Chapter 289 There Is only One Goal!

"Oriental Daily" is a Chinese-language newspaper in Hong Kong. It was founded by brothers Ma Xiru and Ma Xizhen. It is published by the Oriental Press Group.

It is such an influential media, but the department responsible for sports-related news in the editorial department is quite leisurely, because there is not much sports news to report in Hong Kong. In the Asian Cup finals, this news was reported repeatedly, and the frequency of reporting made the reporters in the editorial department feel a little boring.

Fortunately, some time ago, there is still a big news related to this that is worth reporting, that is, the Premier League Manchester City Club, the young Chinese head coach Wan Sheng may take over the Hong Kong team to compete in the Asian Cup.

This news is considered by the industry to be hyped and unrealistic.

The head coach of Manchester City Club, the world's top and youngest head coach, Wan Sheng, how influential is he in world football? How could he be associated with Hong Kong football... that's a bit too much!

But the news was spread by the Hong Kong Football Association, so various media in Hong Kong still reported it.

The same is true for "Oriental Daily", but people in the editorial department believe that this is just hyped by the industry peers, and it is impossible to become a reality. After doing some "supposedly" reports, there are not many sports journalists. followed.

Fang Yongsheng is a reporter in charge of the sports section of the "Oriental Daily". He is only 27 years old and is a very young reporter in the industry.

Usually, he is always motivated to interview everywhere, but now in June, before the start of the Asian Cup, he can only look forward to following the newly formed Hong Kong team to Southeast Asia for some preparation-related interviews. There was nothing to do these days before that.

Recently, his job is to check some sports news from abroad and the mainland, and find out the news that can be used as reporting material.

This job is very leisurely, in fact, it means that he has nothing to do to browse the web page and record the main content. He still has time to chat with colleagues when he is working. Pull some gossip that is long in the east and short in the west. Working hours are really boring.

At this moment, a figure broke in and called out his name directly.

Fang Yongsheng was a little puzzled and immediately reacted. It was his superior female editor Wang Na. After Wang Na called his name, she immediately ordered loudly. "Fang Yongsheng! Go to Hong Kong Airport! Bring the camera crew. Immediately, immediately!"

"What's wrong?"

Many people in the editorial office came over, and Wang Na explained, "Wan Sheng... It's Wan Sheng, he's coming to Hong Kong!"

"Wan Sheng?"

Just when many people were wondering, Fang Yongsheng was the first to react, "Is the head coach of Manchester City in the Premier League, only 30 years old, known as Wansheng, the youngest and most successful Chinese coach?"

"Of course. Who else will be there? It won't be fast! If it's too late for the interview. Be careful of being deducted from your salary!" Wang Na looked at Fang Yongsheng for a while, and shouted angrily.

Fang Yongsheng hurriedly organized his things, while surprised by the news, he muttered in a low voice, "Women in menopause are really hard to mess with..."

————

In Hong Kong, I don't know how many media editorial departments have a similar scene.

Wan Sheng's visit to Hong Kong this time was not carried out in secret. He did not wear sunglasses or a hat to cover up at Dalian Airport, so he was recognized as soon as he arrived at the airport, and then all the nearby media reporters rushed over to interview, Wan Sheng also calmly I am going to Hong Kong.

What are you going to do in Hong Kong?

Whatever he does, hurry up and report the news!

Soon afterward, the media in Hong Kong got the news. They were going to go to the Hong Kong International Airport to ‘meet’ Wan Sheng. What they wanted to know was, what exactly was Wan Sheng doing in Hong Kong?

Is it for his Tagolwan Group, or as previously reported, he will take over the Hong Kong team for the Asian Cup?

Whatever the reason, go for an interview!

So when Wan Sheng got off the plane, it was not surprising that he was surrounded by a large group of reporters in the airport reception hall.

Wan Sheng was not surprised. In fact, he was prepared for this when he came to Hong Kong. This time he also deliberately did not conceal his whereabouts. After stepping on the plane to Hong Kong, he had already entered the 'work mode'. In charge of the Hong Kong team, there is no need to be sneaky, so at the airport, Wan Sheng also accepted an interview by the way.

He emphasized three points, "I came to Hong Kong because of the invitation of the Hong Kong Football Association."

"If you want to take over the Hong Kong team, a special press conference will be held."

"This visit to Hong Kong has something to do with the investment of Tagorewan Group in Hong Kong."

After talking about these three points, there is no need to say anything else. What Wansheng emphasizes is that he came to Hong Kong for work, which is related to the Tagore and Wan Group and the Hong Kong Football Association.

Whether or not he will take over the Hong Kong team will be left to the media to guess.

Perhaps there is no need to guess. Wansheng’s visit to Hong Kong is equivalent to sending a clear signal. All media in Hong Kong have reported on this, and even Ta Kung Pao, which has always been unfamiliar with sports news, has made a confident report, “Wansheng is very May take over the Hong Kong team for the Asian Cup in July!"

At this time, Wansheng has entered the hotel arranged by Hong Kong.

————

Wan Sheng rested in the hotel for a night, and the next day Hong Kong hosted a welcome banquet for him.

The Hong Kong side has made very thoughtful arrangements. At the welcome banquet, there are also a lot of big people. They can be divided into three categories. One is the officials of the Hong Kong Football Association. These people are based on the Hong Kong Football Association. The chairman of the association, Liang Jinde, is the leader, but they are not the main characters, because many stars in the business, political, and even film and television circles have also come. These are the people who really need to pay attention.

Wan Sheng was a little surprised by the welcome banquet of dozens of people, as if he had been treated as a 'political dignitary'.

Some of them, Wan Sheng had also heard of fame, but it was the first time he had actually met them. Under the introduction of Kevin Tagore, Wan Sheng shook hands with them one by one. At the subsequent banquet, he talked about some Tagore. related to the Wan Group.

In this regard, Hong Kong's political and business circles are very concerned.

The scale of the Tagalwan Group is not too large, but the funds that can be used are also calculated by 'billion US dollars', some of the previous actions of the Tagolwan Group. Many people do not understand, Kevin - Tagore, as the CEO of the group, rarely discloses relevant news.

Wansheng, as the largest shareholder of Tagore-Wan Group, naturally has a right to speak.

He only talked about one point, "Our goal is to take root in Hong Kong and China." This clearly expresses the general direction of the group in the future. It is also equivalent to Hong Kong and China, releasing a friendly signal.

After that, Wansheng said, "The development of the group is managed by CEO Kevin Tagore, and he will not interfere too much in the affairs."

Then there is no more talk about the group company.

The next most important thing is to come to Hong Kong for the most important job - to take over the Chinese Hong Kong team and lead the team to the Asian Cup.

For football, Wansheng has a lot to say.

This is his profession and his purpose. According to him. The current situation of the Hong Kong Football Association is a bit pitiful.

The Hong Kong Football Association was a permanent clubhouse that applied to the government for land allocation in 1972. In 1974, it was approved and a piece of land was handed over to Ho Man Tin for the Hong Kong Football Association to build a clubhouse.

After more than five years of preparation, the Hong Kong Football Club located on Fo Guang Street was officially opened on September 10, 1979. The opening ceremony was presided over by the then FIFA President Xia Weilang. The new clubhouse is three stories high and covers an area of ​​19,000 square feet. (about 1900 square meters). Large-scale conferences can be held, and the clubhouse has been used to this day.

after 2000. The Hong Kong Football Association received funding from FIFA's "GOAL-Project" to carry out a large-scale reconstruction project, and the opening ceremony was held on January 28 this year.

From the development process of the Hong Kong Football Association Headquarters, it can be seen that there must be problems with their finances.

In fact, the Hong Kong Football Association has always been very poor. They have been running deficits since 2004 due to poor financial management, which has led to a series of losses in financial reserves. Although the Football Association has made great efforts to save the country and reduce expenditure, including some directors' pledge to donate more than 500,000 yuan, last year's financial report showed that they still had a deficit of more than 1 million Hong Kong dollars.

Compared with the prosperous economic situation in Hong Kong, the development of the Hong Kong Football Association is very bleak. This situation also leads to the fact that the officials of the Hong Kong Football Association do not have a very important position at all.

This can be seen at the welcome banquet.

This banquet was organized by the Hong Kong Football Association for Wansheng, but their officials were like 'followers', and only the chairman of the Football Association, Leung Kwan Tak, could say a few words, and the others just stood beside them. Can't speak at all.

Wan Sheng also shook his head silently in his heart. Compared with the rich and powerful FA, the Hong Kong Football Association is far behind.

This is actually quite normal, mainly because of the current situation of football in Hong Kong.

The Hong Kong team still had a glorious past. In 1949, the Hong Kong team lost to South Korea 2-5 in the first international match. Four years later, the Hong Kong team defeated South Korea 4-0 and won the first international match.

The Hong Kong team had reached the first four Asian Cup finals and won third place at home in 1956.

In 1974, the Hong Kong team faced Malaysia, Vietnam, and Japan in the World Cup Group A qualifiers. They all defeated their opponents 1-0. In the end, they lost to the host South Korea 1-3 and finished second and failed to qualify. The members of the Hong Kong team that year were composed of "Friends of Seoul" meet regularly.

In the qualifiers held in Singapore in 1977, led by Dutch coach Bao Qin, they defeated Indonesia and Thailand 4-1 and 2-1 respectively, and also beat Singapore and Malaysia 2-2 and 1-1 respectively, and successfully qualified for the promotion. Second round match.

In the first round of the World Cup qualifiers in 1986, the Hong Kong team beat Brunei 8:0 at home on February 23, 1985, and the chivalrous center Mak Jinxun, who represented Hong Kong for the first time, scored four goals alone.

The history of these football matches records the glory of the Hong Kong team, but since the 1990s, Hong Kong football has entered a period of twilight, and it is very powerless to revive it.

At the beginning of the 1990s, although the Hong Kong team retreated to the second and third tiers of Asia, they still had occasional outstanding performances in competitions. For example, in the first round of the 1998 World Cup qualifiers, they defeated the Southeast Asian powerhouse Thailand 3-2 at home, and they also fought hard at home. The next two goals were only lost to South Korea, the Asian tigers, both of which were the hard work of the Hong Kong team.

However, there was a fake wave incident in the same competition. The striker Wei Junlong, goalkeeper Lu Jiarong, defender Chen Zhiqiang, wing Feng Chen Zijiang and others were sentenced to prison for manipulating the game, which was even worse for Hong Kong Football.

In 1997, the sovereignty of Hong Kong was handed over. Since then, the Hong Kong team has to participate in international competitions in the name of "Hong Kong, China". In the late 1990s, the Hong Kong team continued to perform poorly. In the Asian Games football qualifiers, a total of 11 eggs were eliminated in the two games.

In the first round of the 2002 World Cup qualifiers, the FA hired Dutch coach Li Shayun to hope that the Hong Kong team could achieve good results, and also frequently invited foreign teams to visit for practice matches. In the end, due to the players' difficulty in adapting to the coach's style and the FA's lack of long-term plans, it was an anticlimactic. Ended up with poor results.

After that, Hong Kong football almost collapsed. Their fame is not comparable to the "Hong Kong Star Football Team" of the Hong Kong Film and Television Star Sports Association. As a result, when it comes to Hong Kong football, people will think of the football team composed of a group of film and television stars. As for the real Hong Kong team, very few people know about it.

A reality that Hong Kong football is well aware of is that they are on the verge of falling to the amateur level.

Wan Sheng was quite prepared for this.

In fact, he didn't expect the Hong Kong team to be strong. He just led the team to participate in the Asian Cup. Are there any star players in the specific team? He doesn't care at all.

lead the Hong Kong team. It will allow him to increase his experience in international competitions.

It's a whole new experience.

To coach the Hong Kong team, in fact, a large part of it is of a 'commercial nature'. He is not coaching just to become the Hong Kong coach. This is also a kind of 'football show' contracted with Hong Kong. A means of expanding your network.

Wansheng is still very clear about these.

Therefore, it is very important to attend a similar banquet. At the banquet, Wansheng also found a few people who can talk to each other. For example, former Chinese professional player Fan Zhiyi, Fan Zhiyi worked as a football coach for a period of time after his retirement. But it was not very successful. He came to Hong Kong at the invitation of wealthy businessman Yang Jiacheng.

Wan Sheng quickly got to know Yang Jiacheng, because the two have a lot of common topics in Premier League football.

Yang Jiacheng was born in a housing estate in the New Territories of Hong Kong in his early years. He went to London to study at the age of 16. After returning to Hong Kong, he became a hair stylist. Some Hong Kong media reported that Yang Jiacheng's life was not satisfactory at that time, and he was collected by banks and courts.

After Yang Jiacheng made his fortune, he began to get involved in real estate. He started investing in luxury properties in the mid-levels and turned into a full-time investment expert. He gradually became widely known. His main industries were in the real estate market and gambling market. Macau has a stake in the famous Greek mythology casino.

Few people are interested in these history of prosperity.

In fact, Yang Jiacheng has been interested in English football for a long time, and this year, he has made real practical actions-in January this year, Yang Jiacheng offered 120 million pounds to acquire the Reading team that is still in the British Championship; this year 3 In January, he offered another 50 million pounds for Wigan Athletic; in April this year, Yang Jiacheng offered 30 million pounds for Sheffield Wednesday.

Unfortunately, all three acquisitions ended in failure.

Now, Yang Jiacheng is in the process of acquiring the Premier League Birmingham club, but after three 'setbacks', he has no firm confidence in this acquisition. Perhaps this is also because he is somewhat uncertain about the investment environment of the Premier League, so he is in this regard. Wansheng was consulted.

Wan Sheng did not give clear advice, he only talked about the development of Manchester City in two years, "I have brought two league titles to Manchester City, Manchester City has paid off 70 million pounds of debt in the past two years, and has A lot of profit."

The meaning of Wansheng is very simple. The development of the club is actually directly linked to its achievements.

The Premier League's football investment environment cannot be said to be very good, but it is not bad in Europe. It is a country of gold and dollars. If you want to rely on football to make money, you may only invest in companies like Manchester United. It is not easy for large clubs and small clubs to guarantee results, so in terms of investing in football clubs, it is not easy to make profits. It depends on the individual's perspective.

If it’s just a personal hobby, it doesn’t matter if it makes a profit or not, but if it’s to make money and invest in small clubs in the Premier League, the prospects are not so optimistic.

Wansheng couldn't help Yang Jiacheng in this regard, he just gave personal and reasonable suggestions.

————

In the first three days of coming to Hong Kong, Wansheng was busy with interpersonal communication.

He met with people from all walks of life in Hong Kong to communicate about the business development of the Tagorewan Group and some football-related issues.

Three days later, Wan Sheng put down all these tasks and walked into the headquarters of the Hong Kong Football Association. In the afternoon, the Hong Kong Football Association held a press conference to officially announce that Wan Sheng took over the Hong Kong team and will lead the team to battle. Asian Cup in July.

Although it is not the latest news, when the Hong Kong Football Association announced Wan Sheng as the head coach, it still caused an uproar in the Hong Kong and mainland media.

Before this, many people speculated that the news that Wan Sheng took over the Hong Kong team was just a hype. Unexpectedly, it has now become a fact. Some domestic media could not help but think of the news that the Chinese Football Association had invited Wan Sheng to serve as technical guidance. The negotiation was over.

Unexpectedly, Wansheng really took over Hong Kong.

The Chinese team and the Chinese Hong Kong team compete in the Asian Cup together, which is a news worthy of extensive coverage. Wan Sheng is the head coach of the Chinese Hong Kong team, and this Asian Cup held in the four Southeast Asian countries is even more worth looking forward to.

At the press conference, Wansheng accepted a live interview.

This is not the first time he has been interviewed as a head coach, but it is the first time he has coached the national team to compete in the International Cup.

This first time was different from previous experiences.

Whether he was coaching Derby County or taking over Manchester City, the outside world had doubts about his ability. Now that he takes over the Hong Kong team, almost no media has questioned his ability, but the media is not praised. They also have doubts. The focus of the question is the strength of the Hong Kong team.

"Excuse me, what is your goal to lead the Hong Kong team to the Asian Cup?"

This is the point.

Wan Sheng sat on the podium, looked at the reporter who asked the question, and said with confidence and seriousness on his face, "To qualify for the group, this is the goal given by the Hong Kong Football Association."

Hearing this answer, the media was not surprised.

Even if the Chinese Hong Kong team entered the Asian Cup finals by 'luck', as long as they enter it, the goal will definitely not be to 'increase experience', otherwise the Hong Kong Football Association will not invite Wan Sheng to coach the team, then their The goal can only be 'group qualifying'.

But Wan Sheng didn't finish his words. After a pause, he continued, "I personally don't think so. According to the strength of the Hong Kong team, qualifying from the group is indeed a good goal..."

"However, no matter which team I coach or which tournament I play in, I only have one goal, and that is—"

"——Champion——!!" (To be continued ~^~)