I’ve been watching soccer for decades: half my life spent watching, the other half spent regretting.
Those of us who have followed the game for years saw Maradona at the peak of his dominance on the pitch, and Baggio walking off in dejection. We felt every emotion. We watched Van Nistelrooy score impossible winning goals, fell for Ibrahimovic’s swagger, and followed Ronaldo and Messi from promising young players to top-tier stars. Over the decades, generation after generation of stars have come and gone, leaving countless stories untold on the pitch.
This book answers all the questions longtime fans have had for years: Why did Cruyff miss the 1978 World Cup final? What really caused Ronaldo’s dismal performance in the 1998 World Cup final? What grudges and entanglements lay behind the fierce clash between Portugal and the Netherlands at the 2006 World Cup? The book unpacks every obscure soccer scandal and classic mystery.
But as exciting as world soccer is, what we can never let go of is Chinese soccer. The jubilant celebrations when the team qualified at Wulihe are still vivid in our minds. The Jianlibao Youth Team once made us all believe that the national team had a bright future. But over the years, the national team has let us down again and again, slowly wearing away our passion and expectations until nothing was left.
I wrote this book partly to talk about the legendary stories of several decades of soccer, and partly to fulfill a dream of my own as a fan. Through these pages, I let my imagination run free and sincerely hope that one day the five-star red flag will once again fly high at the World Cup.
It's very interesting to read, wonderfully written, and well written.