play in the "unimportant" group match. Finally, he warned McClaren that he would be in trouble if he ignored him. This situation made McClaren very embarrassed.
In the previous game, Rooney scored a goal, but now the old Sir Alex, who has a huge influence in English football, actually asked not to let Rooney play, and he was also under pressure from relevant personnel of the English Football Association. This really made McLaren helpless.
Fortunately, he has called up five forwards for this World Cup, so even if Rooney does not play in the group stage, it will not have much impact on his tactical deployment.
In fact, although Trinidad and Tobago entered the World Cup for the first time, they have many supporters outside their home country, and Manchester United coach Ferguson is one of them.
The main reason is that Trinidad and Tobago's top star Yorke once played for Manchester United and was a favorite of Ferguson. As a Scotsman, Ferguson has never had any good feelings towards the England team.
Although Yorke has left Manchester United to play for Sydney FC, he still maintains a good relationship with Ferguson. In an interview, he claimed: "Sir Ferguson hopes that Trinidad and Tobago, led by him, can beat England."
He joked: "If we win, I'm sure Sir Alex Ferguson will call me the next day to wish me well."
In fact, Trinidad and Tobago's connection with Scotland goes far beyond York. Five players in this national team play in the Scottish league, so they have received more blessings from Scottish fans.
Thanks to Ferguson's appearance, it seemed that all public opinion turned to Trinidad and Tobago again, and they looked more like a team with the momentum to win.
However, just when the England team was keeping silent and waiting to prove everything with their strength, a world-class giant stood up and spoke "for the England team".
This person is Diego Maradona!
"I met Alan before, and he made a bet with me."
Maradona, who has returned to Munich, said in an interview with media reporters: "Alan said he can score three goals and perform a hat trick in the next game. If not, he will lose one million euros to me."
"It's true. I never tell lies."
Seeing the doubtful looks of the reporters around him, Maradona said affirmatively: "You can go interview that black-haired boy. I believe he will admit it."
"If I lose, I will admit that my football skills are far inferior to his. Of course, this refers to my football skills fifteen years ago. By the way, the Brazilian big mouth is also not good enough."
(To be continued)