thenovelthief Chapter 1971 - 517: So Your Name Is Thomas Müller
Chapter 1971 - 517: So Your Name Is Thomas Müller
Right after that, the whole team flew to Liben.
This time the Audi Cup was simply held in both Liben and China; it was the sponsor making some attempts for the Asian market.
A few big clubs got more sponsorship money and could also take the chance to open up the Asian market.
So nobody had any objections.
Milan and Inter Milan chose to stay at the same hotel.
They ran into Sannetti at dinner, and the Inter Milan captain complained, "Since we’re all coming to Japan anyway, we might as well have flown over together."
"That wouldn’t do."
Huang Kaiwen said with a smile, "If our two teams came together, the reporters would definitely write that the fallen Serie A giants can’t even afford to charter a plane."
"You’ve got a point!"
Sannetti nodded and said, "Marco’s pretty annoyed you couldn’t attend his retirement ceremony."
"Couldn’t be helped, I wasn’t in Italy at the time."
Huang Kaiwen shrugged.
Materazzi’s retirement ceremony had been held in early June, and back then he was off in North Africa treasure hunting.
Huang Kaiwen sat down with his tray.
Kaka and the others sat down with him.
What had originally been just Sannetti and Cambiasso’s table was suddenly packed with ten people.
Cambiasso feigned fear and said, "Do you guys always use sheer numbers to intimidate people?"
"That just shows how seriously we take you."
Huang Kaiwen said with a grin.
Van Persie just sat next to Van Bommel.
Having just transferred to Milan, he was still a bit reserved.
Sannetti sighed and said, "This Audi Cup is no joke. Besides you lot there’s Bayern and Barcelona, and then we have to play you again in the Italian Super Cup and the TIM Cup. Honestly, I feel like these summer friendlies are more fucking exhausting than the actual season."
Hearing Sannetti swear, Huang Kaiwen couldn’t help laughing as he said, "You’re not exactly weak; whoever draws you is in for a rough time."
Sannetti could only shake his head and sigh again.
Sneijder’s form had already started to dip at the end of last season.
Coming back this time, Sneijder’s whole body looked puffed up a size.
As a seasoned veteran, he felt that this teammate might be on a one-way slide.
A change in the midfield core meant a massive reshuffle for the team.
Sannetti didn’t want to keep talking about that, so he said, "You know, the Germans are staying here too. When we first arrived I saw that keeper who used to play for Milan."
"Neuer?"
Kaka asked.
"Yeah, him!"
Sannetti nodded.
Huang Kaiwen hadn’t expected everyone to be staying in the same hotel.
Looked like it was arranged by the sponsors.
Tokyo is a big city after all, and the transport isn’t exactly ideal.
If you wanted to put four teams in four hotels of roughly the same level, it’d take a lot of effort, and it wouldn’t be convenient when they had to show up for events.
So Huang Kaiwen figured Barcelona would be staying here once they arrived too.
No wonder the Milan Players and the coaching staff had been split across two half-floors instead of getting an entire floor.
Chances were Milan’s neighbors on the same floor were the Barça first team.
They really knew how to arrange things.
Huang Kaiwen was actually a bit curious what kind of look Xavi and Puyol would have when they saw him.
July 24th.
Huang Kaiwen went with his teammates to do a brief TV appearance, then immediately headed to Ginza for events.
Besides the photo book, a whole bunch of product endorsement events had all been crammed into that one day.
In a single day he showed up for nine brands, and each brand got less than half an hour.
By the time he got back to the hotel that night, Huang Kaiwen was completely wiped out.
Even playing 120 minutes in a UEFA Champions League final had never left him this tired.
He didn’t even bother with dinner or changing his clothes; he collapsed on the bed and fell asleep.
When he got up the next day, Huang Kaiwen’s whole body felt off.
Going downstairs for breakfast with Ramos, Huang Kaiwen said, "Sleeping without changing out of your clothes really is exhausting."
"Gagliani too—why line up so many events?"
Ramos complained.
Huang Kaiwen just shook his head with a smile.
Showing up to events was the real job.
Those sponsors were the Yellow Ball King’s patrons.
It was just once a year; being tired was being tired.
We’re talking hundreds of millions of Euro in endorsement money, after all.
Huang Kaiwen sat there slumped over the table while Ramos went to get him breakfast.
He really was exhausted.
Normally he was very particular about personal manners.
Just then, Huang Kaiwen’s eyes lit up. He straightened and sat down next to a young player, putting on a kindly smile as he asked, "Hi, are you Thomas Müller?"