Chapter Forty-One: Colne

  Ribery's biggest problem now is that he is too solo, he only knows how to dribble and shoot by himself, and his kicking habits are far from being the only problem. As long as the opponent fully understands him, it's easy to defend against him. Historically, Ribery didn't change these bad kicking habits until he joined Marseille, after which his strength suddenly skyrocketed, rising from zero value to 25 million euros in just half a year...

  Although Li Bei is no longer in the Meizhou Hakka team now, Gao Jun believes that he can also help him change this habit. It's worth noting that when he was coaching the club, he had cultivated several foreign players who were around 27 or 28 years old and had never been selected for their national teams before, but were considered to be "mediocre" players with no potential left. What's more surprising is that they were selected for the national team just because of their performance in the Chinese league. After all, it's a well-known fact that Chinese football lacks influence in the world, and even if the strength is equal, it's definitely harder to enter the national team by playing in China...

  Even if Liberi unfortunately can't kick the ball out, with his extremely low annual salary, the loss to the Dongfang team is not too great. As for whether the world will lose a football superstar from now on, Gao Jun only cares about the Dongfang team and Chinese football, and doesn't care so much about foreign football.

  Because Liberi was cheap enough, and Gao Lin's vision had been verified many times, Xu Genbao agreed to sign him immediately after understanding the situation. "Although a bit lonely, his speed is indeed too fast, and his technique is not bad either. Moreover, he is still very young and has potential for development..." If the fans of Liberi in later generations knew that he came to China to play in the second division and was even suspected of being able to serve as the main force, I don't know if anyone would be angry to death...

  In addition to Franck Ribéry, Gao Lin also brought back another local bull from France. Although his later fame was far less than that of Ribéry, his current strength is actually above him, and in Gao Lin's view, his potential may not be inferior to that of Ribéry. The name of this young player is Benjamin Corne...

  Before crossing over, Gao Jun liked inspirational stories in the football world because of his humble origins and long-term lack of success. One story that left a deep impression on him was that of French soccer star Benjamin Corneille. After arriving in France, he wanted to find Corneille to take a look. However, since Corneille's current team is in the eighth tier of French football, it was quite troublesome to find him. Fortunately, Gao Jun used his opportunity to win two awards at the Toulon Cup to pretend to be an online friend who played for that team and obtained the registration information for that team from a staff member of the French Football Federation, which finally allowed him to find Corneille himself.

  The result was that after watching Korine participate in just one training session, Gao Jun's eyes lit up. Although Korine is only 16 years old now, his body has already become quite tall and strong (by Chinese league standards), with fierce and accurate interceptions and tackles. In confrontations with teammates who are mostly adults, he doesn't give them any advantage at all. Moreover, when his teammates were exhausted and panting after training, Korine still looked calm and composed, which shows how excellent his physical fitness is. But this is not the most rare thing about him - Korine's outstanding awareness and broad field of vision are also extremely rare among players of his age.

  In addition, Kornei's skills are also quite impressive, whether it's attacking or defending, the basic skills are very solid, and passing and dribbling are also very imaginative. In the history of Chinese football, perhaps only Zheng Zhi in his peak period can compare with him, but Kornei's quick release is something that Zheng Zhi, who often hesitated, cannot match.

  If judged by the standards of the Chinese Super League, Korhonen is almost a perfect all-around defensive midfielder, and he's only 16 years old, still an amateur player who trains once a week and plays one game a week. If this isn't genius, then what is?

  However, such an outstanding talent was buried in history for a long time and only unexpectedly got the opportunity to play professional football after passing the age of 23. In the end, although he once became the semi-top scorer in Ligue 1, he could no longer make greater progress, which made Gao Jun sigh, "'A thousand-mile horse is often found, but a Bole is not often found.' This sentence is not only applicable to Chinese football!"

  However, Kornei's lack of awareness was a good thing for the Eastern team, and he himself had no idea how strong his abilities had become. As a result, Gao Jun thought he could sign him at a very low salary, but soon discovered that it wasn't as easy as he thought.

  Koré's father was an engineer, his mother a midwife. His parents always hoped he would become a good doctor and for this reason refused the call from Lyon's youth team when Koré was 11 years old. He even refused to join the youth academy of a top Ligue 1 club in order to focus on his studies, let alone allowing Koré to drop out of school to go all the way to China...

  Gao Jun is not a person who gives up easily, especially when he learned that Kolne himself loves football and wants to become a professional player. After in-depth understanding, Gao Jun found that the reason why Kolne's parents want him to become a doctor in the future is actually just because doctors have high incomes. This made him wonder, "If you can become a player for Lyon, isn't the income much higher than that of a doctor?"

  "Is it that easy to become a professional player? Out of 100 kids in the youth training camp, not even one can succeed. Why should Benjamin be an exception? Besides, although professional players seem to have high incomes, they are just making money from their youth and there's also the risk of injuries. It's better to study hard and become a good doctor with stable income..." said Kolner's father.

  "Lawyers earn more, why do you want him to be a doctor?" Gao Jun asked somewhat strangely.

  "All lawyers are crooks, I don't want my son to be in this line of work when he grows up. Being a doctor, no matter how high or low the income is, at least you can help others." Cornel's mother replied.

  Gao Jun felt a great deal of respect for Kolne's parents after hearing this, and his impression of them changed greatly. However, he still decided to try to persuade the couple. After some communication, Gao Jun finally grasped a key point: although Kolne worked very hard, her academic performance was not outstanding, and Western medical universities were extremely difficult to get into.