I changed football.

The Europa League final was played on May 19th.

The final was held at St. Jacob Park in Basel, Switzerland.

Monaco had two league games remaining before that.

And their opponent in the Europa League final is Liverpool, just like in the previous life.

Liverpool defeated Villarreal 4-2 on aggregate in the Europa League semi-final, a scoreline that is somewhat different from what I saw in my previous life.

Li Yuan remembered that in his previous life, Liverpool beat Villarreal 3-1.

Liverpool ultimately lost 1-3 to Sevilla in the final.

In his previous life, Li Yuan watched this match. Whenever someone criticized Real Madrid for their poor refereeing, Li Yuan would tell them to go watch the Europa League final.

Three penalties were not awarded in the penalty area, meaning Sevilla escaped three penalties. Moreover, those penalties were not the same as the later unintentional penalties that were not awarded.

From all angles, Sevilla's three handballs should have been called.

The result was that no verdict was handed down. If only one person wasn't sentenced, that would be one thing, but it's outrageous that none of the three were sentenced.

Moreover, this wasn't the first time Sevilla had faced controversial refereeing decisions in a final. In the 2022-23 Europa League final, Roma and Sevilla were tied 1-1 after 120 minutes. In the penalty shootout, Sevilla goalkeeper Bono saved two penalties, ultimately leading to Roma's 2-5 aggregate defeat to Sevilla, marking Mourinho's first loss in a European final.

This match garnered significant attention due to Mourinho's influence, but referee Anthony Taylor's decisions sparked considerable controversy.

In the 81st minute of the match, a cross from Roma's left wing was intercepted by Sevilla player Fernando with a handball, but neither the referee nor VAR reacted. This greatly displeased Roma's coach Mourinho, and the Roma assistant coach even received a yellow card for complaining.

But you don't have to worry about that in this life, because Seville has already been defeated by Monaco.

……

"Director, why do we have to film in Monaco again this time?"

"What do you know? Our flight and hotel packages were all booked by the manufacturer. Mengniu only let us come to Monaco for the shoot to accommodate Li Yuan's work schedule."

"My goodness, how much does it cost to film one GG scene?"

"The studio alone received hundreds of thousands of yuan; otherwise, do you think the company would have accepted it so readily?"

"Cute Cow is really rich and powerful."

"Who can argue with that? Originally, Li Yuan's endorsement fee was 2.5 million yuan per year, with a two-year contract. The contract was signed in January, and Mengniu's reaction was quick enough at that time. But who would have thought that Li Yuan would perform so well later, especially after the national team matches in March? Li Yuan became a sensation in China. Even people who don't watch football know that someone scored 12 goals in two games. Mengniu was also decisive and doubled Li Yuan's endorsement fee to 5 million yuan per year."

"Is that even possible? They can increase endorsement fees like that?"

"Of course. Mengniu just wants to build goodwill. For a big company like theirs, what difference does 250 million or 500 million make?"

"Li Yuan is truly amazing. In all my years of watching football, I've never seen a Chinese player this good! Fan Zhiyi, Sun Jihai, and Ah Haidong were all pretty good, but none of them could perform like this for the national team!"

"Sun Jihai is a defender, right? And honestly, Li Yuan's performance in his one season abroad is probably the most successful Chinese player to play overseas."

"Absolutely! Li Yuan has already reached the Europa League final and scored 10 goals, which is the most goals scored by an Asian player in a single European competition in a single season, and he's not even a Chinese player! He just hasn't reached double digits in the league yet. If he can reach double digits in the last two league games, that would be truly amazing, a perfect debut season!"

"It's no wonder they made money. Mengniu was the first to win, and other companies were still observing. But after the national team's competition, a bunch of companies started to join in."

"Yeah, I heard Li Yuan is currently in talks with six endorsement deals, both Chinese and international. That's incredible!"

"Football is the world's number one sport, so six teams are quite normal."

"I saw in the news that Li Yuan's business income alone will reach 1000 million US dollars this year."

"Those foreign brands are offering really good deals. All the domestic agents I know are green with envy."

"Really?"

"Of course it's true. He is the brand ambassador for LV in Asia, IWC, TCL, China Mobile nationwide, Red Bull in Greater China, and JD.com."

"This person really does make money as soon as they become famous."

……

The GG film crew arrived in Monaco.

Li Yuan received a call from Raiola and learned that his vacation was over.

I had to shoot four videos during my two-day vacation.

Although Li Yuan had never filmed a brothel in either of his two lifetimes, he knew that filming a brothel would definitely take a lot of time.

What's more, they filmed four GG videos in two days.

When Li Yuan arrived at the scene, he discovered that there were not only film crew members, but also many—women?

Li Yuan asked the director curiously, "What do all these women do?"

"There are four 'GG' videos, each with a different style. One of them features a guy who has romantic relationships with different girls. These girls were all selected from various art schools across the country. You probably didn't know that, but Mengniu did a lot of publicity for your 'GG' video, and it generated quite a buzz in China."

"A big commotion? And different girls? Is that even possible?"

"Don't worry, it's a youthful, campus-style film, it won't upset your fans."

"My fans aren't that exaggerated, are they?"

"Uh—" The director didn't dare to say more and left immediately after hearing Li Yuan's words.

This made Li Yuan a little embarrassed.

He knew that his fans were starting to resemble a fandom.

Unfortunately, he is handsome and plays football well, so most of his fans in China are male, but he also has quite a few female fans.

Li Yuan felt that he would inevitably have to manage his fan base in the future.

……

After the actual filming began, Li Yuan realized that although most of the girls were quite pretty, he didn't recognize most of them, but he did recognize two of them.

One is Meng Ziyi, and the other is Tian Xiwei.

Li Yuan was curious. At this time, Tian Xiwei didn't seem to be famous yet. She was a student, so it was normal for her to be chosen to film GG.

However, Li Yuan remembered that Meng Ziyi had acted in a TV series around this time.

Before filming, Li Yuan was a little curious, so he asked Meng Ziyi directly.

"Hi, you look familiar?"

"Huh? You know me?" Meng Ziyi stared wide-eyed at Li Yuan with a curious expression.

"I think I've seen you in a period drama before."

"Huh? God of War Zhao Zilong just aired last month, can we watch it here in Monaco too?"

Upon hearing Meng Ziyi's words, Li Yuan felt that the female celebrity in front of him was truly—

"You can access the internet in Monaco. I think I saw it when I was online, so I vaguely remember it."

"I'm so honored! My role had very few scenes, I never expected you to notice it!"

Li Yuan and Meng Ziyi chatted for a few more minutes, and Li Yuan felt that the person in front of him seemed to have no deep thoughts or schemes.

To put it nicely, they're not shrewd; to put it bluntly, they speak without thinking.