Chapter 7: Elma

This is the end of the trial for FC United, and Li Qingshan has successfully become a member of the Super League team in the north of England. Andy Wells, the team's chairman, signed a part-time contract on behalf of FC United on behalf www.biquge.info of FC United, which stipulates that Li will need to attend the team's weekend training sessions and attend at least one midweek training session. The team will pay a weekly salary of £100 a week, along with a goal bonus, a team promotion bonus and the like.

In short, although the team is in the amateur league, FC United's operation is still quite formal.

On the way back to the apartment where Li Qingshan lived, he received a call from Yang Bao. Yang Bao, as a well-known figure in the Chinese student circle in Manchester, is also Li Qingshan's Hunan hometown, and when Li Qingshan first came to England, Yang Bao still took good care of his little fellow countryman.

Because Yang Bao's previous roommate returned to China after graduation, Li Qingshan shared an apartment with Yang Bao.

On the phone, Yang Bao asked Li Qingshan to go to Newton's Sith Bar. Yang Bao worked there as a part-time bartender.

………

Newton's Syth Bar was not too far from the United team's training base, and Li Qingshan quickly found this not very large tavern. It is a typical English tavern that mainly serves beer and cocktails.

When Li Qingshan walked into the bar, all he saw was people gathered on the table and chatting quietly. There weren't too many customers, so the interior of the small tavern was spacious.

On the walls of the tavern are some retro posters of football stars, some of which Li Qingshan knows and some of whom he can't. He found that the people he knew seemed to be some of United's legends.

Li Qingshan quickly found Yang Bao in the bar, and while he was wiping a wine glass, he was chatting with a blonde girl sitting next to the bar.

Seeing Li Qingshan walk in, Yang Bao put down the wiped wine glass and beckoned, "Qingshan, this way." ”

Li Qingshan walked past the bar, but Yang Bao turned to the girl and said, "Elma, the person you are looking for is here." ”

Then he joked in Chinese to Li Qingshan: "I didn't expect that your kid is very attractive, and a girl has accosted you just when you came to the UK." This is Elma, she asked me to find you, you talk first. ”

After speaking, he walked away, and Li Qingshan and Irma were left on the bar.

Li Qingshan turned to look at the girl named Irma with some confusion.

She wore dark blue skinny jeans that framed her round, slender thighs. Wearing a white T-shirt on her upper body, her long golden wavy hair was tied up, revealing a forbidden face, a tall nose, and freckles on her face made the girl in front of her even more youthful and flying, revealing a little cunning eyes, and at the moment she was looking at the tall and strong Chinese boy with a baby face in front of her with some curiosity.

"She's so pretty"

Li Qingshan, who rarely spends time alone with girls, sat on the stool next to the bar at the moment.

"What's your name, Chinese boy," Irma asked, looking sideways at the stout baby-faced young man in front of her.

"Li Qingshan." Li Qingshan also turned sideways and replied.

"Do you like to play football, Lee?"

Coldly asked this question, Li Qingshan paused for a moment.

"Do I look like someone who likes to play football?" almost made a fool of himself in front of the girl, Li Qingshan asked a little unpleasantly.

Irma smiled and didn't answer his question, but changed the subject: "Do you know why this place is called Newtons?"

"I don't know." Li Qingshan replied honestly.

"See that picture on the wall" Irma pointed to a black-and-white photo on the wall, which looked like it was a year old.

Without waiting for Li Qingshan to answer, Irma continued: "It was a group photo of the players of the Newton Sith team more than a hundred years ago. ”

"More than a hundred years ago!?" Li Qingshan expressed his surprise, you know, in China, not to mention a team with a history of more than 100 years, even 50 years is very rare.

"And you must have heard of this team," Irma bought.

Li Qingshan thought for a while and said, "I don't seem to have heard the name of this team."

"Of course, because now the name of this team is Manchester United"

"Manchester United?! Wait, you say, the name of the bar is the name of the predecessor of Manchester United, so the customers who come to the bar should be Manchester United fans, you should also be a Manchester United team? Li Qingshan suddenly realized.

"Yes and no," Irma said

However, seeing Li Qingshan's puzzled look, Irma quickly solved the mystery.

"We are the new Manchester United because the name of Manchester United has been bought by the Americans, but we are the real Manchester United. Manchester United, bought by the Americans, is not Newton Heath's successor because its soul is no longer there. Glazer only got a shell, but we still have souls. ”

"How many Manchester United are there, Uncle Magis also said that their team is the real Manchester United," Li Qingshan muttered in his heart.

But he didn't say it, but asked, "So what did you do?"

"We've formed a new Manchester United to succeed Newtonsey," Irma said with a bit of excitement.

"What a coincidence" Li Qingshan's psychology is about a little clear.

England fans' loyalty to their teams is well known, and many of England's teams started out on their own initiative and grew through their communities. Therefore, it is not uncommon for three generations to be fans of the same team.

"Is this a betrayal in a way?" Li Qingshan does not understand the football tradition in England.

"Even if it's a betrayal. Because of love to the extreme, he chose to betray. Irma said calmly.

"But we've created a new model of the club, a team that really belongs to the fans, and the affairs of the team are voted on by the members of more than 40,000 teams, which guarantees that the fans become the real owners of the team, rather than being exploited and exploited like the Glazer family."

"Do you hate Manchester United right now?"

"No, I don't like Liverpool more than they do," Irma said jokingly.

"Did you know that all the money for the formation of the team was raised by fans, and before the decision was made, more than 4,000 fans raised more than 100,000 pounds, which is all the money that our team started and has completed the triple jump in more than seven years now. Now we have more than 10,000 members, and we have recently collected funds for the construction of the new course. Sooner or later, we'll be back in the top flight."

Irma's face was wistful

"Do you like to play football, Lee" Irma asked again. This time, without waiting for Li Qingshan to say anything, she continued: "Yesterday, I watched your game. ”

Li Qingshan reacted to which one she was talking about - the Manchester International Student Tournament, in which the Chinese student team played against the British student team. In that game, the British scored three goals in a row in the first half, and Li Qingshan scored three headers in the second half.

"You played well"

"It's okay, it's okay," Li Qingshan scratched his head, thinking of the embarrassing scene of himself falling from the sky. For Li Qingshan, this game did not leave much impact on him, although it was his first contact with football in more than three years, but after all, the level of a group of college students is not high, as a player who has at least received football training since childhood, it is not worth mentioning to bully a group of college students.

"You have a big header advantage, and if your team-mates were a little bit more capable, you might have won." Irma said with a shrug.

"I didn't expect you to know how to play." Li Qingshan said with a little surprise.

In his nineteen years of life, he has hardly met girls who love and understand football. Some girls like football, but they like movie stars, and in their context, the most common ones are "Ronaldo is so handsome", "Xiaobei, I want to give you a baby" and the like. It would be an exaggeration to put female fans together in a line, and to say that they were all Beckham fans, but to say that every other person among them is a Beckham fan, there must be a fish that slips through the net. Li Qingshan didn't mean to look down on the star-chasing family, but there was usually no common language when talking about football with female star-chasing fans.

"You're a bit of a male chauvinist?" Irma asked.

Male chauvinism is popularly known as machismo, a belief that men are superior to women, and its scope and meaning are very broad.

"No," Li Qingshan hurriedly denied. It's like admitting racism in front of blacks and inviting Muslims to a pork restaurant, which is basically tearing your face off. There was no need for him to have a showdown in front of a girl he hadn't known for less than half an hour. Although he had a little bit of that meaning in his heart.

Irma looked at Li Qingshan, and the corners of her mouth curled slightly. She didn't delve further into the topic.

After a while, Irma said, "Well, whether you are or not, I'm glad to meet my classmates here." ”

"Are we classmates?" Li Qingshan was a little surprised.

"How else would I know Yang," Irma laughed. "But it's not until September, I'm from the University of Manchester Law School"

After saying that, he introduced himself again: "My name is Irma. Thor, just call me Irma. Nice to meet you, Lee."

Li Qingshan stretched out his hand and shook it with him, and he felt that it was a pair of very warm and soft hands.

He looked up at Irma in front of him, a new classmate who was also a lovely girl.

When he was ready to say something. Irma said to him for the third time: "Do you like to play football, Lee"

Hearing this question once, Li Qingshan was a little stunned, and even forgot to let go of the hand of the lovely lady in front of him.

He recalls that his training career in the football school is really not much fun at all, and he trains very regularly every day, the football school cooperates with a nearby middle school to run a school, getting up at 5 o'clock in the morning, first running 5,000 meters around the playground, and then taking cultural classes in the morning and football training classes in the afternoon, except for weekends, never stopping.

For the young Li Qingshan, football training classes for him are boring physical training and heading training every day. He has forgotten what made him love football in the first place.

He remembered the feeling of scoring a few goals in the trial for FC United, which may be the charm of football, when he put the football into the goal, the blood at that moment seemed to be burning, and the pleasure after scoring was so strong, like a drug, that people couldn't stop.

Some things are always hard to find a cause.

So Li Qingshan let go of the girl's hand and said, "I like to score goals"

Irma smiled: "Would you like to play for our team?" ”

"Your team?"

"Yes, FootballClubUnitedofManchester," Irma said seriously

"I think I'm already a player in this team"

Looking at Irma's surprised expression, Li Qingshan grinned.