Wake up late, happy New Year's Day, everyone.

※※※ Rothouse is the general manager of Hoffenheim FC, and the person who injects money into the club to determine the general direction is the owner Dieterma. Hope, but the person in charge of all the specifics is this middle-aged man.

He used to be the general manager of Bundesliga powerhouse Stuttgart. He resigned from Stuttgart in 2005 and accepted Hoppe's offer to join the small club that was still in the Bundesliga at the time. It takes some courage to make such a choice. After all, Rotthouse is doing a good job in Stuttgart and is well paid, and there is no need to start from scratch in a different location. If you go to a small team in the Bundesliga, you will get yourself into a quagmire if you are not careful. But after a few months of deliberation, he decided to come to Hoffenheim for a career.

If you compare it to when he first came to Hoffenheim, then he has already succeeded.

He finished second in the Bundesliga in his first season and also produced two German internationals, one of the top scorers in the Bundesliga and Europe. Although the results in the second season were not as good as the previous season, they were also stable in the middle of the Bundesliga. At least there are no relegation worries, and their original plan was to secure their position in the Bundesliga for two years.

Neither Hope nor he was in a hurry to build Hoffenheim into a championship-winning team, and Hope invested a lot of money to build new training bases and stadiums, and to look for young players everywhere, and they didn't buy big stars.

From this point of view, they are also miracle workers, and they are very different from Nottingham Forest.

Rumours swirled that Rangnick would be sacked by the club last season, and Hope immediately instructed Rothouse to offer Rangnick a new five-year contract. The news of the manager's contract renewal soon appeared in the major media outlets, and those rumors were self-defeating.

What the team encountered last season was what Rothouse expected, and he was not disappointed. The only people who were disappointed were strangers who had high hopes for Hoffenheim.

Rotthouse has a big ambition, perhaps bigger than that of his boss Hope – he wants to make Hoffenheim a club that can survive and keep afloat without Hoppe's investment. Exactly like the famous clubs that already exist in this world, investors can change many batches, but this team is always there. He and Hope will grow old and die one day. Hoffenheim cannot afford to fall back into the seventh tier just because Hope is gone, and they should be able to stay in the Bundesliga. He has to get this team to gradually put aside Hope's investment and influence and read it step by step.

Now may be an opportunity to start the first step.

Just this morning, he received a fax from England.

Nottingham Forest asked him about the team's striker Vedard. Whether Ibisevic can be sold. The miracle of England and the miracle of Germany finally had their first official contact.

He had received numerous such faxes last summer, and at that time he had rejected them all without asking Hope. No club with ambitions can sell their top scorer in their squad. What's more, Hoffenheim is not short of money and has to participate in next season's Champions Cup, and he does not think Ibisevic will choose to leave.

There have been far fewer such faxes this summer. Teams that were once interested in "Super Ibby" have said that they will not bring in the once famous super goalscorer. The teams that are still interested in Ibyševich are only second-rate teams in the top flight, or second-rate teams.

After the end of last season, some German media ridiculed: "Ibisevic was originally a ranger in the lower leagues of Europe, he has no problem adapting to that level of football, maybe he will start from scratch in a different place, and he may still be successful." To be honest, he's not a striker who can play in the top flight......"

This sounds harsh, but it is the true thought in the hearts of many people. Many thought that Ibisevic's crazy performance on his Bundesliga debut at Hoffenheim was just a fortuitous outburst, when in fact he was better suited to play in the lower leagues. Look, wasn't he beaten back to square one in the second season?

In fact, there is also a debate within Hoffenheim about Ibisevic's true level. Some people think he's really a top striker, while others think he's just lucky. It seems to make sense either way. Head coach Rangnick doesn't belong to either side of the two, but he's also bothered by Ibisevic's sudden good and bad performances.

When he first joined Hoffenheim, Hoffenheim was still playing in the Bundesliga, making 31 appearances, mostly as a substitute, and scoring just five goals, which is a terrible statistic for a striker. At that time, some local media thought that Hoffenheim had bought the wrong person, and Ibisevic's long-term experience proved that he could not meet Hoffenheim's requirements at all, and it was not clear why Hoffenheim would look at Ibisevic, who did not show his strength in Aachen.

If it weren't for the Yenching Olympics, maybe Ibisevic would have stayed on the Hoffenheim bench until his contract expired, or he would have been sold by Hoffenheim to a random club and left him alone. But fate is often so wonderful, unpredictable, full of all kinds of changes and surprises.

His ascension to prominence was not a matter of Rangnick's discernment, but of a pure coincidence. You must know that just before the 08-09 season, he was only a substitute forward in the mind of head coach Rangnick. However, the team's main striker, Obasi, will miss most of the team's preparations and the first few rounds of the season due to his participation in the Yenching Olympics.

As a result, Ibisevic was able to play in the first round of the league.

It was Hoffenheim's Bundesliga debut against Cottage Castle that became the start of a legend. The nobody who has never been looked down upon, never recognized, never been noticed. Ibisevic scored twice in the game! Helped the team win 3-0 over Cottages. He then scored every game and even scored twice in the game. Even if Obasi returned to the team after the Olympics, Rangnick found that he could not let the in-form Ibisevic play as a substitute, but Obasi is also a very capable striker, and he could not bear to let the striker sit on the bench. So he simply changed his tactics to have Obasi, Wellington and Ibisevic appear at the same time, and changed to the more attacking 433! The result worked wonders, and for a time no one in the Bundesliga could stop it.

Ibisevic became the top scorer and Rangnick was still saying: "To me he is like a player we just brought in this season. ”

In the second season, Ibisevic was inexplicably in a slump and Rangnick spoke again: "For me, he is like a player we have just brought in this season......"

The Bundesliga star is also helpless against Ibisevic.

Maybe he should be sold?

The thought crossed Rotthouse's mind.

But he still rejected Nottingham Forest, saying that Ibišević we will not sell, he is an important member of our team.

He didn't wait for a second fax from Nottingham Forest, he thought the team must have given up, maybe they just asked...... Unexpectedly, he waited for Nottingham Forest's manager Tony. Donn and German translation.

"Hoffenheim is such a peaceful little village and I love it...... In the future, I would choose this kind of place. "Tony, who wears sunglasses and dresses up like a tourist. Donn and his German interpreter stood on the edge of the training ground, watching one person practice through a barbed wire fence.

The time for normal training has ended. The fans who had gathered here had long since dispersed. Not many remained.

They're all fans of that guy in the stadium.

Vedard. Ibisevic is practicing his shots on the training ground, a thunderous routine – half an hour after training every day. He's a striker and there's nothing more important than shooting.

Donn watched from the sidelines, and his shooting skills were good, perhaps because of his long training efforts.

Half an hour passed quickly. Instead of going straight to the dressing room, Ibisevic folded over to sign autographs for the fans who were still waiting outside the stadium.

With a height of one meter and a weight of eighty kilograms, he is very strong, but not bulky. He stood behind the barbed wire fence to sign autographs for the fans one by one, and then walked over to Tony. Donn front.

Donn handed in the blue Hoffenheim jersey he had just bought outside at a souvenir shop with Ibisevic's number and name, a marker, and a business card.

No fan will hand over a business card when he asks for an autograph, and Ibisevic looked up at the middle-aged man wearing sunglasses in front of him with some strange looks.

"Tony. Dawn. Nice to meet you, Ibisevic. The man outside took the initiative to introduce himself.

The name sounds familiar...... Wait a minute!

Ibisevic's eyes widened and he asked directly in English: "Are you the manager of Nottingham Forest?" Why are you here? ”

"Because Nottingham Forest is interested in you." Donn grinned.

It's been three days since he received that call from the brokerage company, and he hasn't answered the brokerage company. Because he doesn't know if he should leave here and go to Nottingham Forest, there are more than one team interested in him.

"I've seen the footage of you playing, but I figured it had to be seen with my own eyes to count, so I came. Do you do this every time you finish training? ”

Ibisevic nodded.

"No wonder, your success is not accidental. How about going to England with me? I'll help you get back into shape, in the Champions Cup. Don smiled like a demon seducing mortals.

Ibisevic was silent for a moment, then shrugged: "I don't know how to answer you, Mr. Donn. Maybe I can feel something new in a different place, but I still have a contract with the club, and if the club doesn't let me go, then it's useless to say anything. ”

"Ah, you just have to show the club that you want to change the environment, and we'll take care of the rest." Don patted his chest.

"I know Nottingham Forest are a team that are going to play in the Champions League for the new season, but I don't understand why you came to me?" There is also a question that Ibisevich does not understand. In his opinion, teams capable of competing for championships should pursue those well-known stars, anyway, now that the financial crisis is still there, those big-name stars are not expensive.

"I only buy players who meet my requirements, I never care if they're famous or not, if they're big names or not. You're the one I need, Ibi. Come on my team, I'll give you a bigger stage. ”

Ibisevic was silent for a moment, then nodded: "Okay, Mr. Donn. If you can convince my club, I'll sign with Forest first. ”

After saying that, he was about to leave, but he didn't expect Don to pull him: "Sign." He pointed to the shirt that was still in Ibisevic's hand, "I'm your fan, sign me." ”

Somewhat reluctantly, Ibisevic signed his shirt and handed it back, but he accepted the card.

He felt it was time for a change of place. Anyway, he's always changing teams, from the United States to France, from France to Germany, and now it's just from Germany to England, it's not a big deal. He changes teams almost every year, and Hoffenheim is the one he's been with the longest. Do you know what the European media call him?

Ranger.

On this afternoon, Donn met with Rotthouse, the general manager of Hoffenheim Club, with a German interpreter.

The two sides held a secret meeting that was not well known.

No one knows what they talked about, and the outside world doesn't even know Tony. Donn suddenly traveled to this small village south of Frankfurt, Germany, to meet with Rothouse.

A day later, Nottingham Forest and Hoffenheim officially announced that former European Golden Boot winner Vedard. Ibisevic moved to Nottingham Forest for a transfer fee of 10 million euros plus an exchange of players, and the two sides signed a four-year contract, with an annual salary and other specific benefits not announced.

The German press met Tony at the airport in Frankfurt who was returning to Nottingham with Ibisevic. Dawn.

'He's the player I need.' After being surrounded by reporters at the airport, Don paid no attention to the voices of skepticism. "I don't care what you think of him. I'm buying it for myself, not for you. Parallel imports? You're so sure of a player's future development, why don't you quit and become an agent? I promise it's more lucrative than if you dig out your mind to make things up in the newspapers! ”

"What do you have to complain about? From now on, Super Ibby is my man, a player for Nottingham Forest, someone who is going to be a registered player in the Premier League. You German media don't care. ”

'I believe in his ability and I'm willing to give him the opportunity to prove it again...... Do I have a problem seeing people? Yes, but I was able to win the championship precisely because of those 'parallel imports' that I fancied. ”

"I'm spending club money? I do, can you handle you? ”

…… Amid the noise and doubts, Ibisevic was dragged by Donn to a flight from Germany to England.

Eleven years ago, at the age of 15, Ibisevic left his war-torn homeland and stayed in Switzerland for a short time. He held on to his dream of professional football in the deserted country of the United States, and was spotted by the coach of Ligue 1 giants Paris Saint-Germain with his outstanding performances in the local team, and returned to Europe at the age of 19. He was then loaned to Ligue 2 side Dijon, where he quickly developed and got the chance to play, scoring a few goals and seeing a lot of new things. Then he was terminated by Paris Saint-Germain, as is the case with any young man with no future. Luckily, his last two games in Dijon were noticed by a German agent who recommended him to two German teams, and he opted to join Aachen, who was still in the Bundesliga at the time. He played for Aachen for only one year, and Aachen was unfortunately relegated, wearing the number 9 shirt without making a significant contribution to the team, this time choosing to leave Aachen and move to another Bundesliga team, Hoffenheim.

In his first season, he made 31 appearances and scored just five goals. Top scorer in the Bundesliga for the second season, winner of the European Golden Boot. In his third season, he was described as "the goal of a lifetime in one season". It is like a bright meteor, rising rapidly in the sky and quickly disappearing into the vast space.

He has been obscure, he has been purple, he has succeeded, he has failed. Having seen big scenes and persevering in unimaginable predicaments, he believes that he will succeed one day. Eleven years later, he is no longer the kid who fled with his parents, he has become a professional footballer, he lives in a big spacious house, has his own car, and enjoys the cheers of the fans, he has changed a lot.

But one thing has never changed—he is always on the move, from here to place.

This time, Ranger Ibi embarks on a brand new journey.

He may continue to drift and completely confirm the name of "Ranger". Perhaps, he will stop wandering the world and choose a place as his last stop.

Could it be the forest where Robin Hood the Rogue once had a vengeance?

(To be continued)