Zeng Cheng is 24 years old this year. Although he is not very old, he has been in China's top league for many years. Not only that, he has become the number one goalkeeper and the strongest goalkeeper of the Chinese national team. He has a calm personality, his goal-line saving skills are at the top level in Asia, and his good position selection and prediction skills make him a leader on the field.
Zeng Cheng, who has loved football since he was a child, started playing in the Chinese Super League as early as 2004. At that time, he was just 17 years old and his future was unlimited. In 2005, he won his first championship-Chinese Super Cup.
In the same year, he was loaned to the Surabaya team in the Indonesian League and became the best goalkeeper in the Indonesian League, emerging in his overseas career.
After that, he moved to several teams in China and performed very stably, becoming the undisputed number one goalkeeper in the Chinese Super League. The AFC Champions League and Chinese Super League champions are even more vulnerable.
At the national team level, he has been selected for the Olympic team since 2006. In the 2007 Toulon Cup, he played on the battlefield as the main goalkeeper, performed bravely, and led the Chinese team to great success. In the Toulon Cup semi-final against Cote d'Ivoire, he saved a penalty kick in the penalty shootout, miraculously helping the Chinese Olympic team eliminate the opponent with a total score of 5-3 and enter the Toulon Cup final for the first time.
After entering the national team in 2009, Zeng Cheng gradually took Yang Zhi's place and became the national team's number one goalkeeper.
In a friendly match against the French team on June 5, 2010, Zeng Cheng defended bravely. Facing the French team's bombardment, he made brilliant saves one after another. In the end, the Chinese team defeated the French team 1:0 in an away game. .
After that game, Zeng Cheng's superb performance was rated as the best on the spot by countless foreign media, including Japan, South Korea, and France.
After this battle, numerous European clubs were interested in him. However, due to his distrust and caution towards Chinese goalkeepers, Zeng Cheng missed the best opportunity to study abroad.
In the following years, Zeng Cheng has always been the steel goalkeeper of Chinese football. His performance is very stable and he is one of the best players of the Chinese team.
In this life, Zeng Cheng got the opportunity to study abroad and joined the Ligue 1 giant Monaco. Faced with the fact that the main goalkeeper was about to leave the team, his future was full of hope!
Li Xuepeng, 22 years old this year, is an excellent defender with accurate predictions, strong explosive power, and fast pursuit.
In China, he is affectionately called: Left Wing by fans. His two most outstanding special skills are "stuck pass" and "pass with instep". When passing people, he passes the ball, then lowers his center of gravity and relies on his speed to pass the ball. Basically, it is effective every time. The opponent needs to make a foul to stop him. This makes him not only defensively sound, but also often able to provide assists and help the team score goals.
He is a frequent player in the club and national team. He not only has distinctive characteristics, but also has universal properties. In addition to his most familiar position of left back, he can also play as a left midfielder and central defender. In addition to his regular skills, his powerful throw-in is also very distinctive.
However, his powerful throw-in skills sometimes put him in trouble.
In a Chinese Super League match in early 2009, due to the team's poor performance, fans in the audience rained down mineral water bottles and lighters on the field.
At this time, Li Xuepeng, who ran to the sidelines to serve a throw-in, was angered by the fans' actions. He picked up a mineral water bottle and threw it back into the audience. The bottle was blocked by the protective net. However, when the referee saw this move, he immediately showed a red card and sent Li Xuepeng off the field, and the team eventually lost by a wide margin.
Because of this uncool behavior, Li Xuepeng was not only deducted from his salary and bonus for more than half a year by the club, but was also excluded from the national team for a long time. For a young player who was only 20 years old at the time, this mineral water bottle was indeed expensive enough.
Young players are not calm enough, which is also Li Xuepeng's biggest problem. If he can grow and become more mature in Monaco, Li Xuepeng will definitely be able to make a name for himself in Europe!
After hanging up Yun Sheng's call, Zeng Cheng and Li Xuepeng were silent for a long time.
These two are usually not talkative people. They have a steady playing style and are very quiet in private.
The two of them were arranged by Makelele in the players' apartment. The room with two bedrooms and two living rooms is very spacious.
It is worth mentioning that this room is officially the room where Wang Chuhe, who just left, lives. He and Dong Fangzhuo lived together before. Dong Fangzhuo transferred to Manchester United last year. His room has been empty and no one else has been arranged.
Half a month ago, Wang Chuhe also left Monaco and switched to the Premier League giant Arsenal.
Although the person left, the room was still empty, just suitable for Zeng Cheng and Li Xuepeng to live in.
Wang Chuhe moved all his luggage. Even the sundries that he didn't need to take to London, he sorted out the house, making the whole house look very clean. The only thing he left in this room were three posters on the wall.
It's said to be a poster, but it's actually just three enlarged photos, with the year and date written underneath the photos.
The first photo was taken in February 2009. The person standing in the center of the photo is Monaco's meritorious coach Yun Sheng, with Sun Jihai and Dong Fangzhuo standing on his left, and Chen Tao and Wang Chuhe standing on his right. The five people were all smiling. Except for Sun Jihai, everyone else looked very green, especially Wang Chuhe, who had just recovered from a serious injury at that time and was brought to Monaco by Yunsheng during the winter transfer period.
At that time, Monaco was on the right track and topped the Ligue 1 standings. Everyone's faces showed their expectations for the future.
The second photo was taken in May 2010. The person standing in the center of the photo is still Yun Sheng. He had just won the Triple Crown and was surrounded by his disciples like stars holding the moon in their arms. The people standing on his left were still Sun Jihai and Dong Fangzhuo, and the people standing on his right became Wang Chuhe and Zhang Linpeng. At that time, Chen Tao had already transferred and left, and Zhang Linpeng replaced Wang Chuhe and became the team's first-year newcomer.
This time was taken by Yunsheng before the Champions League final. They had become four-time champions and were heading towards five-time champions. Everyone looked high-spirited and energetic.
The third photo was taken in June 2011. The person standing in the center of the photo became Sun Jihai, with new aid Wu Xi and Sun Ke standing on his left, and the people on the right were still Wang Chuhe and Zhang Linpeng. This photo was taken by Sun Jihai and Wang Chuhe before they left Monaco, sitting on the sofa in this room.
At this time, everyone's face is full of reluctance, and the sadness of separation is the theme of this photo.
The Monaco club in the past three seasons was full of Chinese players, and those glorious moments are still unforgettable.
Now that veteran Sun Jihai has left, the three most dazzling French Ligue 1 players have also left for England to find new dreams.
Can the young people who remain behind inherit the spirit of the forerunners and continue to create new glory in Monaco?
