I AM the Football Star

”Lu, let’s go!” Morici shouted to Lu Yang at the door.

Lu Yang grabbed a bottle of water and followed Morici out.

This was arranged by Maniero; everyone on the team had to attend. Maniero was going to explain the tactical plan for facing Russia.

In the meeting room, basically all the players were there. No one would joke around with team discipline, right, Dembele?

Maniero had already drawn the tactics on the whiteboard and had almost every Russian player’s info card marked out on their lineup.

Experience, basic info, technical traits, league stats, personality traits, and so on.

This would help the players matching up against them get to know their opponents.

For a core of the team like Morici—oh wait, this isn’t San Remo, he’s not the core anymore.

A core like Lu Yang, or a brainy but relatively idle type like Morici, would memorize all kinds of information about the opposing players so they could catch every opportunity on the pitch with precision.

Of course, this wasn’t mandatory. You didn’t have to do it.

But Chinese students never let a ready-made answer key go to waste, even if it might be inaccurate, even if there are a hundred of them. Compared to actually studying, rote memorizing materials is way easier, and that’s something we never Refuse.

Only after stepping into society or meeting others who never went through this intense study grind do some people realize that this memorization ability itself is a kind of asset.

At least when Chinese students take their driver’s license test, basically no one fails subject one or subject four.

If you did, please press 1 under this post and wait to be laughed at by everyone else.

”Alright, focus up, everyone. These materials will be handed out to you. You can memorize them after we’re done. Next we’re going to discuss something very important.” Maniero cut everyone off. ”That is, when we face Russia, we may have some rotations different from before!”

”We have to win this game against Russia. But... the match against Portugal might actually be our life-or-death battle!”

”So I need Perrotta and Ancelotti to be in their very best shape then!”

”In the next game against Russia, if we can take the lead, then around the 60th minute I will sub off one of Perrotta or Ancelotti, maybe even both.”

After Maniero finished, he looked at the two strikers he had named.

”No problem.” Perrotta nodded quickly. He was really exhausted; if he could, he’d even like to request to start on the bench for the next few games.

He’d spent two consecutive seasons leading his team in a title fight against Juventus, and next season he’d have to fight again. He had no free time at all.

Carrel and Perrotta were pretty much among the most exhausted players in Serie A in recent years.

”I’ll follow the plan.” Ancelotti hesitated for a moment, because he didn’t want to be subbed off too early.

A superstar is supposed to enjoy the privilege of not getting substituted.

And... Ancelotti hoped he could score a few more goals at this European Cup.

He had currently scored nineteen goals for the Italy National Team, ranking eleventh on their all-time scoring list.

Two more goals and he’d be in the top ten.

Six more goals and he’d be in the top six.

Nine more goals and he’d be in the top four.

So far, the highest scoring record in Italy National Team history was only barely thirty-five goals!

That record isn’t even that hard to break.

Some players in good form can score ten goals for their national team in a single calendar year.

If Ancelotti just kept up high efficiency for two years, he might become the new record holder in Italy National Team history!

Of course, this also indirectly highlights just how... limp Italy’s front line has been for the national team.

Because most national team scoring records are over fifty goals; in quite a few football powerhouses the record is even over seventy.

In the future there’ll even be freaks who break one hundred goals!

By comparison, Italy... is really miserable.

And Ancelotti was already the current player with the most goals in the Italy National Team!

But no matter what, Ancelotti knew this was not the time to fall out with Maniero. With that one World Cup alone, Maniero could hold him down for a lifetime.

Since the two headliners had both expressed compliance with these arrangements, everyone was even more willing to cooperate with what Maniero said next.

For example, Drake would sit on the bench in the next match and Lam, who did pretty well last game, would continue to start. Cortino might come on as a substitute, but that would depend on the situation at the time.

Scamacca would be on the bench; for now his starting spot belonged to Canyes. In the last match, Canyes was outstanding and carried the attacking load.

And although it wasn’t said outright, Finger could clearly feel that in the next game Maniero would most likely sub him off early, which made him very unhappy.

However, Maniero also explained the reason for doing this: it was all for the final showdown with Portugal.

Protect Russia and Struggle with Portugal—the path was already very clear.

So Maniero especially emphasized to Canyes that if the team wasn’t leading in the second half, then, for the sake of points, he would sub off Canyes, because that would definitely mean that Canyes’ defending had gone wrong.

Canyes felt the pressure because of this.

On this team, quite a few people would have to fight for their place.