The road to godhood starting from Ligue 1

Chapter 43 U21 Call-up
A crushing 1-4 defeat to Bastia.

At the post-match press conference, Ferran said without hesitation, "I made a serious decision-making mistake. The root cause of this defeat was my scheduling error."

"We shouldn't have been so reckless in playing against Bastia. It turned out that Bastia's offensive ability was significantly stronger than ours, especially after their Gaio came on the pitch. We were completely suppressed."

"Gaio is a good player. After the game, I asked Sidibé if he could defend Gaio next time. Sidibé said to me, 'Oh, boss, I don't want to do that again.' Okay, that was just a joke. Sidibé's defensive ability is perfectly fine. Maybe Gaio is just better with his feet."

"As for promotion? Oh, don't ask me that question again. If you ask me again, I will give the same answer as Hagibegic. Our goal is to avoid relegation."

When these words were spoken, everyone present laughed.

Because just now at Bastia's post-match press conference, Hagibegic once again emphasized that Bastia's primary goal for the season is to avoid relegation.

however,
Because Clermont, which started at the same time, drew with Sedan in this match, the points gap between Clermont and Bastia was only 1 point.

Many reporters were secretly wondering, could Bastia win the championship while Hagibegic was fighting for relegation again and again?

This game is nothing but the result.

What is even more eye-catching is Gaio's performance. He scored twice as a substitute and scored five goals in three games.

Including the French Cup, he has scored 7 goals and 2 assists in five games.

So the day after the game, many media outlets published newspapers that focused on highlighting Gaio's magical qualities - his top-notch ball handling skills and first-class finishing ability.

Anyway, just use some ambiguous words to describe it.

Without quantitative standards, you cannot say that there is a problem with my writing. As long as the newspaper can be sold, it is a success.

This is journalism!

The media has always liked to give these rising football stars various titles of "XX successor".

The Paris media calls Gaio "the new Ronaldinho", which is also a tribute to Ronaldinho who once played for Paris Saint-Germain.

at the same time.

In the French U21 team's office in Clairefontaine, Eric Montbael was checking the newspapers that mainly reported on young players.

When there are no training days, I have been paying attention to the young French players.

During this period, the name Jan Gaio appeared in front of him many times.

As the head coach of the French U21 team, Montbael knows the situation of young French players well, although he may not know everything about them.

Montbael needs a reasonable lineup to deal with the U21 European Championship.

The European U21 Youth Football Championship is held every two years.

The finals were held in even-numbered years before 2007, but have been held in odd-numbered years since then.

The tournament also served as the European qualifying tournament for men's football at the following year's Summer Olympics.

Last year, Spain U21 defeated Switzerland 2-0 and lifted the U21 European Championship for the third time.

The French U21 team had a dismal performance in this tournament.

In the end, the U21 team failed to even qualify for the 2012 Summer Olympics men's football team, and was severely criticized by the Chinese Football Association.

This year, the new European U21 qualifiers are about to start again.

Montbare is under a lot of pressure.

There are so many strong teams in Europe, but there are only four places in the European zone for the men's Olympic football team held every four years, and France has not entered the Olympics for many years.

A major reason for their dismal performance in last year's European Youth Championship qualifiers was their lack of attacking prowess. This is why Montbare has repeatedly noted Gaio, as the French U21 team lacks a definitive attacking player.

The team's main forwards now, Lacazette, Griezmann, Yaya Sanogo, have average performance, not to mention other marginal forwards.

Now we see a 17-year-old young player who can kill indiscriminately in the French Ligue 2.

He was greedy.

Moreover, he heard that the U17, U19, and U20 teams seemed to be interested in signing Gaio, but were rejected by Bastia.

The reason is that Gaio's muscles are overloaded and the team doctor does not recommend playing more games.

Montbael knew that these were all excuses. After all, FIFA has regulations that players cannot directly refuse the national team's call-up, otherwise they will be banned worldwide.

So if you want to refuse, you have to have an excuse.

Generally speaking, if it is an injury or family matter, the head coach of the national team will turn a blind eye.

Montbael feels that the reason why Bastia does not let go of players is very simple. The level of competition in other echelons is too low, which not only does not give Gaio the opportunity to train, but also makes him prone to injury.

But his U21 is different!

The intensity of the matches against strong European teams is no less than that of Ligue 2.

The lineup of the last European Youth Championship champion Spain U21 is very good, with many highly-regarded players, such as De Gea, Azpilicueta, Montoya, Bojan, Javi Martinez, Parejo, Mata and so on.

Montbare slapped his forehead and made the decision.

Recruit Gaio!

Gaio has watched the game videos many times and he feels that this is the striker the team needs.

At this moment, Gaio did not know that the fax from Clairefontaine was already being transmitted to Bastia.

Hajibegic is giving him special treatment.

"Everything I just said is based on an analysis of your current state in the game, so you have to listen to it. I know you think you can dribble past opponents now, but you have to understand that this is only Ligue 2."

Gaio nodded.

What Hagibegic meant was that if he continued to play in his current style, he would be easily targeted.

"So I want to tell you a very common understanding: the most important thing about dribbling past opponents isn't strength, speed, or technique; those can be overcome. The most important thing is rhythm!"

Hagibegic continued, "Back in our playing days, the hardest player to defend was Maradona. Even though I didn't make many mistakes against him, I never dared to relax for a moment. I never knew what his next move would be. I was confident that my speed and strength were not much worse than Maradona's, but I didn't have the confidence to defend him. I could only limit him as much as possible. He relied on the rhythm of his feet."

Gaio thought Hagibegic would tell him how to practice the rhythm of dribbling past opponents.

But Hagibegic smiled helplessly, "But I can't teach you how to do it. This is the most unfair thing about football: talent. Some people don't need to be taught, and those who need to be taught don't need to be taught anymore. I can only say that you can watch videos of Maradona and Ronaldinho's dribbling past them, and maybe you can get some inspiration from them."

"it is good."

In fact, even if Hajibegich didn't say it, Geo also had this habit.

Learning never ends.

At the end of Hajibegich's conversation with Gaio, Chatham called out Gaio's name.

Let him pass.

Coming up to Chatham, he said to Gaio with excitement on his face, "Here's the first step to joining the national team! The French U21 has called you up!"

(End of this chapter)