“Urgent notice, would spectators possessing a professional football referee certification please proceed to the player tunnel.
In order for the match to continue, we urgently need a linesman.”
“Repeating once more, please…”
May 10, 2002, Ennio Tardini Stadium, Coppa Italia Final Second Leg, Parma VS Juventus.
An accident caused the match to be suspended.
In the sixty-eighth minute, the Zebra Prince Del Piero collided with linesman Pulis, causing the latter to suffer an eye injury and become unable to continue officiating.
The current fourth official, Babini, took over for Pulis as the on-field linesman.
But five minutes later, Juventus player Zambrotta made a big clearance, hitting Babini in the head, causing him to show obvious symptoms of a concussion and rendering him unable to continue officiating.
The referee team was forced to temporarily seek help from the audience.
Soon, a young lad vaulted from the stands onto the pitch and found the head referee.
“Hello, I have an Italian intermediate coaching certificate and a referee certificate, certificate numbers 89757 and 186816 respectively.
I am fully capable of taking on the role of linesman.” He Tianqi had mixed feelings in his heart.
He never expected that he would ultimately step onto the professional pitch in this manner.
As someone “born with knowledge”, after guiding his parents to become first-generation wealth builders, he poured all his energy into football.
Driven purely by passion.
Relying on his extraordinary match awareness and tactical understanding, he entered the Juventus youth academy early on, and was selected for the Italian national youth team multiple times, playing above his age group.
He had been teammates with players like Nesta, Buffon, Zambrotta, Pirlo, and Gattuso.
But as time passed, his mediocre physical talent became his Achilles’ heel.
He fell from being a star of tomorrow to an overage player in the youth academy; at twenty-two, he was still stuck in Juventus U19.
Those systems that could help players break through talent limits and gain attribute points, skills, and moment cards did not appear on him.
What Deng Kai, Lu Yang, Su Yuan, Su Hang—football novels are all full of lies.
Fuck!
A month ago, Juventus officially notified He Tianqi that the team would not sign a professional contract with him.
He Tianqi subsequently activated Plan B, applying to join the Juventus U15 coaching staff.
He had long prepared for both possibilities, having obtained his coaching certificate in advance.
And along the way, he also picked up a referee certificate, a sports agent certificate, a sports medicine certificate, a nutritionist certificate, a psychological counselor certificate, and various other credentials.
These certificates were easier to pass the earlier you took them; they were no challenge at all for an expert test-taker from a small town.
Originally, he wanted to lower his stance and be teammates with all these stars, but what he got in return was alienation.
I’m not pretending anymore, I’m putting my cards on the table.
I’m going to be your daddy—oh no…
I’m going to be your boss!
When the time comes, having Cristiano grinding ink, Messi taking off my boots, Mbappé stirring my soup, and Haaland singing songs—wouldn’t that be a delight?
However, Juventus rejected He Tianqi on the grounds that “coaches shouldn’t be too young,” demonstrating what is meant by “Europe and America never rank by seniority.”
One word: typical!
“Hey, He!” A Juventus assistant coach came over, covered his mouth, and whispered, “As a part of Juventus, you surely must also want to see the team win the double, right?”
Five days ago, Juventus made a comeback against Inter Milan to bravely win the Serie A title.
Today’s Coppa Italia final was Juventus’s closing battle of the season, and would also be the second championship they won this season.
“I heard there’s a vacancy in the U17 coaching staff.
If Mr.
Lippi is willing to recommend you…
you know what I mean.” The Juventus assistant coach winked.
He Tianqi looked towards Lippi, who was sitting upright on the Juventus bench.
Even though Juventus was trailing zero to one, the Silver Fox Lippi remained as steady as Mount Tai.
He Tianqi nodded.
The Juventus assistant coach returned satisfied.
“I object, he is Juventus’s man…
mmm…”
On the other side, on Parma’s bench, the Parma assistant coach was about to object to He Tianqi becoming the linesman, but his mouth was covered by his own head coach, Pietro Carmignani.
Carmignani: “Shut up!
This kid has a grudge against Lippi!”
The Parma assistant coach’s head was full of question marks.
Carmignani: “Don’t you read the news?”
“This He Tianqi has trained with the Juventus first team countless times over the last two or three seasons.
This season he was originally going to be officially promoted to the first team.”
“But Lippi, who returned to Juventus, looked down on him and demoted him back to the U19s.
And he stated that Juventus will absolutely not settle for less, they only use the elite!”
“And He Tianqi subsequently attacked Lippi in an interview, claiming there was a stain on his professional ethics as a head coach.”
“He believed Lippi wasted two hundred million at Inter Milan without winning any honors, acting more like an undercover agent sent by Juventus to Inter.”
“The Juventus player department then fired He Tianqi and rejected his application to transition into a coach.”
The Parma assistant coach’s eyes lit up: “So it’s him!
Therefore, he will help us?”
Carmignani shook his head: “I don’t know.
But at the very least, he won’t help Juventus, and that is enough!”
The Parma assistant coach nodded repeatedly.
Indeed.
In the current Italian football environment, a small team wanting a fair match was simply a fool’s dream.
If this continued, Serie A would face a huge scandal sooner or later!
Just like that, with the agreement of the head referee and both teams, He Tianqi put on the linesman vest and began to officiate.
…
In the eighty-third minute, Parma got a very good counter-attacking opportunity.
But the other linesman raised his flag, signaling offside.
Carmignani immediately rushed to the sidelines and roared.
He believed this was not an offside.
And the fact was exactly so.
This call was very questionable.
It was as if someone wanted Juventus to win this match.
The Coppa Italia final is split into two legs.
Juventus won the first leg at home two to one against Parma.
Now in the second leg, Parma was temporarily leading one to zero at home.
If it ended with this score, then with the aggregate score at two to two, Parma would become the Coppa Italia champions by virtue of their away goal in the first leg.
And if Juventus scored another goal to tie this match’s score, they would win the Coppa Italia championship with a two-leg aggregate score of three to two.
So with just one goal, Juventus could turn defeat into victory.
In the eighty-eighth minute, a “miracle” occurred!
Juventus’s veteran midfield captain Conte sent a through ball.
Salas, known as one of the Chilean Duo, ran onto a one-on-one chance and unleashed a powerful shot to breach Parma’s goal.
“GOAL!
Juventus is the champion!
The two veterans Conte and Salas join forces for Juventus…
huh?”
“Wait!”
“Linesman He Tianqi has raised his flag!”
“Offside!
He Tianqi is signaling that this goal was preceded by an offside!”
“Oh!
Through the big screen we can see that He Tianqi raised his flag at the very first moment.”
“His judgment is extremely precise; Salas’s offside was actually quite obvious.”
“The head referee has adopted He Tianqi’s call!
Signaling the goal is invalid!”
“The Juventus players are expressing dissatisfaction with this decision.”
“The Juventus fans are emotional, they are hurling abuses!”
“Lippi has rushed towards the head referee!”
On the sidelines, Lippi was exceptionally agitated; it turned out all his previous calmness was just a front: “This is an incorrect call!
That was not an offside!
He did it on purpose!
He is getting back at me, he is getting back at Juventus!
He should be sent to prison!”
The head referee tried to calm Lippi down.
But Lippi grew angrier the more he spoke, and turned to rush towards He Tianqi.
(END CHAPTER)