Chapter Eighteen: Unexpected Surprise
Upon learning of Jiang Hong's arrival, Gao Jun was overjoyed. This wasn't just because the team had gained a great general, but also because his former teammate from the national second team could avoid the historical misfortune that had befallen him. In Gao Jun's memory, not long after Jiang Hong would have been forced to make a comeback due to Shaanxi's decline into a relegation struggle, he was framed by the new club owner Wang Pei for being involved in match-fixing and gambling, which led to his addiction to drugs. Although he eventually overcame his addiction with great determination, his originally strong body had already been completely ruined. However, in this timeline, all of this was avoided due to Jiang Hong's transfer, triggering an unforeseen butterfly effect...
After Zeng Cheng joined the team, Jiang Hong was very impressed with his potential and believed that although he was not yet as good as himself, with proper training, he could retire in peace within two years. As a goalkeeper coach, Jiang Hong may not be particularly outstanding even domestically, but he selflessly imparted his unique skill of penalty kicks from his peak period to Zeng Cheng and many other young goalkeepers at the base. Of course, how much they can grasp depends on their aptitude and efforts...
Apart from this, there was another unexpected reinforcement for Gao Jun. He is Ao Lin, who is currently unknown but later became the main striker of the national football team. In fact, when Gao Jun went to Qinhuangdao's "Chinese Football School" earlier, he wanted to recruit him, but found out that he had already been signed by Shanghai Hua's youth team, and was quite depressed for a while. Who knew that after he returned to the base, Hua's youth team actually sent him over...
Originally, this was a requirement of the Shanghai Football Association. As Dongfang had a wealth of talent in the 8788 age group, it was naturally seen as the biggest hope for winning gold at the 2005 National Games. However, to increase their chances of winning, the municipal sports bureau also selected some promising young players from other teams in the city for special training. One of these was Aolong, who now has excellent physical condition. However, the leaders of the football association also knew that simply gathering good players together does not necessarily make a strong team - there needs to be a certain understanding between them. Furthermore, youth team matches are not as valuable as reserve league matches for training purposes. Therefore, Aolong and several other young players who were not yet able to break into their respective clubs' first teams were sent here on loan.
Xu is a veteran of the old system, more willing to listen to the party and government. Since the leader has requirements, he will help cultivate others. Anyway, with their strength, they can indeed help the team, especially Ah Lin, who is in good physical condition and has a strong spirit, can become the team's main center. It's not like helping others for nothing. However, Gao Jun was unwilling to be a substitute for others, so he instigated Xu to buy people from Shanghai Flower Team...
The Shanghai Flower Youth Team originally bought out the ownership of Ao Lin just to prepare for the 10th National Games (Ao Lin had been with the Shanghai Flower Youth Team for many years, but couldn't get into the first team until after the 2005 World Youth Championship). Now that the city government has made it clear that they will build a team around the players from Dongfang, Ao Lin won't be able to achieve anything, and since he won't be able to enter the Shanghai Flower first team for several years, he wasn't valued highly. Moreover, Xu Genbao is an old meritorious coach of Shanghai Flower, so out of personal relationships, Dongfang only paid 150,000 RMB in training fees to get this excellent forward prospect...
Apart from Ao Lin, the potential of other players is relatively general, mainly because most of them have changed their age, and not just by one year, so there's no need to buy at all.
It's said that Ao Lin had also changed his age, but unfortunately this unlucky kid wasn't careful enough and got caught, and as a result lost the opportunity to participate in this year's national youth team. It can be said that he tried to steal a chicken but ended up losing the rice instead. However, even if he changes back to his real age, Ao Lin is only 17 years old now. Considering the physical characteristics of East Asian nations' late development, as long as he can strictly discipline himself in the future, there is still great potential, but if it's those guys who changed their age by two or more years, then they really have no value to be cultivated...
Regarding the issue of age, Chongming base is quite strict in this regard. Every new batch of people who come in must have their bone age checked, and those who are found to be lying about their age will be asked to change it back to their real age (this point actually has a bit of human touch, because those 10-odd-year-old kids definitely didn't want to change their age themselves. If they were ruined by their parents' mistake, it would be somewhat cruel). Among the few people brought in by Gao Jun, from a developmental perspective, Xiao Deng and Rong Hua probably didn't change their age (note 1), while Huo Junsen and Zeng Cheng are somewhat suspicious, but at most they might be off by one year. In Gao Jun's view, this is still tolerable, especially since the two players' later development fully demonstrated their potential.
After the transfer was completed, Xu Genbao made a major adjustment to the teams of all levels in the base again to meet the requirements for participating in the Second Division League. Among them, most of the players in the first team were originally from the 8788 age group, plus new recruits and some younger but outstanding players, including Zhang Linpeng and Cai Huikang from the original 8990 age group, who were only 14 years old but already quite tall, unexpectedly obtained two main positions. The main reason is that the team lacked people in the back waist position and there was no good transfer choice, so they had to solve it internally.
In addition, the team's sponsor was also found. After a round of friendly negotiations, Shanghai Oriental Group agreed to provide the 56,000-seat Shanghai Stadium free of charge for the team's use (but the security check fees were still borne by the club, and the increase in this cost was no less than the rise in housing prices over the next decade). This undoubtedly saved a large sum of money, and the name "Shanghai Oriental" came from the sponsor.
Note 1: Rong Hao's registered year of birth had changed several times between 1984 and 1987, until it was fixed at 1987 after he joined the national team. Many people online thought that he had changed his age, but in fact this was just a typo due to the proximity of the "4" and "7" keys on the keyboard...
What's more important is that when Deng Zhuoxiang was at his peak, the elementary school he attended had been on TV before, and there was no problem with his age. Ronghao and him have been playing together since they were young (some people say they were classmates, but it has not been confirmed). Thinking about it, it's also impossible to have a 4-year gap in their ages. Moreover, even if Ronghao's age is calculated as born in 1987, his appearance in the photos taken when he first started out was still much younger than that of players of the same age, and his physique was also smaller. If he were born in 1984, then he would have been at least 4 years late in developing, which is too exaggerated. To know that in reality, the maximum limit for being late in development is only about 2 years, any more than that would be a sign of illness, and it's impossible to become an athlete. Therefore, I personally believe that their ages are true...
