I AM the Football Star

”Four-two, San Remo shoot down the True Blue and Black!”

”All three forwards score, San Remo’s attacking line is terrifyingly strong!”

”The most classic free-kick showdown, king versus king, no winner decided!”

”Goal + hitting the frame, the results of the free kicks taken by Lu Yang and Milo维奇 are bizarrely similar!”

”Win but also lose! San Remo’s defensive crisis exposed!”

”Camihong and Lam go off injured, San Remo lose two key generals in one battle!”

”Didn’t sell anyone in the winter window, now San Remo are paying the price!”

”Can San Remo stay in the Champions League zone? Experts think the odds aren’t high!”

”Fighting on three fronts, injuries, and all the big teams targeting them in the second half of the season—San Remo’s road ahead is treacherous!”

”Lu Yang scores his 30th Serie A goal, guns fully blazing!”

”Not just the Serie A Golden Boot! So far, Lu Yang is miles ahead in the race for the European Golden Boot, surpassing three past winners from the last ten years!”

”Stop doubting Lu Yang’s scoring genes! European giants, don’t hesitate anymore—take him home!”

Europe’s dog-blood media are back again.

After more than half a month off, they’ve long been itching for the league to restart.

And everyone knows the matches in the second half of the season are even more captivating than in the first.

Because the second half is when every team starts their final sprint.

Some teams might fall behind after a little over twenty rounds, others after more than thirty; the further the season goes, the closer this year’s true winners get to surfacing.

In the Champions League, the next round of the last-16 directly knocks out eight teams. That’s called thrilling.

So... on the Serie A stage, who will be the first team to drop out of the title race?

Right now Florence sit firmly in first, and Atlanta, San Remo, Rome, Juventus, AC Milan, Naples, Lazio all have a shot at the title.

What?

You mean Inter?

Inter’s biggest goal this year is just to break into the European Competition Zone, to fight for sixth.

Without Talista, they have absolutely no strength to challenge for the Champions League this year, and bowed out early.

And even for AC Milan, Naples, and Lazio, their title hopes are purely theoretical.

Given the scorelines and records, they’ve practically already exited the title race. Their main objective is probably still to grab a Champions League spot—fourth place in the league.

Among the teams at the top, plenty of experts predict that San Remo, who’ve been hit by injuries this round, are very likely to be the first club to drop out of the Serie A title battle.

Because they’re about to face another nine-round devil schedule.

The Serie A programmers really... dote on San Remo way too much.

Atlanta, AC Milan, Naples, Udinese, Florence, Atlanta, Inter Milan, Chievo, Lazio!

Aside from Chievo, none of these are easy to chew; among them, six are direct competitors of San Remo.

And mixed in there are also two Champions League knockout ties and one Italian Cup semi-final.

Convinced yet?

Two days later, San Remo’s opponent in the Italian Cup semi-final was revealed.

It’s Atlanta!

And that match happens to be scheduled exactly one week after their second league clash with Atlanta.

Which means this season San Remo will play Atlanta three times.

They won the first 4–2, but it’s really hard to say how the next two will go.

The even more ”coincidental” part is that there were issues with this year’s Champions League knockout draw too.

Originally, the Champions League knockout stage has a rule to avoid teams from the same league meeting, but because San Remo qualified as Europa League champions, they directly became first-seed while also losing the protection of that avoidance rule.

And Italian clubs were just too good in this year’s Champions League group stage.

San Remo, Florence, Juventus, Rome, AC Milan—five Italian teams all made it into the last 16.

So while everyone was shouting about a golden age of Serie A, the odds of San Remo being forced to face one of those Serie A sides skyrocketed.

And that unlucky thing really did happen.

San Remo vs Florence!

As soon as this pairing came out, countless San Remo fans filed complaints against UEFA, claiming they manipulated the draw.

Everyone clearly saw their guest reach into the transparent box and immediately grab the San Remo ball lying right on top, then pretend to stir around a bit, as if that could fool the whole world.

Fans believe UEFA just want to take San Remo out. Nobody’s forgotten the conflict between Lu Yang and UEFA president Jeffery.

At last summer’s European Cup, Jeffery has no idea how much money he lost.

The key point is, for Jeffery to leap from an unknown official in a tiny footballing country to UEFA president, French Football’s help was immense.

And last year’s European Cup was held on home soil in France, with France having a huge chance to win the trophy at home.

How inspiring would that have been!

And the result?

Italy swooped in and stole the bride, pulling off an unbelievable super comeback.

From this angle, it’s somewhat understandable that French Football magazine give Lu Yang and Italian players the cold shoulder in the Golden Ball Award.

You snatched their crown and still expect them to hand you honor certificates? Isn’t that a bit over the top?

But the fans’ reaction didn’t stir up much of a storm.

After all, rigging matchups—hasn’t that always been UEFA’s standard operating procedure?