July 1, 2007
Switzerland, Nyon Stadium
UEFA Youth League
Real Madrid Youth VS Barcelona Youth
The sterling silver trophy shone vividly under the sun, and the stands were packed with fans discussing who would ultimately win the championship.
This was a new event created by UEFA, a knockout format featuring 16 renowned youth training teams vying for the championship.
The finals and semi-finals would take place in Switzerland, at Nyon Stadium.
Initially, it was in a testing phase, not publicly announced, not recorded, nor counted as official matches.
After all, the participating youth teams initially treated each match as a friendly, but who would have thought that Real Madrid Youth and Barcelona Youth would make it to the end?
The players from both teams gradually entered the field, and the camera focused on the key figures of each team.
"Look, isn't that Bojan?"
"The genius player who can be compared to Messi."
"He broke Messi's juggling record, joined Barcelona B this year, and even played in a friendly with the first team. It's said that in the new season, he will officially become a member of the first team."
Bojan Kolekic, personally arranged by Barcelona's technical director Bejiristan to enter Barcelona's youth academy at the young age of 9, receiving formal football training at La Masia.
In 7 years, playing as a forward, Bojan broke the goal-scoring record at various youth levels in Barcelona.
By last year, Bojan had scored 889 goals for the Barcelona Youth Team and the Spanish youth team, averaging 3.5 goals per match!
Last season, he became a member of Barcelona B, scoring 9 goals and 3 assists in 15 lower league matches — a very impressive figure.
He is truly a genius in every sense, and both the Spanish Football Association and the Serbian Football Association have tried various ways to get Bojan to join their national teams.
The young lad slightly tilted his head, hands behind his back, with slightly long hair covering one of his eyes. Around him were the young players of Barcelona, each filled with confidence for this match.
On the Barcelona Youth Team's bench, Icardi looked at Bojan with some envy. He joined La Masia Youth Academy thanks to Messi's introduction, but after arriving, he felt out of place with the style here.
"Look! Look!"
"The monster is coming out."
"Castilla has also produced an incredible monster this time!"
Chen Zhong, born November 21, 1991, Chinese. Zhong, as in 'to bear the weight before wearing the crown.' He was scouted by Real Madrid in 2004 and joined Real Madrid's youth training under the recommendation of Juni Calafat, a future chief scout of Real Madrid who had great expectations for Chen Zhong, describing him as "a player of infinite possibilities."
At that time, Chen Zhong was just 13 years old, an age when players are generally not considered by clubs, since no one knows if their technical style will change as they grow older.
But who could resist when Barcelona produced a Messi and then a Bojan, and snatched away their desired Hera Bruna!
Chen Zhong's joining caused some waves in China, but due to the limited means of media dissemination at the time, the excitement gradually subsided, only being mentioned occasionally.
Chen Zhong was tall, reaching a height of 186CM at 13 years old, and with his decent ball sense, he quickly stood out from the beginners group (junior group), then started playing matches for the children's A team, completing a direct leap up three levels. However, because of his height, he would often be complained about by some parents of the players watching from the sidelines, accusing him of hiding his age.
Fortunately, these days did not last long. He soon upgraded to the youth B team, then entered the youth C team, running back and forth between team B and team A.
The youth training coach's evaluation of Chen Zhong at the time was "a person who improves himself daily and trains hard."
Soon this evaluation changed to "a confident player who is good at utilizing his abilities. He is not afraid of matches and dares to confront, performing better in actual games versus training."
This was later added with "a player with intelligence in defense, very strong, with energy and determination in offense."
Ultimately, it was unified as "an all-powerful player."
At the beginning of 2007, the 190CM tall Chen Zhong became a member of Castilla. Although only 16, he had already fully adapted to matches at this stage and was the type of player the head coach liked the most. The coaching staff unanimously believed his template would be Ruud Gullit, the hexagonal warrior, known as the "Braided Commander."
Over 3 years, Chen Zhong scored a total of 176 goals and 89 assists in various levels of youth teams, averaging 1.9 goals and 0.9 assists per match, which seemed much less impressive than Bojan's numbers. However, Chen Zhong was favored by the coaching staff because of his versatility.
He could play as a center-back, defensive midfielder, midfielder, attacking midfielder, center forward, etc., just the dream player for every coach.
When Chen Zhong emerged from the player's tunnel, even Bojan's expression changed slightly. The cool young lad couldn't resist sneaking a glance at Chen Zhong.
Real Madrid referred to this big guy as the "New Gullit," but in the eyes of these young players and those neutral fans, he was simply a "monster" and a "fierce butcher."
No one wanted to match against him; defenders hoped he wasn't an attacker, while attackers hoped he wasn't a defender.
"Are you Bojan?"
Each of his steps seemed to tread upon Bojan's chest. Seeing Chen Zhong approaching step by step, this genius player highly anticipated by Barcelona even felt the urge to retreat a little.
The teammates initially surrounding him quietly fell silent, as none of them were especially tall, at least not when compared to Chen Zhong.
"Yes."
Bojan bit his lip, and when he spoke, his voice trembled a bit. It was really embarrassing. Clearly, clearly this guy is quite handsome.
A high nose bridge, sharp eyes, thick eyebrows — clearly handsome features that somehow combined to give off an inexplicable fierce vibe.
"Don't worry."
"I'm not a bad person."
"Even if in this match, I accidentally break your leg, it would just be an accident."
Bojan's eyes widened as he looked at Chen Zhong. He had heard such words before, but when Chen Zhong said them, he detected a sense of realism, as if the scene of his leg being broken by this terrifying man flashed before his eyes.
He glanced at his surrounding teammates, his eyes seemingly filled with silent protest.
Did you see that?
He's terrorizing me, he's terrorizing me!
Can I report him?
Luckily, Maradona isn't at Barcelona anymore, or else he would have given this inept junior two slaps.
It's well known that before nearly every match, Maradona would hear defenders say: Just wait, shorty, I'm going to break your leg in a bit.
But he was never afraid and couldn't be bothered to even acknowledge them.
Chen Zhong observed Bojan's demeanor, a hint of boredom flashing in his eyes.
Butcher was the aura given to him by the system, allowing people to feel "fear," but it was weaker against players with strong willpower.
If he were facing geniuses like Messi or C. Ronaldo, who were among the most prominent players at the time, they certainly wouldn't be as embarrassing as Bojan.
A genius worshiped like a star since childhood?
A flower in the greenhouse, meant to be severely trampled by me.