Chapter Sixteen: I Want to Play Football

After Azat left, Long Bisheng’s life didn’t change much. The only difference was that whenever his father had free time, he would accompany him to play football on the grasslands. Apart from that, his life was just as it had been in previous years.

A few days later, Azat’s father returned, bringing news that delighted Long Bisheng—the chubby Wang Sa was not a fraud after all. He was indeed a scout for Yun Jia Tianyu, a top-tier team in the A-League. Azat had successfully passed Yun Jia Tianyu’s entry trials and had become a member of their U-15 youth squad. If he performed well, he would gradually be promoted to the U-17 and U-19 squads. Once he reached the U-17 team, he would attain official apprentice status and even receive a stipend for daily training!

Even now, though there was no stipend for the U-15 squad, all his food and accommodation were provided free of charge, and he could attend middle school at no cost. It was said that even if he didn’t make it as a footballer, the Yun Jia Tianyu club would arrange for him to attend a technical school to learn skills sufficient for a livelihood!

“Bisheng’s father, do you really think such good fortune exists in this world? Something feels off to me. I still can’t quite believe it’s true,” Azat’s father questioned Long Yuyun, who in his eyes had seen the world and knew much.

Long Yuyun laughed. He was inclined to believe it was true; after all, he was well-versed in the workings of the professional leagues. “Old Maimaiti, don’t worry… This is nothing! When your son makes it to the first team and signs a professional contract, that’s when the real money starts rolling in! I’ve heard that even a substitute in the second division can earn tens of thousands a year! And not to mention the bonuses for winning matches—those are sometimes even more than the salary!”

Maimaiti’s mouth, already wide, now dropped even further in astonishment. Observing his expression, Long Yuyun almost worried that, like some slapstick comedian, he might be so shocked as to dislocate his jaw.

After massaging his sore mouth, Maimaiti managed to speak with difficulty: “But why is that? How can just kicking a round ball earn so much money?” This simple herdsman simply couldn’t comprehend how playing with a ball could be so lucrative—could you eat it, or drink it?

This was also a question that puzzled Long Yuyun. True, he was now a seasoned football fan, and he knew that in Europe’s long-established leagues, the top stars earned incomes that were jaw-dropping even by European standards. But this was China. Most other clubs weren’t in it for the money, but for the fame and tangible benefits their parent companies gained. Yet the owner of Yun Jia Tianyu had shut down all his other businesses when establishing the club and invested more each year than any other team in their tier. They were sparing no expense to build their youth squads. Wasn’t this a sure way to lose money? No matter how wealthy the owner, how long could he sustain this?

After thinking for a long time, Long Yuyun couldn’t figure it out either. He could only reassure Maimaiti, “A club wouldn’t run at a loss on purpose… As long as Azat plays well, he’ll always find a place somewhere, even if not here… Don’t worry about him—Azat will never get the short end of the stick!”

Hearing this, Maimaiti’s heart finally settled.

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Time flowed like water, and in the blink of an eye, another half year had passed.

Football fans across the nation eagerly awaited the coming summer. That summer, in the land renowned for romance, the country of the Seine and the Eiffel Tower, the world’s attention would be captured by the quadrennial World Cup. For Chinese fans, this World Cup held special significance: the Chinese national team would appear on the World Cup stage for the first time in history!

Long Bisheng and Long Yuyun, too, had awaited this summer for a long time.

But before summer arrived, Long Bisheng suffered a setback.

It was not anything dramatic—simply, due to his poor grades, he was held back a year after finishing second grade.

Long Yuyun didn’t scold his son much. He knew the boy was working hard at his studies, but he simply wasn’t gifted in academics, and no matter how much effort he put in, he couldn’t grasp those things from his textbooks. More importantly, Long Yuyun understood that elementary school grades didn’t matter all that much. The knowledge that truly counted for exams came later, in middle school.

So what if his son was a late bloomer? With his solid work ethic, who could say what heights he might reach in the future!

Though his father didn’t blame him, Long Bisheng felt all the more guilty. He believed he had let his parents down, and their lack of reproach only deepened his sense of remorse.

It wasn’t until the World Cup began that he managed to let go of his guilt and started to watch the thrilling matches alongside his father.

There was no denying it—the 1998 World Cup held a special place in the hearts of Chinese fans. Later generations would even regard it as the most exciting World Cup of the nineties and the early twenty-first century. Both on and off the field, it provided an endless supply of stories for fans to savor: the final act of the Danish trio, the one and only World Cup appearance of Chile’s two Salas, the swan song of the melancholic prince Baggio, the miraculous saves of Paraguayan keeper Chilavert, Ronaldo’s mysterious illness in the final, Zidane’s two lightning headers— even the tears of Romário and Gascoigne, who missed the tournament, were mentioned time and again…

But for Chinese fans, nothing was more thrilling than the performance of their own national team.

They narrowly lost to the eventual champions France, defeated South Africa to claim China’s first World Cup finals victory, drew with Denmark who would later reach the quarter-finals, and even missing out on the round of sixteen due to the draw became a legendary tale in Chinese football history!

Nie Fei, who rose to prominence during this World Cup, became a symbolic figure in Chinese football throughout the nineties and into the early twenty-first century.

No one knew that after this World Cup, nine-year-old Long Bisheng, for the first time, made a request of his parents.

“I want to play football!” One day after the World Cup final, Long Bisheng, for the first time in his life, approached his parents and spoke to them with determination.