"That way I can get a handle on how they're really feeling and know when they're tired and when they're bored."

"UBIBENE, IBIPATRIA (Latin: wherever good is, home is home)" is Ladd's motto.

He wants to be the most glorious and difficult international coach.

It is a thousand or ten thousand times more difficult to work with strangers in a foreign land than in Yugoslavia!

But he always believed that his professionalism and courteous gentlemanly demeanor could help him overcome any difficulties.

In 1980, Ladd came to Cameroon to serve as the national team coach and stayed there for six years.

Uncle Mira in the civilized world was brought up by him.

Then, success came one after another.

In 1982, the Cameroon team entered the Olympic Games for the first time;

In 1985, Cameroon won the African Cup for the first time.

In just a few years, he trained an unknown team into a world-class team.

Since then, he has become a legendary coach.

At the same time, fate closely linked him with a large country in the Far East.

In 1992, China Bamboo Shoes requested FIFA to send a world-class coach as the head coach of the national team.

Ladd was selected by FIFA because of his outstanding achievements in Africa for more than ten years and his rich experience in training weak teams to turn them into strong teams.

Later, the Magic City public offered to provide financial support, but they had to hire a German coach.

So here comes Schlapner.

Although the level of Chinese football is low, it has always been the number one "hot spot" in Chinese sports.

The arrival of Uncle Shi that year directly made the blood of hundreds of millions of fans who are "disappointed every year and look forward to it every year" boil with excitement.

With the help of the director of the Sports Committee, the fans wrote their dreams and desires directly on Uncle Shi's car: "Reach out of Asia and go to the world!"

Back then, even a hair of Uncle Shi could be sold for a high price of 50,000 yuan!

However, the greater the hope, the greater the disappointment.

In 1993, in the World Cup qualifiers in Irbid, the Chinese team lost to the inferior Yemeni team and lost the right to qualify.

When the news came back, the whole country was in an uproar! Public opinion circles denounced Schlapner together.

Until then, Zhu Xie could only turn his attention to Ladd again.

Compared to when Uncle Shi arrived a year ago, the conditions Ladd received were much worse: he could not lead the national team, but could only lead the Olympic team composed of 18- and 19-year-old players.

The salary is only one-eighth of Uncle Shi's.

Not only that, the extreme disappointment at that time made the fans hate the foreign coach.

In this case, if it were you, would you come?

On August 26, 1993, Ladd was invited to China.

Everything here makes Ladd happy.

In other words, when he first stepped into this land, he felt a sense of intimacy and familiarity.

One summer night not long after arriving, Ladd pointed to the stars in the sky and sighed affectionately: "I want to know the stars here most."

"Before coming here, I have traveled to more than a hundred countries. I thought there was nothing on this earth that I didn't understand. Now I know I was wrong."

“If you don’t come here, your understanding of the world will never be comprehensive.”

From then on, Ladd told everyone he met that he was originally Chinese.

He began to learn to eat with chopsticks, and picking up peanuts became Ladd's best special practice.

The collision, communication and integration of cultures fascinate Ladd.

He worked hard to learn spoken Chinese, tried his best to soften his stiff tongue, and even added a Chinese pronunciation to himself.

After the Hiroshima Asian Games in October 1994, Bamboo Shoes decided to change Ladd to the position of technical advisor, and Qi Yousheng took over as the head coach of the National Olympic Games.

Overnight, their positions were reversed.

"The reasons for the exchange seemed to be two things." Ladd held out two fingers.

"At that time, the performance in several friendly matches at the National Olympics was not very good."

"The second one is that some people feel that the amount of training I lead is a little small."

Zeng Zheng nodded. Until now, there are still some coaches in China who follow the creed of high-intensity training to produce elites.

"Then how did you respond?"

"I was assigned by FIFA to come to China with the purpose of helping Bamboo Shoes complete all its work, not for honor and money."

"During my term of office, I will complete all the instructions of Bamboo Shoes."

Zeng Zheng also sighed.

Maybe this is why some people now like to use Ladd for bamboo shoes.

However, truly adapting to this change is difficult.

No matter which team he was in before, Ladd was always the head coach and the executor of his own ideas.

But after becoming a consultant, he could only stand by the side of every training class and could not interfere.

In order not to interfere with Qi Yousheng's work, he tried to avoid direct contact with the team members.

And once he finds a problem or has any opinions, he will also talk to Qi Yousheng.

Ladd didn't do this intentionally to ignore the players.

On the contrary, he believes that the most important thing in a team is not the coach but all the players.

Because no matter how high the level of a coach is, he cannot play the game himself. He must rely on the 11 players on the field and rely on their sweat and even blood to win the game.

Zeng Zheng also strongly agrees with this point.

There are people of all kinds in the football team, but they have one thing in common: they are very sensitive.

"I never have direct conflicts with the players!" Ladd said, "Even if sometimes their performance makes me angry to the point of knotting my intestines."

Speaking of which, Ladd recalled.

"When we were in Cameroon, one player had to stretch his stomach before going to sleep; another player had to ask a wizard for divination before the game. If the wizard said it was not appropriate to play, he would not play.

."

Zeng Zheng listened with interest, "Mr. Ladd, how did you handle it?"

"It's very simple, just convince and educate." Ladd said with a smile, "If it doesn't work once, I will say it ten times. If it doesn't work ten times, I will say it a hundred times. Anyway, I have a lot of patience!"

Zeng Zheng was speechless.

I really can't do this!

"Mr. Ladd, have any Chinese players made you angry?"

"No." Ladd still shook his head, "It's just that once during training, I saw a player's movements were not very standard. At that time, I asked him to do it again."

"But the player thought I was deliberately making things difficult for him, so he kicked the ball away in anger and spoke a few words in his local dialect."

"Although I couldn't understand it, I knew he was scolding me."

"I looked at him for a few seconds and then walked away."

"After the training, the team member came to me with a panic look on his face and apologized."

"I told him that during training, my words are law and you must implement them. If you want to curse, just curse in your stomach. It's best not to say anything."

After hearing this, Zeng Zheng finally understood why Ladd didn't want to leave as soon as he came here.

He is more Chinese than a Chinese!

Gentleness, kindness, respect, and frugality are all vividly reflected in Ladd.

Even now, he is still suffering the injustice of Bamboo Shoes and being treated as a pawn by Bamboo Shoes, but he still pays silently and works hard.

And this is probably the reason why although he has outstanding achievements and noble character, he has always been unknown and depressed!

Even behind the scenes, even Shen Xiangfu felt that Ladd was too weak and useless.

In February 1995, when the National Olympics were going to Hong Kong to play the "Dunhill" Cup, Bamboo Shoes suddenly and temporarily decided to replace Ladd with a Bamboo Shoes official.

"This is actually a blow to me. It's meant to keep me away from asking questions, but I can only obey." Ladd sighed.

Because of this incident, Ladd's translator at the time couldn't stand it anymore and resolutely chose to resign.

Ladd remained in office until August 1996 without an interpreter.

Two years later, when Ladd's translator returned home after completing his term at the embassy in Macedonia, the most surprising news he heard was that Ladd was still in the country!

Ladd did not play for Bamboo Shoes at that time, but came to an ordinary football school in Beijing as the head coach.

Hearing this, Zeng Zheng was also very curious.
To be continued...