Almighty Coach

by Stayrr

How could a poor graduate student without any background or connections become successful? With a coaching system? An upgrade? This is not a computer game, but real life we’re talking about! This will be a fantasy based on reality. Dai Li will fight back against all those who would mock and humiliate him with his astonishing and awe-inspiring training skills. From a nobody he’ll t

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Chapter 317: Departure

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

In the human resources meeting room, Director Zhao looked at Dai Li with a smile.

"Li, you are still an assisting section-level cadre, right? Do you plan to be promoted to the section level?" Director Zhao asked with a smile.

Dai Li was surprised immediately. He thought he wouldn't meet a good end this time, but he was not prepared for a mention of promotion.

Director Zhao's smile widened and he said, "A good opportunity is in your hand. The Table Tennis Association thinks highly of your work performance and trusts your competence, so we plan to transfer you to act as the Vice Committee Director of the Committee for the Application of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Tai Chi. In this position, you could enjoy the treatment of a county-level cadre."

"The Committee for the Application of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Tai Chi?" Dai Li was surprised again, for he had never heard about this organization.

Director Zhao nodded seriously. "Right. We are planning to transfer you to the Committee for the Application of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Tai Chi, which may be new to you. Let me give you a brief introduction. This organization is mainly responsible for the application of the intangible cultural heritage of Tai Chi. You should know something about the intangible cultural heritage, right?"

Dai Li nodded in confusion. He was still trying to figure out the meaning of Director Zhao's words.

Then Director Zhao started the introduction volubly, "As the national essence of China's traditional martial arts, Tai Chi has a lot of genres, and is quite popular with the public. Now Tai Chi has spread to over 150 countries and regions in the world. Tai Chi has been listed in the directory of the first batch of China's intangible cultural heritages. The global applications of the intangible cultural heritage of Tai Chi will be the key work to do next."

"Director Zhao, I am a sport coach. I know nothing about martial arts," Dai Li said.

"Martial arts are one part of sports," Director Zhao said, smiling. "Tai Chi is an important cultural name card of China; so the application work for Tai Chi is very important. The application will not be easy. Although China is the birthplace of Tai Chi, countries like South Korea are trying to claim Tai Chi. In addition, in previous years, the Taekkyeon of South Korea and Yoga of India have been included in the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Lists. Our application for Tai Chi is far behind the other countries."

Then Director Zhao continued to talk about this issue with informative and instructive content. According to his description, the application of the intangible cultural heritage for Tai Chi was almost as important as the research of nuclear weapons.

Dai Li pondered it a bit, then said, "Director Zhao, could you leave me some time to think about it?"

"It's not necessary. Your transfer has been determined by the management level. For you, it is also an opportunity to be promoted to the section-level. Li, the decision of your transfer has been made after careful consideration. Please work hard in your new position." Director Zhao's words meant Dai Li's transfer was nonnegotiable.

At this moment, Dai Li realized that the so-called Vice Committee Director of the Committee for the Application of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Tai Chi and the treatment of the section-level cadre were actually an Irish promotion for him.

What Zhizhong Gu got was also a demotion. He was promoted as a Vice Chairman of the Table Tennis Association. Although this position was leisure work, he was still in the system of Table Tennis. The demotion for Dai Li directly kicked him out of the competitive sport system.

The Vice Committee Director of the Committee for the Application of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Tai Chi sounded pretty good, but it was actually leisure work.

The application of cultural heritages, especially the intangible cultural heritages, was almost the same as attempting to win a Nobel Prize. Even if a Noble Prize level research achievement had been worked out, winning the Nobel Prize still required good timing, geographical convenience, and good human relations together with years or even decades of waiting. The application of cultural heritages was similar; it needed good timing, geographical convenience, and good human relations together with accumulation of time.

Therefore, for Dai Li, the Vice Committee Director of the Committee for the Application of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Tai Chi was a cage which could lock him away for a lifetime. If the application of Tai Chi was not rejected for 20 or 30 years, Dai Li might have to act as the Vice Director for 20 or 30 years, and then retire placidly as a section-level cadre.

As Dai Li thought of this possibility, a chill and desolation rose in his heart. He was in his early 20s, which was a perfect age to start a business; but now he was offered leisure work he had to do till his retirement.

But Dai Li could not find a place to reason that out. He was offered a promotion from the assisting section-level to the section-level, which should be for his own good.

At this moment, the idea of resignation flashed in Dai Li's heart again. He wanted to get out of this system.

In those years, when Dai Li's place was taken by Xuexi Zhuang, he thought about resigning. Later, when his opportunity of learning abroad was taken by others, he thought about resigning again.

At that time, Dai Li just thought about resigning, but he was not brave enough to put it into action.

A job in the public institution, which could ensure gains no matter what happened, was irresistible for a young man.

Now, Dai Li had grown a lot, and he had to plan for his future.

When Dai Li stepped out of the gate of the Table Tennis Association, he couldn't help thinking of Zhizhong Gu.

Dai Li remembered, when he had just joined the National Table Tennis Team, the delightful expression of Zhizhong Gu as he introduced the national system of the table tennis event.

Dai Li could also remember Zhizhong Gu's proud expression when he pointed at Chinese sponsors during Dai Li's first overseas match experience in Sweden.

Dai Li knew Zhizhong Gu really loved the National Table Tennis Team, but now what had he gotten...?

Dai Li's heart was filled with courage suddenly. Although he hadn't made a plan for his future, he knew it was the time for him to leave.

To get out of this system!After submitting the resignation application, Dai Li got a relaxed feeling suddenly.

I am free again! Dai Li smiled with self-mockery. He got a presentiment that he had chosen a difficult path.

Inside the country, a coach, especially a high-level coach, had almost nothing he could do outside of the system. And the reason was that almost all high-level athletes were included in the system. Therefore, if a coach wanted to achieve anything, the system was essential.

I have saved some money these years. Maybe I could go back to my hometown in Yuzhou to open a gym. With my reputation of the former coach of the national team, I guess it wouldn't be difficult for me to reach the subsistence level.

Dai Li had indeed saved some money in the years he'd been working. He had lived in the dormitory and eaten in the canteen of his working unit. He spent very little on clothing and food; and he didn't buy any expensive commodities, let alone a car or an apartment. He didn't even have a girlfriend. As a bachelor, he saved a lot of money in his salary.

The treatment in the National Table Tennis Team had also been satisfactory. The sponsors were really supportive. After the matches, if an athlete won a championship, the coach would also be rewarded. Especially for the Olympic Games not long ago, Dai Li had received a bonus of many hundreds of thousands of Yuan during the commendation meeting.

Dai Li estimated his savings would be enough to open a gym in Yuzhou, which was a third-tier city in China. Of course, his money was far from enough to open a high-end gym with a swimming pool, sauna, and massage room, but should be more than enough to open a small one.

If the gym is not profitable, I could go back to my old business by opening a training class. I guess I could easily make two to three hundred thousand Yuan a year, Dai Li figured.

Now Dai Li was no longer the nameless university graduate. His experience in the national team could absolutely make him the number one coach in Yuzhou. If he wanted to open a training class, he could easily enroll trainees with a standard charge which was two or three times the average.After packing up his luggage, Dai Li left Jingcheng and returned to Yuzhou, which was his hometown.

Prior to his departure, Dai Li bade farewell to Zhizhong Gu and Li Xue, who didn't try to persuade Dai Li to stay after being informed of Dai Li's transfer to the Committee for the Application of the Intangible Cultural Heritages of Tai Chi.

In fact, if Dai Li wanted, he could go back to the track and field team. The gold content of a physical trainer in the National Table Tennis Team was quite high. With the support of Li Xue, Dai Li could absolutely start anew in the track and field team.

It would also be no problem for Dai Li to go back to the provincial team. No provincial team could say no to a coach who used to work in the national team. If Dai Li wanted, he could get a position in a provincial team at any time. Some training teams would even offer him an extra sum as a settling-in allowance.

However, after all this time, Dai Li didn't want to stay in the system anymore.

Upon Dai Li's return, the happiest people would be Dai Li's parents, who were about to retire and naturally hoped to keep their son company.

In addition, Dai Li was old enough to have his own family. After his return, his parents started to look for a girlfriend for him and arrange blind dates.

Dai Li was busy finding a venue. He still planned to open his gym, which could at least earn enough money to support his life instead of burning through his cash reserves; otherwise, if a girl asked about his career during the blind date, Dai Li's reply of joblessness would be too embarrassing."With several residential areas nearby, this place is pretty good. But the rental is too high. Could you ask the landlord to lower the rental a bit?" Dai Li said to a real estate agent.

"Actually, the price for this location is really not high. You should know the average price of apartments nearby has exceeded RMB 10,000 per square meter. Also, the landlord told me someone who was introduced by another agent is also interested in this place," the real estate agent said seriously.

Dai Li sighed helplessly. The average price of apartments in Yuzhou, which was barely able to be regarded as a third-tier city, had exceeded RMB 10,000 per square meter, and the price kept rising. Whenever a new residential area was launched, hundreds of people would line up to snap up apartments. Dai Li couldn't understand why so many wealthy people were without apartments.

"I am going to rent this place for a long time. According to the current price, I have to pay a lot more for the rental. Never mind, let me have a look at other places." Dai Li turned around and was ready to go.

"How about I discuss this with the landlord and see if the price could be further lowered?" Seeing that Dai Li had lost interest in that place, the agent immediately changed his tone. Obviously, renting this venue would not be as difficult as the agent made it seem.

Just at this moment, Dai Li's mobile phone rang. A strange number appeared on the screen of his mobile phone.

Is it a number from the area of Qingcheng? Is someone in the provincial team calling me? Dai Li hesitated for two seconds, then he picked up the phone.

"Hello?" Dai Li said.

"Coach Li, this is Dalu Fang speaking," the voice on the phone said.

"Chairman Fang?" Dai Li was a little bit surprised, for he didn't expect the caller to be Dalu Fang, who was the Chairman of Dalu Group and also the father of Haiquan Fang.

"Coach Li, Haiquan told me you have resigned from the national team, right?" Dalu Fang asked.

"Yes, I have resigned." Dai Li didn't conceal the issue.

"Then have you already found a new job?" Dalu Fang continued to ask.

"Not yet. I am planning to open a gym," Dai Li answered.

"I see!" Dalu Fang paused a bit, then he said, "I have a job vacancy here. I don't know whether you would be interested or not."

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Chapter 318: New Challenges

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

Isn't Dalu Group an enterprise engaged in real estate? How could a job in this company suit me? As Dai Li thought of this, he asked, "Chairman Fang, are you planning to enter the sports industry?"

"We are not 'planning to,' but have already entered the sports industry!" Dalu Fang said. "The Dingtian Soccer Club is quite familiar to you, right?"

"The Dingtian Soccer Club? It was the double winner of the league championship and the FA Cup of last season! How could I be unfamiliar with this club?" Dai Li said.

"Dalu Group owns shares in the Dingtian Soccer Club," Dalu Fang said.

"I thought the Dingtian Soccer Club was wholly owned by Dingtian Group. I didn't expect you to also own shares of this club," Dai Li said.

"I made this investment several years ago. I only bought some shares, but I don't participate in the management," Dalu Fang responded. "Are you interested in being a coach in the Dingtian Soccer Club?"

"Chairman Fang, you must be kidding me, right? The head coach of the Dingtian Soccer Club is Harman, a world-famous coach who used to win the World Cup," Dai Li said.

"Harman is indeed the head coach. But they need physical trainers now. I have just heard from Haiquan that you have resigned. You used to be the physical trainer of the National Table Tennis Team, so I am calling to ask if you are interested in being a physical trainer for the Dingtian Soccer Club. If you are interested, I could recommend you to them," Dalu Fang said.

"There should be more than one physical trainer in Harman's team, right?" Dai Li asked.

All famous soccer coaches would establish a team of their own. In modern soccer, the head coach was definitely the soul of the team, but the team of the head coach was composed of three groups. The first group would be the technique group, including the assistant coaches, the goalkeeper coaches, and the performance analysts. The second group would be the sports management group, including the physical trainers, the dietitians, the coach of scientific research, the psychologists, etc. The third group was the medical group, which included the team doctors, the physical therapists, the rehabilitation therapists, the massage therapists, etc.

There would be more than one person in each position of the team; for example, they would have two or three assistant coaches, two or three physical trainers, and several analysts and coaches of scientific research.

The world's top coaches, like Harman, would not work in a club alone. His team had been working with him for decades, including several senior experts. It could be considered as a totally mature coaching team.

In addition, on ground of Harman's level, he would hire coaches in Europe if his team was shorthanded. After all, soccer coaches in China were far less competent than their European counterparts.

Then Dalu Fang explained, "Harman's team has two core physical trainers who have been following Harman for many years. One of the physical trainers, whose name is Franz, went back to Germany to have surgery. I guess he might be absent for the rest of this season. The leagues in Europe have already begun. It is difficult to find an appropriate candidate now in Europe; so Harman decided to recruit several experienced physical trainers in Asia to fill the vacancy that Franz left."

"It's just a temporary position, right?" Dai Li said disappointedly.

"What? Do you want to enter Harman's team or not? The level of coaches of our country is too low for Harman!" Dalu Fang laughed straightforwardly. "This time the recruitment of physical trainers is performed in the name of the Dingtian Soccer Club. If you could join them, you will sign the labor contract with Dingtian, so technically speaking, you will be an employee of the Dingtian Club, and not a member of Harman's team. However, you have to follow Harman's orders in the training."

"As for remuneration, you should know the investment scale of Dingtian Group in soccer. If you could join them, they will definitely offer you a pretty good salary, which will be more than you have made in the national team."That night, Dai Li couldn't sleep and spent all night tossing and turning in his bed.

The Dalu Fang's proposal had given Dai Li a feeling that he was about to turn his life around.

The Dingtian Soccer Club could be considered an upstart in recent years. Two years ago, it was still a League One club; later, it was acquired by Dingtian Group. After the large-scale investment of Dingtian Group, this club was successfully promoted to the Super League, and gained the championship of the Super League.

Dingtian Group also staked a lot on their soccer team by not only purchasing top players from around the world, but also hiring Harman, who was one of the best coaches in the world. Therefore, the strength of the Dingtian Soccer Club became amazing in a very short time. Although this club was still less powerful than the clubs in Europe and South America, in Asia, it had already become a first-class club. The next goal of the Dingtian Soccer Club was the championship of the AFC Champions League.

Professional soccer is an authentically-commercialized professional sport, which the system views differently than the other sports I have coached so far! Dai Li's heart was again full of excitement.

After all, Dai Li was a professional coach. He was extremely unwilling to open a gym by leaving the professional sports industry. If he hadn't been forced by circumstances, he wouldn't have left the National Table Tennis Team so soon.

Now, an opportunity to go back to the professional sports industry was placed in front of him, and it took Dai Li's breath away immediately.

Moreover, Dai Li was equipped with the coach system. He could only upgrade the system and become stronger by continuing to train athletes.

I want to be one of the world's top coaches. Opening a gym and providing training courses in a small place like Yuzhou is not my fate! I should see the world while I am still young.

Dai Li sat up straight on the bed immediately. He had made up his mind to join the Dingtian Soccer Club and face new challenges.Dingtian Soccer Club

Harman, whose hair was already beginning to silver, was leaning on the seat back, and said in a low voice, "Franz has sent me an email. In his mail, he said although his tumor is benign, the possibility of the tumor turning malignant couldn't be ruled out. His doctor still recommends that they remove the tumor first. Now he has made a surgery appointment and is waiting for the surgery. It seems he will be absent for the rest of this season."

"In the next few months, I will have a lot of overtime." A dark-haired man who was over 50 smiled ruefully.

The dark-haired man's name was Claude, and he was another physical trainer on Harman's team.

"Don't worry. I have asked the club to hire more physical trainers. Although we won't find someone who can replace Franz at this moment, we can use the strength in numbers. We will find some physical trainers in Asia to share some of the work with you. You won't be over-exhausted if you just arrange assignments to be completed by others," Harman said.

However, Claude shook his head in a bitter face. "I am not optimistic about the capabilities of the Asian coaches. What worries me is that my assignments will never be completed."

"I hope that young and beautiful Ms. Xiao won't let us down!" Harman let out a long sigh.

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Chapter 319: People from Two Different Worlds

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

The office area of Dingtian Soccer Club.

Xiong Zhou walked to the door and looked at the plate that read, "General Manager's Office." After smoothing his collar, he knocked at the door.

"Please come in!" a euphonious female voice came out. Xiong Zhou took a deep breath, then he opened the door and entered the office.

Yunan Xiao was sitting at her table; several documents placed in front of her.

Xiong Zhou walked to the table seriously, prepared to accept the instructions of his boss.

As a member of the club's management level, Xiong Zhou knew the beautiful General Manager in front of him was the only daughter of the group's Chairman. Therefore, Xiong Zhou showed respect every time he met Yunan Xiao.

Yunan Xiao picked up three documents and handed them to Xiong Zhou, and she said, "These three coaches of the League One clubs are rejected. Harman is not satisfied with coaches of the Super League clubs, let alone the coaches from League One clubs. By the way, have you received any reply from Coach Sun of Shanggang?"

"That is why I came to speak with you. Coach Sun has replied to me. He said his child is still attending high school in Shanggang, and he doesn't want to come here," Xiong Zhou said.

"In that case, let's stop requesting him for now," Yunan Xiao said helplessly.

"Besides, Chairman Fang of Dalu Group recommended a coach to me. I have his resume here." As Xiong Zhou spoke, he handed the folder to Yunan Xiao.

"Chairman Fang called me about this candidate. He said this coach has a background of track and field events, and used to act as the physical trainer of the National Table Tennis Team. I think he must be competent enough if he had a foothold in the National Table Tennis Team. Furthermore, Chairman Fang is our shareholder; respecting his opinion is of utmost importance. So I have accepted his recommendation," Yunan Xiao said, taking the folder. After opening the folder, she saw Dai Li's picture of Dai Li.

"He looks familiar to me. Dai Li? The name also sounds familiar." Yunan Xiao started to read the working experience of Dai Li.

"Now I remember, it's him! He is the coach I met during that marathon." Yunan Xiao recognized Dai Li quickly.

During the Half Marathon held at Jinyan Lake, Dai Li left a deep impression on Yunan Xiao. Dai Li's help to Dalu Fang, as well his victory in the end made Yunan Xiao remember him. After looking at Dai Li's picture and reading his working experience, Yunan Xiao could remember that marathon clearly.

He has been acting as a physical trainer on the National Table Tennis Team these last few years. Now he is applying for the physical trainer position in our club.

Yunan Xiao smiled suddenly. She placed Dai Li's resume on the resumes of another two people, and said, "Translate these three resumes into English, and then send them to Coach Harman.""Look, these are the resumes for the three physical trainers found by Ms. Xiao." Harman handed the three resumes to Claude.

After taking the resumes, Claude opened the first one.

"Chowtai Kim, a Korean. He used to act as the physical trainer in Chunnam Dragons Club in the K-league of South Korea." As Claude spoke, he nodded. "This one is okay. He has coaching experience in the professional soccer league, and the K-league is pretty impressive in Asia."

Then Claude opened the second resume.

"Haoxin Liu, a guy who was born in Hong Kong and brought up in Canada. He was a professional hockey player for a little while, and then acted as the physical trainer in the Vancouver Canucks of the NHL." Claude frowned slightly, then he said, "This guy's experience is good. After all, the NHL is one of the top four leagues in the United States. The level of their coaches should be fine. However, hockey is different than soccer. Maybe he will need some time to adapt to soccer, which is new to him."

Finally, Claude opened the third resume.

"Dai Li, is he also a coach? He is so young! It seems he is as young as our players. He has a background in track and field events, and used to act as the physical trainer of the table tennis event. Haha, they are kidding me, right?" Dissatisfaction flashed in Claude's eyes. Obviously, both Dai Li's age and working experience were not satisfactory to Claude.

Dai Li's experience as the physical trainer in the National Table Tennis Team was very impressive for many people in China. However, to Claude, Dai Li's working experience meant nothing.

As a physical trainer of the soccer event, Claude could be considered one of the best coaches in the world. To him, Asian physical trainers were far behind their European counterparts, let alone a physical trainer of a "small ball" event like table tennis.

"I have asked Xiong Zhou, who sent the resumes to me. According to his information, this table tennis coach was recommended by a shareholder of the club." Harman looked at Claude with an expression that said, "You should know that." Then he said, "It's okay, he used to be a coach of the track and field team, so he should be good for something. You just make do with him."

"That's the only way out." Claude sighed helplessly. "I shouldn't have had high hopes for Asian physical trainers."Dai Li signed his name on the contract.

The Dingtian Soccer Club offered Dai Li an annual salary of RMB 300,000. Although it was not very high in the first-tier cities, Dai Li was quite satisfied with the amount.

Besides the annual salary, Dai Li would also get some additional income, such as the travel allowance for the team's away games. If the team won a game, Dai Li could get a bonus as a coach. If the team won the championship of China's Super League, or even the championship of the AFC Champions League, the club would also pay Dai Li a bonus.

"Coach Kim, Coach Liu, and Coach Li, please allow me to welcome you to join us on behalf of the club." Yunan Xiao smiled at the three of them.

Yunan Xiao's voice lingered in Dai Li's ears after he walked out of the meeting room.

This General Manager is really a beautiful girl! She's so young, she must be about the same age as me, Dai Li thought.

Dai Li had met Yunan Xiao during the Half Marathon held at Jinyan Lake, but that had been a long time ago, and Dai Li had forgotten much of what had occurred on that day.

Today, when Dai Li met Yunan Xiao again, he still found her very attractive.

However, Dai Li was quite sober and he didn't have any inappropriate ambitions on her. On Dai Li's way to the meeting, someone working in the club had mentioned Yunan Xiao. This pretty General Manager was the darling daughter of the Chairman of Dingtian Group, and could basically be considered the princess of Dingtian Group. This kind of rich girl who was born with a silver spoon in her mouth was out of Dai Li's reach, since he was just an ordinary person. Yunan Xiao and Dai Li were people from two different worlds."The three new physical trainers have signed their contracts, and will start work tomorrow. Do you have any plan in using them?" Harman said, picking up his coffee and taking a sip.

"That Chowtai Kim from South Korea was a soccer physical trainer before. I plan to let him participate in the formulation of next two weeks of training plans, so that I can check his level before giving him any concrete work. Haoxin Liu was brought up in Canada, so he should have no problem in verbal communication with the foreign players. I plan to arrange him to do the strength training. As for that table tennis coach…"

Claude's expression was quite troubled. "For now, I really don't know what he could do. He is a person from a different world!"

"My old friend, I have a suggestion for you." Harman put down his coffee mug, then said, "Several players on our team are not very self-disciplined. After months of rest, they have put on a lot of weight. Now the league is about to start, but they are still overweight."

"I got you! The table tennis coach could be instructed to help those players lose weight. It's really a good idea!" Claude heaved a long sigh of relief. "I think that table tennis coach should be qualified for such easy work."

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Chapter 320: Mission Accomplished

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

Dai Li's first mission in the Dingtian Soccer Club was to help players who needed to lose weight.

For professional soccer players, it was extremely important to keep a healthy weight. Especially during the long off-season, which would last for several months, the training intensity of the players would be lowered and most of them would put on weight. Therefore, the players who could control their weight during the off-season were undoubtedly very self-disciplined.

However, not every player was so self-disciplined. Even the star players might have a weight gain of five to ten kilograms during the off-season. Most of the players just enjoyed themselves during the off-season. It was impossible for them to perform high-intensity training as they did in the team.

The weight gain of five to ten kilograms would obviously influence the performance of the professional soccer players, who might be slower and less flexible; their joint load would also be increased. Many world-class players retired because of their failure in weight control.

If players failed to control their weight, they would have to lose weight in a short time before the new season, so that their weight could be within a reasonable scope.

However, weight loss was quite difficult even for the players. Some players were still overweight when the new season was about to begin.

The essence of weight loss was to eat less and exercise more, which was not only applicable to ordinary people, but also to the players. It was quite normal for professional athletes to skip meals for weight control.

The professional soccer players didn't need to focus on moderating how much they ate. Rather, a balanced diet was more important for them. As long as they could get enough exercise, they would lose weight naturally. Sometimes the promotion of muscle body-contact ability gained through exercise was good for them.

Therefore, guiding the weight loss of professional soccer players was not complicated work, and could easily be handled by ordinary assistants, let alone by a professional physical trainer.

Claude's work arrangement for Dai Li showed his contempt. Obviously, Claude thought Dai Li could only do the simple work of an assistant.

Dai Li wasn't concerned by the slight. He already understood that respect could only be won by competence. In this world, as long as you were strong enough, you would be respected by your peers no matter what industry you were in.

I haven't used the aerobics for weight and fat loss in a long time. I have almost forgotten the movements. Dai Li looked at the name list of the players in his hand.

Three players needed to lose weight: midfielder Yunping Zheng, striker Feng Gao, and midfielder Jinshan Sun. They were seriously overweight, which had influenced their normal training. If they wanted to avoid influencing the normal training of the team, they had to reduce their weight by at least five kilograms.

Claude gave Dai Li one week to finish his work.

Helping the players lose five kilograms would not be difficult for Dai Li. Even if he didn't use the weight loss aerobics, Dai Li could accomplish the mission through his current training skills.

However, Dai Li couldn't find reason to not use the shortcut.

If I could only help them lose five kilograms within one week, my competence won't be cherished by them. As Dai Li thought of this, he smiled, then he said to the three players who needed to lose weight, "Let's do some simple warm-up exercises!"

The so-called warm-up exercises were, of course, the weight loss aerobics.

Now Dai Li wouldn't say, "Follow my lead and let's dance the weight-loss aerobics." He had disguised the weight-loss aerobics into the warm-up exercises, and used it to help the players who needed to lose weight without their knowledge.Three days passed in the blink of an eye.

Although the Korean coach Chowtai Kim was sitting in the farthest corner, his face was full a proud expression.

He was attending a meeting to form the training plan for the team.

The preparation period before the beginning of a new season was crucial for the promotion of the players' physical functions and the team's performance in the season, so it was also the busiest period for the coaches.

In order to better coordinate the different trainings, the physical trainers would discuss the training quantity and intensity, as well as the individual training arrangements for players with special requirements with the head coach, the assistant coaches, and members of the medical group. And the physical trainer would participate all of it.

Therefore, being able to participate in the training plan formulation gave Chowtai Kim a feeling that he was valuable, even if he had to sit in the farthest corner.

Moreover, though Haoxin Liu and Dai Li had been hired in with him, they were not allowed to attend this meeting. That gave Chowtai Kim the overjoyed feeling that he was superior to Haoxin Liu and Dai Li.

Although we joined the club at the same time, the gap has been opened in the first working day. I have acquired many tactics of the team in these three days. I don't have the right to speak now, but my situation is far better than the other two guys. I've heard that indigenous coach, whose name is Dai Li, is helping the players lose weight! As a physical trainer, he was assigned to do the low-level works which are for the drilling partners; he really is useless and pathetic!

Chowtai Kim was so complacent that he couldn't help raising the corners of his lips.

The Korean coaches are far more competent than you! You'll see, I will soon prove that I am qualified to be a member of Harman's team.

Chowtai Kim looked at all the European coaches in the meeting room. His heart was filled with the desire to perform well.

At that moment, Claude was introducing his work volubly, and he was talking about the weight control of the players.

"Yunping Zheng was a starting player last season. Feng Gao and Jinshan Sun are also important substitutes. However, during the off-season, they over-indulged themselves, and they are severely overweight. I think they should lose at least five kilograms."

As Claude spoke, he turned around and looked at Harman. "I have arranged for Dai Li, who is our new physical trainer, to help them in lose weight. I gave Dai Li one week, and I hope he can help the three players lose a weight of five kilograms."

"It is not an easy job to help someone lose five kilograms in only a week," Harman said.

"This Coach Li was recruited by the club. I believe he can accomplish the mission as a professional physical trainer." Claude shrugged to imply he also didn't trust Dai Li. If Dai Li failed to accomplish the mission of weight loss for the three players, his failure could only be attributed to his incompetence.

All the foreign coaches in the meeting grinned with understanding. They had been working together for many years, so all of them could understand Claude's implication.

Indeed, the Asian coaches, especially the indigenous coaches, were too weak and untrustworthy for the liking of these European coaches.

At that moment, an assistant knocked at the door and entered the meeting room. He saw Claude talking volubly, so he chose to stand aside self-consciously.

Claude ended his report and sat back in his seat. The assistant walked to Claude and whispered to him, "Mr. Claude, that Coach Li who is new here wants to see you."

"Tell him I'm not available today. I have a meeting to attend, so tell him to come tomorrow," Claude said.

The assistant nodded and continued to say, "Coach Li said if you don't have time, I could leave a message to you that he had accomplished the mission you assigned to him three days ago."

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Chapter 321: True Blue Will Never Stain

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

Claude paused and then smiled. The smile on his face was not the same as usual. It was only a cover for his anger.

"The training mission is done? Has it been three days? Including today, it has been only four days. To lose five kilograms in such a short time! That table tennis coach is joking! His humor is misplaced," Claude sniffed.

Theoretically, it was possible to lose five kilograms in three days. Many extreme dieters could lose a lot of weight in a short time, but Claude thought it would be impossible for Dai Li to achieve such results.

Even his assistant could feel that Claude's smile was full of hostility.

"Uh…Mr. Claude…" his assistant said again.

"Is there anything else?" Claude asked impatiently.

"Coach Dai Li asked me to tell you, if you have any question, you can have a look at this." His assistant handed him a document.

"Today's body weight report?" Claude looked closely and found the weights of Feng Gao, Yunping Zheng, and Jinshan Sun, and the date that their weights were measured. At the end of the report, there was the seal and signature of the team's medical group. The three players had lost more than five kilograms compared with their weight three days earlier.

Dai Li gave me this report because he expected I would not believe him. However, it was too intentional. Does he think I'm a fool? Does he think I don't know they have just lost the water in their bodies? Claude scowled at once, and he felt like he was being teased.

Theoretically, a body weight report with the signature of the team's medical group should have been compelling; it was certainly enough to prove that Dai Li had actually helped the three players to lose five kilograms each. But Claude thought that these players had only lost water weight rather than cutting actual fat.

Claude really needed athletes to lose excess fat.

It was easy for athletes to lose their body water. When an athlete stayed away from drinking water during a period of exercise, then the body would naturally be dehydrated and the athlete's weight would be less. In a professional soccer game, those players could easily lose a couple kilograms if the weather was hot. However, the amount of weight lost in the game could be replenished by drinking water; technically, it could be called weight loss.

Therefore, Claude assumed Dai Li had used this method to help the athletes to lose weight, and he thought that Dai Li had asked the medical group to make a fake body weight report to fool him.

Claude believed Dai Li had done this just to show off his ability.

Claude could put up with his coaches' poor ability, but he couldn't tolerate them deceiving him with trickery. Therefore, after seeing this body weight report, he was provoked to anger.

"I hate cheaters and I can't tolerate cheating in my team! I must fire him!" Claude said with a gloomy face.

"But I heard that Li was recommended by the team shareholder, so if it is not necessary, I can't fire him! But he must get away from my team." Obviously, Claude was sophisticated. He knew that if he offended the shareholders, he might cause some unnecessary trouble to Harman's whole coaching team.

Claude thought for a while and came up with an idea. "I can expose him in front of the whole coaching team, and then everyone will know that he is a cheat. Then I will have sufficient reason to fire him! Even the shareholders will be embarrassed to shield him!"

Thinking of this, Claude said to his assistant, "Please go to the medical room and inform them that I want to give the athletes an electrolyte test!"

After more than an hour, the meeting was over, and Coach Harman looked at the crowd and asked if anyone wanted to say anything.

Claude decisively stood up and said, "Ladies and gentlemen, I just found out that the weight of Feng Gao, Yunping Zheng, and Jinshan Sun has been brought down to standard. They have successfully lost five kilograms. If so, can the three players get involved in normal training?"

"Last season, Yunping Zheng was always our starter, and Feng Gao and Jinshan Sun are important on the bench. Especially Feng Gao, who scored six goals last season. If they have lost the excess weight, they should return to normal training," said assistant coach Draco

Harman asked, "Claude, I remember you said that the three players began to lose weight three days ago, and your expectation for them was five kilograms. I know it's not impossible to lose five kilograms in three days, but to be honest, it would be very difficult."

"Yeah, I think so too," said Claude. He swung the body weight report in his hand, "But the newcomer, Dai Li, did it. And he also sent me a body weight report."

Claude gave the team doctor Marla Rodney the weight test report, and the doctor looked at it and then nodded to the crowd. "Yes, it is the seal of our medical group."

"So, the three players actually lost five kilograms in three days? The new physical coach is great!" Someone in the meeting room made an exclamation of surprise.

"I couldn't agree with you more. I was surprised that the club had recruited such a talent." Claude stressed the word "talent" in particular. Then he added, "So I'm going to see the weight loss results of the three players in person. Do you have any interest in going with me? Marla Rodney, you are the team doctor, please come with me!"

Marla Rodney frowned. At first, he thought that Claude was suspicious of the medical group's weight test results. But after he considered it, he instantly understood Claude's intention.

"I would like to go with you!" said assistant coach Draco.

The head coach, Harman, said to the crowd, "If you don't have anything important, let's go together and have a look."

Everyone in the coaching staff, including the assistants, goalkeeping coach, physical coach, team doctor, therapists, and data analysts, had followed Harman for many years. The tacit understanding between them had formed since their work together in Europe, so at the moment, they knew Claude's intention under the circumstances.

"Is Claude going to fire the new coach?"

"The new coach was so bold that he dared to cheat on Claude's assignment."

"It is impossible to lose five kilograms in three days, so it will be interesting to see what happens next."

Those in the meeting room couldn't help talking about it.

Chowtai Kim felt uncomfortable, and he thought Dai Li had impressed the head group so much that he might be overshadowed. Yet, hearing the whispers in the meeting room, he suddenly understood the whole thing.

It was a fraud! I'm the best, for sure! Chowtai Kim curled his lip, laughed, and stood up to go taunt Dai Li.

Dai Li was surprised that the whole coaching staff was in front of him.

Apart from the head coach Harman and the physical coach Claude, he hadn't yet met the other people in front of him, such as the assistant coaches, the data analysts, and so on. He had just been here for three days, and he hadn't had the opportunity to get in touch with the other core members of Harman's team.

Why are so many people here? It seems that all the members of Harman's team are here. It was just some weight-loss training, is this really necessary? Dai Li couldn't help thinking of the three athletes who had lost weight.

Are the three players so important to the coaching team? One of them is a starter and the other are two benches, but their performance was not very good in the game several days ago. Those foreign players, on the other hand, were quite great.

Dai Li stood there and guessed blindly. After all, he was not a soccer coach, and so he didn't know very much about professional soccer. When it came to the tactics of professional soccer, Dai Li was just as uninformed the average person.

Meanwhile, the three players were already standing on the scale.

The first on the scale was Feng Gao. When he steadied himself, the staff next to him immediately spoke out his weight.

"81.05 kilograms!"

"It's amazing, he is five kilograms lighter than three days ago!"

"In terms of shape, he seems to be thinner than he was a few days ago, too."

"But he is a little heavier than last year. Although the weight conformed with the standard of normal training, he was six kilograms heavier than last season."

"It doesn't matter, the new season hasn't started yet. His weight could be 75 kilograms after he has trained in the team for several days."

Everyone murmured.

The second on the scale was Yunping Zheng.

"78.80 kilograms!" The staff spoke out his weight.

"Zheng's weight loss result was more obvious than Gao's! He has lost 5.7 kilograms?"

"Yeah, if he keeps on training for one more day, he would lose six kilograms."

"Yunping Zheng is older than the others, and it is normal for athletes of his age to gain weight. If he could maintain his weight in this range, he would be quite successful."

"You have got a point! Coach Harman has planned to reduce how much he starts in all competitions. After all, he is more than 30 years old, so his body is certainly not as good as the younger athletes. What's more, older athletes are more likely to get hurt."

The third on the scale was Jinshan Sun, who had lost more than five kilograms.

According to the scale, Dai Li had more than met Claude's demands. At the same time, he also seemed very relaxed.

"It was true, everyone has lost more than five kilograms! I thought the new physical coach was a fraud!"

"Calm down, the fun hasn't started yet! Have a look at Claude's expression…"

Claude was looking at Dai Li with a mocking expression in his eyes.

Why is Claude looking at me like that? He gave me a week to finish the task, but I did it in three days. He should have praised me, but why this? Dai Li was confused.

Claude waved to his assistant. "I asked you to prepare the electrolyte test. How is it coming?"

"It can be done at any time," answered the assistant.

"Well, now we can test their electrolytes." Claude deliberately amplified his voice so that everyone could hear it.

Electrolyte test? I got it! Everyone there was a professional, they finally figured out that the three players had only lost their body water, but they didn't speak out. When Claude proposed an "electrolyte test," even the less responsive could understand.

If an athlete lost five kilograms in three days by losing body water rather than fat, then the body would be in a state of dehydration. At this point, only an electrolyte test could distinguish between the two.

After exercise, the body would sweat a lot. Apart from the loss of body water, the body would also lose a massive number of electrolytes. In fact, in terms of the metabolism of body, the loss of water is the same thing as the loss of electrolytes. For example, if saline and glucose were injected into someone who was dehydrated, their body would be supplemented with water and electrolytes.

Claude proposing an electrolyte test at this moment obviously revealed his intention. As long as the test report showed some problems, then he could prove that the three players were in a state of dehydration, and the so-called five kilograms of weight loss was useless for the athletes. What's more, the physical condition of the three players could be affected if they stay in a dehydrated state for a long time.

Claude looked at Dai Li with elation, and it seemed that he wanted to say, "I've seen through your trickery."

However, Dai Li couldn't help sighing, and he even looked at the three players with sympathy.

When Dai Li heard the words "electrolyte test," he immediately understood that Claude believed that the three players had just lost their body water rather than their fat.

Claude was so scornful of me that he overthought this. I just promised to help the three players to lose five kilograms in three days! It is the three players who suffered as their blood was drawn, Dai Li thought silently.

The medical team of the Dingtian Football Club had special testing equipment and professional doctors, and they were dedicated to serving the athletes. Therefore, they were faster in completing the electrolyte test than a hospital laboratory would have been. Soon, the medical team brought three reports.

"Here is the report!" Claude looked at Dai Li again and he found Dai Li was not nervous at all.

Pretend to be calm; I wondered how long you can hold it! Chowtai Kim gloated over Dai Li at the distance.

The staff of the medical team handed the test report to Marla Rodney, the head doctor of the medical team. He was a professional doctor, so it would be the most authoritative for him to interpret the medical report.

"What are the results?" asked Claude.

"Nothing wrong!" Marla Rodney looked up and gave Claude a nonplussed look, then he repeated what he had said, "The result of the electrolyte testing was normal!"

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Chapter 322: Second-Rate Young Player

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

"There's nothing wrong with the results?" Claude's eyes glistened with astonishment.

"In terms of indicators, Feng Gao's body was all right," answered Marla Rodney.

"How about Zheng and Sun?" Claude questioned impatiently.

"Uh, let me see…" Marla Rodney lifted his reading glasses and looked carefully at the other two reports. Then he raised his head and said, "The electrolyte test reports of Zheng and Sun are normal."

Marla Rodney was concerned that Claude would not believe the result, so he handed over the three reports to Claude. There were normal numerical ranges on the reports, so even if Claude was not professional medical worker, he could easily understand the report.

There are no issues with the electrolyte test, and all the indicators are in the normal range? How could that be? Is it true that they lost five kilograms in three days? Claude couldn't help looking at Dai Li when he thought this.

"The results of the electrolyte test were normal, which means that these athletes were not in a dehydrated state. In other words, they actually lost five kilograms."

"Losing five kilograms in three days; I thought it was just an 'ideal situation' sort of thing. It is surprising to me that it was achieved."

"There have been similar cases in the top training centers of Europe and the United States. But that was all done by top trainers. I am surprised that an Asian coach could do it."

"Who is the new physical coach? I thought he was just an ordinary coach, but his ability really surprised me."

Everyone turned their attention to Dai Li. Although they were all the top professionals in their sport, no one was better than Dai Li in terms of helping athletes lose weight.

Claude was very embarrassed. He had proposed an electrolyte test with the aim of making a fool of Dai Li and then firing him. But Dai Li was not a fraud as he had expected. And the electrolyte test reports in his hand had become the best evidence for Dai Li.

Claude knew that he had misunderstood Dai Li. But it would be quite embarrassing for him to apologize to Li in front of so many people.

Harman looked at Claude and was ready to relieve him of the awkward atmosphere, and then he smiled and said, "Coach Li has successfully finished his task, and it took him only three days to complete the task that usually would have taken a week to complete. Claude, congratulations, you have a good helper! Coach Li will be able to help you with a lot of work."

Claude recovered in time to nod and say, "I'm ready to arrange new training tasks for Coach Li, and I'm going to make him responsible for part of the physical training of young players."

Claude was quite realistic. He had questioned Dai Li's ability, but now that he recognized Li's talent in training, his attitude toward Li changed immediately. Moreover, he had a good helper, so why not?

But Chowtai Kim, not far away, frowned. He was apparently unhappy with the news.

Being in charge of the physical training of young players has always been my pursuit. D*mn it, it was taken away by Dai Li.

Unconsciously, Kim looked at Li, his eyes full of envy and resentment.

Older players, young players, less experienced players, injured players—there were always some athletes on a team who had special requirements for the frequency and intensity of training. The training level of these players was different from normal players.

In terms of training intensity, the daily training of those players who seldom had a chance to play was definitely more intense. For example, when the match day approached, the team's main players and benches would mainly do warm-up exercises, or they would just do some relatively easy targeted training, because they needed to reserve physical strength for the match. The players who seldom had a chance to play, on the other hand, still had to receive high intensity training.

European soccer teams have always attached great attention to the cultivation of young players, and they have the best training system for young players. Now, the Dingtian Soccer Team had that too, thanks to Harman's coaching team. So, training young athletes was also an important task for Harman's team.

Before he left, Coach Franz had been responsible for the training of young athletes, but now he had returned to Europe for surgery. Therefore, who would take over the task was a question of great significance.

Chowtai Kim had traveled far to join the Dingtian Club, and given up his job as a physical coach in Quan Nan Tian Long. His purpose in coming here was not just for hundreds of thousands of yuan per year, because he could earn more in Korea.

Kim came here because he was attracted by Harman's coaching team. He hoped that he could become a real member of Harman's team and become an international level coach.

Therefore, Chowtai Kim was eager to take over Franz's job. He even planned to ask Claude about taking over the physical training of young athletes several days later.

But nobody knew what was coming next. Before Kim put forward his request, Claude had made Dai Li responsible for the physical training of young players.

The physical fitness of the young players in the Dingtian Club is much worse than the main players! Dai Li looked at the testing results and kept shaking head.

It was true that the main players in the Dingtian Club were near-perfect. The Dingtian Club recruited first-class players in China and some of the world's top players by investing lots of money. It wasn't unusual for a national starter to be a bench in the Dingtian Club.

But the abilities of the young athletes in the Dingtian Club were terrible.

The youth training of soccer was a huge systematic project, which required much investment, but it took effect slowly. It took decades for strong European teams to set up perfect youth training systems, and the Chinese domestic youth training system couldn't be compared with it.

What's more, the number of young people in China who regularly played soccer was smaller than that of Europe. A good team could be established in a small town of Europe by choosing local lads. However, there wasn't even a place to play soccer in a big city of millions of citizens in China. Therefore, although the youth training system was introduced in China, it was difficult to find enough young players.

Even the Dingtian Club couldn't recruit young players with high levels of talent, let alone other clubs which joined in low-level leagues. So even though the Dingtian Club had back to back wins, their young athletes were not as impressive as their success would suggest.

"Their personal abilities are so weak, with low-level talent that is full of defects. They need to improve their physical energy in an integrated way." Dai Li looked down one A4 paper, filled with training goals and a general training plan. Of course, specific implementation depended on Dai Li.

"Maybe I should try the effects of Physical Energy Rampage!"

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Chapter 323: Outbreak Movement

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

Growing up in Canada, Haoxin Liu was fluent in English, functional in Cantonese, but barely understandable in Mandarin.

These days, a large number of people from Hong Kong went north for work. The Dingtian Club had no salary advantage, since the pay level in Hong Kong was very high. But for Haoxin Liu, Hong Kong offered fewer work opportunities.

Hong Kong was very small and didn't have many good athletes, let alone a team that could compete with the top Asian professional teams. Haoxin Liu didn't want to stay in Hong Kong to teach those low-level athletes, so he chose to go north for more opportunities.

Growing up in North America, Haoxin Liu had no special feelings about soccer. After all, soccer was not very popular in North America. Unlike Chowtai Kim joining the Dingtian Club for the Herman team, Haoxin Liu hoped to find a place to use his talent.

Standing in his room now, he seemed to be uncertain as he looked at the training ground through the window.

On the training ground, Dai Li was leading several young athletes, walking in large circles around the grounds.

"What are they doing? They have circled the training ground for a few laps." Haoxin Liu had no idea what Dai Li intended.

"It is indeed walking. Fast though, but what's the point of that?"

After watching it for over half an hour, Haoxin Liu still couldn't understand what Dai Li was doing. Finally, he called a colleague nearby and asked, "What training program is Coach Li doing over there?"

"Running around the ground," the colleague answered immediately after glancing at it.

"No, they are not running. They are walking, walking quickly," Haoxin Liu said.

"Running made them tired, so they are walking now," the colleague said again.

"They have walked for a quite a long time," Haoxin Liu continued.

"It's normal in training. They will walk for a while if running has tired them out. After recovering, they then continue to run," the colleague gave a response again.

The answer made Haoxin Liu speechless. He wanted to express the whole process in detail, but he didn't how to say it. Definitely, he could express himself clearly in English. However, his broken Mandarin failed him in organizing words well enough to express his meaning in a short time.

On the training ground, Dai Li and his athletes walked another lap. When they were close to Haoxin Liu, he at last saw that Dai Li carried a bag on his back.

"Coach Li carries a bag for weight training? No. For weight training, the athletes should be loaded, but now they carry nothing while the coach is loaded."

Meanwhile, Dai Li wiped the sweat from his head. Carrying an audio speaker while speed walking for over an hour was really exhausting. Dai Li worked in physical training all year round and exercised frequently, and he was still almost out of breath.

"The outbreak is really tiring, but you seem to enjoy it! No wonder so many people like it," Dai Li took a breath.

Doing outbreak movement naturally needed music to follow. The musical rhythm coming out of the big audio speaker could easily surge adrenaline concentration and make people become more and more energetic.

The music for outbreak movement was different from that of square dancing. Square dancing music tended to focus on rhythm and sounded festive or grand.

But outbreak movement music was more dynamic and tended to sound younger. Even a lot of American and European rock music could be used for it.

As for young players, it would be hard for them to accept such square dancing music, but they had no resistance to dynamic American and European music.

Besides, young players were often obedient. Especially for those young ordinary players without any talents, they had no nearly chance to enter the field. Even as a training partner, the star players loathed them. Therefore, staying on the team was a blessing for them, and they didn't dare to doubt the coach's training method.

So Dai Li tried to build up the athletes' physical strength through outbreak movement and carried it out smoothly.

Surely, he didn't take athletes for a whole-day outbreak, since he was a fitness coach after all. If he just led his athletes walking around the ground, others would be suspicious. Furthermore, his physical strength could not keep up himself.

Thus, in the name of warm-up, Dai Li divided daily training into two parts so as to practice physical outbreak. And the time for each exercise was also slightly longer to cast a mist before others' eyes.Chowtai Kim walked around the room, depressed and gloomy.

He wanted to train those young players, but now that job had been given to Dai Li. At present, he just followed Claude and did everything that was assigned to him. Though Kim could contact the main players on this team every day and help them with their training, he was similar to a training assistant.

"Dai Li is responsible for the physical training of those young players now. It is not good to go on like this. If his training really works out, Claude will put him in an important position. Then, I will be second to him! No way! I need to find a chance to check how his training is progressing."

Chowtai Kim was not a passive person. When he thought of this, he took the opportunity to walk to Dai Li's training ground.

He heard some faint music.

"Where is the music from? Whose phone is playing this? Sounds like rock music. No. The sound of a phone cannot spread so far on this open ground. Much more like from special sound equipment."

He frowned, slowed down, listened carefully, and finally knew the direction of the sound.

"Over there!" Looking in that direction, Kim saw a group of people walking quickly.

"What are they doing? Warm-up before training? No. It is more walking quickly than running."

Stopping there, he stared at this group of people. Dai Li was leading as the young players followed behind.

One minute, two minutes, three minutes... After staring for more than ten minutes, he realized the team were still walking quickly without any sign of running.

"It's been a dozen minutes. Why are they still walking? And that sound comes from them. I think they have no intention of running. They are just walking to the music. Do they seriously think this is physical training?"

Chowtai Kim suddenly burst into laughter. "This training may be effective for ordinary people, but not for soccer players!"

"I heard that Dai Li was a physical coach of a table tennis team. Maybe this is a physical training method for table tennis, but how can table tennis be compared to soccer? If he thinks he can apply his method for ping pong to soccer training, he has made a big mistake. Seems that I don't need to worry about this Dai Li. He doesn't know soccer physical training at all. In a few days, I will replace this layman!"

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Chapter 324: Wish Fulfilled

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

The new season was about to begin, and the team was in the final stages of preparation.

At this time, drilling tactics became the main task of the coaching staff.

The lineup of the Dingtian Soccer Club changed little this year, and the players were quite familiar with Herman's tactical systems. They needn't learn new tactics. They just needed to practice new tactical changes on present tactics.

The time left for physical training also began to dwindle, and it would become more valuable as the new season began. For example, players had strength training nearly every day before the new season, while during the season, training twice a week would be quite good.

Meanwhile, the coaching staff also arranged actual competition training to allow players to familiarize themselves with the use of tactics.

The players of the club were divided into two groups for confrontation. Group A were all main players, and Group B were the young players and those who had nearly no opportunity to enter the field.

A professional team contained about 30 players, but in official games, only 14 players could play on the court at the start, including 11 starters and three substitutes. Even the squad list for official games contained 18 players, including a substitute goalkeeper. Therefore, at least one-third of the team had no chance to play on the field, and it would be no problem for them to form a team.

Furthermore, in the Dingtian Soccer Club, there was a large gap between the levels of the players. Main players included some world-class star players and national team players who were quite expensive and talented. Those players who nearly had no chance to enter the field were in the second-class even in domestic leagues.

Owing to the great gap of strength, this kind of practice match tended to be one-sided. How could those players who had nearly no chance to enter the field rival the main players? Because of the gap of strength, the group of main players could easily practice new tactics in the training match.

Standing on the sidelines, Coach Harman was watching the field with no expression on his face.

The score was now 4-0 with Group A in the lead, but this result was unexpected.

"Group B played well today. They run actively, and although there are plenty of mistakes, their coverage is excellent." Looking at his watch, Harman continued, "I thought Group A would have a much bigger lead so far, but they have only scored four goals."

"Two of those goals depend on Neol's personal capability," assistant coach Draco added, "so only two of the goals were really because of their tactical coordination."

"Group A made no obvious mistakes in tactics, but several of their attempts at tactical coordination were destroyed by Group B. Players in Group B may not be sufficient in personal capability, but they are also our players, and they know the tactical intentions of Group A," said assistant coach Georg.

"I'm afraid it's more than that." Watching his watch again, Harman murmured, "70 minutes."

Surprised at first, the two assistant coaches then understood what Harman meant after seeing the players performance.

"This game has lasted for 70 minutes, and the match on the field is still very intense and the game still holds a fast pace. I'm not surprised at the performance of Group A, but the fact that Group B is still keeping up is completely unexpected," Harman said slowly.

"In terms of ball possession, Group A owns absolute advantage. I have informed the data analysis team to record the covering distances all the players run," Draco said."How could the covering distance of Group B be more than that of Group A?" Looking at the report by data analysis team, Draco was astonished.

"Of course. During the whole game, Group B was in a passive position at all times. They have to run constantly to defend against the attacks of Group A. Since they have to follow the pace of Group A, there is no doubt that they will cover a longer distance in passive defense," the analyst explained.

"I know what you said. But I want to know, how did they manage to run the whole time? Could their physical strength bear it?" Draco said.

"About this question, you should ask Claude. He is in charge of physical training, and he will give you a reasonable explanation. What I can provide is only data for your tactical analysis." The analyst was an old member of Harman's team. He shrugged his shoulders.

"Well, thanks." Holding this report, Draco headed for Claude's office.

Claude was as busy as a bee. Since Franz returned to Europe to recuperate, the physical training work of two coaches had all been on his shoulders.

"Claude! Look at this!" Draco rushed into Claude's office, saw the gaunt Claude, and handed him the report.

"What's this?" Claude asked.

"Data from the data analysis team about the game today," Draco answered.

"Ah. Put it aside. I'll look at it after I finish what I'm doing," Claude said.

"No, you should see it now." Pushing the report closer to him, Draco continued, "Look at the covering distance. Group B exceeded Group A unexpectedly."

"What's so strange about that? The underdog must constantly defend, so the covering distance will naturally be greater," Claude answered.

"But they are Group B! Don't you know their capabilities? Have you watched today's game? They run all the time..."

Claude interrupted him. "I'm sorry. I only watched the first half. You know I have too much work to do. It's impossible for me to watch the whole game."

"So, you didn't watch the second half?" Draco sighed and said, "Well, let me explain to you what happened, then."

"During the whole second half, the players of Group B ran all the time. Unexpectedly, they could keep up with the pace that Group A set. More importantly, they were not at a disadvantage..." Draco introduced the second half.

"You mean some players of Group B level off with Group A in terms of energy expenditure?" Claude grasped the gist of the problem.

"Yes. When the game lasted for over 70 minutes, players' physical capabilities should start to descend quickly. Normally, the energy expenditure of Group B would be more obvious. After all, there is a big difference in the individual quality of the players. Those young players of Group B cannot compare with the main players."

He paused and continued, "But today was different. Those young men played till the last minute. Although they lost the game by a large margin, they performed well on the whole. Their weaknesses in technical and tactical coordination are still evident, but they are less inferior in physical quality."

Claude's expression finally became serious. After thinking about it for a few seconds, he said, "Recently, I handed over the training of young players to the young Coach Li. I have too much work at hand and I can't keep track of it all."

"You mean the new Dai Li is an expert on physical training?" Draco asked at once.

"I was impressed by the fact he made players lose five kilograms in three days. But in terms of physical training, we need to judge it based on data." Claude thought and then said, "I intended to give Group B a morning off and do a physical test for them alone in the afternoon. Then we will know whether they have made progress or not."Several assistant coaches were missing on the training ground, but Chowtai Kim's face was filled with undeniable joy.

Some assistant coaches were selected for the players' physical test, Chowtai Kim couldn't help looking in another direction across the training ground.

Because of the distance and the huge wire fence in the middle, he could only see the shadows but not the details.

"I heard they are testing the young players on our team. Dai Li is in charge of them, and Claude wants to know how his training is going." He couldn't help thinking of the scene he had stumbled upon a while ago, when Dai Li was leading the young players to do an outbreak movement.

"Outbreak? Well! Could that useless training have any effect? The result of this physical test must be pretty bad!" Ambition appeared in his eyes.

"If so, should I recommend myself to Claude to train those young players? Great. That's it. That's a unique opportunity. With my rich coaching experience, the chance of success is quite high. What a great opportunity! I can't miss it."

In his mind, he was imaging taking over Dai Li's position and showing his ability in training work. Then he would get Claude's trust and finally enter Harman's coaching team.Early the next morning, Claude summoned all the physical coaches and their assistant coaches.

"I called you together to announce some adjustments to our work." After clearing his throat, he took out his coach board and opened one page.

"Coach Chowtai Kim." He looked at Chowtai Kim.

Hearing his name, Chowtai Kim involuntarily took a deep breath, full of expectation.

"From now on, you will take over training young players from Coach Li," Claude said.

Chowtai Kim was so happy. He hadn't expected it to happen so soon. He had replaced Dai Li and become physical training coach of the young players.

Dai Li was removed as expected. I knew it. His training method is not suitable for soccer at all. You know nothing about physical training in soccer! It must be because of the terrible result of yesterday's physical test. It is absolutely right for Claude to choose me to replace you. Finally, it's my show time!

Chowtai Kim looked at Dai Li with an intentional expression of pity in his eyes.

At this time, Claude said again, "As for Coach Dai Li, from today on, you are going to share some of my work. The main players' cycle training is on you!"

What? Main players' cycle training! Chowtai Kim's proud face immediately turned pale...

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Chapter 325: Period Training

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

Chowtai Kim, just as he had wished, finally replaced Dai Li as the physical coach for the young players of the team. Then he enjoyed a sense of achievement and superiority for a couple of seconds. But after that, he felt that he had been cheated when he heard Claude's new appointment for Dai Li.

Dai Li was indeed no longer the fitness coach for the young players. But he got a better new job in charge of the period physical training of key players.

Jin knew that these two jobs were on totally different levels. The period training of key players, compared with the training of young players, could be considered the core work in a team.

Period training was not to design a timetable, nor to choose the workouts and decide how many times trainees should do them. And it was not a one-time exercise to make an athlete tired and sweating, either.

True period training could turn a small, skinny child into a strong warrior, and then he would kill you on the pitch.

In more detail, period training was a systematic and flexible training guided by an ultimate goal. It used long-term and flexible methods to achieve different aims during different phases. And it let the accumulation of those different aims lead to the fulfillment of the ultimate goal.

In professional soccer or professional basketball games, one season's schedule tended to be relatively complicated. For example, in the NBA, a team would play 82 games in a season, including road games far away and hard back-to-back games. In soccer, a team in the Premier League played 38 rounds in the league, plus the FA Cup and Carling Cup. Strong teams also played in the Champions League, and occasionally players were temporarily absent because of the national team's games.

This kind of irregular schedule made the training of the players irregular, too. A rigid training plan was obviously not practical in such a situation, and adjustments and changes had to be applied to the training according to the actual schedule of games.

For instance, players of an NBA team just finished back-to-back road games and they were tired to death. If training was arranged on the second day, it wouldn't help the team, and on the contrary, it could have bad influences on the team. And playing away from home in a soccer game brought restrictions of training conditions that might make some training programs impossible to carry out, and there was also a possibility of leaks of tactical intentions.in away games.

In this case, period training became the training method that had to be used.

Considering three weeks as a short period, one to two months a medium period, and one season a long period, one could set different levels of goals as well as training programs.

Take strength training as an example. It would be impossible for a player to do strength training every day during the season. If he went to his fitness coach for advice, the fitness coach might tell him to do strength training four times per fortnight. A layman might regard "four times per fortnight" as "twice a week."

But in fact, the fitness coach has used a professional expression of period training. The so-called "four times per fortnight" might be one training session in the first week and three sessions of training in the second week, and it might mean that the player should complete all four training sessions within one week, too.

During the whole season, all training programs of a team were arranged with the period training as their core. So Claude gave the job to Dai Li, which meant that Dai Li began to take the core work of the team.

In fact, since period training was a very complicated and professional training method, it was not available for each player. In professional teams, there were always some people who didn't even have the chance to play. For example, if a soccer match had an 18-player list, and the other players who were not on that list had no task to play, no coach would arrange complicated period training sessions for them."I heard that you've had Dai Li in charge of the period training of main players." Harman, holding a coffee cup, continued, "It was all your responsibility before."

"I'm letting Li get familiar with the work first. I will teach him soon, and I hope he can help me with this part of the job. I'm letting him get used to it at the beginning of the season, because I am afraid I will have no time to take care of it when the season proceeds and player injuries start coming up," Claude answered.

"Yeah, you were in charge of period training and Franz was in charge of the special training for the injured players. Now you are left alone, and it is really hard for you to take care of these two tasks at the same time. More professional knowledge and experience are needed in the special training for the injured players, otherwise, the training will make the player's injury worse. It really needs your efforts. Compared with it, the period training is only daily work that just needs a step-by-step carrying out, which is much simpler."

Haman took a sip of coffee, then put down his cup and asked, "But is the young Dai Li qualified enough for the job? Claude, I'm not interfering with your work, but I am still worried about the ability of Asian coaches."

"I brought you this." Claude handed a document to Harman. "These are the latest physical fitness reports of the young players on the team. I had Dai Li in charge of them during this time, so these reports can be seen as the results of his work."

Harman took the reports and read them one by one. Gradually, he seemed to relax.

"Significant progress," he said. "Usually I don't pay much attention to these young players, but according to these figures, they have made great progress. It seems that Dai Li is not only good at helping athletes lose weight, but is also a good physical trainer."

"Yes, he is a professional fitness coach after all," Claude agreed. "In terms of soccer training, Asian coaches are way behind us indeed. But as a fitness coach, Dai Li is comparable to European coaches. I think he will be able to fulfill Franz's responsibilities after some training."On the training ground, most of the players looked at Dai Li curiously.

In their opinion, Dai Li was too young, even younger than several players on the field. Such a young coach was very rare in the country.

Several of the foreign players, led by Neol, were not interested in him. Professional sports started early in western countries, which resulted in a more complete coach training system. Even in South American countries like Brazil and Argentina that are not as rich as European countries, many young people choose to be coaches.

However, Feng Gao, Yunping Zheng, and Jinshan Sun knew Dai Li's abilities.

Dai Li made them lose five kilos of weight within three days without extremely heavy exercises or dieting. He simply made them slim. The three had no idea how Dai Li did that. But they all knew that Dai Li was a great coach.

"Gao, is that the Coach Li who helped you lose weight?" someone asked.

"Yes, that's him! Five kilos in three days. I even thought I had to be sick to lose so much weight, until I saw the results of the physical test, which showed that I am healthy," Feng Gao replied.

"He is so young! I think he is younger than me," the other player continued.

"I don't know his age. Maybe he is younger than you," Feng Gao answered with a smile.

"Oh, and you once told me that this Coach Li's way of warming up is unique. It's like doing a radio broadcast exercise?" the other added.

"Yes, and you do it for a long time." Gao nodded and then said, "I've been playing soccer for so many years and experienced a lot of coaches. It's my first time to see such a way of warming up. I was really embarrassed when I did it for the first time."

Days before, Dai Li had helped Gao and two others to lose weight with a kind of gymnastics disguised as a warm up. So Gao always thought that he was doing some sort of warm up similar to a radio broadcast exercise.

"I am really curious about the radio broadcast exercise that can be used as a warm up." The player beside Gao looked eager for a try.

"He will probably help us warm up later. You'll know then," Feng Gao answered.

At that moment Dai Li stepped in front of the crowd with a small black box.

"First of all, let's warm up. Simple movements. Please just follow me!" said Dai Li.

"Sure, it's time for the radio broadcast exercise," Gao whispered, and then stood prepared for the slimnastics.

However, Dai Li pressed the button on the black box and then music boomed out from it.

That box was a portable loudspeaker.

"Full preparations of equipment! Was there music for you when you were doing the radio broadcast exercise?" The player beside Gao asked.

But Feng Gao replied with a confused face, "Music? Our warm up didn't go with music but beats—one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight—cried by Coach Li. That's all we got."

"Maybe the presence of the foreign players is the reason here. They probably cannot understand the orders if he just shouts out beats in Chinese, " the other player said with a smile, trying to find an explanation.

At the same time, the prelude ended.

"Sounds like the popular song for square dance lately."

"It is indeed the song for a square dance. Don't tell me that Coach Li is going to teach us to square dance?"

"Stop joking! He is a professional coach and we are professional athletes. Square dance? Your imagination is so great."

But Dai Li had begun to perform a square dance as the warm up while several players discussed in low voices.

Those who followed his movements didn't recognize it at the start, but soon they realized that something was wrong.

Someone looked to Feng Gao and said with doubt, "It's not the radio broadcast exercise! We are just performing a square dance!"

Feng Gao answered innocently and unhappily, "Why do you blame me for this? I'm not a liar! I was doing the radio broadcast exercise at that moment! I don't know how the radio broadcast exercise became square dancing!"

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Chapter 326: Coach Li Likes Warming Up

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

The music stopped.

Neol swept the sweat from his forehead. His face was still filled with curiosity. As a foreign player from Brazil who had just been here for one year, he had just square danced for the first time in his life. Neol found it interesting to do such a dance with unique movements to pleasant music.

But the domestic players didn't know what to do. They were all professional soccer players and some of them ranked top in the nation. They had experienced a lot and, of course, they had met many different coaches. But it was the first time for them to see a coach getting everyone to square dance.

But then, Dai Li's training became even more surprising. He asked everyone to follow him to walk fast around the training ground.

At first, everyone thought that Dai Li was about to start a long run. This kind of training was normal for soccer players. But after a few laps, the players found that Dai Li did not want to run.

"It has been a couple of laps of walking. When are we going to run?"

"Will we keep going like this? What exactly does this newcomer Coach Li plan to do?"

"The coach doesn't have to run with the athletes in a normal long run training. Doesn't Coach Li know? He is with us now."

"Why don't we ask Coach Li for the exact number of laps he planned for us and accomplish it ourselves? We might finish this program more quickly that way."

"It seems that Coach Li never wants to run at all. His plan is to walk fast."

"And with music. Walking while listening to music. This kind of training is new to me!"

"This music serves our walk properly. Look at Neol. He is enjoying walking."

"A typical man of South America, who can enjoy a funeral as long as there is dynamic music there."

"Your words remind me of the popular 'Outbreak' lately. Isn't it the same as what we are doing now? Walking fast with music!"

"The 'Outbreak'? Right! We are now doing 'outbreak'!"

"First the square dance, then the 'Outbreak.' What does Coach Li want? What kind of training method is this?"

"Gao, you are familiar with Coach Li. Go ask him. When should we start to run? It makes no sense to keep walking like this!" a player told Feng Gao.

Gao nodded after a little hesitation and then ran to Dai Li.

"Coach Li, what are we doing?" he asked.

"Training, of course," said Dai Li without hesitation.

"Should we keep walking? Or should we start to run?" Feng Gao added.

"No, just walk." Li continued, "We need to warm up before the formal training."

"Coach Li? So, it is the warm up!" Gao found out and nodded.

After one and a half hours, Dai Li had to stop the 'outbreak' although he wanted all the players to continue.

Physical 'Outbreak' would greatly improve a player's physical strength. Dai Li wanted to keep those athletes doing the 'outbreak' as long as possible. But he could not do that. A training plan fully occupied by 'Outbreak' would get questioned by the public, regardless of whether the athletes were willing to follow the plan or not.

Therefore, Dai Li had to call his physical 'outbreak' training for the players a 'warm up.' But players in training couldn't always be warming up. So Dai Li administered normal physical training programs for the rest of the training time.

The physical 'outbreak' took up a lot of time. In Dai Li's opinion, the improvement brought by his system skills were much more obvious than the improvement from normal physical training programs."We finished the training so quickly this morning. I don't think we went through many programs."

"Of course! We warmed up for one and a half hours, so the time left for other training programs was much shorter. That's why the training seemed to end quickly. "

"Coach Li's style of training is so strange. I've never seen such a long warm up before."

"Maybe it is because he, as a newcomer who doesn't know us, is afraid of injuring us in training. And he is not a coach of the Harman team. As a coach hired by the club itself, he tends to be more careful in training," someone reasoned.

"That makes sense. If players like Neol get injured in training, the responsible coach will probably only be criticized if he is from the Harman team. But if the coach is hired from outside, like Coach Li, he will definitely be fired or at least be given the cold shoulder."

"That is the so-called 'no merits, no demerits.' And of course, such sufficient warming up was effective. I was in good physical and mental condition during the training today. I even wanted more after the training ended."

"But the time of the warm up was too long. It was a three hour training in the morning, of which one and a half hours were spent warming up. And the walking around the ground almost made me dizzy."

"It's okay for me. There was music anyway. The music was great. And I enjoyed walking with the music. Later I will ask Coach Li for his playlist."

It was inevitable for the players to discuss the training after it was finished. And such discussions spread across the whole team in the following days.

Everyone now knew that Dai Li was a coach who liked to ask athletes to warm up, and everyone now knew that Dai Li did it because he was more careful and was afraid of injuring players in training.

Every coach had a different style of training, and some coaches were passionate when they were training. Some coaches were very serious in training. Some coaches had a high requirement for training, which required the athletes to reach the limit and to be exhausted every time. Some coaches were extremely strict with data, so if you were asked to do 20 push-ups, you had to make it 20 exactly.

Those were all styles of coaching. There was no right or wrong when it came to training styles. The matter was whether it was suitable or not. Some athletes were more comfortable with the training of a certain coach, so that they were able to get a great improvement in training easily. While some athletes couldn't fit in the training of a certain coach and they just got half the result with twice the effort.

But people can't judge that the training style of Coach A is right and Coach B is wrong. Sports training can only be defined as "effective" or "ineffective," rather than "right" or "wrong."

Therefore, Dai Li's method of "two hours warming up and two minutes formal training" would never be called a wrong method.

What's more, everyone agreed that Li was doing so to get the athletes warmed up and to avoid injury during training. Taking Dai Li's identity as a coach hired by the club rather than a member of the Harman team into consideration, people showed understanding to his way of training.

Some even marked Dai Li with the adjective "cowardly." In their opinions, Dai Li's style was cowardly because he intentionally increased the warm up time to shorten the time of normal training, which would weaken the effects of training, only to avoid injuries to the players."Do you know that the training this morning contained a warm up of more than two hours?"

"Two hours for warming up? No wonder! When I went to copy the papers today, I saw them walking around the field, and when I came back, they were still walking around the field."

"Coach Li is too cowardly! Two hours for warming up. That's not a warm up. I think he's deliberately trying to reduce the time of formal training."

"Why would Coach Li do that? Won't the reduction of training time lead to inefficiency of training?"

"Don't you know? If the coach reduces training time, it is less likely for players to get injured in training."

"So it is! I never thought of that. However, I am sorry for the Coach Li. Those Europeans are always looking down on our local coaches. Working with them is never easy. Perhaps a tiny mistake will put you in the doghouse."

"You are right. It is not easy for everyone to make a living."

Dai Li soon found out about these discussions. He discovered that he had won the title of "the most cowardly coach."

"Well, just let them misunderstand me. They will know the power of my training in the game. That will correct their opinions," Dai Li thought.Claude invited Dai Li to his office.

"Try this cup of coffee. I made it myself." Claude handed a cup of coffee to Li and continued, "People of your country prefer tea. So, I found it difficult to buy my favorite flavor of coffee here. The coffee we are drinking now is brought from Europe by me. Its origins are on the Ethiopian plateau of Africa."

"Thank you." Li took the coffee and tasted it, but he didn't think it made any difference.

That's not because Claude's coffee was fake or his way of making coffee was wrong. It was because Dai Li knew little about coffee. Chinese people prefer tea. Many Chinese can tell the differences between "Zheng Shan Xiao Zhong" black tea and "Jin Jun Mei" black tea. But few people in China know the differences between Indonesian coffee and Brazilian coffee.

The Ethiopian coffee was, of course, not the reason why Claude had called Dai Li to his office. He cleared his throat and said, "Coach Li, I've found that you like asking athletes to warm up."

"Of course, it is the topic of this meeting." Dai Li had guessed Claude's purpose. So he replied immediately, "I think the sufficient warm up's will make the following training more effective."

"But a warm up that is too long will shorten the time for normal training, right?" Claude smiled and then added, "I know that you might be worried about injuries and choose a conservative way of training. That is understandable."

"My purpose to get you here today is to tell you that you need not worry so much about training." Claude assumed a serious look, then said more slowly, "I have chosen you to take charge of the period training. And that represents my trust in you. I will support you. Do you understand?"

"I understand." Dai Li nodded and then explained, "Mr. Claude, I think you might misunderstand me. I am also good at athlete recovery. So, I don't worry about their injuries caused by training. My plan of extended warm up's is based on research and practice. I can assure you that such a means of training is more effective."

"Really?" Claude smiled and argued no more with Li. He looked at Dai Li as a youth.

This young man needs to go through a hard time to learn what to do. I was the same as you when I was young. Energetic, stubborn, and unyielding. Claude thought that in Dai Li, he saw himself at the young age.

This guy is pretty good, the best of his peers. But he needs a mentor! Claude suddenly felt that he had a responsibility on his shoulders, and it was to be the mentor of Coach Li.

"The team is going to Denmark a few days from now, and I hope I can see the effects of your training," said Claude, and turned his mind to other things.

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Chapter 327: Warming up

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

The new season would start soon, but before it did, there were some warm-up matches for the Dingtian football team. The first opponent of the Dingtian football team would be the Copenhagen team, a veteran of Denmark.

Although the Danish football league is not very famous in Europe, and is not as good as the five major European leagues, it is a European team, and so would be a great challenge for Dingtian. Of course, in terms of the ability of the domestic football league, only Dingtian could complete with the Copenhagen football team, because they have Coach Harman, the tactical master.

However, the tactical master cannot deal with every single problem. When the two teams are at the same level, tactics can be turned into victories. However, if the opposing team is slightly stronger, the tactics can narrow the gap between the two teams. But when there is a clear gap between the two teams, even delicate tactics cannot bring victory for the weak.

Harman stood there, with a serious expression on his face. He knew there was a gap between the two teams, but he still wanted his team to win the match, even if it was just a warm-up match.

The warm-up match had been going on for a long time. Although Dingtian was still behind Copenhagen by a score of 1-2, Harman was very satisfied with the players' performances.

However, Harman also knew that physical stamina remains a great challenge for most players, especially as the match enters into the last thirty minutes. The physical stamina of a player involves more than just his physical strength.

For instance, running the full 90 minutes on the court does not mean that you necessarily have good physical strength. Physical stamina is a comprehensive indicator, which means it contains endurance, speed, flexibility, agility, balance and so on. Given all these components, European players are indeed better in comparison to Asian Players.

For Harman, this was not just a matter of physical talent, but of training. The poor abilities of Asian coaches contributes to the poor physical staminas of Asian players. However, as many Asian players grew up in Europe or North America, they received the physical training of Europe and America at an early age. So, in terms of physical stamina, although they are inferior to the blacks, when compared with native Asian players, they are certainly better.

This is the function of training. When an Asian coach meets Asian players, it is just like playing cards. Harman is a top player, so even if he was unlucky enough to catch bad cards, he would still be able to have a better end result and outcome than most.

Also, while in the match, physical consumption has much to do with the intensity of the match. For example, if a football player played in the Chinese Super League, 90 minutes was enough for him to deplete all of his physical stamina. But when he played in the Asian Champion League, he was likely to use 70 minutes to execute tactical stamina, but it would be less efficient in the next 20 minutes. When he played in the UEFA Champion League, his stamina could only get him through until halftime.

The strength of the Copenhagen football team is less strong in the UEFA Champion League, and they are likely to lose in matches. But no matter how bad it is, it still adapts to the intensity of the UEFA Champion League. However, for the players of Dingtian, competing with the Copenhagen team requires more physical consumption than that of the Chinese Super League.

Harman had a deep understanding of the strength of his players, how they would fall behind and face the challenge of physical exhaustion. He also knew that they had poor abilities to execute their tactics, so it was almost impossible for them to equalize the playing field.

Harman knew that, by this time, the result had already been determined. However, at this point, there was a sudden change on the court. With several players passing the ball in succession, the play came down to Neol, who had abruptly passed through the defense of Copenhagen.

"Goal! We equalized the score!" cheers burst out immediately from the team of Dingtian.

This goal was the evidence of Neol's ability. The Brazilian football player had no experience in the European League, but in terms of ability, he had shown today that he was indeed the world's top player. Brazilians are different from Europeans in football. They may not be as good as Europeans in some ways, but they are definitely better than Europeans in singles.

Apart from Neol's ability, Hartman also found something special in Neol. The players were still executing their tactics, which they executed effectively. As the head coach of the team, Hartman could easily discover whether they were executing the tactics or not.

Football is a team sport, yet the players in every position still have their own individual role and value. Each movement of the players is aimed at the changes on the court, and as such, the players should have a clear understanding of where they are, and what direction they are heading in. All of these components are the reflections of tactics. For example, if you run blindly, you will not only waste energy, but also cause loopholes in the team's tactics.

"Their physical stamina was much better than I had expected, as by now, this late in the game, they were still efficient in executing the tactics." Harman nodded silently, very satisfied with the result.

When the match went on into the midfield, the two teams played to a 2-2 draw. But in the last 10 minutes, the players in Dingtian did have a problem in their physical stamina. However, the Copenhagen team didn't try their best to take this advantage and score. After all, it was only a warm-up match, so the result was not the most important, and the Copenhagen team was also willing to show the Danish this friendly gesture of restraint.

"The stamina of the players has improved greatly, and I can be completely reassured heading into the new season." Harman breathed freely and continued to say to Cloud, "You have told me that you wanted Dai Li to take over the periodic training of the main players. To be honest, I was a little worried, but now, it seems that the young coach didn't disappoint you."

Cloud smiled awkwardly and, of course, he could sense that the players' stamina was much better than it had been a few days earlier. At this point, Cloud couldn't help but think of the explanation of Dai Li.

At that time, Cloud had assumed that Li's explanation was merely an excuse for his stubbornness, and Cloud didn't think that Li's warm-up-oriented training would be effective. He was ready to take the video of the game to Li, then tell him what mistakes Li had made, thus playing the role of "life mentor", and then talk about such things as ideals, with an aim to influence him and help the lost young guy find the right way to go.

But what was beyond Cloud's expectation, was that the stamina of these players had remarkably improved, which meant that Li's training was effective.

"How did this happen? These players spent more time warming up than they did in training, but their progress was so obvious, so what training method did he use?!" Cloud suddenly felt that it was not Dai Li who was lost, but himself!

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Chapter 328: Running

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

Facts speak louder than words. When Cloud witnessed the apparent progress of his players, he never mentioned Li's training method again. Meanwhile, Dai Li continued to use his training method, with training interlaced in the warm-up.

A week before the start of the Chinese Super League, the Dingtian football team played two matches in the group stage of the Asian Champions League. The first match would be against the Binh Duong team of the Vietnamese, and if nothing else, Dingtian would beat Binh Duong by 1-0 in Vietnam. Then, in the second match, Dingtian was at home, and it beat the FC Tokyo of Korea by a score of 2-1.

It was a good result for Dingtian to obtain two winning streaks in the Asian Champions League, and through these two matches, the players of Dingtian had gotten into the state of the game in advance. Therefore, in the next Chinese Super League, Dingtian obtained another two winning streaks, capitalizing on their more excellent state and stronger strength.

In May, there would be more matches, as well as the four matches of the Chinese Super League happening later this month, the top 16 elimination matches of the Asian Champions League that had already started, and Dingtian had one home and one away match still left to play. What's more, the third round of the Chinese Football Association Cup had also started, and Dingtian was about to play against a team from the Chinese League.

According to the rules of the Chinese Football Association Cup, 32 teams from the Chinese Football Association Division Two League, amateur league, and qualifiers of the Football Association Cup, would play an elimination match. The top 16 winners would enter the second round, then would play against the teams from the Chinese League in the elimination match, the victor of which would then play against the teams from the Chinese Super League in the third round.

That was to say, that in the matches of the Football Association Cup, the teams from the Chinese Super League would show up in the third round. In addition, their opponents would be less stronger teams from the Chinese League, or much worse teams from the Chinese Football Association Division Two League. For the players of the Chinese Super League, it would be quite easy for them to win, if the main players played the game.

In June and July, the Chinese Super League played eight matches, the Football Association Cup played five matches, and the semi-finals were soon on the way.

August would present a more tough schedule for the Dingtian Football Club: four matches of the Chinese Super League, semi-finals of the Football Association Cup, and the top 8 of the Asian Champions League, among which, the latter competition was the most important.

Busy schedules and highly intensive matches historically was shown to cause more athletes to get injured. Such injuries are inevitable in sports, and it is even an indispensable part of sports, especially in football. Even for amateur football players, it is very common for them to get injured, while for professional football players, they don't care about these common injuries at all.

Fractures or muscle tears are serious injuries, and if players are unlucky to encounter these injuries, they will waste the whole season. The most common injuries are general muscle strains, such as a ligament injury, hamstring injury and strain injury. Even cramps can be recorded by the team doctor as an official, albeit minor, injury.

All of these are minor injuries have no impact on players' matches, and require no special treatment, because the therapist and physical coach can cure them. However, these players suffering from these injuries must be treated specially during training. In addition, changes must be made in cycle training, training loads, and training programs, which address the need for special attention. This is called "individuated training."

Cloud was personally responsible for the individuated training. This is a serious task, which is very strict in the need for a high level of training skill and experience. If the coach has a poor ability, it will be useless for training, and it will even aggravate the players' injuries further. Therefore, Cloud had to take charge of the training himself.

During his time in Dingtian, Dai Li also tried to learn more knowledge about football training and tactics from Harman's coaching staff. The physical coach must be involved in the training planning, and the purpose of physical training is to help players execute their tactics. Therefore, Dai Li, as the physical coach of cycle training, must know something about football tactics. It meant a learning process for Dai Li.

What's more, Harman had the world's top football coaching staff. In fact, you couldn't find so many perfect coaches anywhere, especially for such an unprofessional football coach as Dai Li. He could learn a lot of new knowledge from one simple tactical meeting.

Previously, Dai Li had only a little knowledge of football tactics, so maybe he was only a bit less inferior to those who made comments blindly. But, after staying in Dingtian for several months, his knowledge of football changed dramatically.

At the end of September, the semi-finals of the Asian Champions League started, and this time, Dingtian had to play against Jeonbuk Hyundai of South Korea. The first round of the two teams would be held in South Korea.

Chonju World Cup Stadium

"Foul, but why were there no whistles?!" Harman complained loudly.

Yunping Zheng stood up, with difficulty, on the court, then rubbed his legs, gritted his teeth, and continued to play.

Just now, a player of Jeonbuk Hyundai tripped Zheng with a foul, intentionally bunting Zheng with his knee. As a result, Zheng fell down, but the referee didn't whistle.

This was not the first time that such a thing had happened, as Jeonbuk Hyundai had made several fouls in the previous match, but the referee didn't whistle or issue yellow cards, he just gave them a verbal warning.

At the start, all felt that it was due to this being the home court advantage of Jeonbuk Hyundai, so the referee might be giving face to the team. But gradually, all came to find that the referee was simply being biased in his whistle blowing, apparently desiring to help the home team.

After several of these bogus whistle calls, even those home players knew that the referee was being lenient with the fouls, so they took advantage. Hence, they made big movements, obviously not for the ball, but at the opponents most of the time.

"In my idea, Jeonbuk Hyundai should call itself Jeonbuk Tripping Team."

"Don't say that. The shit Koreans may apply for the list of world heritage, saying even the tripping is theirs…"

"They never change. There were black biased whistles in The World Cup in South Korea, and it's still the same."

Even the fans vented their feelings with lots of complaints. On the court, Dingtian players showed extreme perseverance in facing the situation.

The referee whistled once more, and the first half was over. The score was 0-0, as neither team had made a goal, which was actually good news for Dingtian. If it could get back to play at their home court with a draw here, the hope of Dingtian's promotion would soar.

But Jeonbuk Hyundai couldn't accept the result, because no goal at home meant that it would be much harder to play away from home. In the locker room, Yunping Zheng lifted his shorts, revealing that his right leg was bruised.

"It's so swollen. The South Koreans were so vicious," said the teammate nearby with sympathy.

"It was okay to kick here, but if it had been a little further up, that could have been a kick to my genitalia! The South Koreans were too insidious. If it weren't for the match, I would definitely have hit him!" said Zheng Yunping fiercely.

"Calm down. It's home court for them after all, and the referee is also partial to them. If you are not calm, you will be given a red card. Then, the loss will outweigh the gain," the teammate urged.

Next to him, Martin, a foreign player, walked up and down the locker room with the help of a therapist.

"How are you feeling?" asked the therapist anxiously.

"It still hurts," Martin said, gritting his teeth.

"I have checked you all over, no bone is hurt, it was the same strain that you had before, and it was almost healed, but it has been stepped on by the opponent, and it becomes even worse with the new injury. You need to walk more and open up your body now," said the therapist, stringing the words together quickly in his haste to explain.

The team doctor Maraloni was grim-faced.

"How's it going?" Harman asked.

Maraloni shook his head, "I'm not optimistic. Most players were injured already, and now, their injuries are more serious. Although it did not affect their performances so far on the court, it definitely may affect them in the second-half match."

"Is there anyone who needs special attention?" Harman went on.

"Most mainly have a normal strain or bump, so with a pain-retarding spray and a simple massage, they should be fine 45 minutes after treatment. But the situation with Jingyuan Zhang is more complicated. He has had surgery on his ankle, and has been kicked by his opponent in the first half. Now, his running will be greatly affected," said Maraloni.

"That opponent should be given a yellow card!" Harman's face scowled at once and said, "Zhang's breakthrough on the left was an important means for us to break the opponent's defense. Also, iit could attract the attention of the opponent's defense, so as to create favorable attacking opportunities for Neol. If Jingyuan Zhang can't run, we will lose a very effective choice in our attacking tactics."

"I have tried my best, but now it seems to be difficult for Jingyuan Zhang to run as easily as when he started, and I suggest you be prepared in advance for substitution, or a change in the original tactics," said Maraloni.

As soon as Maraloni stopped, someone said, "Everybody, make room for me!"

When Harman and Maraloni looked in the direction of the sound, they saw that Jingyuan Zhang was running at an accelerated pace, sprinting from the left side of the locker room to the right in the blink of an eye. His movements were smooth.

"That's Jingyuan Zhang!" Harman looked at Maraloni, exclaiming, "You have told me that he couldn't run as well as he did at the start!"

Maraloni was surprised as well, "Wow! He was limping just moments ago, but now he's running!"

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Chapter 329: Massage Master Li Came Back

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

After all, the locker room was small, so that it was not open enough to run far. Therefore, Jingyuan Zhang had to stop after a while.

As if he was still feeling unsatisfied after stopping, he stood still and jumped a few times. Seeing this, Harman judged by his actions that he could run, and that his overall movement was still very flexible.

"What's going on? Why is he running now?" the face of the team doctor Maraloni looked a little embarrassed.

"Is this Jingyuan Zhang embarrassing me deliberately? Just now, he limped before me, as if he would fall down. But after I reported to Coach Harman, you become well. Are you fooling me deliberately?"

"Coach... It's... Actually..." Maraloni didn't know how to explain for a while.

Harman waved his hand and stopped him. Maraloni had followed him for about ten years, and he didn't think that Maraloni would mislead him about a player's injury. After all, it would not be good for him, either.

"Let's go and ask him how he recovered," Harman said.

They two walked to Jingyuan Zhang. Seeing the unkind look on Maraloni's face, Zhang felt guilty suddenly.

"Jingyuan Zhang, you couldn't move just now, but how did you recover? Beyond that, you can run and jump now?" Maraloni questioned him, glaring at him accusingly.

"Maraloni, I'm sorry you have thought that I was just fooling you!" Jingyuan Zhang smiled awkwardly and explained, "Just now, it was too painful to walk, but Coach Li massaged me for a while, and it got better. Now, it's still painful, but it's alright to run."

"Coach Li?" the two looked at Dai Li simultaneously.

The physical coach was in charge of rehabilitation training. As such, it was quite normal for him to know massage techniques. In fact, it would have been very strange if a physical coach couldn't massage.

Seeing this, Dai Li explained immediately, "I saw that Jingyuan Zhang was in so much pain that he nearly couldn't walk, so I massaged him for a while. I am quite proficient in massage for rehabilitation."

Looking at Dai Li and Zhang's leg, Maraloni didn't know what to say. Judging from his professional knowledge, Jingyuan Zhang's leg injury couldn't be healed by simple massage alone. He even thought that Dai Li collaborated with Zhang to playact.

Thinking of this, he said suddenly, "Coach Li, since you are so good at massage, come and help Martin Thess, who was badly injured by that slide tackle in the first half."

He said this with a smile on his face, though his eyes were cold, as if he was hiding a knife behind his back.

"Since you want to playact, I will let Martin Thess try it. Then you must spill the beans!" Maraloni thought this in his mind confidently.

"No problem," without any hesitation, Dai Li agreed happily.

Maraloni was a little shocked. Dai Li's quick response and confidence made him doubt his suspicion.

"It was impossible. I've been a team doctor for so many years. Judging by my experience, such a kind of injury couldn't be healed by mere minutes of massage," Maraloni consoled himself, thinking.

Martin Thess arrived, carried by his teammates.

"It might be a little painful. Bear with it," Dai Li said.

Martin Thess nodded. As a professional football player, physical confrontation was quite normal to him, and it was especially common to be hurt in tackling. It was also not unusual to be kicked, and then tumble, when running at high speed. Therefore, pain was fairly common.

Dai Li started to massage him. A painful look appeared on Martin Thess' face from time to time, as if he was being pressed on his most sore, injured parts.

Alongside, Harman and Maraloni stared at Li's hands all the time. What's more, Maraloni called all the team physical therapists there to also observe.

"What do you think of Li's massage techniques?" he asked physical therapists in an aside whisper.

As a team doctor, Maraloni was an expert in the medical area, but in rehabilitation massage, especially on massage techniques, he had to consult specialists. This physical therapist came from Europe too, and had served in the Harman Team for many years. He had also served many star players before. Surely his techniques and experience were impeccable.

This moment, he commented, "In terms of technique, his is quite professional, and there is nothing wrong with it. But there is nothing to be praised, either. On the whole, it's quite normal."

"Just normal?" narrowing his eyes slightly, Maraloni continued, "That is to say, the effect of Coach Li's massage will be just quite normal, too?"

"Well..." the physical therapist thought about it and shook his head, "I'm not sure. The effect not only depends on techniques, but also on the strength of the massage, the direction of pressing, the duration of the massage and so on. Hence, I can't give you a precise answer, at least not only through visual judgment."

By this moment, Claude had also come over. Maraloni turned to him immediately.

"Just now, Coach Dai Li said he was proficient in rehabilitation massage, right? You know this?" Maraloni asked.

Claude shook his head and answered, "I haven't asked him about it. During the last few months, he has been in charge of cycle training, while I am personally responsible for the individual training of the injured."

At once, his response set Maraloni's mind at rest. After a few minutes passed, Dai Li stopped, then said to Martin Thess, "Stand up and walk a few steps. Tell me how you feel."

Martin Thess nodded, stepped on the ground, stood up and walked around.

"Much better now. Just standing here, I feel no pain. But it gets a little painful when walking. I think it will be alright, if I do more movements to promote blood circulation," Martin Thess said.

"Do some simple actions. Jump, or move around fast," Dai Li continued.

Martin Thess did this immediately. He jumped several times, moved around fast, and then shot several times.

"Seems like he is recovered. His actions seem quite fluid!"

"Coach Li is like a god. Only minutes of massage, and he heals Martin Thess. Just now, Thess even couldn't walk!"

"A moment ago, Jingyuan Zhang was also limping, and then he was healed by Coach Li. Now, so is Martin Thess. I'm afraid that Coach Li is better than that foreign therapist."

People around started to whisper. Looking at Dai Li, the team doctor Maraloni, with his eyes wide, was in great shock.

"It's true! What kind of massage is this? So amazing! Only minutes of massage healed Martin Thess injury totally. Is that witchcraft of the orient?"

Suddenly, Maraloni felt that his decades of experience in medicine had been completely overturned at this moment. Meanwhile, the physical therapist that was observing was so shocked that even a cold sweat appeared on his head.

"Was the effect of the massage so good? Being a physical therapist for a dozen years, I haven't seen such a kind of massage. Is Coach Li a physical coach, or physical therapist? Fortunately, I signed a five-year contract with Coach Harman. Otherwise, I would be out of work in the next season!"

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Chapter 330: To the Rescue

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

Looking at Dai Li, Harman's eyes sparkled with excitement. Li surprised him again.

"Seems like Asian coach is not as bad as I thought," Harman looked at Dai Li with interest, and then Dai Li was pulled away by another player, to massage his muscles.

Halftime was now over. Harman didn't make any adjustments to personnel and tactics, but instead, just told the players to strengthen some aspects of their games. If the game could end with a score of 0-0 in away games, it could be viewed as a victory for Dingtian.

However, Jeonbuk Hyundai became more ferocious, because they wanted to break the deadlock. They tried in vain for several times to achieve this, but to no avail. Especially considering the existence of foreign aid, Neol, Jeonbuk, and Hyundai dared not input their full power into the offensive. Neol was so prominent, that if Jeonbuk Hyundai didn't leave someone in the defense line, it would be much too easy for him to get a solo drive.

As time passed, the score remained unchanged. In Jeonbuk Hyundai, all coaches, players, and even their own fans started to become anxious.

In the 61st minute, Jeonbuk Hyundai finally entered a substitution."Tweeeet!" the whistle sounded, as the referee took a yellow card for a player from Jeonbuk Hyundai.

On the other side, foreign aid Martin Thess lied on the ground, holding his legs with a painful expression.

As a key player in the midfield of Dingtian Football, Martin Thess was strong and had great stamina. He showed world-class insight, control, and tactics, both in offense and defense of his midfield position. As a Brazilian player, undoubtedly, he was great in offensive tactics and imagination. Meanwhile, in terms of defense, his steals and tackles always could build up an insurmountable barrier for the team.

In the first half, Jeonbuk Hyundai had committed several fouls, and was given a yellow card as a result. Thanks to the home field advantage, Jeonbuk Hyundai could get the help of the referee. Otherwise, it would definitely have been more than a yellow card, maybe even a red card.

But now, another yellow card issued, as Martin Thess fell down once again.

Team doctor Maraloni rushed to his aid, along with the medical group, to check his injury.

Maraloni knew that, if this game ended with a score of 0-0, Dingtian would get the home field advantage. Therefore, with the chance of checking on Martin Thess, he tried to delay time deliberately.

However, the referee ran to him quickly, assigning the stretcher group to carry Martin Thess off the field, and thus, not to affect the game. Obviously, the referee was also experienced, and knew what Maraloni was thinking.

Maraloni didn't dare to talk back to the referee. Reluctantly, he had to let the stretcher group carry Martin Thess to the sidelines. And the game continued. On the ground, it was 10 players on 11, temporarily.

"Good chance. Martin Thess is a key midfielder of Dingtian, contributing both in offensive and defensive. Now he is off. It's our chance to score!" without any hesitation, the Chief Coach of Jeonbuk Hyundai made all the three substitutions, which greatly helped in positive adjustments to tactics.

In this situation, now the condition suddenly became passive to the Dingtian Club.

For Dingtian Club, Martin Thess was irreplaceable, both in offensive and defensive terms. Especially on the defensive aspect, he was an overwhelming asset, gaining an advantage in front of Asian players. But now that he had left the ground, it meant a loss of an important barrier for the defense of Dingtian.

At this moment, Jeonbuk Hyundai realized that it was a great chance to score, so that they immediately pushed forward to score as soon as possible."How is Martin Thess now?" Coach Harman asked anxiously.

"It didn't hurt the bone. In my experience, it is likely to be a sprain, but the severity of the injury requires further examination and confirmation," the team doctor Maraloni answered.

"I need a precise answer. Will he be able to play?" Harman became serious and said, "We don't have much time to lose, and if he can't play, I'm going to have to make a substitution."

In football games, every team only had three substitutions during one game, so each was so very valuable. The coach would substitute for tactical adjustments. If the substitution couldn't have an immediate effect, this substitution could be said to be a failure as a tactical adjustment.

If one substitution was made for a player's injury, it meant an opportunity was lost for adjusting tactics, even it would disrupt the original tactical management. So, for the coach, such a kind of substitution was obviously not worth it.

The team doctor Maraloni also knew the importance of any substitution, and said at once, "I can give him analgesic spray first, and then tie the injury with a bandage. He could continue to play, but I'm not sure how long he can bear with it. For insurance reasons, I suggest that you leave one substitution in reserve."

Definitely, this wasn't the answer Coach Harman wanted to hear. He frowned, as he didn't want to waste one substitution.

At that moment, Martin Thess, lying on the ground, suddenly said, "Let Coach Li have a try! During halftime, his massage relieved my pain. I want him to give me a massage again."

"Call Coach Li over!" Without any hesitation, Harman directly ordered Dai Li to come to the rescue. Now, it was 10 players on 11 on the field, Harman had to make every decision as fast as possible, without any delay.

Dai Li came over and started to do rehabilitation massage for Martin Thess.On the stands nearest to the substitute bench, the management members of Dingtian were sitting there, all with a nervous look, watching as Martin Thess underwent treatment there.

"How is Martin Thess now? How bad is his injury?"

"The team doctor is dealing with it. Hoping he will be alright."

While everyone was talking about this, Dai Li came over, running quickly.

"It seems like the physician coach, right? Why did he come?"

"Shouldn't we rely on our team doctor at this time? What's the use of a physician coach?"

"Besides, he isn't on Harman Team. I know this guy, he is our own coach, in our club, right?"

"Surely he is one of our own people, as there is no Asian on Harman Team."

Seated in the middle, Yunan Xiao also saw Dai Li running over and squatting beside Martin Thess.

"Seems like he's giving Martin Thess a massage, right? How come it's his turn to do this? There are specialized physical therapists and massage therapists on our team, but it looks like Coach Harman has allowed it."

There existed a doubt in her mind. She couldn't understand why Coach Harman would trust Dai Li versus other coaches on his own team at this time.

By this second, Yunan Xiao couldn't help but be more curious about him.Owing to the fact that it was 11 on 10 now, Jeonbuk Hyundai had all the advantages on the ground. Meanwhile, the player who was substituted just now was full of physical strength, and he constantly tried to break Dingtian's defensive line.

However, Harman didn't make any tactical adjustments at once, didn't substitute, and didn't even let Martin Thess back to the field.

Even the TV commentator began to become nervous, "Martin Thess has been hurt and off the field for treatment for three minutes now, but Coach Harman didn't make any substitution. So it seems that Martin Thess' injury was not so serious. It may be not long before he returns to play again."

Another commentator offered a different perspective: "I'm a little worried about his injury. If it's just a general injury, simple treatments would be alright, and it wouldn't take that long. Martin Thess' injury was obviously an accident for Dingtian. I think Coach Harman will make tactical adjustments. He might substitute soon."

"But a substitution can't work for Martin Thess. During the three minutes without him, Jeonbuk Hyundai had launched two rounds of offense, including one threatening shot to the goal range. But by comparison, Dingtian seems to have not adapted to the situation well, without their core midfielder."

"Coach Harman should do some adjustments quickly, or Dingtian will concede anytime.""OK?" Harman asked anxiously.

"All right!" Dai Li nodded and pulled up Martin Thess.

"How are you feeling?" Harman and Maraloni asked nearly at the same time.

Martin Thess stretched his legs, did several running actions quickly, then nodded, "No problem! I can play."

"Great! You play right now!" Harman patted Martin Thess' shoulder and smiled in relief.

While team doctor Maraloni couldn't help peeping at Dai Li.

"Simple massage again. Extremely unbelievable!""What? Martin Thess is walking toward the ground and signing to the referee. Is he going to get back on the field?"

"Correct! Martin Thess is back! His wound is OK for now. But we don't know whether it will affect him."

"From the steps he walks, it seems like he is OK now. If he can play as usual, Dingtian will get its advantages back, both on offensive and defensive ends."

"Martin Thess is running. No problem. There is no problem with his movements. Seems that the injury isn't affecting his performance at all."

"Martin Thess is back. Seems like Dingtian will regain the dominant position on the ground."Martin Thess' presence back on the ground not only guaranteed the defense in the midfield, but also raised the spirits of the other Dingtian players.

On the contrary, the resistance for the offense of Jeonbuk Hyundai suddenly was upgraded, and the pushing in the midfield was becoming harder again. What's more, they had to guard against Martin Thess turning defense into offense suddenly.

In the stadium, fans had been booing with disappointment, while a heavy look appeared on the chief coach of Jeonbuk Hyundai's face.

At this time, Harman started to substitute.

Since Martin Thess was not affected by his injury, Harman chose to make a substitution and do tactical adjustments.

Jeonbuk Hyundai substituted much too early, which meant that they exposed their tactical intentions after substitution. How could a world-class coach like Harman not realize it? So, Harman applied the latter tactic by substituting specifically. According to Jeonbuk Hyundai's tactics that were exposed after substitution, he made tactical adjustments accordingly.

Seeing this, on the substitute bench, all people, including the chief coach and main coaches, looked on in desperation. They all knew that, for a tactical master like Harman, substituting now meant that he had seek out a tactic to counter Jeonbuk Hyundai.

By this time, Jeonbuk Hyundai had already used all three substitutions...

The die was cast!

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Chapter 331: Aspiration for Talent

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

The game was over, and the final score was 0-0. None of the two teams managed to score a goal, so they had to shake hands for this goalies' draw.

However, the next game between the two teams would be held at the home court of Dingtian Club, which was not providing an optimistic outlook for Jeonbuk Hyundai. In a game of this level, it was almost impossible for Jeonbuk Hyundai to win in the home court of Dingtian Club, according to the strength comparison between the two teams.

For Jeonbuk Hyundai, the only good news was that Dingtian failed to score any away goals. Therefore, if Jeonbuk Hyundai managed to score one goal in the next game, they could go through to the next round of the game, even if the final result of the game was still a draw.

In the plane flying back to China, Harman and several core members of his coach team sat together, to summarize the game which had just finished.

Harman looked at the notebook in his hand and said, "We have to participate in the games of three fronts simultaneously, which resulted in serious exhaustion of the players. From this game, our disadvantage of insufficient lineup depth has been exposed. Our players are suffering from serious physical exhaustion by taking part in the games of the domestic league, the FA Cup, and the AFC Champions League at the same time. The chance of injury is also increasing. I will point this out to the club. However, we have to wait until the next season to change this situation. For this season, we still have to hold the line."

"The injuries of several players shall be evaluated, so I plan to have some of our key players take a break in the upcoming games of the domestic league. As far as to our current scores in the domestic league, if we could win the next game, it is highly possible for us to win the league championship in advance. Of course, this is dependent on whether our rivals could give us the chance. If they also win the next game, this competition for the championship has to be continued."

As Harman said this, he closed his notebook, turned to Claude, and asked, "What do you think of Dai Li?"

"What aspect are you talking about?" Claude asked immediately.

Harman smiled slightly, "Out team hasn't had transfusion of fresh blood for a long time."

Everyone was shocked, as none of them had expected Harman was planning to recruit Dai Li.

The gap between the Asian soccer players and their European counterparts was large, while the gap between the Asian soccer coaches and their European counterparts was even larger. Actually, there were good soccer coaches in Asia, but these coaches wouldn't create any advantage for Asia over Europe.

For example, if a competent Asian coach, who was a flagship in Asia, and could even match the European coaches, was put in Europe, this coach wouldn't be as shiny or impressive as he was in Asia. The reason being was that there might be around 20 coaches in Europe, who were at the same level as was this Asian coach.

This was just like a giant panda in an ordinary zoo: This panda must be the star of the zoo, and get the most attention. Some people would buy a ticket to the zoo just to see the panda. However, if the same panda was placed in the breeding base of the giant panda, together with dozens of pandas, this panda would just be an ordinary panda there.

For the same reason, the famous European coaches would definitely search for their team members in Europe. Even though some Asian coaches had reached their standards, these European coaches wouldn't go around the sun to meet the moon, for they really had a lot of candidates of the same level in Europe already.

Therefore, if an Asian coach wanted to have a place in Europe, being at the same level with the European coaches was far from being enough, as you were not good enough for the team to hire you instead of other coaches of same level with you. An Asian coach should be much better than the European coaches, in order to ensure himself a place on the European coach teams.

Another example would be the table tennis event. The reason that the table tennis coaches of China could have a place in the national teams of foreign countries, was that they were much better than their foreign counterparts. Therefore, when Harman expressed his intention to recruit Dai Li, everyone was shocked. Harman's intention was an indirect recognition that Dai Li was better than the European coaches.

After pondering it for several seconds, Claude said first, "Dai Li is really good in the physical training, which could match the high-level physical trainers in Europe. However, he also has some shortcomings. For example, he can only speak English, and even so, his English is still not really good enough."

All the European coaches in the meeting could speak two or three other languages besides English, such as German, French, Italian and Spanish. Basically, they wouldn't have any problem in communicating with all European players. Harman could speak four languages. Compared to them, Dai Li could only speak Chinese and English, and his English was not good enough.

Standing beside Claude, Maraloni, who was the Team Doctor, said, "Dai Li's massage manipulation is miraculous, which he has shown to us in the last game. So I will open my arms to welcome him to join our medical group."

Claude stared at Maraloni discontentedly, and thought Maraloni was undermining his team, even if Dai Li hadn't been recruited to the coach team.

The Assisting Coach Delassaux gave a knowing smile, and turned aside from this topic, "According to my information, Dai Li has signed a one year contract with Dingtian Club. Now, there are three months before the expiration of the contract. I've heard Dai Li was recommended by one of the team's shareholders. Based on his performance, the renewal of his contract with the club will be assured. I guess Dai Li will remain in the club for the next season. We also have one year left before the expiration of the contract between us and Dingtian Club."

"I know what you are talking about," Harman nodded slightly. "You mean the club could renew Dai Li's contract first for the next season, so that we could still have Dai Li work for us, and save a lot of money for our team at the same time."

Harman came to Dingtian Club with his team. The remuneration of each team member had been determined through strict calculation and negotiation. Now, except for Harman, the annual salary of the rest of the team members was about 10 million Euros. One more person would definitely cause additional expenditures.

Delassaux revealed an expression of "you know that", then continued to say, "Dai Li's contract with Dingtian Club will not stop him from working for us. One year later, if we won't renew the contract with Dingtian Club, we could send an invitation to Dai Li then. I believe he won't refuse our invitation."Dai Li suddenly felt the hospitality from the foreign coaches of Harman's team, which was much better than before.

Especially for the team doctor Maraloni, who, when he met Dai Li before, would just greet Dai Li. But now, he would always talk with Dai Li, and even discuss the rehabilitation of the players with Dai Li, even asking for Dai Li's opinions. Before that, these issues were just inside Harman's team. Coaches hired by the club, like Dai Li, would have the chance to listen, at most, and wouldn't have the right to speak, let alone be asked for their opinions.

Now the domestic league was drawing to an end. The score of Dingtian Club was obviously advantageous. In the upcoming 27th round of the domestic league, it was highly possible for Dingtian Club to win the league champion in advance. Of course, it was still dependent on whether the team, which ranked the 2nd, could give Dingtian Club the chance.

The opposing team of Dingtian in the 27th round was a team of intermediate level. Coach Harman didn't send all of his key players to the game. Finally, Dingtian defeated this team at a score of 2-1.

At the same time, the team rank the 2nd lost in the game, so Dingtian Club managed to defend the championship of the league three rounds in advance.

For Dingtian Club, this was definitely good news. They wouldn't worry about the domestic league anymore. The key players didn't need to participate in the upcoming games of the domestic league, and could devote themselves in the preparation of the final game of AFC Champions League.In the office, Dai Li was holding a thick operation manual in one hand, and his mobile phone in the other hand. He was using translation software on his mobile phone.

Dingtian Club had just imported several pieces of state-of-the-art training equipment from Europe. The operation interfaces of the equipment were all in English and quite complicated. The operation manual was just like a dictionary. Even the foreign coaches of Harman's team had to spend a lot of time to figure out the operation of the equipment.

For Dai Li, he needed to work even harder to master the usage of the equipment. Although the operation manual had a lot of language options, such as English, French, German, Italian and Spanish, the option of Chinese was not included. Many technical terms and special names had made Dai Li light-headed in trying to figure them. He had to read the manual with the help of the translation software.

It got dark before Dai Li was aware, and he stood up, gave a stretch, and yawned with fatigue.

It's really hard to understand this operation manual. Let me just go to the training room to have some field operation of those new equipment.

As Dai Li thought of it, he walked to the training room with the operation manual.

From afar, Dai Li saw that the lamps in the training room were still on.

Did they forget to turn off the lamps, or is there still somebody there? Dai Li shook his head. It is impossible for someone to stay in this room at this time.

This was a professional soccer club, not a training team in the system. Although the players were better paid than those athletes in the system, the club players' training time was shorter than that of the athletes in the system.

The players in the club were more like employees in an enterprise. They would arrive at the training ground on time in the morning, and go home on time in the afternoon. The additional training would always happen on holidays or weekends. We could read the news that certain star players performed additional training during holidays, but we seldom heard the news that a player performed additional training in the team in the evening of a working day.

The members of Harman's team would also have reliable attendance every day. The Europeans were people who would refuse to work overtime, even if overtime pay was guaranteed. The team doctor Maraloni was a good example of this phenomenon. As an Italian, he spent a lot of time in planning his vacations. If you asked him to work overtime, he would definitely bear a deep grudge against you, as if you had murdered his parents!

Before, when Dai Li was in the National Table Tennis Team, overtime was very normal. A guy who refused to work overtime would be considered an alien. In the National Table Tennis Team, you could find someone who worked 16 hours a day easily. A lot of athletes chose to have additional trainings. Yet after joining Dingtian Club, Dai Li had gradually adapted to this culture of saying no to overtime.

Therefore, when Dai Li saw the lamps in the training room were still on, his first response was to think that someone forgot to turn off the lamps. However, when Dai Li got close, he could heard sounds coming out of the room.

Someone is in the room. Who doesn't leave at this time? It shouldn't be those foreigners, they are not so diligent! As Dai Li thought of it, he entered the room and started to look around.

It's General Manager Xiao!

On a treadmill, Dai Li saw a beautiful figure.

It was Yunan Xiao.

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Chapter 332: Boyfriend

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

On the treadmill, Yunan Xiao was wearing a pink T-shirt and black leggings. Outside the leggings, she also wore pink-rimmed black shorts. Her clothes were not close-fitting, however, her flawless figure was outlined perfectly.

Now Yunan Xiao's forehead had been covered with tiny sweat beads. Her face was also flushed, because of the intense exercise. She was listening to music with earphones, so she didn't realized Dai Li's arrival immediately.

Yunan Xiao was the General Manager of Dingtian Club. Dai Li could meet her occasionally in the daytime, but he would only greet her every time. Actually, both of them had never had any real verbal communication before.

Also, Dai Li always thought a princess like Yunan Xiao was a person from a world which was different with his, although they were of about the same age. He decided to keep his distance from her.

However, since he had met her here, he had to say hello to her; so Dai Li came up to her and said first, "Hello, General Manager Xiao, sorry for interrupting your exercise."

After hearing Dai Li's words, Yunan Xiao turned around and saw Dai Li. She was also a little bit surprised. Obviously, she didn't expect someone would still in the club and come to the training room at this time.

"Coach Li, it's getting dark, why didn't you go home?" as Yunan Xiao said this, she smiled at Dai Li slightly.

When Yunan Xiao smiled, her dimples made her quite lovely, which intoxicated Dai Li for a short while. However, Dai Li came to himself immediately and explained, "Our club has just imported several pieces of training equipment from Europe. I came here to get familiar with them, and figure out their functions."

As Dai Li spoke, he pointed at the operation manual in his hand, "The operation manual is in English. I couldn't understand the content by only reading it, so I have to operate the equipment personally."

"I see. So that's why I didn't see you here before." Yunan Xiao nodded, then said, "I sit in the office every day, and have no time to do exercise, so whenever I have time after work, I will come here to use the treadmills and such."

"So I'll leave you to it." Dai Li nodded at Yunan Xiao politely, then walked to the new equipment with the operation manual.

After stabilizing his mind, Dai Li started to operate the new training equipment.

This one has the function of heart rate measurement. I saw similar equipment in the United States, which was not as advanced as this. This one could not only measure the heart rate, but also could export the data by pressing one button. After downloading the APP, this equipment could be connected to the mobile phone or a tablet computer, then all data could be checked with a mobile phone.

This is the air resistance training device, of which the precision could reach 0.1kg level. The air resistance training device of the National Table Tennis Team could only reach the 1kg precision level. This one also has the progressive resistance setting function, so it should be the most advanced air resistance training device on the market.

Dai Li started to learn the functions of the new equipment, according to the operation manual. Suddenly, all the lamps of the training room went out, and the equipment operated by Dai Li also stopped working.

Is it a power outage? Dai Li realized it was so, and was a little bit shocked. Nowadays, normally a notification would be given before a power outage took place in cities. This kind of unexpected power outage was quite rare, which would happen only once in several years.

"Ouch…" a shout came in, which was followed by a sound of a collision.

It's the sound of Yunan Xiao. Dai Li took out his mobile phone and activated the function of the flashlight, then walked toward Yunan Xiao.

Dai Li came to the treadmill, guided by the light of his mobile phone. He found Yunan Xiao was sitting on the ground, rubbing her right ankle with both of her hands.

Dai Li knew Yunan Xiao had fallen off the treadmill. The track of the treadmill was driven electrically. During the power outage, the treadmill would lose power supply, and thus, stopped naturally. People, who were running on the treadmill, would lose their balance and fall off, due to the inertia.

"General Manager Xiao, are you ok?" as Dai Li asked, he squatted down to check the injuries of Yunan Xiao.

"It seems I have sprained my ankle," Yunan Xiao said, clenching her teeth.

"Don't move, let me check it." Dai Li touched her ankle with his hand gently, "Does it hurt here?"

Yunan Xiao's body shivered suddenly. Obviously, the pain point was touched, then she nodded, pointing: "This is it."

"It should be a normal sprain. Your muscles and bones are ok." Dai Li continued to say, "Take off your shoe, and let me rub your ankle first."

Yunan Xiao hesitated a bit, then she nodded. Dai Li took off Yunan Xiao's shoe and sock, and started to rub the sprain gently. For a high level physical trainer like Dai Li, this kind of massage was just like eating and drinking, which could be considered as the most elementary of skills.

However, now Dai Li was quite nervous. He could even hear his own heartbeat. "Just tell me if you feel any pain, I will do it more gently." Dai Li said.

"It hurts!" Yunan Xiao said immediately.

"OK, I will be more gentle…" suddenly Dai Li felt that, if their dialogue was written down, it would cause misunderstanding.

Stop thinking nonsense! Normally my thoughts are not so filthy! Dai Li took a self-mocking breath; however, the fragrance from Yunan Xiao's body rushed into Dai Li's nose, which made him more nervous.

Dai Li peeped at Yunan Xiao. Under the dim light of the mobile phone, Yunan Xiao's pink-and-white face was very tender. At this moment, Yunan Xiao's face was indeed flushed, maybe because of the exercises, or the pain, or the shyness for putting her foot in the hands of a strange man.

Sometimes a woman was more attractive in dim light. At this moment, because of the power outage, it was quite just this way in the training room. Dai Li could even hear the breath of Yunan Xiao, which made Dai Li feel Yunan Xiao was incredibly beautiful.

I am breathing the same air with her! Dai Li was quite excited. He dared not keep looking at Yunan Xiao's face. He was afraid that he couldn't help staring at Yunan Xiao, which would be very embarrassing. Therefore, he tried to focus on his massage work.

However, Yunan Xiao's white-and-tender foot came into the view of Dai Li. Her toenails were coated with red nail polish, which were just like rubies in the dim light, while her white and tender skin added some charms to her foot. Also, the smooth and soft sense of touching the tender skin in Yunan Xiao's foot made Dai Li fanciful and fickle, and gave him an impulse to touch the foot slowly.

Normally, the objects of Dai Li's massage therapy were males, many of them had a lot of injuries in their legs and feet, and their skin was very rough. The different feeling of touching Yunan Xiao's foot made Dai Li feel more than a little bit awkward.

However, the rehabilitative massage was effective. Yunan Xiao's ankle was better than before, but she was still a little bit gimpy.

According to Yunan Xiao's current situation, she couldn't continue her exercise. Without power supply, Dai Li also couldn't continue his study of the new equipment. Now both of them had to leave the training room.

"Coach Li, thank you. I feel much better now." Yunan Xiao paused a bit and then made her farewell, "It's late now, I don't know when the power supply could be resumed, so I will go home now."

"En, the lamps are out, how about I walk you out?" Dai Li couldn't help saying this. However, hardly were the words uttered, when he began to regret them.

I am too rash. We don't know each other very well. If she refuses me, it will be very embarrassing! Dai Li said to himself.

But Yunan Xiao also couldn't help nodding her head, "Thank you, my car is parking in the underground parking lot."Dai Li was holding the light with his mobile phone in one of his hands, and supporting Yunan Xiao with the other hand. Finally, they walked to a red Maserati in the underground parking lot.

No wonder she is a princess! This is a Maserati! Although Dai Li didn't know the price of the car, he definitely knew he couldn't afford such a car. At this moment, he was quite sober of mind. He made it clear again that he and Yunan Xiao were people from two different worlds.

"Thank you." After expressing appreciation to Dai Li, Yunan Xiao sat in the driver's seat. Before closing the car door, Yunan Xiao stuck her head out of the car.

"Coach Li, could you drive me home? My ankle still hurts, and I couldn't step on the gas pedal with my foot," Yunan Xiao said in an injured tone.

"Alright. Your ankle is injured, and you are really not in a good condition to drive." Dai Li was a little bit excited in his heart. He couldn't help finding an excuse for himself.Dai Li drove the red Maserati to a villa area, according to the instruction of Yunan Xiao. Dai Li knew this villa area, which was developed by Dingtian Group. The price also ranked among the top in China. It was said that a lot of rich people were living here. The security control of the area was very strict. Ordinary people would never have a chance to enter this area. However, all the security guards knew Yunan Xiao's car. The red Maserati entered the villa area without any obstruction.

It was already dark outside, but the villa was lit up by a lot of lamps from outside and inside. Dai Li estimated the floor area of the villa was about 1 to 2 Mu (666.7 m2~ 1333.3 m2), according to the length of the wall enclosed the villa. Dai Li drove the car directly into the courtyard, finding his estimation of the villa's area was too conservative.

What a big villa! As Dai Li exclaimed in his heart, he stopped the car. Just at this moment, a young man came out from the villa. "Yunan, you are back. I have been waiting for you for a long time!" the young man shouted from afar.

"Fen Luo, why are you here?" Yunan Xiao frowned, obviously displeased.

At this moment, the young man, whose name was Fen Luo, also noticed that Yunan Xiao got out of the car from the passenger side.

"You didn't drive, right? Have you drunk during social activities? You found a designated driver, right? You could just call me, I would pick you up," Fen Luo said gallantly, as he ignored Dai Li completely. He thought Dai Li was just a designated driver.

Then Dai Li got out of the car and prepared to return the key to Yunan Xiao.

"I didn't drink any alcohol. He is also not a designated driver." Yunan Xiao looked at Fen Luo discontentedly. She clenched her teeth inadvertently and pointed at Dai Li, "He is my boyfriend!"

"What? Your boyfriend?" Fen Luo shouted in surprise, and stared at Dai Li like a murderer.

Boyfriend? Dai Li said to himself. He doubted whether he had had an auditory hallucination. His face was filled with an expression like that of a crashed computer!

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Chapter 333: A Shield

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

"Is he your boyfriend? You got a boyfriend?" Fen Luo looked at Dai Li immediately with glaring eyes.

Dai Li had just left the training room, and he hadn't changed his clothes because of the power outage, so he was wearing his ordinary-looking gym suit, which was not a low-priced product, but was also not a luxury brand either.

Dai Li was wearing a pair of sports shoes, which were a little bit worn from his frequent visits to the training grounds. From Dai Li's ordinary attire, Fen Luo couldn't get any information about Dai Li and his background; so Fen Luo took a glance at Dai Li's wristwatch.

How could he wear an electronic watch? How could an adult wear an electronic watch? Fen Luo was surprised.

Like a saying goes, the poor went in for vehicles, the rich were keen on wristwatches, and the fool compared mobile phones, while the proletariats had a deep love for computers. Although it was just a joke, it was quite ironic in reality.

The last two sentences of this saying, "the fool compared mobile phones, while the proletariats had a deep love for computers", were added by modern people, while the first two sentences, "the poor went in for vehicles, the rich were keen on wristwatches" , were quite popular in the 1970s to the 1980s.

The poor went in for vehicles. The vehicles descibed here were not automobiles, but bicycles. In the 1970s-1980s, a Forever brand bicycle was absolutely an expensive item in many families, although it could not be considered as a luxury good. This bicycle was as important as were the cars in modern families. Now, many people misunderstood "the poor went in for vehicles" as standing for automobiles. From the aspect of price, the low-end cars were more expensive than low-end wristwatches, while the high-end cars were more expensive than the high-end wristwatches. The price of the limited edition wristwatch was lower than the price of the limited edition cars, naturally. A hobby in cars would cost more money than a hobby in wristwatches.

The rich were fond of wristwatches. The wristwatches here meant Swiss watches. In those days, a Seagull wristwatch would make the wearer feel very good. The rich people would wear wristwatches imported from the Swiss. At that time, the foreign currency of the country was very limited. Most ordinary people were not rich, therefore, the Swiss watches were considered as being top-grade limited luxury goods, which could not be purchased, even if you had money.

Now, the economy is much more developed. The Swiss watches are no longer rarities. Some brands, which were considered as luxury goods in the last century, are common nowadays. However, most of the time, the status of a man can still be roughly revealed through the wristwatch he is wearing.

People, who were good at choosing wristwatches, wouldn't choose the most expensive wristwatches. The match of wristwatch with clothes or occasion could reveal the taste of the wearer. For example, the wristwatches for meeting customers and a girlfriend should be different. Of course, taste was only for the rich people.

Dai Li was not a rich man, and was also far from having good tastes. He didn't like to spend money on expensive wristwatches. An electronic watch, which could be used for timing, was elementary equipment for a professional coach, and therefore, what Dai Li was wearing was an electronic watch.

People, who like wristwatches, always wear mechanical wristwatches. They would not spare a glance at quartz watches. As for electronic watches, to Fen Luo, they were just baby products, which could only be used by kids.

Fen Luo couldn't figure out Dai Li's status and background. From Dai Li's attire, Fen Luo couldn't get any useful information. He even felt Dai Li was quite mysterious. Then Fen Luo looked at Yunan Xiao's clothes, and he was quite frustrated by what he saw.

Yunan Xiao also wore a gym suit. Fen Luo could easily figure out that Yunan Xiao and Dai Li were doing exercises together just now, since they were wearing their gym suits.

He did exercises together with Yunan. Could he really be Yunan's boyfriend? Fen Luo's face was filled with the expression of deep sorrow immediately.

Dai Li hadn't figured out what was happening, but his instinct told him the best thing he should do now was to leave.

He returned the key to Yunan Xiao and said, "General Manager Xiao, it's time for me to…"

"Didn't I tell you that you should call me Nannan privately?" Yunan Xiao interrupted Dai Li.

"Nan…nan?" Dai Li was slow in reacting, for he didn't remember anything about this term of endearment being mentioned by Yunan Xiao before.

"Let's go inside." Yunan Xiao held Dai Li's arm and walked into the villa together with him.

Then Yunan Xiao stopped halfway, turned around and said to Fen Luo, "Fen Luo, I have got a boyfriend now, so stop clinging to me in the future!"

At this moment, Dai Li finally figured out that he was only being used by Yunan Xiao as a shield.Yunan Xiao dragged Dai Li back to her room. Now Dai Li's thought was already stagnant, and he moved his feet mechanically, just like a bewildered little puppet that had just been deserted in a strange environment.

"Thank you!" Yunan Xiao let go of Dai Li's arm, her face flushing a little bit.

This kind of intimacy act with a man she was unfamiliar with made Yunan Xiao a little bit shy.

"The one that just showed up is your admirer, right?" Dai Li asked knowingly.

"Yes, his name is Fen Luo. His family firm has some business relations with Dingtian," Yunan Xiao said.

"It seems you hate him very much, right?" Dai Li continued to ask.

"Actually I don't hate him, but I don't like him either." Yunan Xiao continued to say, "And I don't know him very well. He keeps showing his love to me, but the chemistry just isn't there. I feel he is quite annoying, but my father hopes he could be my boyfriend."

"A political marriage?" Dai Li asked in a low voice.

Yunan Xiao didn't answer, but her silence was just like an answer.

Maybe being rich is also not good; at least they can't decide their marriages. Compared to the rich, the ordinary people…As Dai Li thought of this, he laughed with self-mockery. He found it seemed that many ordinary people also couldn't have 100% control of their marriages.

House property had become a rigid criterion for marriage. Besides the economic factors, it was also quite often that the marriage was stopped because of the opposition from the parents. In China, marriage was not only decided by the resonance between two lovers, but also by the two families. The so-called freedom of marriage was never absolute. In case a Chinese call his parents and said "I am getting married, come and attend my wedding ceremony" like what the foreigners did, his parents would definitely rush to him and beat him black and blue.

The topic of marriage was too heavy for both of them, so they started to talk about the issues of the club, which brought them to share a more common language.

They chatted for over half an hour. When Fen Luo had left and gone far away, Dai Li also rose and took his leave.

Walking out of the villa area, Dai Li couldn't help looking back. The price of the cheapest villa in this area would make ordinary people desperate.

"Dai Li, wake up, Yunan Xiao and you are people from different worlds. Stop daydreaming!" Dai Li said to himself. Looking at the lamps in the villa area, Dai Li became more rational.

A shield is not as good as a spare tire. However, for Yunan Xiao, indeed I don't deserve to be her spare tire. The experience of being a shield for her is still a good memory!In a spacious and bright office, Fen Luo was staring at the screen of the computer and looked quite busy.

"Bang bang bang…" his secretary knocked at the door and entered the room.

"General Manager Luo, the investigation company has sent the investigation results to us," his secretary said.

"What did they find? What is the background of this guy?" Fen Luo looked up.

"His name is Dai Li. He has been working as a coach in Dingtian Club for less than a year," his secretary said.

"A coach?" Fen Luo doubted whether he had heard that right.

For Dai Li's identity, Fen Luo had made a lot of speculation, such as a second-generation rich, an officialling, a third-generation of a Founding Father, or a man engaged in finance and securities, investment or real estate industries. However, a coach had gone beyond Fen Luo's imagination.

"How could he be a coach?" Fen Luo continued to ask, "What about his background?"

"They have also checked his background, but they found nothing. This guy is from Yuzhou, and his parents are ordinary salariats," the secretary continued to say.

After thinking of the place for a while, Fen Luo finally remembered the whereabouts of Yuzhou, then asked, "How did he come here? It is really far away from Yuzhou to here?"

"He was recommended by Chairman Fang of Dalu Group," his secretary said.

"Dalu Fang?" Fen Luo frowned.

"But Dalu Fang is not Dai Li's backer. The investigation company found Dai Li used to be a coach of Dalu Fang's son. I think this is also the reason he knows Dalu Fang," his secretary continued to say.

"OK, leave the investigation results here." Fen Luo waved his hand to let his secretary go, then started to read the investigation results.

"He used to be a track and field coach, and also worked on the National Table Tennis Team." As Fen Luo read the results carefully, he became more and more angry.

This Dai Li is definitely an ordinary person. How could he win Yunan Xiao's heart? And how could I lose to such a loser? Fen Luo tossed the investigation results aside angrily. After a while, Fen Luo finally calmed down.

Fen Luo could also be considered as being one of God's favored ones. He had been treated as a revered leader by a lot of people since his childhood. However, Fen Luo was not a second-generation rich, who only wanted to lead a life of pleasure. As a successor of an enterprise, Fen Luo had been qualified till now. At least he could be considered as being a young talent among the top-grade second-generation riches.

But at this moment, Fen Luo felt he was suffering a gross insult. He thought he was defeated by a loser, who had no money and social status, in pursuing Yunan Xiao.

Damn it! Yunan Xiao was definitely fooled by that Dai Li! He must have other objectives by acting as a coach in Dingtian Club. His target must be the property of Dingtian Group. No, I won't let it happen. How could a property of hundreds of billions Yuan be obtained by him? Hatred flashed in Fen Luo's eyes. The next second, he picked up the telephone suddenly.

"Try to publicize the news that Yunan Xiao has got a boyfriend!"

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Chapter 334: A Fitness Trainer and His Female Customer

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

Dai Li still didn't know that he was hurt innocently, for he hadn't gotten the awareness of being a shield until now. A qualified shield should be penetrated by hundreds of arrows. The consequence of being a shield could be easily figured out by thinking about the pathetic straw soldiers on the boats used by Liang Zhuge to borrow arrows.

In the evening, Dai Li came to the training room. All the rest of the people had gotten off work. The training room was quite empty.

She is not here. Dai Li was a little bit disappointed. He shook his head, and walked to the newly-purchased equipment with the thick operation instruction in his hands.

Dai Li was focusing on studying the new equipment, and ignored the passage of time, until he heard a voice that came from behind.

"Coach Li, you are also here!" The sweet voice came into Dai Li' s ears, as he turned around immediately with a pleasant surprise. Yunan Xiao was here, finally.

"General Manager Xiao, you are here to do exercises again." After seeing Yunan Xiao, Dai Li was a little bit excited. After the thing happened that night, Dai Li felt Yunan Xiao was not so strange to him like before.

"General Manager Xiao, is your ankle better now?" Dai Li asked.

"It doesn't hurt anymore." Yunan Xiao nodded, then she said after a short while of hesitation, "Actually you could call me Yunan privately, and you don't need to call me General Manager Xiao."

"Not Nannan anymore?" Dai Li said jokingly, "Then you could just call me Dai Li instead of Coach Li."

After hearing "Nannan", Yunan Xiao was a little bit shy, and her face was also flushed unknowingly. Dai Li wasn't embarrassed, so he continued to say, "Yunan, I see you always use the treadmill, do you want to try these new training devices?"

"A lot of equipment looks quite complicated, and I don't know how to operate them," Yunan Xiao said.

"I can help you!" Dai Li patted his chest and said, "As a professional physical trainer, I won't have any problem in acting as your fitness trainer."

"I don't want to trouble you," Yunan Xiao said hesitantly.

"Don't forget you pay me hundreds of thousands Yuan for my salary. I should make myself well worth the money you paid." As Dai Li spoke, he pointed at a piece of equipment beside him, "Do you want to try this one? This is a new piece of equipment, which hasn't been used by our players yet."

"OK," Yunan Xiao agreed.

"This equipment is called the intelligent …" Dai Li pointed at the equipment and started his introduction.The equipment in the training room of Dingtian Club was better and more diversified than the equipment of the national team. Even if Yunan Xiao tried 2 or 3 new pieces of equipment a day, she would need 10 days to half a month to try it all!

Both of them didn't reach an official agreement, but they had formed a tacit agreement. Every day after work, Yunan Xiao and Dai Li would come to the training room. Then Dai Li would act as the fitness trainer of Yunan Xiao and instruct her for a workout for several minutes.

Dai Li and Yunan Xiao got acquainted with each other soon. Although they hadn't stepped over the boundary of friendship, they had become intimate friends.

The news that Yunan Xiao had gotten a boyfriend was publicized with the "help" of Fen Luo. Yunan Xiao was the princess of Dingtian Group; her family background was also the best among the second generation riches. Also, she was a beautiful girl, and would receive great interest, naturally. Therefore, this news was spread quickly among the second generation rich.

Of course, this news was spread in the circle of the second generation rich; Dai Li had no idea of this news.

Yunan Xiao was very angry upon hearing this news, and she knew it was initiated by Fen Luo, since only Fen Luo knew she took Dai Li as her shield. Now, the spreading of the news must only be being fueled by Fen Luo.Dai Li felt that Yunan Xiao's expression was unnatural.

"What's wrong with you? You look absent-minded," Dai Li asked.

"Nothing, just something annoying." Yunan Xiao shook her head.

"Something related to work or the AFC Champions League?" Dai Li asked.

"It's not related to work, but something private," Yunan Xiao replied.

"Oh..." since it was Yunan Xiao's private issue, Dai Li stopped asking.

But Yunan Xiao raised her head and looked at Dai Li, "I'm sorry."

"What? Sorry for what?" Dai Li asked in surprise.

"Do you still remember Fen Luo? After that night, he has been publicizing the news that I have a boyfriend." Yunan Xiao paused a bit, and continued to say, "This might bring you unnecessary troubles."

"Oh?" Dai Li's heart was filled with an inexplicable happiness, then he said, "It doesn't matter. Rumors stop at those who are witty. Besides, it's my pleasure to be your shield!"

Yunan Xiao rolled her eyes. She felt that what Dai Li said was a little bit like a confession of love. Dai Li changed the topic immediately, and said half-jokingly, "I have checked the information of that Fen Luo from the internet. According to his experiences, he could be considered as being a competent second generation rich. I didn't expect he was so narrow-minded."

"A competent second generation rich? In your mind, all second generation riches are ignorant, right?" Yunan Xiao asked.

"When I was still a schoolboy, I used to think so. After all, for a lot of people, the second generation rich is not a commendatory term. Sometimes, it is a derogatory term." Dai Li smiled at Yunan Xiao, and continued to say, "However, when I met Haiquan Fang later, who is the son of Chairman Fang of Dalu Group, my idea about the second generation rich was changed by him. Through him, I knew the second generation rich were not pursuing enjoyment every day, and that they could also pursue their dreams strenuously."

"Haiquan Fang? I know him, but we think he is a troublemaker of his parents." Yunan Xiao shook her head.

"Why? He was the champion of the Asian Games, which could sufficiently prove he is a brilliant second generation rich," Dai Li asked.

"Do you think our parents would care about a champion of the Asian Games?" Yunan Xiao let out a long sigh and said, "For them, Haiquan Fang accomplished nothing. Dalu Fang spoiled his son too much, and allowed him to be an athlete."

"Accomplish nothing? For your parents, the real accomplishment is to be the successor of the family enterprise, right?" Dai Li said ironically, for he really didn't like that the athletes were looked down upon by the rich.

"Isn't it what we should do?" Yunan Xiao asked back.

Dai Li was tongue-tied, for he couldn't find any excuse to contradict Yunan Xiao. For those billionaires and multi-billionaires, a champion of Asian Games was really nothing. Obviously, the most important thing for them was to cultivate a qualified successor to continue the operation of their gigantic properties.

Then Yunan Xiao continued to say, "I am the only child of my father, so I knew I would be the successor of Dingtian when I was young. It is my responsibility to be the manager of Dingtian in future."

"It is quite stressful if you think in this way, right?" Dai Li sighed slightly.

"Sometimes it is stressful." Yunan Xiao continued to say, "But it is still a driving force. When I was in school, I always worked harder than others. After graduation, I started to work in Dingtian Group, and I also did my best to complete all tasks assigned to me. I hope I am not accepted by everyone because of my identity, but by my abilities. I hope I could prove that I could be a qualified successor of Dingtian Group to my father."

"What you have done is already good enough. You are running such a big club, and we have defended our championship of the domestic league." Dai Li consoled her.

"But my father doesn't think so." Yunan Xiao lowered her head with frustration, "My father always thinks I am a girl, and will marry someone sooner or later."

"Doesn't he want to hand Dingtian Group to you? Is he going to find a professional manager?" Dai Li asked in surprise.

"No, he will not find a professional manager, but a son-in-law who could run the business of the whole Dingtian Group," Yunan Xiao said disdainfully. "Also because of this, he keeps introducing those 'young talents' to me."

"Like Fen Luo?" Dai Li asked.

Yunan Xiao nodded, "From the aspect of an entrepreneur, Fen Luo could be considered as a qualified successor. He is running two investment companies, and the annual rate of return is quite good. But I don't think that I am not as good as Fen Luo. I am not a man, but I can do better than them!"

Dai Li nodded. He could understand Yunan Xiao, who was working hard to be the successor of Dingtian Group. However, her father didn't recognize her ability, only because she was a girl.

Dai Li felt this might not be considered as a son preference, but rather that this might be the distrust in the traditional thoughts. The same can be said in reality. In most industries, a lady always needed to work much harder than her male counterparts to gain recognition and accomplish success.

She is making her efforts, but can't gain recognition from her father, who always wants to find a substitute. And the substitute will be her lifelong partner, and that's why she has the antagonism against Fen Luo. Suddenly Dai Li had a hint of sympathy towards Yunan Xiao in his heart.

Dai Li couldn't help saying, "Yunan, please trust me. I will do my best to ensure that our team will win the champion of the AFC Champions League, so that you could submit a flawless answer sheet to your father!"

With his eyes filled with sincerity, Dai Li said sturdily. Yunan Xiao looked at him earnestly. At this moment, suddenly she felt a kind of security in her heart. She felt as if Dai Li was the man she could rely on.Watching Yunan Xiao go, Dai Li got a feeling that he was a big hat, with no cattle.

"As a loser can't afford an apartment, how could I be sympathetic to Yunan Xiao?" Dai Li shook his head, and said to himself, "Just now, I talked too large. I am not a head coach, but just a physical trainer."

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Chapter 335: Father-in-law

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

The second semi-final of the AFC Champions League was held at the home court of Dingtian. The fans of the home court were shouting very loudly. Their deafening shouts created a suffocating cacophony.

After the confrontation in the first round, Dingtian and Jeonbuk Hyundai were familiar with each other, a familiarity that was a disadvantage for Jeonbuk Hyundai.

The reason for this was that the head coach of Dingtian Club was Harman. The more familiar the two teams were with each other, the more rigorous the testing of the coaches' tactics would be. In this aspect, the Korean coach of Jeonbuk Hyundai was no match for Harman, who was among the top-level soccer coaches in the world.

Dingtian overwhelmed Jeonbuk Hyundai in tactic arrangements, comprehensively. Also, Dingtian's lineup was better than that of Jeonbuk Hyundai. Therefore, most of the suspense had been removed in the first half of the game. The score of 2-0 at half time almost destroyed the resistance consciousness of Jeonbuk Hyundai.

After all, this was the home court of Dingtian. On the grounds alone of the strength of Jeonbuk Hyundai, it was too difficult for them to score 2 goals in 45 minutes.

In the second half, Jeonbuk Hyundai adjusted their tactics, and launched their desperate counterattack. At the 64th minute, they scored one goal. Then Harman took countermeasures, and Dingtian scored the third goal after 5 minutes, changing the score to 3-1 and regaining the advantage of two goals.

There was now only 20 minutes left until the end of the whole game. It was impossible for Jeonbuk Hyundai to score two goals in such a short time. In the coach seats of Dingtian, the atmosphere was easy and pleasant.

Dai Li was standing beside the coach seats. This game went smoothly. Therefore, without a lot of players injured in the game, like in the first semi-final, Dai Li didn't need to do any massage for the players.

For Jeonbuk Hyundai, this was an away game. They wouldn't play savagely, like they did in their home court. Otherwise, they would definitely get red cards.

"Dai Li, I remember you were a coach of table tennis before, right?" Harman asked suddenly.

Now the face of Harman was filled with an imperceptible smile. As a head coach, he even had time to chat with Dai Li. Obviously, in his mind, he had already grasped the victory of this game in his hands safely.

Dai Li answered immediately, "I used to be the coach in the National Table Tennis Team of our country."

"Then what do you think of soccer?" Harman continued to say, "I mean, are you interested in being a soccer coach?"

"A soccer coach? You mean the physical training of soccer, right?" Dai Li asked tentatively.

"Not just the physical training, but also other aspects." Harman thought of it for a while, and said, "I mean a coach like Delassaux, Georg, or me."

Delassaux and Georg were Harman's assisting coaches. Although they were just assisting coaches, their coaching was quite professional, and it was no problem for them to lead a team. Their tactic skills were taught to them by Harman personally, and their levels of sideline coaching were also very high. Without Harman, they would be fully qualified as the head coaches of some small European clubs. just based on the grounds of their abilities.

Actually, being a head coach in a small club was not as good as an assistant coach for a top-level head coach. Normally, the small clubs didn't have enough money, so their head coaches couldn't make a lot of money, and they also didn't have enough high level players. Also, as a head coach, the pressure of pursuing good records was inevitable, and sometimes the head coaches even had to take the blame for others' failures.

In comparison, being an assistant coach for a top-level coach, like Harman, was much better – the pressure was low, the salary was high. If the game was lost, the responsibility would be undertaken by the head coach. If the game was won, a large bonus was awaiting. Also, the working experience in the resume would be more substantial.

Dai Li could understand Harman, and he replied, "I don't know the tactics of soccer; and I haven't been a professional soccer player before. I am not even good at playing soccer. In fact, I was just a physical trainer in the National Table Tennis Team, and was only responsible for physical training. I don't know the techniques very well."

"Nobody is born to be a good soccer player, and nobody is born with the knowledge of soccer tactics," Harman continued to say, "But I hope you could jump out of the boundaries of physical training and learn more knowledge related to soccer."

Dai Li was surprised, as he didn't expect such a requirement from Harman.

Then Harman continued to say, "Soccer has requirements upon the players' physical performances and personal techniques, as well as the tactics and cooperation of the team in the game. As a soccer physical trainer, you'd better know all aspects of soccer."

"You are working with Claude. You should notice that he is not just a physical trainer. He will also take part in our training plan workshop and in any discussion of tactics. He will also bring forth a lot of good suggestions." Harman continued to say, "We are a team, and an entirety. Just like a machine, each individual is a gear. When all gears are engaged perfectly, the machine could run rapidly and smoothly. If one of the gears loses several gear teeth, the efficiency of the whole machine would be impaired. Do you understand me?"

It seemed as if Harman worried that Dai Li couldn't understand him, so he spoke slowly. He even gestured to Dai Li as he spoke.

"You mean the knowledge related to soccer is teeth of the gears, right?" Dai Li asked tentatively.

Harman smiled, "It seems you have understood me. Young man, work harder and learn more, while you are still young. I am optimistic about your future!"

Dai Li nodded his head, but he was still confused in his heart. He didn't know why Harman discussed these issues with him. He also didn't know that the reason Harman was giving him direction was because Harman was planning to recruit him to the coach team.

Maybe the old man is overjoyed because of his victory in the game. Dai Li said to himself silently.There were a lot of boxes on the second floor of the stand of the stadium. In a box, which was located at the best position, a man with slicked-back hair was surrounded by a lot of people. This man was Dingtian Xiao, who was the Chairman of Dingtian Group, and also the father of Yunan Xiao. Dingtian Group was named according to the pronunciation of his first name.

"Chairman Xiao, the young man who is standing beside Coach Harman is Dai Li." A guy beside Dingtian Xiao supplied this introduction.

"Is he rumored to be Yunan's boyfriend?" Dingtian Xiao looked at Dai Li with a blank look.

The guy beside him smiled. Since Dingtian Xiao said it was a "rumor", he didn't need to explain more. Dingtian Xiao had heard the slanderous gossip about Yunan Xiao's boyfriend, as all parents care about their children. Dingtian Xiao was also crystal clear about the details of when Dai Li drove Yunan Xiao home and met Fen Luo.

Actually, in his position, Dingtian Xiao didn't need to ask someone to investigate this issue deliberately. Someone would investigate the issue and report the result to him naturally, as many people in Dingtian Group, as well as in other enterprises, have business relationships with Dingtian Group and therefore, are always wanting to butter Dingtian Xiao up.

This young man is quite lively and spirited. Dingtian Xiao was still wearing a blank face. Someone had reported Dai Li's family background and working experience to Dingtian Xiao, which was more specific than the investigation report obtained by Fen Luo.

The one beside Dingtian Xiao peeped at Dingtian Xiao, but couldn't figure out whether Dingtian Xiao was looking at his son-in-law, or if he was planning to separate the lovebirds, at least not simply according to Dingtian Xiao's blank face.

He should be planning to interfere in this love affair. How could Chairman Xiao allow an ordinary person to marry his beloved daughter? The guy wondered to himself silently.

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Chapter 336: The Final of the AFC Championship League

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

In the home page of a news site, the news that Dingtian Club had entered the final game of the AFC Championship League was placed in a quite conspicuous position. Fen Luo looked at the webpage with knitted brows.

"Why didn't Chairman Xiao take any action?" Fen Luo murmured to himself.

Several days ago, Fen Luo publicized the news that Yunan Xiao had gotten a boyfriend. He hoped that Dingtian Xiao would get this news. Fen Luo was certain that Dingtian Xiao would definitely interfere in the love affair of Yunan Xiao and Dai Li, for Dingtian Xiao was not satisfied with many talented second-generation riches, let alone an ordinary coach like Dai Li.

However, several days had passed, but Dingtian Xiao did nothing. It seemed nothing had happened, which surprised Fen Luo a lot. Just at this moment, Fen Luo's mobile phone vibrated, and he got a voice message in his WeChat.

It's Lefeng Gu. Isn't he in Singapore now? Why does he contact me? Fen Luo hesitated a bit, and then clicked on the voice message.

"I've heard Yunan Xiao has gotten a boyfriend. Is this news true?"

Fen Luo picked up his mobile phone and sent a voice message back: "It's real. Why? Still can't forget Yunan Xiao, right? She has refused you, definitely, for the last time, and her father also doesn't have a good impression of you."

"Stop saying that. Is this news accurate? Could it be a rumor?" another voice message was received.

"It is reliable news, and I have seen it personally. That guy was doing exercises together with Yunan Xiao, and even drove her home. Yunan Xiao has admitted that he is her boyfriend," Fen Luo spoke with some frustration.

"Got it. I will return to China several days from now, and I will come to visit you then," said another voice message.

"Hey, Lefeng Gu, don't do anything stupid," Fen Luo said immediately.

"I know what I will do," Lefeng Gu replied.

Fen Luo put down his mobile phone, his expression unnatural.

As a second generation rich, this Lefeng Gu is a famous black sheep. His family is also a shareholder of Dingtian Club. It seems this guy will make a mess again this time. Think of it in this way, I am a little bit sympathetic to that coach…The two final games of the AFC Championship League would be held in mid-November and late November respectively. To facilitate Dingtian's preparation of the final games of the AFC Championship League, the Chinese Football Association had postponed the final game of the CFA Cup until December.

Before that, the date of the CFA Cup games used to contradict with the games of the AFC Championship League. At that time, the football association didn't expect the domestic clubs would enter the final eight or final four of the AFC Championship League, so the football association didn't take the games of the AFC Championship League into the consideration of the scheduling of the CFA Cup. As a result, the football association was criticized by the fans fiercely, some of whom even blamed the football association for the failures of domestic clubs in the games of AFC Championship League.

Now, the domestic clubs were much more powerful than before, especially for clubs like Dingtian, which could strive for winning as the champion of the AFC Championship League. Therefore, the pressure of public opinion, and the reality of it all, had forced the football association to further elaborate their work. It was quite normal that the schedule of the CFA Cup made concessions for the games of the AFC Championship League.

As a matter of fact, the domestic league was just an appetizer for Dingtian Club. In this season, Dingtian was indeed invincible in the domestic league. The value of hundreds of millions Yuan, invested by Dingtian Club to recruit the team of Harman, as well as the first-class players like Neol and Martintes, was fully displayed.

When Dingtian invested a lot of money to recruit the team of Harman, a lot of people were mocking Dingtian Club for spending money to no avail. Now, however, several rich clubs in the domestic league planned to make heavy investments, just like Dingtian Club. Some clubs even started the negotiations and hoped to introduce star players and famous coaches in order to enhance the strength of the clubs.

However, all these investments would take effect in the next season. In this season, Dingtian Club was still invincible among the rest of the clubs. The opponent of Dingtian Club in the final games of the AFC Championship League was the Al-Ain Club of UAE. Al-Ain Club was one of the best clubs in UAE, and could even be considered as one of the best clubs in west Asia. The club had a history dating back nearly 50 years, which was still no match for those century-old European clubs. Although, it could still be considered as a time-honored club in Asia.

Al-Ain Club used to win as champion of the AFC Championship League and over 10 champions of the domestic league of UAE, as well as several champions of the UAE Cup. As for the lineup of the club, Al-Ain was quite similar to Dingtian, in that it was recruiting a lot of players of the national team and investing a lot of money to recruit Brazilian players for key positions, like the midfielders and forecourt players.

In fact, in the final game stage of the AFC Championship League, the strength gap between the clubs was not obvious. All clubs were at the same level. Sometimes, a little bit of good luck might decide the final result of the games.

The game schedule of Dingtian Club was still the same – they would have an away game first, and then have their home game. Since Dingtian had won as champion of the domestic league in advance, they had over 20 days to prepare for the first round of the final game for the AFC Championship League.During the tactics discussion meeting, Dai Li sat in the corner and kept silent, as if he was totally marginalized. In fact, Dai Li couldn't get a single word in the discussion, for each member of Harman's team, even the Team Doctor Maraloni, was better than Dai Li in the understanding of soccer tactics.

After all, Harman was among the top-level soccer coaches in the world. He also used to coach the top-notch clubs in Europe. Therefore, the tactical ability of this team was flawless.

After the discussion meeting, when everyone was leaving the meeting room, one after the other, Dai Li was stopped by Claude.

"Well, could you understand the tactics we have discussed just now?" Claude asked.

"Frankly speaking, not very well, especially for the tactics of the left wing," Dai Li said.

Claude took out the tactics board and started to draw on it slightly, "Actually, this tactic is not very complicated. You see here, when we are on the offensive, our left back fielder will push forward. Meanwhile, one of the two center backs will fall back, while the other center back will go left. In this system, the left back fielder will act as a midfielder in the offensive. The defensive midfielder will also move forward. We put Martintes in the position of the defensive midfielder. When he moves forward, the opponent will fear his offensive ability, so they will arrange more people to stop Martintes. Once their defensive line moves to Martintes, one of our offensive players in the upfield will be freed to create the opportunity of a goal."

He continued: "There are two key points in this tactic. The first one is the left back fielder. He should keep moving forward and backward, to change his position, so that the defensive players of the opponent can be distracted. The center back, who moves left, should have some organization ability and be active enough. He should pass the ball rapidly and accurately to create opportunities for his teammates."

Dai Li nodded to show he had understood the tactic, while Claude continued his explanation, "In fact, our players are still not good enough to meet the requirements of Coach Harman completely. Therefore, we keep changing our formations, from 4-4-2, 4-3-3, 4-3-2-1 to 3-5-2, we have tried them all. In one game, we tried to use 2 or 3 different tactics. Most of the time, we want to have more complicated tactic cooperation. However, the personal competence of our players is hampering the smooth implementation of our tactics."In the next 10 days, Claude gave explanations of Harman's tactic system to Dai Li regularly. Although Claude was just a physical trainer, he had been following Harman for 10 years, so he knew Harman's tactic system very well. The best way to learn was to learn from the best. From the aspect of tactic theories, Claude was absolutely better than the head coaches of those small European clubs, and several levels higher than the coaches of domestic clubs. Of course, he was not as good as the professional soccer coaches in sideline coaching. After all, he was just a physical trainer.

Dai Li kept absorbing new knowledge crazily. Along with the increment of the soccer theoretical knowledge, his soccer physical training was also more and more efficient. In mid-November, the first final game of the AFC Championship League was held in the Khalifa International Stadium of UAE, which was also the home court of Al-Ain Club.

Also in November, the winter of UAE had come. As a country with a tropical desert climate, UAE's winter was mild, and the temperature was between 10- 20. Also, the winter here was quite dry, even posing occasional sand storms during the season.

Therefore, it was not difficult for players of Dingtian Club to adapt to the climate in UAE. In addition, the dry weather here could even enhance the players' performances in the game. If the game was held in summer, most players would be influenced by the high temperature in UAE, which would be over 40.

After several weeks of preparation, the two teams were fully prepared, so the game was quite exciting at the very beginning. In its home court, Al-Ain wanted to score goals as early as possible, so their offensives were quite fierce. However, Dingtian didn't solidify their defense, before launching a counter attack as usual. They also started their offensives.

The two teams fought over ball possession hotly. After a while, everyone had figured out the tactical intention of Dingtian. Dingtian's goal was to score as many away goals as possible.

The games between clubs were different from the games between the national teams. There was only one final game of the World Cup. If the score was tied in 90 minutes, the additional overtime periods were played. If the score was still tied after the overtime periods, the penalty shootout would be held. However, the final games of the AFC Championship League would be held for two rounds. After the home game and the away game, the total score would be calculated to decide the ultimate winner.

If the score was tied, the team with more away goals would be the final winner. In fact, the strength gap between the teams in the final four stage of the AFC Championship League was small, and the strength gap between the two teams in the final games would be much smaller. None of the teams could guarantee to win over its opponent, and also to consider, the games would be held in the home court and the away court respectively.

No one would be surprised if the final score of the two teams in the final games of the AFC Championship League was tied. Some people even thought it would be quite normal. Once the total score was tied, the away goals were critical in deciding the final winner.

For example, if Dingtian was defeated by Al-Ain with a score of 2-3 in its away game, and then Dingtian defeated Al-Ain with a score of 2-1 in its home game, the total score would be 4-4. However, Dingtian got 2 away goals, while Al-Ain only got 1 away goal, so Dingtian would be the final winner, because they had 1 more away goal. In this game system, the more goals lost in the home court, the more unfavorable situation a team would be in.The players were struggling in the court, while the coaches were in a battle of wits and courage. In the 21st minute, Dingtian broke the deadlock first. The foreign player Neol grasped a defensive gap of the opponent and managed to rush into the opponent's penalty area. For the defense line of Al-Ain, this was a severe mistake.

In order to remedy this mistake, the center back of Al-Ain shoved Neol directly to the ground. Neol won a penalty for Dingtian. Then, he scored the penalty, thus living up to everyone's expectations. Now Dingtian had gained the advantage of 1-0 in its away game.

Behind in the score, Al-Ain started their crazy counterattack, and managed to score a goal through a free kick at the 44th minute in the first half of the game.

The score was fixed at 1-1 at the end of the first half. In the second half, both of the teams made adjustments in their tactics.

As a world-class tactic master, Harman used to change the formation 3 times in a game, and used 3 different tactics in one game. Therefore, Dingtian's adjustment in formation and tactics was implemented thoroughly. At the same time, Al-Ain was quite unadaptable to the changes caused by Dingtian's adjustments.

For a moment, the defense line of Al-Ain was in chaos. The players' running of the ball was messy, which caused some defensive gaps. Dingtian scored the second goal by decisively grasping a defensive gap. The score was changed to 2-1.

Behind in the scoring again, Al-Ain performed a substitution. However, their substitution didn't take effect immediately. Al-Ain failed to tie up the score till the 75th minute of the game.

At this moment, the players of Dingtian had almost run out of stamina.

The intensity of the final game of the AFC Championship League was much higher than that of the domestic league. Furthermore, Dingtian was also on the offensive in the first half, which consumed more stamina of the players. With abundant stamina, the substitutes of Al-Ain kept bombarding the defense line of Dingtian, while the players of Dingtian were exhausted. Finally, Al-Ain managed to score a goal and tie up the score.

However, what Al-Ain hoped for was a victory in their home court. They couldn't accept the result of a tie, let alone the fact that they lost 2 scores in their home court.

Harman was satisfied with the score, so he sent defensive players to hold the line for the last 15 minutes, with all efforts. The referee was quite gracious to Al-Ain in their home court by giving them a 5 minutes injury time after 90 minutes. However, Al-Ain couldn't break Dingtian's defense line. Finally, the 2 teams shook hands at a score of 2-2.

With 2 away goals, Dingtian returned to their home court.

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Chapter 337: Association of Hearts

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

In the evening, Dai Li waited in the training room of Dingtian Club until the arrival of Yunan Xiao.

"I want to do some strenuous exercises today," Yunan Xiao said.

"No problem." Dai Li nodded and pointed at one piece of training equipment, "Just use this one!"

Several minutes later, Dai Li found something was wrong with Yunan Xiao.

When Yunan Xiao stopped to have a break, Dai Li sat together with her, and asked, "What's wrong with you? Is there something annoying you?"

"You have noticed my mood change, right?" Yunan Xiao asked.

"Yes. You are not doing exercises, but instead, venting your bad mood," Dai Li said.

Yunan Xiao hesitated for several seconds, then said, "I am worrying we might lose in the next game."

The "next game" mentioned by Yunan Xiao was the second round of the final game of the AFC Championship League. "You don't need to worry. We have 2 away goals in hand, so we have the upper hand," Dai Li said.

"But no one can guarantee we could win the next game." Yunan Xiao's eyes were filled with depression. She sighed and said, "This champion of the AFC Championship League is really very important for the whole club."

"I know. If we win, we will be the first club to win as champion of the AFC Championship League in China, which is unprecedented," Dai Li said.

"It's more than that, for it is also related to Dingtian Group," Yunan Xiao said.

"You mean the economic returns, right? From the news, I know Dingtian Group has invested almost 1 billion Yuan in these years in the club. I thought you are just planning to maximize your influence, so that the sales of your real estates could be promoted," Dai Li said.

"If the investment in the new stadium is counted, the actual expenditure has exceeded 1 billion Yuan." Yunan Xiao paused a bit and continued to say, "Soccer is an expensive industry. It is impossible for our group to make investments in projects without economic returns. Therefore, according to the plan, we are going to have our team go public at an appropriate time. Being champion of the AFC Championship League will also create a good opportunity for the club to go public."

"Go public? Could a soccer club also be a listed company?" Dai Li asked in surprise.

"Of course. If we could make it fast, and lodge the application next year. Then, the club will go public in the New Over The Counter Market in the year after next year. After going public, we could not only get more financing, the assets of the club will also grow tenfold, or even more. If we could succeed in turning the club into a listed company, the club will be the good asset of the group, and my efforts in these years could pay off," Yunan Xiao said with longing.

Dai Li made a calculation in his heart. Now, the market value of Dingtian Club was over 1 billion Yuan. If the club went public, the assets would be increased tenfold, or even more, making the market value of Dingtian Club over 10 billion Yuan at that time.

After his calculation, Dai Li was surprised by the result. If Dingtian Club managed to go public, as the largest shareholder, Dingtian Group would at least obtain direct revenue of 4 to 5 billion Yuan, and the indirect revenue in future would even be immeasurable.

"I didn't expect the soccer industry could be so profitable." Dai Li sighed slightly.

"That's for sure. Otherwise, we would not make such a heavy investment in soccer." Yunan Xiao continued to say, "Of course, the precondition of all of these things is becoming the champion of the AFC Championship League. We have to achieve pretty good accomplishments first, otherwise, our application will be rejected by China Securities Regulatory Commission. The listing of the club will also be postponed."

"Don't put too much pressure on yourself." Dai Li continued to say, "I think you are too nervous now. Try to relax. You should know we only have 1 game left, and the result of the game is out of your control. At this time, what you could only do is to trust us. Trust the coach and the players."

Yunan Xiao didn't say anything, then Dai Li continued to speak: "I still remember when I participated in the official match for the first time as a coach. That was a branch match of the National Weightlifting Championship. I was totally lost in the playing area and didn't know what I should do. At last, an athlete came to console me and told me to relax…"

Dai Li started to tell his experience of participating in the matches. He hoped Yunan Xiao could get some relaxation as she listened. When he started to tell his experience in the Asian Games, he suddenly felt something leaning on his shoulder.

Dai Li turned around and found Yunan Xiao leaning on his shoulder with squinted eyes. She had fallen asleep unknowingly as she was listening to Dai Li's stories.

She is really tired. Dai Li stared at Yunan Xiao, and found that she only put on light make-up. However, the delicate fragrance emitting from her beautiful hair kept drifting into Dai Li's nose.

At this moment, Dai Li got a feeling of obsession, suddenly. He even wanted to kiss the cheek of Yunan Xiao. However, he didn't move a bit, for he was afraid he would wake Yunan Xiao up.

Just let her sleep quietly. She has put too much pressure on herself. It's time for her to have a good rest.After opening her eyes, Yunan Xiao felt that her neck was sore. However, this leaning gave her a sense of security. She wanted to keep this leaning movement and sleep a little longer.

In the next second, she suddenly realized she was leaning on the shoulder of Dai Li.

How could I sleep by leaning on his shoulder? Yunan Xiao's face was flushed because of shyness. However, she didn't get up immediately, but kept leaning on Dai Li and peeped up at him.

At this moment, Dai Li was also looking at her. When they made eye contact, they started to be embarrassed at the same time. Dai Li got an inexplicable diffident feeling in his heart. On the contrary, Yunan Xiao was more open-minded. She left Dai Li's shoulder, dressed her hair a bit, and then asked, "How long did I sleep?"

"Over half an hour," Dai Li answered.

"I should go home now." Yunan Xiao checked her wristwatch, stood up, and left. Soon, she turned around and smiled at Dai Li, "Do you want to leave with me?"The second round of the final game of the AFC Championship League was held in the home court of Dingtian Club. Although the current score was 2-2, Dingtian had the advantage of 2 away goals, which meant for each goal scored by Dingtian in this game, Al-Ain had to score 2 more goals in order to be the winner.

Harman arranged 2 defending midfielders in this game, which meant that he planned to set up a solid defense line in the midfield to enhance the team's defense. For Harman, the advantage of 2 away goals should be fully exerted, so his tactic was more steady and conservative in this game.

However, the 2 defending midfielders were not purely defensive. Besides the defense enhancement in the midfield, they should also organize offensive during the counterattack, meaning that they were attacking midfielders in offensive. This was the essence of Harman's coaching theories: the position change of the players. Harman laid great emphasis on off-the-ball running in his tactics, which meant the players wouldn't be fixed in one position. In offensive, the backcourt players should participate in the offensive. While during defensive, the forecourt players shall also take part in the overall defense system.

Al-Ain kept attacking, while Dingtian was trying to counterattack on the basis of their robust defense. The double defending midfielder arrangement had greatly hampered the momentum of Al-Ain. Many offensives of Al-Ain were blocked in the midfield. Even though they managed to push forward to the forecourt, they had already lost their momentum. However, this defensive formation of Dingtian also resulted in the insufficient sharpness of the strikers, so Dingtian also failed to create many offensive opportunities.

The first half of the game ended in the stalemate. Neither of the 2 teams scored a goal, and even the offensives, which could cause threats to the opponent's goal, were quite rare.

On normal days, this kind of game would be quite boring. However, the fans in the stadium kept cheering for the players in high spirits. Everyone knew that, even if no goal was scored in this game, Dingtian would still be the ultimate winner.Score 1 goal! Just 1 goal is enough! Dai Li stood on the sideline and was watching the game nervously. Dai Li felt a tie was not secure enough. In case Al-Ain scored 1 goal, Dingtian would be in a passive situation. On the contrary, if Dingtian scored a goal, Al-Ain had to score 2 more goals, which meant Dingtian got an error rate of 1 goal.

"Don't be so nervous." Claude patted Dai Li on his shoulder slightly. "You should have confidence in Coach Harman, especially in this crucial moment."

Dai Li looked at Claude, as well as the two assistant coaches, Delassaux and Georg. He found all of them were quite undisturbed.

"Aren't you nervous now?" Dai Li asked.

"Everything is under control!" Claude paused a bit and continued to say, "This is not an individual event. Don't forget, this is soccer, a sport with 11 players. The teamwork is the most important factor. Till now, we have known the performance of Al-Ain, as well as their upper limits in this game. Therefore, even now, with the score still 0-0, and no goal being scored, I am still not nervous."

"Our current tactics are correct, so what we need is just a little bit of good luck. A goal will be scored sooner or later." Claude continued to say, "This is what Coach Harman taught me."

Claude wore an expression of recollection, and continued to say, "I still remember when I had just started to work for Coach Harman, and he had been the coach of the champion of the UEFA Champions League, and was recruited as the head coach of the National Team of Italy. You should know that World Cup, of which Italy was the winner."

Dai Li nodded, and Claude continued his introduction, "I remember during the final game, I was very nervous, just like you are now. No, I should say I was more nervous than you, for we lost a goal in the first ten minutes of the game. At that time, I thought we were doomed to lose the game."

"Then Coach Harman told me that the current tactics were correct, and that what we needed was just a little bit of good luck. A goal would be scored sooner or later." Claude shrugged his shoulders, "As a result, we scored a goal after 10 minutes. I still can't forget the confident expression of Coach Harman in that game."

Claude's words were hardly out of his mouth, when a great shout burst out from the stands. Claude turned around and looked at the court. The ball had been passed to the right side of the perimeter of Al-Ain's penalty area.

"Cross! Shoot! Goal!"

Neol had a swift response. Although he was not very tall, his dibbling was quite awesome. He didn't jump for the header, but managed to squeeze out from between two defensive players of Al-Ain, then he volleyed the ball to the goal of Al-Ain.

The goalkeeper of Al-Ain had the correct judgment upon the direction of the ball, however, the ball was too fast and Neol was too close, so all the attempts at saves made by the goalkeeper were in vain.

A deafening roar burst out in the stadium suddenly. All cameras in the stadium were aiming at Neol, who was dashing about excitedly. Then he made his symbolic celebration gesture.

Dingtian was in the lead with the score of 1-0. Al-Ain had to score 2 goals to win this game. It was less than half an hour before the end of the game. According to the current situation, it was almost impossible for Al-Ain to score 2 goals.

"We are going to win!" Dai Li also cheered excitedly. Then, he couldn't help looking at the stands, for he wanted to share the joy of winning with Yunan Xiao.

At the same time, Yunan Xiao, who was in the stands, was also looking at Dai Li. When they made eye contact, they gave an understanding smile to each other.

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Chapter 338: Athlete Patches

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

Time flowed away. 90 minutes of regular game ended, and the referee gave three minutes of injury time.

Three minutes later, the whole stadium turned into a sea of jubilation at the final whistle.

"Win! We are the champion!" A lot of people rushed into the field from the bench and, at the same time, Dai Li received a hint from the system.

"Upgraded! So much bonus experience for the championship of the AFC Champions League!" Dai Li showed a surprised expression for an instant.

He had found that the bonus experience was very high in Dingtian's winning the championship of Chinese Super League before, which also proved the system's description that the bonus experience gained from the achievements on team events were way more than that gained from individual events. Also, professional football could maximize this bonus experience.

Football is the most popular sport in the world, and the professional football league is also the most widespread league in the world. It is on every corner of five continents. Where there are humans, there are people playing football. Poverty, starvation, and wars, all of these even cannot stop people from playing football.

Even some countries that are the least developed economically, like Africa, hold their own football leagues, such as Iraq has in the past, as well as Syria in recent years. Players have to pass through shells to attend football trainings there. So, the bonus experience of professional football is higher than any other sport at the same level.

When he was in the National Table Tennis Team, Dai Li upgraded to the primary stage of the Famous Coach Level, because the players trained by him won many championships in international games and got gold medals in the Olympics. His upgrade to the secondary stage of the Famous Coach at the moment was, to some degree, due to his experience gained in the National Table Tennis Team. His experience in Dingtian Club also made great contributions to the upgrade.

From another point of view, the Olympic Games, held every four years, is the world's most important sporting event. The Chinese Super League and AFC Champions League are held every year. They are national level or Asian level, which are much lower, compared with the Olympics.

But Dai Li gained more bonus experience from the Asian Championship than the Olympic championship, with the advantage of the team event and it being a professional sport.

It seems that, if I want more experience in the future, I have to aim at the team events among professional sporting events. Dai Li thought secretly, and at the same time, checked his upgrade rewards.

The first item was a thick stack of square black cloths.

"What is this?" Dai Li asked.

"Athlete Patches. They are consumable. Here are 200 patches," the system replied.

"What's the function of the patch?" Dai Li continued asking.

"It can offset the athlete's own physical defects," the system replied.

"Sounds like an amazing thing," Dai Li said, while observing the patch he just got in hand, as he continued speaking. "An athlete, who doesn't run fast enough, can use patch to run faster? Then, how many patches do I need to offset more defects of one player? For example, how many patches does a player lacking endurance and strength, who also cannot run fast, need? One, or three?"

"In this case, even using up all 200 athlete patches is useless," the system said.

"Do I understand it wrong? Didn't you say it can offset the athlete's shortcomings?" Dai Li questioned unhappily.

"I mean the physical defects of a player's own. Lacks of speed, jumping ability, strength and endurance are all shortcomings of a player's abilities, but not his physical defects. The Athlete Patch has no use on a player's shortcomings of abilities," the system said frankly.

"Then, what are an athlete's own physical defects?" Dai Li laughed, "An athlete with only one arm? Or only one leg?"

"You're right, the lack of limbs is really a physical defect for an athlete," the system said seriously.

Dai Li suddenly wanted to say dirty words, and he asked with anger, "Have you ever seen an athlete, who is short of arms and legs? Oh, a disabled athlete? If this patch is for the disabled athletes, as you say, then I have to seek a job in the Disabled Persons' Federation!"

"I'm going to train a disabled athlete who is lacking of a leg, and give him a patch. And then his leg appears! How amazing! Magical technology! Should I apply for a patent? Oh! I would better publish dozens of papers to get a Nobel Prize!" Limb regeneration, the biggest discovery of the 21st century! This is really lucrative! I have decided the news headline: 'A Sports Coach Makes More than One Hundred Million Monthly with His Limb Regeneration Technology'!" Dai Li spoke ironically. He had a feeling of being deceived and thought that the patch was useless.

Athletes are all strong, and their physical qualities are far better than the average. Athletes trained by a coach like Dai Li were even stronger, and had greater physical talents. Those who lack legs or arms were impossible to be made into professional athletes.

What's more, things like limb regeneration went way beyond the boundaries of modern sciences. An athlete without legs or arms suddenly got his limbs back? He would definitely be the experimental subject of scientists. And Dai Li, as his coach, would be in big trouble then.

Therefore, Dai Li regarded the patch as being something useless to himself and didn't dare use it, even if it was effective. The system explained, "You misunderstood me. What I just said is: offsetting a player's own physical defects, not regenerating limbs. Damaged limbs cannot be regenerated, but disabled athletes can have the feeling that their physical defects have been offset."

"Let me give you an example of an athlete who lacks an arm. Compared with ordinary people, he has a deficit in balance, besides a physical disability. He can use the Athlete Patch to make up for the deficiency of his sense of balance, but he still can't use his arm, due to his lack of that arm. All this, even though he now feels that he is just like a normal person with two arms."

"I have understood, generally." Dai Li nodded, calming down.

And the system explained more, "Another example: An athlete went through a surgery to remove his meniscus, which affected his movement. And if the patch is applied to him, he would overcome the lack of the meniscus, to move and act just like his meniscus was not removed."

On hearing this, Li was instantly excited, and he finally understood how great the Athlete Patch was. It is normal for a professional athlete to remove some "parts" of his body because of injuries. Important organs, such as the heart, lung, and kidney, cannot be removed. But it's okay to remove the meniscus, or the splinters of bones after a fracture. Even some joints can be replaced by artificial joints.

But the artificial ones could never work better than the natural joints. Not to mention that some parts are simply removed. That's the difference between "I have" and "I do not have"... when they remove some of their body parts, it is very difficult for many good athletes to get back to their former competitive states, and they even retire with lifetime injuries.

The Athlete Patch solves that predicament perfectly. Really, for an athlete's needs, it can make him recover to his former state, and in a larger sense, it can save his whole career.

"One more question. Is this Athlete Patch lifetime effective, or valid for only a period of time?" Dai Li asked.

"The duration of the Athlete Patch is one year, which means that, after the use of the athlete, it is valid for one year, and when one year passed, a second patch is required," the system replied.

"Is there any restriction of the times of use on one player?" Dai Li continued asking.

"Yes. Every player can only use patches for three times in his lifetime," the system said.

Dai Li nodded silently and began to calculate in his heart, "Three patches. One patch for one year. A total of three years. It's enough. After all, most professional athletes' careers are very short. Many professional athletes will retire before the age of 30. Occasionally, some of them could extend their career life to their thirties. On average, it would be great for an athlete to have a ten-year career. Three years almost occupies one-third of an athlete's career life."

"And many of the athletes' injuries are caused by accumulation over a long period. They usually suffer from serious injuries in the middle and late stages of their careers. They are set to retire, even without injuries. From this point of view, three years is enough for them."

Thinking about that, Dai Li asked, "In total, there are only 200 patches?"

"Yes, 200. No more. So, you must be prudent and make full use of them," the system replied.

"Are there any other restrictions, besides the times of use?" Dai Li continued asking.

"These athlete patches are currently inactive, and you have to activate them before you can use them. As for the activation requirements..." The system paused, and then said, "You can activate an athlete patch by consuming only 10,000 points of experience."

"Another 10,000 points of experience! I know it cannot be that easy!" Dai Li could not help saying.

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Chapter 339: Skill Upgrade

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

Although Dai Li was muttering his complaint, he was satisfied with this reward item from the bottom of his heart. Athlete patches were the reward that would bring essential changes. The cost of 10,000 points of experience might be high, but the earnings were far beyond that cost.

After some transient surprise and delight, Dai Li then put patches aside and looked at another reward item. No one would be unfamiliar with it, if he or she had studied at a primary school: an extra book cover used to wrap up the textbook. But there was no design except for two big words on it: cover upgrade.

Cover? Upgrade? He didn't know what it meant.

"You should read the two words in converse order. Upgrade cover is the name." The system then said, "Do you remember those skill books you that had before? This upgrade cover is used to upgrade your skill books. Cover the book with it, and the skill in the book will be upgraded, the effect of which will thus be improved significantly. "

"Can I use it repeatedly?" Dai Li asked immediately.

"No. It's a disposable consumable. So, before you use it, you should make clear what skill you want to upgrade," the system answered in a quite serious manner.

"Then, could you please tell me the effect of the upgrade?" he inquired.

"The exact effect of the upgrade is randomly generated. I can't give you an exact answer," the system explained.

"Huh, another bet on luck." Dai Li then frowned and began to think.

The skill books he owned at present were: Weight Loss Exercises, Fat Loss Exercise, Massage and Muscle Relaxation, Rehabilitative Massage, Stretching Yoga, Warm-up Square Dance and Stamina Rampage. The Morale-boosting Book was more a piece of paper versus a book now, so it couldn't be upgraded with the cover. He had to choose one of those skill books to upgrade.

Weight Loss Exercises and Fat Loss Exercises have similar effects, but the proportion of athletes in need of losing weight is quite small. Thus, these two skills are minor, and I don't need to give them any upgrade. Dai Li gave up Weight Loss Exercises and Fat Loss Exercises first.

As for Stretching Yoga, although it helps to improve body flexibility and coordination, stamina rampage also boosts flexibility to some extent. The increase of flexibility brought about by stamina rampage is far less than Stretching Yoga, but stamina rampage can promote other qualities, such as endurance and strength. In this view, the comprehensive gains of stamina rampage are better than Stretching Yoga. Hence, he denied Stretching Yoga.

Warming-up square dance is only applied in warming-up. The usage is limited, and square dance is not well-accepted by people, due to its form. Warming-up square dance was, therefore, negated.

Compared with relaxing massage, Rehabilitative Massage is much more important. As a coach, I have worked with the national team, the provincial team, and Dingtian Club. In my career, I saw not a single athlete that would not get hurt. It's unavoidable that athletes get hurt in training. From this aspect, Rehabilitative Massage is of great practicality, ranking only second to stamina rampage.

Thought out here, Dai Li had determined to make a choice between Rehabilitative Massage and stamina rampage. In comparison, stamina rampage could be applied to all athletes, while Rehabilitative Massage only was aimed at the injured. Therefore, stamina rampage had a wider range of application.

However, Rehabilitative Massage was able to create miracles. Since he acquired the skill, he had helped several athletes to recover from their injuries, and then had built trust with them.

What a hard decision to make! He even imagined counting on tossing a coin.

Well, I should upgrade Rehabilitative Massage. Although stamina rampage can work in a larger field, it's a BUFF on capability at root. Rehabilitative Massage will recollect one's lost hope…

Dai Li couldn't help thinking of Feixiang Lin, who gave up on himself, due to his injury, and then later got back to the game, thanks to his recovery. So to say, Rehabilitative Massage brought him a new life.

Thinking this way, he put the cover on the skill book of Rehabilitative Massage, because he liked the excitement of creating miracles most. After a golden blink, the cover was changed. There was now a tangible frame around the edge of the book. Dai Li read the book immediately, but found nothing new there.

"The same massage technique, no change. That's to say, the upgrade is merely the increase of skill effect?" he asked.

At this moment, the system explained slowly, "The effect of Rehabilitative Massage is indeed improved, and the massage now will revitalize damaged nerve issues, as well as promote the regeneration of nerve cells."

"What do you mean?" Dai Li asked promptly.

The system answered, "You know, the efficiency of recovery differs, according to the parts of body that get injured. The most difficult part for recovery is the nerves. Many injuries effects on those are irrevocable. Once damaged, there will be no chance to get well. However, the new function of Rehabilitative Massage can heal them to some extent. Of course, the result depends on the injured themselves."

Dai Li recalled what he knew and then nodded in comprehension.

Cells of different parts of muscles or tissues have different efficiencies of recovery. For example, the cells on people's lips are the most active cells. Everyday, there are many cells dying or being regenerated. So, the wounds on lips will heal rapidly and leave no scars.

Another example is that the wounds on skin will be fine earlier than the ones of muscles or bones. Once the epidermis is hurt, the basal cells at the edge of wound will proliferate in 24 hours, and then move to the center of the wound, forming the epithelium that covers the granulation tissue. Thus, slight scratches on the skin will heal soon.

For the wounds of inner muscles, they need to be sutured. Torn ligaments and fractures should be treated with operations. Such injuries will require a long time for complete recovery. As the saying goes: "A wound to the bone needs 100 days to recover." The injuries in critical parts of body, such as a meniscus tear and a serious fracture of ankle bone, even take a year to heal. If nerve tissues are damaged, whether they will heal at all is doubtful most of the time. For most tissues and organs of the human body, physical recovery means returning to correct functioning.

Take the fracture of a finger as an example. When the fracture occurs, it's impossible for one to pick up chopsticks. The finger is damaged, at a physical level, and is malfunctioning. When the fracture is healed, one can pick up chopsticks as a result. The recovery is at both the physical and functional levels.

But the damages of nerves are different. Physical recovery doesn't necessarily mean re-functioning. For instance, people suffering from spine nerve damage may not stand on the ground anymore, even if their spine nerve is recovered.

The new effect of Rehabilitative Massage is to revitalize damaged nerve issues and promote the regeneration of nerve cells, which is obviously against such nerve damage. It looks cool.

But after a thorough analysis, Dai Li was only depressed.

For athletes, nerve damage is a very serious, irregular injury. As it is irregular, the probability of its occurrence must be low. It might take a few years to meet an athlete with nerve damage. At least, I haven't met any in all my years as a coach. So, this new effect looks nice, but it is not that useful.

Dai Li sighed in much regret, saying, "If I had known that, I would have upgraded the stamina rampage!"

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Chapter 340: The Glee Feast

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

Winners are always the targets of people's praise.

Dingtian Club had won as champion in the Asian Champions League. Skepticism in the past had gone, naturally. Even its opponents came to make congratulations for the win.

Soccer fans in China had been disappointed for a long time. In the international games, Chinese soccer teams had made such horrible results, that one could hardly bear to look at them. This championship on the Asian Champions League was obviously a shot in the arm.

Harman was praised as the savior of Chinese soccer. This old coach had won the title of champion instructor of World Cup and Europe Champions League, and had no need to prove his coaching skill with the name of champion instructor of Asian Champions League. However, he was still excited about the championship.

In fact, Harman was under heavy pressure, too. As a top coach in the world, his coaching in Chinese Super League was like breaking a fly upon a wheel. If he failed, he would be a joke. For Harman, he and his team were obliged to be the champion of the Chinese Super League, and even had to win it with excellent performance. Otherwise, they would be denounced. He never imagined failing in such an easy task.

Moreover, Dingtian Group had spent a large sum of money to hire Harman, and made a direct investment in his team, to the sum of more than 20 million euros. Following Harman's request, the groups paid much for Brazilian soccer players. This investment of hundreds of millions had astonished many soccer teams. Some laughed at Dingtian, saying it knew nothing about soccer and was wasting money.

So, Harman liked to prove that he was worthy of the money. The championship made other teams aware that Dingtian's investment had paid off. Of course, the news that Dingtian Club was seeking to be listed hadn't been made known yet. If people witnessed the market capitalization of the club exploding to almost 20 billion after it was listed, they would realize that spending several hundreds of millions for Harman was inexpensive.

Although Asian Champion League was over, Dingtian Club's journey was not. After a three days break, team members returned to the club and started to make preparation for the Football Association Cup (FA Cup).

In order to provide enough time for Dingtian to make preparations for the Asian Champions League, the football association deliberately put off the FA Cup until December. That's a good delay. Being the champion of Asian Champions League, both the morale and popularity of Dingtian Club's team were at their peaks. Many soccer fans felt that it was reasonable for Dingtian to win as champion of the FA Cup. It would be perfect if the club grabbed the champion title in these three soccer games.

Most people are fond of a happy ending. In the cinema, even the worst comedy has its audience. A TV play with a good ending is easier to have rebroadcast. Although some sad stories may arouse tears, they can't invoke the second attempt to watch them. The death of an important positive figure in a cartoon will cast some mental shadow to children. So, it was expected that Dingtian Club win the champion title of the FA Cup. Even some fans of its opponent teams thought so.

There was no suspense about the result of the FA Cup: Dingtian won the FA Cup and achieved three successive championships. Its opponents accepted the result, because Dingtian was indeed best. The popularity of Dingtian raised the price of an Entrance ticket of the FA Cup, which made all teams gain a lot as well.Dingtian Club rented the banquet hall in a deluxe restaurant belonging to Dingtian Group in order to hold the glee feast. People of Dingtian Club, and others related to them, gathered here. Acquaintances stayed together and formed different groups, making a clear distinction.

In such a gathering, people with higher statuses were closely arranged. For example, Harman was led to a special room. Meanwhile, those who needed to find seats themselves grouped with their close peers. Doing their own deeds, players, coaches, and management personnel didn't interfere with one another.

"Dai Li, come here." Cloud waved to Dai Li.

Dai Li was surprised that he was called by Cloud. As was known to all, people sitting beside him were all members of Harman's team, including Draco and Georg, his assistant coaches, and team doctor Maraloni.

Dai Li became somewhat hesitant. He should sit with Zhoutai Jin and Haoxin Liu, because they were all hired coaches of Dingtian Club and belonged to the middle class of coaches, which were lower than Harman and his team. But he didn't know that Harman had planned to recruit him. So, members of Harman's team also treated him as a member of the team, rather than as an outsider.

"Come on, Dai Li. We have an empty seat here," Maraloni also invited him.

Members of Harman's team enjoyed higher treatment in the Dingtian Club. They were all foreigners, who had been raised in different backgrounds. It was quite difficult for coaches in China to join them. As a result, the acts of Cloud and Maraloni had attracted the attention of others. Bearing admiration and jealousy, Dai Li had to walk there to sit with them.

Chairman Xiao came to make a speech. The other two shareholders of the soccer team, Dalu Fang, the chairman of Continent Group, and Jianshe Gu, the chairman of Golden Wheat Group, showed up for a brief time.

These three rich and power people would not stay in the hall. They had their own single room. As for higher management personnel, like Yunan Xiao, they didn't remain in the hall either. In a banquet, the atmosphere would be more active if there were no leaders. A buffet was offered in this banquet, and people could eat as much as they wanted. Soon, the hall was full of happy laughter and cheerful voices.

With a mug of liquor in his hand, drunken Cloud said, "Of all the liquor brands in China, I like Maotai the best. I won't be dizzy, even if I drink too much. I can sleep for a night. And the next day, I will feel no hangover."

Dai Li couldn't help but let out a smile. These foreigners knew nothing about the pure degree of Chinese liquor. Some of them even dared to drink the Maotai, a liquor of 53 degrees, like champagne. Maotai, unlike other liquor, tasted not that hot. They would drink it, mug after mug, with no scruples.

He intended to dissuade Cloud, and ask him not to drink that much, because too much drinking was not good. But seeing Cloud was in the mood, he did nothing but let him drink as he liked.

At that moment, two young men came from afar. The man in the front wore a piece of leisure suits, and the other was in casual wear. Walking through the crowd in the hall, the two headed directly toward Dai Li. Dai Li, however, didn't notice them until they got close.

"Are you Dai Li?" the leading guy asked.

Dai Li raised his head and looked at the men. He didn't know them.

Who are they? I have never met them. Since they are here, they can't be outsiders. They may be from the club, or have something to do with the club. I have no impression of them. They should not be in the management level— they may come from Dingtian Group!

Thoughtful, he nodded, saying: "Yes, I'm Dai Li. Who are you?"

"I'm Leifeng Gu!" the leading young man said in a cold voice.

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Chapter 341: Be Vulnerable to Envy

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

Obviously, Dai Li didn't know Lefeng Gu, but out of courtesy, he asked, "Hello, Mr. Gu, what can I do for you?"

"I heard that you were a table tennis coach before?" Lefeng Gu asked in a condescending tone.

Dai Li didn't like Lefeng Gu's attitude, but he still answered, "I used to be a coach in the national table tennis team."

"What a coincidence! My friend also can play table tennis." Lefeng Gu pointed behind him, to the man in casual clothes, and said with fickleness, "Since you have been a table tennis coach, why not give some guidance to my friend?"

I was just asked to coach him in table tennis. Dai Li understood immediately.

Table tennis has a high public participation, as many senior table tennis fans would find some professional table tennis coaches to give them some guidance on their technique skills. There are also some professional table tennis schools which would regularly arrange some experienced coaches to guide students.

The training team would turn a blind eye to coaches' part-time jobs outside, as long as it didn't affect their normal work. After all, everyone has to support their family. However, the top coaches are not willing to find part-time jobs, and they don't have spare time. Even if they occasionally take some part-time jobs, it is only at the request of others, rather than for money.

In view of Dai Li's qualifications in the national table tennis team, it would be very popular for Dai Li to take on some part-time jobs, and there would be many people who would want to get some guidance from him.

Although I am not a professional table tennis coach, I have worked in the national table tennis team. In addition, Lefeng Gu deliberately came here to ask me for some guidance. If I reject him, it would injure our harmony.

Thinking of this, Dai Li smiled and said, "If time permits, we can communicate with each other."

Dai Li felt that he was being quite modest to Lefeng Gu, and that he had showed respect to him. However, Lefeng Gu frowned and said with disdain in his eyes, "Communicate? OK, there is no time like the present, let's do it today!"

"Today? I'm afraid I can't, as the celebration is going on, isn't it?" Dai Li rejected him tactfully, and showed his distaste for Lefeng Gu, who he felt was being rude.

"In my view, it's very suitable!" Lefeng Gu said with a strange smile, before giving a snap to the hotel manager on duty, who was standing in the distance. This caused the manager to run to him immediately.

"I push what I want!" said Lefeng Gu.

"OK, I'll arrange it right away," the manager said and trotted away.

Dai Li saw this and had doubts immediately.

Lefeng Gu must be unusual, the duty manager knew him and showed respect to him, so I must be cautious.

Just as Dai Li was pondering, he saw some waiters pushing a table tennis table outside the banquet hall.

Suddenly, there was a table tennis table in the banquet hall, which attracted everyone's attention. But as for Dai Li, he was wary of Lefeng Gu.

This is the celebration party of Dingtian Club. It's incredible that Lefeng Gu was able to push a table tennis table on such an occasion. If he were an ordinary person, even if he had the courage, he would not have the ability.

Lefeng Gu must be up to something. If he wanted me to give him some guidance, he needn't put a table tennis table in the banquet hall. He must have come here to find fault with me! What's the identity of Lefeng Gu? His last name is "Gu", which is a rare last name. It has just occurred to me that Jinsui Group is one of the team's shareholders, and its chairman was called Jianshe Gu, so did they know each other?" Dai Li wondered in silence.

The table tennis table was pushed to the middle of the banquet hall, then fixed. But Lefeng Gu added, "Coach Li, I have prepared the table tennis table for you, so if you don't give my friend some guidance, you must despise me!"

Lefeng Gu's last words held a bullying tone, which made Dai Li even more uncomfortable.

Forget it, it seems that he is an unreasonable rich second generation, so I'd better not offend him.

Thinking of this, Dai Li nodded, then stood up and said, "In that case, I'll give some guidance to the guy behind you, but I don't know how to call him."

Lefeng Gu pointed to the man in casual clothes behind him and said, "His name is Yaozu Li."

"What a coincidence, he has the same last name as me," said Dai Li.

"Don't cotton up with me, we are not the same, I'm from Singapore! I have nothing to do with the people of your country," he said coldly, showing his contempt for Dai Li. Although he spoke Mandarin, there was a strong foreign accent in his words.

Lefeng Gu smiled triumphantly, as he was apparently very satisfied with Yaozu Li's performance.

What a pity! He wasted a good name, Yaozu? He didn't even know who his ancestors were, so how could he be so proud? Dai Li couldn't help despising Yaozu Li.

"Please, coach Li!" Lefeng Gu pointed to the table, Dai Li went straight up to the table and took the racket from the waiter.

Meanwhile, the waiter handed the racket to Yaozu Li, but he rejected it and said, "I use my own racket."

Rejecting the rackets provided by the hotel, Yaozu Li took a cloth bag out of his bag and took out his own racket.

He was well-equipped. Dai Li looked at the racket subconsciously and was slightly shocked.

The tennis bottom was made by Butterfly VISCARIA, which was made up of five layers of wood and two layers of aryl carbon. It is characterized as being light weight, having good flexibility, a good damping effect and good elasticity, and because it is suitable for loop. I remembered that Pengfei Cui had the same racket. In addition, the forehand rubber of his racket was made by STIGA, and the backhand rubber was made by BUTTERFLY, all of which are the equipments of professional table tennis players. Hence, this set of equipment is suitable for attacking loop. It seemed that he tends to loop.

Having worked on the national table tennis team for a long time, Dai Li was quite familiar with such top table tennis equipment. And the equipment used by Yaozu Li was the top table tennis equipment that was used by the players of the national table tennis team, and these equipments were of the same type and brand.

A person who can use this equipment is either a professional table tennis player or a super fan of table tennis, which one is he? Thinking of this, Dai Li couldn't help but measuring up Yaozu Li.

As expected, he was a professional table tennis player of more than 600 personal ability. Although he is not a top player at home, if he was placed in somewhere outside of Asia, he could represent a country to compete in the Olympics!

Dai Li became serious immediately, then looked at Lefeng Gu quietly. However, Lefeng Gu was also staring at Dai Li, whose eyes were just like a hungry vulture, staring at dying prey!

He asked me to give some guidance to a brilliant professional table tennis player, so he was just trying to pick on me! But when did I offend him?

Dai Li shook his head slightly, wondering: Why was I so vulnerable to envy?

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Chapter 342: Guidance

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

A table tennis table was suddenly placed in the banquet hall, which immediately attracted the attention of everyone. They began to talk in low voices and asked what had happened. Even the foreigners in Harman's team put down their knives and forks to look at the table with great interest. Perhaps these foreigners thought it was an impromptus performance of the celebration banquet.

What does this mean? Xiong Zhou pushed his way through the crowd of onlookers and saw Lefeng Gu at first sight.

Lefeng Gu! What the hell are you doing?! Xiong Zhou knew Lefeng Gu and understood his virtue. When he saw the table tennis table in front of him and then looked at Lefeng Gu, he could easily know that Lefeng Gu wanted to find fault with Dai Li.

Though Xiong Zhou was a senior manager in Dingtian Club, he was just an ordinary employee with a relatively high salary. He knew that he couldn't handle such an arrogant dandy as Lefeng. On the other hand, Dai Li didn't look well, as he stood in front of the table tennis table.

Yaozu Li is a professional table tennis player. Lefeng Gu asked me to give some guidance to a professional player, so what did he want? In addition, he didn't tell me on purpose, as if he wanted to embarrass me on purpose?

Dai Li was quite indignant, but his outward expression was more relaxed. According to the detector, Yaozu Li had many shortcomings, both in skills and in physicality, so when compared with the top table tennis players of the national team, he had no merit at all.

"Well, in that case, I'll give you some guidance!" Dai Li said to himself, as he casually served a ball.

Dai Li, after all, worked in the national table tennis team for a period of time. Although he worked as a fitness coach, he also learned a lot of skills about table tennis. So, his serve and posture were very standard, even in the eyes of the professionals.

However, Yaozu Li swung his bat violently, giving the ball back to Dai Li immediately. Obviously, Yaozu Li had done his best.

Dai Li is not a professional table tennis player, and he knew that even if he received the ball, it would be a foul ball, so he gave up catching the ball and let it out of the table. Yaozu Li immediately put on a complacent smile, and looked at Dai Li triumphantly. Dai Li, however, didn't take it seriously, as he picked up the ball from the ground and served the second ball leisurely.

This time, Yaozu Li immediately attacked after Dai Li's service, and not surprisingly, Dai Li didn't catch the ball.

"Coach Li, why can't you catch the ball? As a table tennis coach, you can't catch a ball, so aren't you ashamed of yourself?" said Lefeng Gu.

Dai Li was about to answer, when a woman's voice chimed up.

"Lefeng Gu, this was the celebration banquet of Dingtian Club, not your home, so please quit your monkey business."

The crowd looked back, seeing that Yunan Xiao had come.

"Here comes the heroine!" Lefeng Gu secretly cheered, then said, "It's not monkey business, I heard that there was a table tennis coach, who had worked in the national table tennis team, so I came here on purpose to learn some skills from him. Nevertheless, he couldn't catch the ball, so he was a fraud! Why was he on the coaching team before?"

"Previously, coach Li was a fitness coach on the national table tennis team, so he was mainly responsible for the physical training, rather than skills. When he came to Dingtian Club, he was still responsible for the physical training," said Yunan Xiao.

"Ha ha, Yunan Xiao, why are you so anxious to protect your boyfriend? He is just eye candy!" Lefeng Gu said with his eyes looking at Dai Li, then he deliberately showed a contemptuous expression and added, "Oh, he is not handsome at all, so he can't even be called eye candy!"

Almost everyone was very surprised at Lefeng Gu's words.

"Did you hear what he said? He said coach Li is Mr. Xiao's boyfriend? Really?"

"How come! It can't be true, as there is too much difference between them."

"Coach Li has only been on the team for one year, and is now the boyfriend of Mr. Xiao. It seems that he will be promoted soon!"

"I just can't believe it, Coach Li was so honest, but it's so amazing that he was good at striking up a conservation with girls. When did they start?"

Everyone had their own ideas, but most of them were surprised and couldn't believe what Lefeng Gu said.

Lefeng Gu added, "I am one of the shareholders of the club. Although I am not involved in the management of the team, I still have the right to supervise the operation, so that I can know whether my investment is worth it. Now I know that there was an unqualified coach on the coaching team."

Lefeng Gu spoke, while looking defiantly at Dai Li.

He picked on me on purpose, as he just wanted to embarrass me. Why are there so many stupid people everywhere?! He thought to himself, and then he replied, "I'm a coach, my job is to find the technical shortcomings of players and then help them to improve themselves, not to compete with them. If each coach is better than the athlete, then why do we need athletes?"

"You're probably right, but you can't catch the ball, so how can you compete with an athlete?" Lefeng Gu said indifferently.

"The reason why I didn't catch the ball, was that I was observing Yaozu Li, as I wanted to find his technical shortcomings," Dai Li replied immediately.

"All right, can you tell us what you have observed?" said Lefeng Gu.

"That's right, can you tell me what technical shortcomings I have? I doubt you know," Yaozu Li said in Mandarin, with a strong accent.

Well, now that you've asked me to help you, I'll give you some guidance! Dai Li smiled confidently, then he reached out his right index finger with a "one" gesture and said:

"First, you have a problem in your pace when you catch the ball. You are left-handed, so when you prepare to catch the ball, the body's center of gravity should be on the left leg, and then you should turn your body to the left and use the left leg as the fulcrum. However, when you caught the ball, the body's center of gravity moved to the right, which would affect the stability of your upper body's movements. I guess that's the reason why you have this problem, as that your previous coaches used to catch the ball with their right hands."

Dai Li added, "Secondly, you have a problem with the topspin of your forehand, as the amplitude of your arm swing is not big enough. The bigger of the instantaneous physical strength of your catch, the better the topspin will be. But the amplitude of arm swing will affect the exertion of your physical strength. If you want to catch a long ball of your opponent, your arm swing will cause a low return and the ball will go out- of- bounds finally."

He continued: "Thirdly, you have a problem with your spike. When you make a spike, you didn't lock your wrist. The spike of table tennis requires the player to lock their wrist, so if you test your wrist, the speed of your catch will be fast, but the course of the ball will be unstable, which will lower the success rate of the spike. The first requirement of a spike is success rate, rather than the angle."

"Fourthly, the angle of the bat, when you prepare to catch the ball...

"Fifthly, when you catch the ball…"

"Sixthly…"

As Dai Li went on, Yaozu Li's triumphant complexion became more and more embarrassed.

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Chapter 343: No Mercy

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

Dai Li went on and in a twinkling, he listed more than a dozen tips.

People around had been quiet for a long time, everyone silent, listening to Dai Li's listing them, one by one.

"I just saw that Yaozu Li was playing very well, but how come he became so worthless after Coach Li's comments?"

"Coach Li is awesome! He just pointed out so many problems, through just two balls. He deserves to be the coach from the national team."

"How can foreigners match us in table tennis? The Singaporean table tennis is quite great, but in front of our coaches, they are just showing their slight skills before an expert."

"Just now, Coach Li couldn't catch the ball, and I really thought he just enjoyed undeserved fame. Now it seems that he is a real expert. Although he didn't catch the balls, he observed carefully. Unwittingly, he has listed more than a dozen defects of his opponent."

The crowd thought differently, but Dai Li's performance convinced everyone.

Most of these people only knew a little about table tennis, so they might not understand all that Dai Li had said. For laymen, they just watched this for fun. Dai Li said a dozen defects in a single breath, which really made the scene funny enough. Even though some people didn't understand the content of what he said, and they couldn't judge the correctness, they couldn't help but think that Dai Li was really professional, due to his eloquent manner of speaking.

It was like a doctor explaining a disease. The more he said, and the more technical terms he used, even if the listener didn't understand it at all, he or she would feel that what the doctor said was clear and professional.

Yaozu Li's face became more and more embarrassed. He thought he played so well, that Dai Li even couldn't catch the ball. However, after Dai Li's words, he suddenly found that he actually had so many defects, it was if if he was nothing!

Lefeng Gu's expression became more embarrassed. He came here to trouble Dai Li, but now it seemed that he had only gotten himself in trouble.

With a livid face, Lefeng Gu kept making eye contact with Yaozu Li, which meant: Refute him quickly!

However, Yaozu Li showed only an innocent expression.

After all, Yaozu Li was a professional player, though a Singaporean, and so he had professionalism. He knew his own technical disadvantages, and so he could tell if Dai Li was correct. At least till now, Dai Li had said nothing wrong.

Some of his problems pointed out by Dai Li had been pointed out by Yaozu Li's coach before, but some others were not seen by his coach. Actually, what Dai Li had said was reasonable. With a little thought, Yaozu Li could see that Dai Li was right.

Yaozu Li's coach in Singapore didn't see his problems, but Dai Li could see it, which clearly showed that Dai Li was much more capable than his coach.

What was even more surprising, Dai Li pointed out so many problems, just with two hits.

How could it be possible? Just with two hits, and even with the slow motion replay, he couldn't see so many problems! Is this guy a monster? Yaozu Li thought this in his mind. With people around, who were all laymen, he was full of doubts, although, he couldn't say it to others and nobody understand it at all.

On the other side, determined not to save any face for Yaozu Li and Lefeng Gu, Dai Li continued: "No.17, the angle of your swing is not right when you serve backspins. When a normal player serves a ball with his right hand, he should cut the ball at the five to six o'clock position. If he cuts it at the seven o'clock position, the ball could spin still, although, its speed forward would be weakened and the quality of the ball would be affected. But you, as a left-handed player, you should cut it at the seven to eight o'clock position. However, you..."

"Hold on!" with an innocent face, Yaozu Li shouted suddenly and said, "I didn't serve a ball just now."

"I know. But I can guess it, from your catching, based on my years of coaching experience. Surely, if you don't believe me, you can serve a ball and see if I am right," Dai Li said mercilessly.

This defect in his serve came out of the detector, so it must exist, and hence, Dai Li said it without any qualms.

But Yaozu Li was speechless now. He knew Dai Li was right. He indeed had such a defect in his serve, so he didn't need to have a test.

Yaozu Li's reaction meant that he admitted his defect, which caused a great gasp of amazement to come from the surrounding crowd.

"Coach Li is amazing! He can detect the defect in a serve by catching! How could it be? I really learned a lot today!"

"No wonder our national team is so excellent. With such high-level coaches, undoubtedly the national team would be so amazing!"

"Coach Li is just a physical coach on the national team. Since a physical coach can be so awesome, people like Zhizhong Gu must be that much more awesome!"

It might sound incredible to detect a serve by catching a ball. Any professional coaches on the scene in any cases would believe that Dai Li was boasting. However, people around were all laymen of table tennis. Nobody had played on the national team. Judging Dai Li's behavior, they thought he was indeed awesome.

"No.18, I'll say something about your topspin..." Dai Li still didn't stop. Yaozu Li, on the other side, seemed to be utterly wretched. Now he was about to lose all his confidence, due to what Dai Li had said. However, he could not refute him at all, for Dai Li was correct.

Some people nearby were gloating and looking at him, as if with expressions to say: Your skill sucks. You deserved this!

After finishing this, Dai Li finally stopped.

Finally finished! Yaozu Li breathed a sigh of relief. He was really suffering, to be accused of eighteen defects in front of so many people. He even had the intention to hide himself into the ground!

"Give me a glass of water. I'm quite thirsty," Dai Li said to a waiter nearby.

The waiter immediately fetched a glass of water for Dai Li quickly, but Yunan Xiao advanced and took the water from the waiter. Handing it to Dai Li in person, she smiled encouragingly at him.

Yunan Xiao's expression, in the eyes of others, seemed to confirm the statement that Dai Li indeed was her boyfriend.

"Thank you,"said Dai Li, taking the glass, then drinking. Taking a long breath, he went on, "Where were we just now? Right! Just now, I said No.18, and so now let's start No.19!"

No.19? Can you just let me go? with his mouth open, Yaozu Li thought, but said no words. At this time, his eyes were filled with despair.

Some people around could not help but looking at him sympathetically.

"Oh, poor Singaporean! With so many things you can do, why did you choose to compete with us in table tennis? You asked for this yourself!"

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Chapter 344: A Scoundrel Encountered Another

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

"No.22..." with a relaxed expression, Dai Li continued.

"Enough!" Lefeng Gu roared. He could not bear it any longer. He came to embarrass Dai Li, but in a twinkling, Dai Li gave him a bigger embarrassment.

Dai Li stopped and looked at Lefeng Gu with a smile, interested in enjoying the indignation on his face.

"You are speaking all the time. Who knows if you're right!" Lefeng Gu argued irrationally.

Dai Li shook his head with scorn, "If you think I was wrong, you can refute me. Give me your reasons, and convince me with truths."

Lefeng Gu said in his mind that he was not a table tennis coach, and that he was not Dai Li's opponent in reasoning. That would also be self-humiliation. He looked at Yaozu Li, hoping him could come forward and refute Dai Li. After all, Yaozu Li was a professional table tennis player.

Seeing this, Lefeng Gu still did not react. He did want to refute, but he had no reasons and causes to do so at all. In front of the truth, refutation was foolish seeming, like a clown.

Lefeng Gu was not a fool either. Judging from Yaozu Li's expression, Lefeng Gu realized that all the defects said by Dai Li just now were real, which is why Yaozu Li didn't refute it.

I can't believe this Dai Li indeed has some real skills, Lefeng Gu had a feeling of kicking and stubbing his toe on an iron plate.

In this bout, Lefeng Gu took a big beating. However, he was not the kind of person who could suffer any losses. He was usually arrogant and domineering. He always was a bully, and no one had bullied him before. Therefore, he couldn't bear this.

Lefeng Gu groaned and continued to say irrationally, "Everyone can say anything just with his mouth. If you can, take the racket and play with Yaozu Li."

Not responding, Dai Li looked at Lefeng Gu with disdain.

People around also were looking at Lefeng Gu, as if seeing a joke. Lefeng Gu started this, but now he acted like he didn't admit his loss, which was really quite ungracious.

This really embarrassed Lefeng Gu. As the offspring of a wealthy family, he would rather throw money than lose face. Therefore, if he couldn't get his face back, he obviously would not stop.

"Dai Li, you don't have to listen to him. He is just such an irrational scoundrel," Yunan Xiao came beside Dai Li and said.

Lefeng Gu continued to bluster, "What's wrong? You afraid? Tell me frankly if you're afraid. Apologize to me and admit yourself as being a coward, then that's the end! Or else, take that racket and compete with Yaozu Li!"

Lefeng Gu's rascal behavior made Dai Li speechless. How could you reason with such a scoundrel?

Well, you act as a scoundrel, then I will act the same to you. Thinking of this, Dai Li said, "Lefeng Gu, you just asked me to guide Yaozu Li. Since you are a shareholder, I did as you asked. But I never thought that you would ask too much."

Pointing at Yaozu Li, Dai Li continued, "It's fine that you want me to compete with him, but what can I get from it? Though you are a shareholder, you can't raise my salary, and you are not involved in the management of the team. Why should I listen to your arrangement? Can anyone order others for free nowadays?"

"Don't talk to me about cowardice. What you said doesn't count. You want me to compete with him. Fine. What benefit can I get?"

Dai Li deliberately acted like a bourgeois, almost labeling "give me money" on his face.

"You want money, right? OK! I can give you that. I have nothing but money! Tell me, how much? One million? Two million? Just like giving it to beggars for charity!" Lefeng Gu said, as if an understatement.

"A billion!" Dai Li said.

"What did you say?" Lefeng Gu couldn't believe what he heard.

"I said a billion! Give me a billion, then I'll compete with him!" Dai Li said it clearly.

"Are you mad?" Lefeng Gu roared. The next second, he realized that Dai Li was teasing him deliberately.

"You can't pay it, right? You just said you had nothing but money! How dare you pretend to be rich here, when you can't take out such a little amount of money?" Dai Li looked at Lefeng Gu contemptuously.

A little money? Lefeng Gu had an urge to curse Dai Li's mother. The expression on Dai Li's face seemed to say: what you were going to do to me, even I had no money and I pretended to be something?!

People around could tell that Dai Li was teasing Lefeng Gu. Some people even had an understanding smile on their faces.

With this exact kind of face, Dai Li continued, "Since you are a shareholder of the team, I'll give you a 15% discount, OK? You can't pay this either?"

At this time, Lefeng Gu was really angry. Although he was used to being a scoundrel, he didn't expect Dai Li could be like him. It was also 850 million, even with a 15% discount. He was indeed from a real rich family, but he couldn't take out so much money right away. Obviously, Dai Li knew this. Therefore, he proposed this figure deliberately to humiliate him through this opportunity.

Dai Li still didn't stop, and continued, "How about this? You take out the money, and I compete with Yaozu Li. If I lose, I give back all the money to you, or I take it. OK?"

"OK! That's what you said! I'll take that bet. I don't believe you can defeat Yaozu Li!" Lefeng Gu said angrily.

"Then give me the money!" stretching out his hand, Dai Li went on, "Give the money first, in case you default!"

After Dai Li said this, even Yunan Xiao, who was beside him, couldn't help but laugh. She never thought that such a gentleman like Dai Li could let Lefeng Gu suffer by playing the rascal. This Dai Li could be more scoundrelly than a scoundrel!

This moment, the word "default" like a lightning bolt, gave a critical strike on Lefeng Gu's mind.

For him, this word was the biggest humiliation.

It was like a rich man went to a restaurant and ordered a share of caviar, but the waiter beside him mentioned its price. To the rich, this was obviously a doubt as to whether he could afford it or not. The rich man couldn't stand this.

Even for an average person, when he took orders, the waiter mentioned that he couldn't afford it. It was a fact that many people would be angry hearing this.

Doubting a second generation of wealth was like doubting if a guest could afford the dish. It was plain contempt.

Lefeng Gu bought anything he wanted all his life, like sports cars, yachts, and even private planes. How could it be assumed that he would default?

But nobody would go out to a party with a billion on their person! Therefore, when he saw Dai Li's behavior, he was really angry, but could do nothing.

A scoundrel meets another! Neither is reasonable, Yunan Xiao thought in her mind, and was delighted to see Lefeng Gu being humbled. But she thought this farce should stop now, so she beckoned the manager on duty.

Running over quickly, the manager said with a respectful face, "Ms. Xiao, what can I do for you?"

"Move out this!" she said, pointing at the ping pong table.

"I'll arrange it right now!" the manager paused and explained in a low voice, "Ms. Xiao, this was required by Master Gu. I had no choice..."

"I understand. You have difficulty with this kind of matter. Manage your own things," Yunan Xiao said.

The manager looked at her gratefully, then began to command waiters to move out the table.

However, how could it be possible for Lefeng Gu to let this chance go by? He said with a rush, "Wait a minute. Who told you to move this out?"

"Me!" standing up, Yunan Xiao said sharply, "Lefeng Gu, today is the celebration party of the Dingtian Club. If you want to play mad like the drunk, go back to your own place. Don't be a disgrace here!"

"Well, well!" Lefeng Gu continued fiercely, "You just said benefit, right? OK! I give you benefit. Compete with Yaozu Li, and if you win, I agree on that equity distribution plan!"

Hearing equity distribution plan, Yunan Xiao's expression involuntarily tightened, and the desire in her eyes flashed. Dai Li noticed.

Lefeng Gu just said equity distribution plan, and Yunan Xiao seemed to care about that very much, thinking of this, Dai Li asked in a low voice, "What's an equity distribution plan? Is that important?"

Yunan Xiao also lowered her voice and explained, "Do you remember how I told you before that our club was seeking listing? The listing financing will dilute the original shareholders' equity. Therefore, before being listed, original shareholders should clearly distribute their equity respectively. Days before, I proposed an equity distribution plan about our team's list to the other two shareholders, but the Jinsui Group didn't agree on it. This affair is still under negotiation."

"Whether they agree to this equity distribution plan is important for the listing of the team, right?" Dai Li asked softly.

Yunan Xiao nodded, "Although it's the first step, it's also the root of the listing. If we can't reach a consensus among our shareholders, we will not be able to list."

"Is he reliable, if he says he will agree on that equity distribution plan? Can he take the responsibility for that decision?" Dai Li continued to ask.

"Why do you ask this?" Yunan Xiao asked him immediately.

"I want to help you," Dai Li responded without hesitation. "If he can take the responsibility, I'll go and compete with Yaozu Li, to help you win back the equity distribution plan."

"You don't have to do this. You're just a coach. The management of the team is not your duty," Yunan Xiao said.

However, Dai Li said with a smile, "I want to help you all the time, but I'm just a coach. I can't help you, neither in business nor in management of the team. But today, finally, I get the opportunity to help you!"

Yunan Xiao felt some special meaning behind Dai Li's words. Her face seemed to be reddish, and she asked softly, "Why? Is it worth?"

"Absolutely! Don't worry. I'll win. You just need to make sure Lefeng Gu can keep his promise," trying to wear a relaxed expression, Dai Li said jokingly, "Don't forget that, in others' eyes, I am your boyfriend. It's about love, and we must pay for each other!"

After finishing this, Dai Li turned to the ping pong table.

"Pay for each other..." Yunan Xiao repeated these words lightly. Looking at the back of Dai Li obsessively, she felt a sense of safety this moment. She felt that Dai Li was the man she could really rely on...

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Chapter 345: Singaporean Champion

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

Dai Li went to the table, staring at Lefeng Gu all the time.

Feeling uncomfortable with this, Lefeng Gu said fiercely, "Why are you staring at me? Yaozu Li is your opponent!"

"I am worrying about whether you will keep your promise. What if you regret it, when I win?" Dai Li said lightly.

"You can win? Hahaha..." Lefeng Gu smiled arrogantly and said, "I can tell you, you can't win. You don't know who is Yaozu Li, do you?"

"Yes, he is a professional ping pong player," Dai Li answered calmly still, "But I have seen so many professionals, and many are much better than him. If he were on my team, he should have no opportunity to play a match. What I worry about is you. I am really afraid you will break your promise!"

"Will I lose? Well, I can't lose, and I never repudiate any debt. You have my word. Additionally, people around can guarantee this," Lefeng Gu stared at Dai Li coldly and continued, "You should worry about yourself first. You should be afraid of losing this game by a score of 0-10, then you shouldn't wish for any concessions."

Their conversation also came into the ears of those around them, as if to remind them something.

"That Yaozu Li is apparently a professional ping pong player! Is he quite good?"

"They must come here with full preparations. Foreign players are not equal to our national players, though, they should be better than coaches, right?"

"About foreign ping pong players, I only know a few. I've never heard of this Yaozu Li. Check on him with your phone, to see if we can get some information about him."

"I found it. There is some news with his name. The latest news was reported last year. It says: Jianlong Liu defeated Yaozu Li, with difficulty, in the Olympic Trials of Singaporean ping pong match."

"Jianlong Liu? I've heard that name before. He is the famous Singaporean player. He participated in the table tennis men's singles of the last Olympic Games, and entered the last eight! At last, he was defeated by our national player."

"Since Yaozu Li could compete with Jianlong Liu, could it be that he is also a Singaporean national player? No way? Maybe just has the same name?"

"There is an image, so let me check this. It's really him. It's really the Yaozu Li in front of us!"

"According to this, Yaozu Li is not only a professional player, but he is also a Singaporean champion! Besides, he almost participated in the last Olympic Games!"

"Gosh! A Singaporean ping pong player is not weak. I'm afraid Coach Li can't win."

"Yes, he is just a coach after all, but Yaozu Li is an active ping pong player!"

"Why, I think Coach Li was trapped! Lefeng Gu brought a Singaporean champion here. It is obvious that he will defeat Dai Li!"

Yunan Xiao heard people's discussion and became nervous.

On the contrary, Lefeng Gu seemed to be cheerful and confident. He thought he was much better than Dai Li in intelligence.

"Yaozu Li, don't restrain your strength. Win a perfect battle for me!" Lefeng Gu said viciously.

However, at this time, Dai Li held up his hand, "Hold on!"

"What's up? Are you afraid? You want to admit your defeat?" said Lefeng Gu maniacally, "So quick to be afraid! Where is your courage, the same as when you were asking for one billion just now?"

"I must and will win this match. Why should I surrender?" Dai Li continued, "Since it is a match, it should be fair. But now, I think it isn't."

"Why is it not fair?" Lefeng Gu groaned.

"The racket," pointing at his racket, Dai Li said, "This racket is provided by the hotel. Although it's a product of a famous sports brand, it's only roadside goods to professionals."

He pointed at Yaozu Li's racket and said, "But his racket is professional, much better than mine. You prepared the racket, so it's unfair."

"So, what do you want? Should we buy a suitable one for you now?" Lefeng Gu said, "I see. You want to use this method to delay time deliberately, right?"

"Don't have to buy one for me. Let them provide the same racket as mine to Yaozu Li, then it's fair," Dai Li said.

"No problem! Go get another racket," Lefeng Gu waved to the manager and turned to Dai Li, "Do you think a racket can make up the gap between you? It's useless. You are bound to lose this match!"

Dai Li felt more assured in his mind. In a high-level ping pong game, the impact of the racket was so great, that it could cause a two-grade gap. Obviously Lefeng Gu didn't know this fact. Besides, Dai Li didn't want to lose, so he would try everything he could to gain advantages.In one private room of the hotel, Dingtian Xiao, Dalu Fang, and Jianshe Gu sat together, chatting pleasurably.

"Mr. Xiao, my son troubled you again," Jianshe Gu said so, but his expression had no sign of apology.

"Doesn't matter. Young man is always energetic," Dingtian Xiao waved his hand dismissively. Lefeng Gu was really notorious, and Dingtian Xiao naturally knew what kind of person he was.

"You're right. Leave the young people's affairs to themselves. Just like my son, I don't care about him at all," Dalu Fang said causally, following Dingtian Xiao's words.

About the ping pong table in the banquet hall brought by Lefeng Gu, these three men knew it. Although Dingtian Xiao was not pleased to hear that Lefeng Gu was seeking trouble at the celebration party of Dingtian Club, it wasn't worth getting pissed at the young man.

At this time, Jianshe Gu's assistant came and whispered in his ear.

"Well. This bastard! All day long he does nothing but fool around. A worthless prodigal!" Jianshe Gu groaned, with an angry expression.

"Jianshe Gu, don't be angry. Young men need careful guides," Dalu Fang said.

"Alas. This disappointing son. He is betting with others on the equity distribution plan we talked of before," Jianshe Gu said angrily.

Hearing equity distribution plan, the other two became interested.

Actually, Jianshe Gu didn't hide this, as he had no need to do so. This affair occurred in a hotel subordinate to Dingtian Group. Besides, there were so many witnesses. Even if Jianshe Gu didn't say it now, someone would report it to Dingtian Xiao sooner or later. He would get the cause and effect and details about it.

Jianshe Gu said it roughly. Hearing this, Dalu Fang said with a smile, "Well, you are going to lose a lot of money once again! Your Jinsui Group didn't agree on the equity distribution plan proposed by Dingtian Xiao's daughter."

Dalu Fang held the least share. Besides, the assets of Dalu Group were much less than Dingtian Group and Jinsui Group, so Dalu Fang planned to mess it up.

"Maybe not! He may not lose this bet this time," Jianshe Gu said with an astute smile. "As far as I know, my son brings a Singaporean this time, and this guy is a ping pong player on the Singaporean national team. This active player, also a Singaporean champion, is surely to be better than a coach!"

"You're right. But it depends on who the coach is. I think if it is someone like Zhizhong Gu, a foreign active player may not defeat him," Dalu Fang continued to mess things up, asking, "How is the coach from Dingtian Club? Is this football coach also good in ping pong?"

Jianshe Gu winked at the assistant and immediately answered, "That coach is a physical coach. He worked on the national ping pong team before. He is called Dai Li."

"Dai Li!" Dalu Fang was a little surprised.

"Dai Li?" Dingtian Xiao's expression also changed clearly.

"You two know this guy, right?" Jianshe Gu looked at them, then the three smiled simultaneously.

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Chapter 346: Professional Level

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

Before the table, Dai Li had prepared a copy card. That was why he had accepted the challenge, even when he knew Yaozu Li was a professional player.

A copy card could copy a player on the players illustrated handbook. Then Dai Li could use this card to gain 70% capability of the player in the next 12 hours. Without any hesitation, Dai Li copied Anshan Wang in the illustrated handbook.

The players illustrated handbook stored the Anshan Wang at his peak, with the strongest talent, full capacity, and no defects. Dai Li calculated in his mind. Even a 70% Anshan Wang contained 700 capacity, which contended against a foreign first-class player. That was Dai Li's confidence.

A seventy percent Anshan Wang is better than Yaozu Li! Dai Li thought confidently.

Using a copy card would cost ten thousand points of experience, which made Dai Li feel distressed, but he thought it was worthwhile, as he was doing this to help Yunan Xiao.

Just try the effect of this copy card. Since the system rewarded me with this card, it would be a waste if I didn't use it. Dai Li thought this in his mind.

"What are you waiting for? Serve the ball!" Lefeng Gu shouted impatiently.

Back to life, looking at Yaozu Li at his opposite, Dai Li said, "You first. Serve the ball!"

"Do I need it?" Yaozu Li twitched his mouth disdainfully, "If I serve the ball, you can't catch it. I'll let you serve the ball first!"

Dai Li didn't discuss it with Yaozu Li. He took the ball, telling him to be ready, and started to serve.

Yaozu Li was still wearing a relaxed and pleasant expression. He didn't stress over him at all. He was a professional ping pong player anyhow, although not world-class. Compared with a coach, he was much more sufficient.

Moreover, he just saw Dai Li's serve, which was not even as good as an amateur player, let alone in comparison to Yaozu Li. He could defeat him just with a single stroke.

With full confidence, Yaozu Li stared at the ball coming over the net. Just as he had done, he simply took a stroke. Yaozu Li thought that Dai Li couldn't react to this the same as he had before.

Actually, Dai Li didn't react at all, because he didn't need to. The ball flew off of the table lines as soon as it bumped on Yaozu Li's racket.

Yaozu Li's catching was out, directly!

It's spinning. A topspin! He can serve a topspin! Yaozu Li was also surprised. It was out of his expectations.

I was so careless. I thought he would serve a ball like before. I didn't expect he could serve a topspin. It seems that he was hiding his strength just now. Thinking of this, Yaozu Li suddenly felt like a cat catching a rat.

Even if you hide your strength, you're just a coach, and I'm an active professional! Let me play with you slowly.

Yaozu Li blamed that ball on his carelessness, and for the next second, he bent down and concentrated. However, Lefeng Gu was unpleasant. He didn't expect Yaozu Li could lose one point first.

"He let you win a point first, in case you would get a zero!" Lefeng Gu roared.

Still, Dai Li ignored Lefeng Gu's bluster. He knew that the harder he roared now, the more embarrassed he would be after he lost this game. Dai Li threw up the ball and served the second time.

Another topspin! Yaozu Li sized up the ball immediately.

I didn't concentrate on it just now, so you could take me by surprise using that topspin. But this time, I prepared for it. How could I be fooled again? Yaozu Li was going to catch the ball with full confidence.

However, when the ball touched the racket, the uncontrollable shaking from the racket made Yaozu Li realize that he was going to lose the control of this ball, too.

A professional level serve! It was too late once he realized this. He couldn't ensure the quality of his receive.

This receive was bad, as far as spinning, speed, and landing. Judging from professional standards, it could be regarded as a muff, just like giving points to the opponent.

He is not a professional. Maybe I still have hope. Yaozu Li prayed in his mind.

Yaozu Li knew that, in the face of such a receive, without quality at all, any professional players would seize the chance. However, it would be different if the opponent wasn't a professional.

Nevertheless, god didn't hear Yaozu Li's prayer. How could Dai Li miss such a good chance? He directly took his offense along the diagonal and Yaozu Li only could see the ball flying away in front of his eyes.

"2-0! Dai Li won two points in a row! Is his opponent a professional player?"

"The Singaporean champion should be very powerful. Why does he seem to be a rookie?"

"No wonder our national team of ping pong is so powerful. An ordinary coach can defeat a foreign national team player."

People whispered such things all around.

Staring at Dai Li, now Yaozu Li's face was not the same as the contempt he had shown minutes before. On the contrary, he was a little afraid now.

That was a professional level serve. And only the first-class professional players can serve such a spinning ball! This coach is real proficient. Yaozu Li's thoughts swirled in his mind.

However, Lefeng Gu was quite angry and said, "Yaozu Li, what are you doing? How could you lose two points in a row? Win it back, quickly!"

Yaozu Li felt a bit helpless. He picked up his racket and prepared to serve the ball.

The serve is the most basic skill, and also the most easily-trained. Many amateur players do well in serving, but badly receive. Maybe you're professional in serving, but I don't believe you are also professional in your receive!

Thinking of this, Yaozu Li kept concentrated. Then the ball was tossed up and flipped to the direction of Dai Li, after Yaozu Li swung his racket.

"Bang!" Dai Li was really quick in receiving the ball, and his action was also fluent.

He caught that ball! The anger of Yaozu Li disappeared in a flash. He served the ball with full preparation. At his level, this serve was really high in quality.

Yaozu Li had thought, in the face of this serve with high quality, even Dai Li could catch it, and he must catch it hurriedly. However, it seemed to be quite easy for Dai Li, as the quality of his catching was pretty good.

It is not only about the serve and receive in ping pong. What's also crucial is every reaction, treatment, and tactics selection. Those amateur players don't know these things. Only the professional players are equipped with these qualities. Dai Li, you will know the gap between you and me soon!

Yaozu Li thought of this and stroked back the ball to Dai Li.

Dai Li stroked it back, quickly, agilely, and the landing point was just the diagonal, which was, again, out of Yaozu Li's expectation.

"Damn!" Yaozu Li managed to catch the ball, but the return stroke was of no quality.

"Bang!" without any hesitation, Dai Li smashed the ball very hard. The ball flew out of the bounds, even before Yaozu Li could take any actions.

The next second, Yaozu Li stared at Dai Li, full of astonishment.

That ball was at high professional level in speed, spinning, and landing point, and he did well in his reaction. How could an amateur table tennis player do that? Could it be that he is really at a professional level?

Yaozu Li always regarded Dai Li as someone he could defeat easily, so he never paid attention to Dai Li mentally. However, when he found that Dai Li was not as weak as he had thought before, he became panicked in his heart.

Oh, no. Am I going to lose this game? How can I get defeated by such a nameless?!

There was a saying that only the brave man could win in a fierce battle. If one side thought that he would lose, then, naturally, he would lose his morale soon. A sports contest was no exception. For players, the moment he thought he would lose in his mind, the balance of the game began to tilt.

Right now, Yaozu Li needed time to adjust his mental state. If it was an official competition, so his coach could call a timeout to let him have a rest and seek mental psychological guidance.

But now, it was unreal. His coach was not here. What's worse, Lefeng Gu was urging him to score quickly. In this moment, only a stupid partner would do such things.

In the following game, Yaozu Li played worse and worse, quite irregular and out of his own patterns. On the flipside, Dai Li was advancing triumphantly. He seized up Yaozu Li's muffs and kept scoring.In the private room, these three bosses were chatting casually and drinking tea, as if none of them put the competition in the banquet hall at all in their minds.

The moment when Jianshe Gu's assistant came over to report to him the current situation about the competition, Dalu Fang asked at first, "Has the competition ended? What's the result?"

With a meaningful smile, Dingtian Xiao had a look at Dalu Fang. He could tell that Dalu Fang did that deliberately, and he meant to mess it up.

The assistant glanced at Jianshe Gu hesitantly. Apparently, he was asking his boss whether he should tell him. The assistant was intending to tell his boss secretly, but now Dalu Fang asked about it directly. He didn't know what to do.

"Say it!" Jianshe Gu said casually, as if he didn't care about the result at all.

Since his boss gave him the order, the assistant need not hide the truth and said directly: "The first game ended, and the score is 11-2."

"This coach is pretty good. Unexpectedly, he could get two points, when facing the Singaporean champion," Jianshe Gu said in a relaxed tone. At first, he thought Lefeng Gu was mischievous. But until now, his action caused no harm to Jinsui Group, and so his anger relieved a bit.

However, with a hesitant expression, the assistant stood there still, looking at Jianshe Gu. He wanted to say something more, but stopped finally.

"What's the matter? Anything else?" finally Jianshe Gu lifted his eyes.

"Chairman, it's the Singaporean champion that gets two points, not the coach!" the voice of the assistant became lower, as did his confidence.

"You mean Dai Li won? He defeated that Singaporean champion and let his opponent get two points only?" All of a sudden, Dalu Fang's face was filled with shock. He never would've believed it...

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Chapter 347: The One Who Is Hiding His Strength

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

Dai Li heard that Anshan Wang was a powerful athlete, without direct feelings. Now, he was finally aware of the strength of Anshan Wang, one of top ping-pong players in the world.

"I can't believe that Anshan Wang didn't show his real ability!" Looking at Yaozu Li across the table, full of confidence in his heart, Dai Li knew that he was stronger than Yaozu Li, although only the first set was finished.

"Not bad for an athlete," Dai Li was a little excited.

Beating his rival and winning a contest is really a pleasant thing, which is why Dai Li was feeling good. On the contrary, frequent failure can be annoying.

Therefore, Yaozu Li couldn't be in a good mood, because no man would be happy after losing contests. What's worse is having a failure to a coach instead of a professional athlete, which would be a terrible experience.

"This man is as good as any world-class professional athlete. In Singapore, a person with his ability can play in the Olympic games! He is just a coach, so how can he be so good at the game?! Is this the real strength of China, a Ping-pong power?"

Yaozu Li was terribly upset. He was initially proud of his ping-pong skills, and knew he could strive to be a world-class athlete after taking efforts. However, he found the harsh reality that he couldn't even beat a coach, which began to raise his thoughts of giving up his professional career.

People now looked at Dai Li in a strange way. At first, no one knew Yaozu Li's real identity. Later, the audience felt sorry for Dai Li, after they knew the truth. But, in the first set, Yaozu Li couldn't fight back at all, which was a big surprise for everyone. Although Yunan Xiao once imagined that Dai Li would win, she never thought it would be so easy.

"I know that ping-pong is our national sport, and that our national team is excellent, but I never thought that a coach could beat up a Singapore professional athlete!"

"When we see ping-pong contests on TV, we actually cannot feel the huge gap between Chinese athletes and foreign athletes, by which I was also shocked."

"Mr. Li is really good. No wonder he dared to compete with Yaozu Li. Of course he is excellent."

Most of the audience supported Dai Li, because most of them came from Dingtian Club, so the sense of collective honor combined them into an integrated cheering squad, as they were not willing to see the failure of Dai Li. The only one who couldn't accept the reality was Lefeng Gu.

"Why? Why did he lose? He is a professional athlete in Singapore. Why?"

Lefeng Gu invited Yaozu Li, a professional athlete in Singapore, and he intended to keep it a secret, trying to humiliate Dai Li after his failure.

Yet, in the end, it was Lefeng Gu who became the one who was humiliated.

How can it be? My plan was perfect! The problem is that Yaozu Li is too weak to beat a coach. A good idea is wasted.

At the moment, furious Lefeng Gu stared at Yaozu Li. In fact, it was difficult for him to realize his own mistakes. In his view, all responsibilities should be shouldered on Yaozu Li.

In fact, Yaozu Li wasn't so bad, even though he was beaten by Anshan Wang, who didn't show his true strength. The reason for such a huge gap in the first set was mainly due to his mental state.

Before this time, Yaozu Li thought it would be very easy for him to win this contest, because Dai Li was just a coach. Maybe he was good at playing, but he could surely never beat a professional athlete. His taking the enemy lightly was the main reason for his crushing defeat.

There are a great deal of examples of just this same folly in numerous sports contests. When the strong confront the weak, it is easy for the strong to take his rival lightly. Therefore, a weaker man in this kind of mental state would not only lose the game, but also lose his confidence.

When Yaozu Li walked into the stadium, he was in such a mental state. Basic requirements for professional athletes, such as careful observation, calm analysis, and reasonable solutions, were forgotten. Obviously, it wasn't so difficult to beat an athlete without possessing these abilities.

Yunan Xiao was very glad, and she never thought of this great surprise that Dai Li would bring her.

"I didn't know he was such a great ping-pong player!" Yunan Xiao looked at Dai Li, the man struggling for the game, in an admirable way. Suddenly, she was attracted by his unique characteristics, and she couldn't help looking at him.

In the studios of the hotel, three bosses got the official score reported to them from the contest scene.

In the next two sets, it was the same as the first set. The contest hadn't finished yet though, but the end was already determined. Losing his calmness, Jianshe Gu couldn't disguise his anger anymore, a fact which the other two easily noticed.

An ignoramus son made Jianshe Gu feel very helpless. But what he could do was limited, because of his spoiling his son. In most cases, he just ignored his son's ridiculous behaviors, such as his buying sports car and a yacht, gambling, and pursuing starlets, all of which Jianshe Gu could bear, thanks to his huge amounts of wealth. But this time, he crossed the line.

The IPO of Dingtian football club had been designed to raise at least $10 billion, with billions of dollars of interest behind each point of equity allocation. Jianshe Gu didn't agree with the equity allocation plan proposed by Dingtian, because he wanted to gain more benefits.

But that Lefeng Gu should bet on equity allocation, all for his resentment, and then lose the bet, which was not only an economical loss, but also affected strategic decision-making of Jinsui Group, was unthinkable! From the perspective of a negative view, he dared to bet on equity allocation solution of Dingtian today, so it's hard to say whether he would recklessly bet on the whole Jinsui Group tomorrow!

"Such a loser!" he almost exploded with anger.

"Mr. Gu, take it easy, as it costs time to educate our kids," said Dingtian Xiao, a face filled with a smile, an air of complacency.

"God bless me, if I can survive these horrible things done by my stupid son. If that loser could just behave himself like your daughter, I could retire now and have a rest!" said Jianshe Gu.

"Each family has its own problems," he sighed. "My girl has a strong character. However, a girl must marry a lad when she grows up. Being a housewife is good enough. I introduced several good lads to her, each good-looking, good families, and good careers. But she rejected all of them. I am so worried about that!"

"I heard that the coach Dai Li is the boyfriend of your daughter..." he stopped unconsciously, because he realized something.

Isn't it so strange that Yunan Xiao chose the sports coach, among so many excellent young lads? Why would he be willing to be a coach, when he possessed such ability? It can't make sense at all. Isn't it a trick they played, just to fool my stupid son?

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Chapter 348: Breaking Up the Affectionate Couple

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

Lefeng Gu left with embarrassment. The experience wouldn't be forgotten in his whole life. He must take responsibility for the great loss of Jinsui Group, for which he would be punished by Jianshe Gu.

The slapstick comedy ended in such a way, that it just looked like an interval show for most people. For Yunan Xiao, she knew that winning the ping-pong contest solved the problem of equity allocation, pushing the IPO of Ding Tian Football Club one step forward, and simultaneously, moving her closer toward her ultimate goal.

"Wipe your sweat first!" Yunan Xiao approached Dai Li, handing up a wet tissue for him, then said, "I didn't expect you were such an excellent ping-pong player, and that you could even beat a Singapore professional athlete."

"After all, I was a member of National Ping-pong Team before. I can't beat my teammates though, and I can't lose the game with foreigners, or it would be an embarrassment for our team." Dai Li smiled and took the tissue, then said, "Lefeng Gu, will he keep his promise?"

"I will handle that." Yunan Xiao stopped for a while to just stare at Dai Li, then she smiled like a shy little girl and said, "Thank you."

Dai Li stood in amazement at her unusual behavior. In his mind, Yunan Xiao was independent and never behaved like this.

Yunan Xiao continued, "I know what you've done to help me... well, in fact, I..."

She didn't know what to say, because she wasn't good at showing her appreciation, or emotions. At this moment, a strong man wearing a suit and a pair of glasses walked towards them.

"That is my father's assistant Zhicheng Huang, he comes for me." Switching back to being in the capable and confident daughter role, she walked to meet him.

"Mr. Huang, my father wants to see me?" Yunan Xiao asked.

"I come for Mr. Li, actually, chairman wants to see him," Zhicheng Huang pointed at Dai Li.

"Why does my father want to see Mr. Li?" Yunan Xiao asked, a little nervous.

"I'm not quite sure. I am a messenger only," Zhicheng Huang replied.

Yunan Xiao turned around and spoke to Dai Li, "My father wants to see you! Go, let's go together!"

Zhicheng Huang led the way, Dai Li and Yuan Xiao walked behind him, side by side. Dai Li was nervous, as he didn't know what Dingtian Xiao's purpose was, or what to do. Zhicheng Huang led them into a small reception room, where Dingtian Xiao sat on central sofa with a document in his hand, a pair of glasses on his nose.

"Father!" Yunan Xiao shouted.

"Chairman, I brought them here," Zhicheng Huang said.

Dingtian Xiao raised his head up to look at both of them, then asked, "You are Mr. Li, right?"

Hello, sir, I am Dai Li," Dai Li replied in a rush.

Dingtian Xiao nodded, turned around, and spoke to Yunan Xiao, "Yunan, would you please leave us alone, I'd like to talk with Mr. Li in private."

Yunan Xiao hesitated for a while, watching Dai Li with a complicated expression, then went out.

"Have a seat, Mr. Li," Dingtian Xiao pointed to a sofa beside him, easy-going.

Dai Li walked toward the sofa and sat down with serious expression.

"Don't be nervous," Dingtian Xiao seemed to be used of this kind of situation, as he put down the document and said, "Actually, I want to thank you for helping me solve this case of equity allocation. What happened today was out of my anticipation. However, Jianshe Gu may think that he was fooled by me."

"It was too much for him to bully us, and I was forced to do that," Dai Li asked.

"Forced to do that?" Dingtian Xiao smiled and said, "There is rumor that you are the boyfriend of Yunan."

This suddenly appearing topic made Dai Li speechless.

Dingtian Xiao said, "You needn't explain to me, because I know what happened to some extent. You were used to be a shield in order to deal with Fen Luo. Nothing happened between the two of you."

He continued, "You are an excellent young man. As a coach, at your age, the achievement you've gained is not bad. I am your boss, and I hope you can have a clear understanding of yourself."

Dai Li was confused, and so he didn't follow Dingtian Xiao at first.

Dingtian Xiao moved his back a little bit and explained, "In short, I hope you leave my daughter alone."

Dai Li's eyebrow knitted, accompanied by a frown. Dingtian Xiao's direct refusal deeply hurt his self-esteem.

Dingtian Xiao continued, "Of course, you solved the problem of equity allocation, which Dingtian will not forget. At the end of this year, the company will give you a special bonus."

Dai Li got it now, suddenly. A big stick first, a date later. Telling Dai Li to get away from Yunan Xiao first, then giving him a sum of money later.

Dai Li nodded, although, he was in a paradox. He tried to calm himself down, and his wisdom told him that nothing would happen between them, because they were from different worlds. At the same time, he realized that he felt terrible when he even thought of the idea of "leave my daughter alone".

At the moment, Dai Li finally realized that he had fallen in love with Yunan Xiao. Maybe he is right. Maybe I should stay away from Yunan, because I do not deserve her. She can have a better husband.

He tried his best to control his emotions, but his brain couldn't get rid of the thought of her. What is worse, he couldn't help thinking about Fen Luo, as he considered what kind of man she deserved.

It is a suitable marriage, that can ensure a happy life, rather than a political marriage! The thought flashed through Dai Li's mind and gave him courage.

"Mr. Xiao, I know what you mean. However, I'd like to show my view," Dai Li was serious.

He continued, "She's your daughter, so shouldn't you consider her thoughts and feelings? I know you want to find her a capable husband, who can help you deal with the businesses of Dingtian. So, is it worth it to ruin your daughter's happiness, for your company?"

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