I AM the Football Star

Chapter 405 - 116: What’s So Great About a Cripple? San Remo Checks Fly Again

"Unlike you guys, we firmly believe that Lu Yang’s style of play, spirit, and rate of progress will certainly make him a famous football star in the future."

"Your program is all about profit-driven football, broadcasting whoever is popular. Whereas we pursue more pure and higher-level football, dedicated to discovering those players who should be shining. We are different!"

Luo Cheng and Chen Jun started an online slanging match.

There’s truth in the saying that peers are rivals.

In the end, Chen Jun said: "Stop talking about who’s a star, the European Youth Championship is coming up. Lu Yang got selected for the Italy National Youth Team, so you brag about him being a genius star."

"Whether he’s a genius or a star, doesn’t Italy National Youth Team’s head coach Maniero know? If you’re so great, why don’t you get Lu Yang into the Italy National Youth Team!"

Luo Cheng jumped with anger, cursing Chen Jun for being shameless.

A torn cruciate ligament requires at least half a year of recovery; Chen Jun saying Lu Yang will play in the European Youth Championship is completely misleading for ordinary fans.

If Lu Yang wasn’t injured, just see if Maniero wouldn’t take him!

Damn!

Two authoritative football commentators declared war because of Lu Yang.

...

By mid-June, Italy’s player transfer window started heating up.

Generally, the player trading market seldom gets active this early.

But this year is different.

This year, all major dealings in Serie A happened within a week of the window’s opening.

Clearly proving the truth that those who act fast succeed, and those who act slow miss out.

As such, waiting like previous years till July or even the end of July for trading is unrealistic.

This is related to Chelsea’s aggressive poaching of Gutierrez, while Inter’s bold offers sparked interconnected transfers of Becher’s, Savio, Talista, and others.

However, after Inter Milan, the quickest to act wasn’t a Serie A team, but a newly promoted Serie B team - San Remo.

Holding twelve million euros in cash, San Remo launched a lightning transaction, purchasing Thomas Areola, Atletico Madrid’s substitute and third-choice goalkeeper, for a high price of three million euros.

Moreover, they offered the 23-year-old Areola a lavish salary of 600,000 euros a year, double his pay at Atletico!

The contract spans five years, with an annual raise of 15 percent, theoretically allowing Areola to earn a million salary by 25. Keep in mind, this is a goalkeeper we’re talking about — a 25-year-old goalkeeper is not in peak form like 25-year-old outfield players, a goalkeeper at 25 is still quite young.

This deal isn’t small, but there are few evaluations because the recruitment target is relatively unique.

The goalkeeper position is hard to judge and measure.

The current mainstream view in football is that young goalkeepers are mostly unreliable. Although they have stronger physical capabilities, their inexperience and lack of composure make them easy prey for strikers.

Moreover, the goalkeeper’s wide field of vision requires involvement in defensive command, and overly young goalkeepers often lack both the talent to direct defense and the temperament or authority.

However, Atletico produced a great goalkeeper.

Though Oreola was just Atletico’s third-choice keeper, the ones suppressing him are premier goalkeepers for two national teams, which implies he’s not that inferior.

In response, the Italian media’s main saying is "San Remo has brought back Italy’s future national goalkeeper ahead of time."

That’s right, Areola is Italian.

In fact, there’s a rumor that he might compete for the starting goalkeeper position in the rebuilt Italy National Youth Team led by Maniero this year!

Now that San Remo bought him, considering the "bromance," oh no, the friendship between Sotu and Maniero, this rumor is very likely to be true.

Considering San Remo’s current starting goalkeeper Jalard is already 36 years old, and they lack a suitable substitute keeper, Areola’s recruitment is very fitting from a positional standpoint.

San Remo buys Areola, then promptly reinforces their frontline to fill the void left by Becher’s departure.

They offered four million to recruit Roberto Calafiori, a bench player from Bologna who fell from Serie A to Serie B this year!

Calafiori is known as the "Serie A blinker’s filter," unanimously recognized as the "King of the Serie A bench!"

He’s currently 30 years old, with the capacity to switch between multiple attacking positions like central forward and support striker.

But what he’s most famous for is... he has the magical ability to activate top-tier frontlines!

He joined Serie A’s giant Purple Lily at 20, becoming Florence’s rotation central forward.

At that time, there was another competitor for his position, named Carrel!

The rest is history.

Carrel, transitioning from center-back to center-forward, had his breakthrough at the Purple Lily, winning the Serie A Golden Boot for two consecutive seasons and earning the title "King of Purple Lilies!"

Sitting on the bench at Purple Lily for three seasons, Calafiori decided to move to Rome in search of new opportunities.

As it turned out, the season he transferred to Rome, Rome’s main striker Perrotta transformed, rising from a top Serie A player to a world-class star, completing a legendary boost from "Red Wolf" to "King of the Red Wolves."

With no choice, Calafiori had to venture out again, joining Inter Milan.

But after half a year at Inter, Inter brought in the warhead Gutierrez from Ukraine. As the saying goes, when such an extraordinary pair meets, it’s unmatched in the world.

Gutierrez at Inter completed his transformation into a superstar, emerging from a budding new star to Serie A’s top striker, renowned across Europe.