Chapter 1000 This Kid Is Pretty Good

Dinamo Zagreb is a top team in the Croatian league. It has won seven consecutive championships in the past seven seasons, which is comparable to Lyon in the French Ligue 1 at the beginning of the century. However, Croatia is not as good as France, and the Croatian First Division, which has only twelve teams, is not as good as the French Ligue 1.

As a giant team in Croatia, Dinamo Zagreb has its own way of survival, which is to basically follow the path of Lyon in its heyday, dominate the domestic league, focus on attacking the Champions League, rely on stronger financial resources than competitors, poach players from the same country, and then sell outstanding players to other European leagues at high prices for profit.

It is normal to adopt this business model, and it is also very common in European football, but the more controversial thing about Dinamo Zagreb is that the club chairman Mamic brothers also run the largest agency company in Croatia. Almost most of the players who came out of Croatia are operated by them.

This is somewhat similar to Juventus and Moggi in Serie A before the phone gate incident.

Therefore, Dinamo Zagreb and the Mamic brothers do not have a good impression among Croatian fans.

In the Champions League group stage last season, Dinamo Zagreb was in the same group as Lyon. As a result, in the last round of the group stage, Dinamo Zagreb lost 1-7 to Lyon at home, helping the French Ligue 1 powerhouse to qualify from the group as the second place with a goal difference advantage, which caused huge controversy in European football and Croatia.

Everyone thought it was a match-fixing, and their dissatisfaction with the Mamic brothers was completely vented. No one paid attention to the clarifications of Lyon and Dinamo Zagreb. In the end, UEFA was forced to come forward to express its position, and the matter gradually calmed down.

Gao Han even watched that match. Dinamo Zagreb was not as strong as Lyon. They were at the bottom of the group and were eliminated early. They had no competitiveness. Even if they played at home, they could barely hold on in the first 30 minutes. However, the player Leko was sent off with two consecutive yellow cards in the 11th and 28th minutes, which completely became the last straw that broke the camel's back for Dinamo Zagreb.

In fact, after the red card, Dinamo Zagreb still had the strength to resist. In the 40th minute, they scored the first goal and took the lead. It was also that goal that made Gao Han remember a name, Mateo Kovacic.

But then Dinamo Zagreb was defeated. On the one hand, they had one less player than their opponent, and on the other hand, they were not as strong as their opponent. In the end, they lost 7-1. After the game, head coach Jurcic resigned and the current head coach Ante Kacic took over.

But Kasic's coaching record is not much better than Yursic's. In the first few rounds of qualifiers against Bulgaria and Slovenia, they were able to advance smoothly, but in the Champions League group stage, they met Porto and Dynamo Kyiv, and they started with two consecutive defeats, both 0-2, and they were indeed inferior to their opponents.

In this home game against Paris Saint-Germain, they also fell behind 0-2 in the first half.

But in the second half, Ante Kasic once tried to counterattack. First, he made a direct substitution in the midfield, taking a defender from the 541 formation and replacing him with a midfielder, and then in the 70th minute, he replaced him with a young player Halilovic.

After two substitutions, Dinamo Zagreb's midfield attack has improved significantly.

Kovacic, Halilovic and Brozovic seemed to be stimulated to spark.

In a defense at the front of the penalty area, the central defender cleared the ball and kicked it to the front of the penalty area. Kovacic, wearing the No. 8 jersey, rushed out of the penalty area and caught up with the ball in front of the arc.

But as soon as he stopped, Paris Saint-Germain's Di Maria came forward to press, but Kovacic made a fake move, knocked his heel, turned flexibly and dribbled the ball past Di Maria, and then suddenly accelerated, and used his speed to pass Yaya Toure who was returning to defense and chased the goal.

Rabiot, who came on as a substitute, was quickly returning to defense, and Paris Saint-Germain's defense line was also constantly retreating.

After crossing the center line, Rabiot began to try to force Kovacic to the side, but Kovacic first made a fake move, deceived Rabiot, and suddenly dribbled again, changing direction and directly returning to the center.

Seeing that Rabiot was about to be thrown off by Kovacic, Yaya Toure finally returned to defense and blocked Kovacic, but the Croatian did not drop the ball under his feet. He changed direction again and dribbled past Yaya Toure's tackle, but the Ivorian took advantage of the situation to hook him down and gave Dinamo Zagreb a free kick.

The whole process happened in a very short time. The ball seemed to be stuck to Kovacic's feet. Through skillful dribbling and constant changes of speed and direction, Kovacic rushed to the midfield of Paris Saint-Germain alone.

This surprised and amazed Gao Han and Zidane on the sidelines.

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"If I remember correctly, this kid is only eighteen years old, right?" Gao Han laughed.

He had noticed Kovacic a long time ago. In the game against Lyon last year, he scored a goal. At that time, he was only seventeen years old, but his performance was eye-catching.

He performed very poorly in the first half of the game, just like his team. But in the second half, as the team adjusted their playing style, the situation gradually turned around and he began to perform well. The way he dribbled the ball just now was eye-opening.

"Take a good look at him." Gao Han patted Zidane's shoulder and smiled.

Soon, Dinamo Zagreb was once again forced to the front of the penalty area, but this time it was Kovacic who retreated to defend himself. In front of the penalty area, he cooperated with his teammates to double-team, intercepted Di Maria's ball, and rushed forward with the ball. Along the way, he used speed and direction to shake off the players of Paris Saint-Germain.

But this time, Paris Saint-Germain reacted faster. Before crossing the center line, Di Maria chased back and joined forces with Yaya Toure and Rabiot to steal the ball from his feet.

But immediately Dinamo Zagreb got another chance to play out of bounds. Kovacic was very active. He ran over and raised his hand to ask for the ball. He turned around and got rid of Di Maria who was defending him. Then he dribbled the ball across the center line alone. But this time he learned his lesson. Before Yaya Toure and Rabiot double-teamed him, he wanted to pass the ball to the wing, but he passed it directly to the Paris Saint-Germain players, which made him so angry that he quickly chased and pressed.

This made Gao Han and Zidane laugh on the sidelines.

"This kid is good." Gao Han laughed.

Zidane nodded, "This kind of continuous change of speed and direction not only requires the player's speed, but also the control and adjustment of the center of gravity. You can see from his dribbling that he has solid footwork and excellent dribbling ability, especially in the middle of the midfield. This is very rare and very much to your taste."

Gao Han smiled, but did not express his opinion directly.

He really appreciates this type of player, especially the player who can perform so well in the middle of the midfield.

At first, he admired Kaka because of his ability to advance in the middle. Now he uses Di Maria to play in the middle because of this. But Kovacic is different from these two players. His ball control and dribbling skills are better. The continuous speed change and direction change in a small range leave a deep impression.

He really suits Gao Han's appetite, because Gao Han has always believed that improving the efficiency of attack and defense conversion will become more and more important, and how to complete the team's attack and defense conversion with the least investment in the shortest time has become the direction he has been working hard.

Kovacic is the kind of midfielder who can complete the attack and defense conversion by himself. He has different characteristics from Modric, but has many similar tactical values.

"Look again, the Halilovic on the wing, the one who came on as a substitute, is younger and has good footwork."

Following Zidane's gesture, Gao Han also noticed this Croatian teenager with a hairstyle similar to Modric. After observing for a while, although he is not as eye-catching as Kovacic, he is also quite good.

Gao Han's sharp eyes swept through the situation of Kovacic and Halilovic, and he even knew the situation of the entire Dinamo Zagreb team, including Brozovic.

"In recent years, Croatia has really produced many talents." Gao Han praised with a smile.

Zidane nodded, "When this group of players grow up, Croatia will be a force that cannot be underestimated in European football."

After a pause, Zidane looked at Gao Han curiously and asked, "How about these two?"

Gao Han smiled, "As I told you before, the growth of young talented players is magical. Some players can be predicted, just like Neymar and Hazard. Their growth trajectory is very predictable, they are extremely talented, and they are born to be the core of the top teams. Lucas Moura is slightly worse, but if he is cultivated properly, he will definitely be a top team player."

"But there is still one The latter type is very difficult to predict, such as Isco and Pogba. They all have very unique abilities and are definitely geniuses, but it is difficult to set a specific development direction for them, so it is difficult to judge their long-term development in the future. "

Zidane agreed, "Yaya Toure also belongs to the latter type, but fortunately he met you."

During his coaching career at Inter Milan, Gao Han created a very suitable path for Yaya Toure to develop, which allowed the Ivorian to grow up and now become the midfielder of Paris Saint-Germain, with both offensive and defensive capabilities.

"Kovacic also belongs to this category. It is not easy to grow up, but once successful, he will be a superstar player, while Halilovic belongs to the type that is easier to plan, but I estimate that he can only reach the main force level of a giant club at most."

Although this is said, it is already quite rare for a team to have two such players at the same time.

Originally, there was also a Brozovic who was not bad, but he was not the type that Gao Han appreciated, so let's not talk about it.

Zidane lived in Madrid for a while this summer and had some contact with Chinatown. He was very familiar with players such as Hazard, Pogba, and Isco. He felt that Gao Han's vision was indeed very sharp and he had found such a group of outstanding talents for Chinatown.

But the trouble that followed was also obvious. How to cultivate this group of talents?

"It's a pity that Paris Saint-Germain's positioning is obviously not good for youth training, especially for youth training players like Kovacic. Otherwise, if he was bought and carefully trained, he would not be ruined by other inferior coaches in the future." Zidane sighed.

There are countless cases where talented players were ruined and eventually turned into Zhongyong's injury.

Any head coach can't help but feel itchy when seeing a talented rookie, and Gao Han is no exception.

Kovacic is a treasure, Gao Han really doesn't feel comfortable handing him over to others.

After hearing what Zidane said, he was really tempted.