Football System: Penalty Zone Hero

For Chen Tao, joining the first team meant that his son had made progress, and for Chen Yingxiong it meant even more.

Chen Yingxiong was full of longing for the life of the first team. Here he would have the opportunity to participate in the professional league, and the opportunity to score goals and celebrate in front of tens of thousands of spectators and millions of TV viewers...

He would become a household name, get more lucrative contracts, and a lot of advertising endorsement opportunities. Of course, there would also be blonde beauties.

Of course, those were his aspirations. What he needed to do now was... meet his new teammates.

Assistant coach Porter took Chen Yingxiong to the locker room, handed him over to the team captain Vladislav Radimov and left.

It was the captain's responsibility to introduce the new player to his teammates.

Zenit's first team was indeed much more international than the youth team. There were players from all over the world, they spoke different languages and had rich experience.

For example, the team captain Radimov.

This former Russian rising star made his debut at the Smina Football School in St. Petersburg. He has played for CSKA Moscow, Zaragoza, Dynamo Moscow, Levsky Sofia, Samara Soviet Wings, and finally returned to Zenit St. Petersburg.

He was a member of the Soviet Union's Under-16 and Under-18 teams and later became a member of the Russian Under-21 team. He represented Russia in the 1996 European Championship and performed well. He then moved to La Liga side Zaragoza.

However, his performance in Zaragoza was poor, and after a few bleak years, he went to the Bulgarian league.

Although Radjimov had been to three countries, he did not speak English, and it was difficult for the two to communicate without a translator.

Radimov, who was 1.82 meters tall, had to look up when he saw Chen Yingxiong.

A man with an oriental face, he thought that he was a Korean - the new head coach really liked Koreans. He brought four of them in at once right after taking office!

If Chen Yingxiong knew what he was thinking, he would definitely... "You are Korean! Your whole family is Korean!"

As a Chinese who is not crazy about Korea, it is normal to have such a reaction...

Radimov asked him in Russian. "Do you speak Russian, boy?"

Chen Yingxiong thought for a long time and then answered in halting and very unskilled Russian. "Just a little bit, I've just started to learn..." 

Although Yesenin's teaching method was very interesting and Chen Yingxiong felt that he was making rapid progress, it was not yet fast enough for him to chat with his teammates in fluent Russian.

Seeing the painful expression on his face when he spoke Russian, Radjimov knew that this kid wasn't there yet. He thought it would be better to hand him over to the three Koreans and let them introduce him to the team - although they also transferred here this summer, at least they have been here for three weeks...

So he took Chen Yingxiong to the Korean player Li Hao who was changing clothes and said to him. "Li, your compatriot, the newcomer, please introduce him to me..."

Li Hao was very happy to hear that the team had another Korean player. 

The Korean gang was growing stronger!

He turned around and saw a strange face...

As a player in the South Korean national team, he knew everyone in South Korea, but this person was very unfamiliar to him.

He thought maybe he was from the domestic league. Judging from his appearance, he looked quite young, maybe still a child...

Since they were his juniors, the younger ones should greet him first. As a rising star in South Korea, Li Hao didn't believe that a Korean football player didn't know him. So there was no need to introduce himself. The other party should bow and say hello.

So he looked at Chen Yingxiong without saying anything.

Chen Yingxiong knew that Zenit St. Petersburg had several Korean players, but he couldn't tell who was who. Koreans, regardless of gender, all looked the same to him...

He thought that the captain Radjimov was introducing the new teammate to him and was waiting for the new teammate to greet him.

And Radjimov waited for Li Hao to take over his task...

The three of us stood in a circle, looking at each other. For about half a minute, no one spoke.

When the other people in the locker room first saw the captain leading a big man in, they were all very curious and kept staring at Chen Yingxiong and the others. But when they walked up to Li Hao and Radjimov said something, the three of them seemed to be frozen, staring at each other without saying a word.

The locker room suddenly became quiet, and no one knew what was going on. Those who were still talking also shut up and turned to look at the three people.

This eerie silence lasted for a long time.

Until Chen Yingxiong broke the silence, he asked in English. "What's wrong?"

Radjimov couldn't understand English, and neither could Li Hao.

Li Hao also felt strange, and in a hurry, he asked the captain in Korean. 

"Who is he?"

Neither Radzimov nor Chen Yingxiong understood Korean, so Radzimov asked Li Hao in Russian. "Don't you know each other?"

The other two Korean players, Kim Dong-jin and Hyun Young-min, also came over. Unfortunately, they also couldn't speak Russian, so they could only ask Li Hao in Korean. "What's going on?"

Li Hao shook his head and frowned: "I don't know either..."

The Russian players surrounded Radyimov and asked him what happened.

"I don't know. I asked Li to introduce the team to his compatriots..." 

Radimov pointed at Li Hao and then at Chen Yingxiong.

"Another Korean?" the team's right back Alexandr Anyukov exclaimed. He realized that he shouldn't have said that in front of his Korean teammates, so he quickly looked at the three Koreans and found that they didn't notice him, so he breathed a sigh of relief.

"Really? The head coach really likes Korean players... I think if we continue like this, we will have to change our name to Zenit Seoul?" 

Apparently, Anyukov was not the only one who thought there were too many Koreans on the team.

Of course, Radjimov put the team's unity first. He stopped his men from talking and asked, "Stop arguing. The question now is... How do we communicate with them?"

"Does he speak English?" asked the team's Norwegian central defender Erik Hagen, who came to Zenit from Norway last season and spoke English.

Radimov looked at him as if he had seen a saviour - "Ask him!"

Hagen went over to Chen Yingxiong and said, "Hi, how are you?" He used English.

The locker room fell into a burst of noise after the eerie silence, and Chen Yingxiong had no idea what was happening during the whole process. He could only stand alone in the locker room, at a loss, with unfamiliar languages ​​ringing in his ears.

He listened to those people talking, but he didn't know what they were talking about. A sense of alienation was forming. Chen Yingxiong swore in his heart that he would go back to Yesenin to study Russian!

Just then he heard Hagen's English!

That feeling... was just as exciting as hearing Chinese while eating at "Rui Long Ju". He nodded quickly. "Hello. Can you speak English?"

Hagen smiled. It would be easy if this kid could speak English. At least the two of them could communicate...

He patted Chen Yingxiong on the shoulder to show his friendship, and then he asked, "Are you Korean?"

"Huh?" Chen Yingxiong was stunned.

…

There was a huge laugh in the Zenit dressing room.

Everyone was laughing at what had just happened.

Radjimov also laughed and apologized to Chen Yingxiong through 

Hagen's translation. "I'm sorry. Since there are already three Korean teammates in the team, I thought everyone with an Asian face was Korean..."

Li Hao was in a state of confusion - he was not happy that someone had confused Chinese with Koreans. As a leader of the younger generation of Korean football, he looked down on Chinese players. For more than 20 years, the Chinese team had never won against South Korea, which gave Korean players confidence and pride when facing Chinese players. How could the captain confuse himself with the Chinese? The difference was obvious...

Chen Yingxiong was indeed angry at first when he found out that he was mistaken for a Korean, but he had to accept Radjimov's sincere apology. He didn't know what Li Hao was thinking, but his thoughts were the same as Li Hao's - how could you confuse Chinese with Koreans? Koreans' eyes are so small...

After the misunderstanding was resolved, Hagen took Chen Yingxiong to get acquainted with his teammates.

Hagen introduced them to him one by one.

"This is goalkeeper Kamil Contofalsky, this is goalkeeper Vyacheslav Malafeev, this is defender Pavel Mares, the one who is about the same height as you is centre-back Martin Skrtel, that guy is Alexander Anyukov... Of course, we can't miss anyone but this guy, he is our team's top star, Andrey Arshavin, nicknamed "The New Tsar"!

Chen Yingxiong didn't know how powerful Arshavin was, but after seeing Arshavin's appearance, he thought that this guy was about the same age as him. He thought that it was amazing that he was called the "new tsar" at such a young age!

His teammates all welcomed his arrival, whether they were old players or new players.

Only Li Hao looked a little embarrassed. He had thought Chen Yingxiong was his junior and was waiting for him to greet him. But he never expected that he would hear that he was Chinese.

There was nothing to be embarrassed about for Chen Yingxiong. He just had to prove that he was not Korean but Chinese.

Finally, captain Radjimov introduced Chen Yingxiong's background to everyone - "He was transferred from the youth team. I hope everyone can help him!"

Some people were very interested in Chen Yingxiong, while others seemed absent-minded.

There were many players transferred from the youth team, but unfortunately, they couldn't stay for too long and went to the reserve team. Who knew how long this big guy could last in the first team?

Maybe the reserve team was his final destination.

People were interested in Chen Yingxiong because of his body (not like that!).

He even looked taller than the two tallest players on the team right now, Martin Skrtel and goalkeeper Kamil Kontfalski…

Martin Skrtel, with Hagen as the translator, asked Chen Yingxiong. "How tall are you, Chen?"

Chen Yingxiong replied: "1.92 meters."

"Ah, my team record has been broken." Skrtel sighed after hearing this answer, then he patted Chen Yingxiong on the shoulder. "Congratulations, now you are the tallest person in Zenit!"

This was the first time Chen Yingxiong met his teammates in the first team.

...

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