Chapter 612
Lin Feng's Backup Plan: Modric!?
"How can you call it faking an injury? Is it possible that I am really injured?"
As he spoke, Lin Feng took out the diagnosis report from the hospital and handed it to Chen Tao.
Gao Lin leaned closer curiously: "A moderate ligament tear? Is it that serious? How come it's completely invisible?"
"Of course you can't tell if I don't play football. I didn't have surgery, and the swelling from before has all gone down. Of course you can't tell from the appearance!"
Lin Feng replied irritably.
Chen Tao looked worried: "It seems that the rumors are not unfounded. A torn ligament is a very serious injury, and if not treated properly, it could really affect one's future career."
Gao Lin suddenly thought of another question:
"So, you're saying you'll miss the national team's two World Cup qualifiers?"
"At this point, you're still thinking about the World Cup qualifiers. If Lin Feng's situation isn't handled properly, it's hard to say whether he'll be able to play football in the future."
Chen Tao glared at Gao Lin in annoyance. When he first heard the news of Lin Feng's injury, he was very worried about him. Now that the news was confirmed, Chen Tao felt like the sky was falling.
It's often said that Real Madrid relies on Lin Feng, but isn't the Chinese national football team doing the same?
The Chinese national football team is even more reliant on Lin Feng. Without him, the team's strength would definitely decline sharply, possibly even falling from a top-tier team in Asia to a second-tier team.
Gao Lin scratched his head, belatedly realizing the seriousness of the problem: without Lin Feng anchoring the midfield, who would pass the ball to him?
Without Lin Feng providing assists, his dream of becoming the national team's top scorer is likely to be dashed!
"It's not that pessimistic. I'm perfectly fine, aren't I? I'm not worried, so why are you all worried!"
Seeing that the two were overly worried, Lin Feng got off the recliner and walked around a few times as if nothing had happened, to prove that he was alright.
In fact, Lin Feng could have gotten out of bed and moved around a long time ago, but he reduced his activity to speed up the recovery of his injuries.
A week earlier, when the outside world was making a big fuss about his injury, he had already basically recovered his mobility. Apart from avoiding strenuous exercise, his normal activities were no longer restricted.
Although the doctor's diagnosis was alarming, saying that his injury was severe and could jeopardize his career, and strongly recommended that he undergo surgery to repair it.
While a torn ligament might be fatal for others, for Lin Feng it's probably on par with a sprain or contusion for an average player, not too serious.
Back when Real Madrid was plagued by injuries during the winter break, Lin Feng had already redeemed two injury-resistant talents from the system shop—Iron Man and Copper Bones—in order to avoid his own injury affecting his upcoming club and national team matches.
With the protection of these two god-level talents, serious injuries will be reduced to minor injuries, and minor injuries will be directly immune to and become harmless.
This is why Lin Feng has been almost never injured in recent months. Whether in the league or the Champions League, even the most intense battles and physical confrontations have had little effect on him.
In addition, these two talents also grant powerful recovery abilities.
Even when he gets injured during a match, his recovery speed is much faster than that of the average player.
Injuries that might take an ordinary person several months to recover from could heal in just a few days.
Therefore, Lin Feng is now ready to play. He just needs to go to the training ground to recover his form and practice with the team to improve his teamwork, and then he will be fine.
But he didn't rush to do so because he was still observing Real Madrid's attitude towards him.
Previously at the hospital, when the doctor diagnosed his hand, the attitude of the Real Madrid board members was quite subtle.
This summer, Real Madrid will hold a leadership election.
Calderon, who had previously been a strong supporter of him, may be targeted by Florentino, as the saying goes, "a new emperor brings a new court."
Although Florentino had previously admired him, and even took the initiative to contact him and invite him to Real Madrid.
But in the end, it was Calderon who reaped the rewards, so Lin Feng can be considered one of Calderon's men.
If Calderon is not selected and Florentino Pérez returns to Real Madrid, it is hard to guarantee that he will not purge the old guard from the previous administration.
Moreover, after being 'injured,' its strategic value has been severely depreciated.
This is certainly not just Lin Feng's imagination. According to his agent Mendes, Real Madrid's management has already contacted that man from Manchester United, and he is very likely to join them at the Bernabéu this summer!
There are two explanations for Cristiano Ronaldo's arrival: one is that it's a superstar alliance that would further strengthen Real Madrid's power in order to counter the rising Barcelona!
The second explanation is that Real Madrid was worried about their performance declining after an injury, so they chose to sign Ronaldo as a backup. If they do fall behind due to injuries, they can then support Ronaldo and establish him as Real Madrid's leader to continue competing against Barcelona!
Lin Feng has been with Real Madrid for two years. During these two years, Real Madrid has been urging him to renew his contract, but Lin Feng has been dragging his feet and has not agreed, because he is worried about being bound by the other party's long-term contract and losing his freedom.
For a player of his caliber, once he's signed a long-term contract, transferring is practically impossible because no one can afford the transfer fee.
Therefore, Lin Feng is very cautious about contract renewals and transfers.
This injury provides a good opportunity to observe Real Madrid's attitude and decide whether to renew the contract after the change of leadership at Real Madrid this summer.
……
Just as Gao Lin and Chen Tao arrived at Lin Feng's home to visit him, Real Madrid's board of directors also held an internal meeting to discuss Lin Feng's situation.
After Lin Feng was injured, several senior board members were clamoring to sell him off to avoid him becoming a liability.
However, this proposal was strongly opposed by club president Calderon and general manager Valdano, with Calderon well aware of Lin Feng's importance to the team.
Florentino Pérez forced the creation of Real Madrid, spending so much money, but ended up making a mess of the club.
This led to Real Madrid's slump in both the league and European competitions, failing to even get past the round of 16 for several consecutive years.
If he hadn't defied public opinion and signed Lin Feng at a high price after Zidane's retirement, helping the team turn around its decline, Real Madrid would probably still be in the Champions League Round of 16, not only failing to win their tenth Champions League title, but also likely being completely overshadowed by their arch-rivals Barcelona in both the league and the Champions League.
Compared to the enormous costs of building the Galácticos era, Real Madrid's current team-building costs are relatively low, yet its achievements are even more dazzling.
According to Calderon, at least half of all this is due to Lin Feng's efforts, and the other half is due to the coaching staff's hard work and the club's relatively successful player recruitment plan.
If these guys want to sell Lin Feng now, aren't they just destroying their own foundation?
The second phase of the Galaxy Battleship was entirely built on the foundation of Lin Feng. Without Lin Feng, the Galaxy Battleship would immediately collapse.
Where are they going to find such a suitable candidate?
How can Real Madrid be restructured and rebuilt to return to its peak?
Time waits for no one, as Barcelona next door is already gearing up to snatch the crown from Real Madrid's head.
Even with Lin Feng at his peak this season, Real Madrid still struggled to contain Barcelona. Without Lin Feng, what will Real Madrid use to contain Barcelona?
Undeterred, Barcelona is poised to soar to new heights, and all the achievements they couldn't accomplish this season will likely come to fruition. These sensible guys are like dogs; they won't understand any profound道理 (principles/reasoning).
But as soon as you mention that Barcelona will immediately take advantage of Lin Feng's absence, they'll start wagging their tails!
"Gentlemen, you can all see how severely the absence of Lin Feng has weakened the team's fighting power in these few matches!"
Objectively speaking, Lin Feng's injury actually highlighted his importance.
When he was on the field, it seemed that apart from scoring more goals and making more accurate passes, there was nothing particularly special about him.
But once he's not around, Real Madrid's supercar is like a rusty tractor with its engine ripped out, becoming slow and riddled with problems.
In just these three matches, Real Madrid has exposed a whole host of problems.
The midfield lacked cohesion, the distribution of possession was unreasonable, the ability to control the tempo of the game was weakened, and most importantly, the ability to deliver threatening passes in attack was greatly reduced...
The gap between him and his replacement is so large that it could overturn the team's tactics.
When Lin Feng was around, no one noticed anything unusual; now that Lin Feng is gone, no one can compare!
Of course, everything has its advantages and disadvantages.
It was precisely because Lin Feng's performance on the field was so outstanding that no one else in the team could replace his role, leading Real Madrid's management to unanimously conclude:
We must find a suitable replacement for Lin Feng. Otherwise, if he gets injured or is unable to play for the team for any other reason in the future, wouldn't Real Madrid be in trouble?
This time, Real Madrid has their sights set on a 24-year-old Croatian young man – Luka Modric!
Although Modric was not very famous at this time, there were relatively few people in the football world who knew about him or paid attention to him.
However, within Real Madrid's professional scouting system, Modric is considered the attacking midfielder most similar to Lin Feng.
Although his scoring ability is not as strong as Lin Feng's, and his defensive ability is also slightly inferior, in other aspects, he has already reached about 70-80% of Lin Feng's level.
Considering that the other party is still young and has considerable room for growth in the future.
Therefore, Real Madrid plans to use Van der Vaart in a swap deal with Tottenham to sign this seemingly promising midfield talent.
Of course, Modric alone is not enough.
Lin Feng has taken on many of the core organizational roles in the team, and Real Madrid plans to sign Xabi Alonso to fill the void left by Lin Feng's absence.
……
Time flies. As the top five European leagues come to a close one after another, and the suspense surrounding the champions of these leagues ends, the attention of fans is now focused on the upcoming Champions League final.
On May 27, the highly anticipated Champions League final will be held at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome.
As the two teams facing off in this final, both Real Madrid and Manchester United chose to arrive in Rome early to prepare for the match.
When the Real Madrid team arrived at Rome's international airport, reporters from all over the world, armed with their cameras and microphones, were already waiting to snap photos of the Real Madrid players as they disembarked from the plane.
Where is Lin Feng?
"Why don't I see anyone?"
"Is he really going to miss this Champions League final?"
Reporters scanned the crowd with their cameras, trying to find Lin Feng, but to their disappointment, Lin Feng was not with Real Madrid.
This discovery greatly disappointed the reporters; without Lin Feng, the finals were significantly less exciting.
Moreover, Real Madrid's strength has declined significantly without Lin Feng, which will greatly affect the entertainment value of this match.
Many people are already worried that, given Mourinho's style, he will most likely choose to park the bus and defend desperately when the team is in a disadvantageous situation.
Although there are no famous matches in the finals, if it really turned into a match like that, it would be a disaster for the audience.
The reporters were disappointed, and the fans were naturally disappointed as well.
Aside from Manchester United fans, Real Madrid fans and many neutral fans still held a sliver of hope, thinking that since they had seen Lin Feng in the stands before, it proved that his injury was not as serious as rumored, and perhaps he would have a chance to play in the final.
However, Lin Feng didn't even come to Rome, so naturally he couldn't possibly represent Real Madrid in the match.
"Great! The weight that was hanging over my heart has finally been lifted!"
The news quickly reached the hotel where the Manchester United players were staying, and the players, who had been somewhat worried, were now completely relieved.
At this point, who cares about how exciting the competition is? All they care about is winning the championship!
"Don't underestimate them. Although their star player is unavailable, Real Madrid is still a very strong team. What's more, they have a coach who has played against us many times. It will be a tough battle, and everyone needs to be mentally prepared!"
Although he was grinning from ear to ear, Ferguson still reminded his disciples not to underestimate their opponents.
Losing Lin Feng will significantly weaken Real Madrid's attack, but will not have a major impact on their defense.
Real Madrid has a deep reserve of defensive midfielders. If Mourinho is pushed too far, it wouldn't be surprising if he fielded a formation with three defensive midfielders.
Although Manchester United has attacking talents like Rooney and Ronaldo, if the opponent is determined to park the bus and defend, it won't be easy for Manchester United to break through their goal.
If the match goes to penalties, Manchester United will have no advantage whatsoever.
Just as everyone was celebrating, Ronaldo shook his head with some regret.
Although he also wanted the Champions League trophy, he felt very regretful that he couldn't compete against Lin Feng in the final.
He trained and played so hard this past season to become stronger, all so that one day he could personally avenge his opponent on the field.
Now, after going through countless hardships, they have finally made it to the finals, but their opponent has disappeared.
This made Ronaldo feel like something was missing, leaving him with an emptiness inside. (End of Chapter)