January 4, 2014.
England, Trentside.
Stoke.
Inside the Britannia Stadium, capable of holding 28,000 spectators, the loud songs of Stoke City fans already filled the air.
This was the scene of the FA Cup third round clash.
And the match time had already reached seventy-five minutes.
The score remained 1:0, with the home team Stoke City leading the visiting team Leicester City by one goal.
At this time, Leicester City was still competing in the Championship, and there was a clear gap in team strength compared to the Premier League team Stoke City.
Therefore, the situation on the field was basically Stoke City pressing Leicester City in their own half and bombarding them.
The difficult situation on the field made the coaching staff, led by Leicester City manager Nigel Pearson, and the substitute players wear serious expressions.
On the substitute bench of the visiting team Leicester City, a handsome black-haired young man was staring intently at the pitch, muttering Chinese that no one could understand in a low voice:
“There is space, you can play a through ball!”
“Oh, the passing is too slow, no lethality at all.”
“Why is Nugent so bad, hurry up and sub him off.
If I were on the pitch, I would definitely be able to play wonderfully with Vardy.”
The other substitute players of Leicester City would never have thought that this teammate of theirs was actually sitting on the bench frantically pointing fingers, as if his presence on the pitch could immediately change the situation.
After twenty-four rounds of the Championship, Leicester City occupied the top spot, having a great chance to win the Championship this year and thus be promoted to the Premier League.
Moreover, three days ago, the team’s main players had just played a league match.
Considering the stamina of the main players and the importance of the competitions, Leicester City manager Nigel Pearson whispered a few words to assistant manager Steve Walsh beside him, and then decided to strategically abandon this unimportant cup match and focus on the league title race.
Turning his head to look at the young and eager faces on the bench, manager Pearson’s gaze rested briefly on the black-haired young man, and relevant information immediately surfaced in his mind:
Ling Feng, English-born Chinese, eighteen years old, a midfielder for the Leicester City U21 youth team.
This young man’s basic skills are solid, basically above the average level of the youth team.
What the youth team coaches praise the most is his diligence!
After completing the team’s daily training, he would also do extra individual practice himself.
However, his talent is limited to this.
As a midfielder, his vision is average, unable to play penetrating fatal passes; he lacks outstanding dribbling ability, unable to dribble past opponents to attract defense.
He also lacks tough physical confrontation and defense, let alone excellent positioning and the ability to shoot from distance with late runs.
The only praiseworthy thing is his abundant stamina, allowing him to run all over the pitch.
In short, this is a young man with mediocre talent and no prominent characteristics, but who tries to use hard work to close the gap with geniuses.
In the field of competitive sports, no matter which coach it is, they all like hardworking players.
Pearson was no exception.
Therefore, in order to reward his hard-working performance in training, and also to allow the main players to rotate and rest in this cup match, Pearson decided to put him and another U21 youngster who trained excellently into the eighteen-man squad for this match against Stoke City.
Since they strategically chose to abandon this cup match, winning or losing was no longer important.
Then let the youngsters complete their first-team debuts!
Thinking of this, he made his decision:
“Jamal!”
“Mahrez!”
“Ling!”
“Get up and warm up!”
Hearing this, a handsome African lad and an older-looking black man on the bench immediately stood up.
And the black-haired young man whose name was called was slightly stunned.
“Huh?
I actually have a chance to play?!”
No one knew that inside this eighteen-year-old young body was a soul from ten years in the future.
Three days ago, the Ling Feng of 2024 was in a car accident.
When he opened his eyes again, he found that he had returned to ten years ago, and had become a young man of mixed Chinese and English descent playing for the Leicester City U21 youth team, and sharing his exact first and last name!
What he didn’t expect even more was that along with this came a Green Pitch Legend System!
Just as he was included in the first team’s eighteen-man squad for the away game against Stoke City, the system awakened and presented him with a novice chest.
The chest yielded a [Prime De Bruyne] star card, granting Ling Feng one attribute and one talent of prime De Bruyne.
Ling Feng did not expect that having just acquired a cheat yesterday, he would have the chance to come on as a substitute today!
“Isn’t this heaven helping me?!”
In an instant, Ling Feng thought of countless scripts of becoming famous with one goal floating in his mind.
After a moment of shock, he bounced up from his seat fiercely and ran to the sidelines to warm up.
A few minutes later, having finished his warm-up, Ling Feng put on a number 23 jersey with “LING” printed on the back and stood on the sidelines with his two teammates.
Glancing at the handsome African lad on his right, relevant information immediately surfaced in Ling Feng’s mind:
One of the creators of the Blue Fox miracle, the first African to win the Premier League MVP, nicknamed the “King of Mahrez”, Riyad Mahrez!
At this time, Mahrez had just transferred from Le Havre in Ligue 2 and had not yet played for Leicester City.
It could be said that this FA Cup match was not only Ling Feng’s professional debut, but also Mahrez’s Leicester City debut!
At this moment, perhaps seeing Mahrez rubbing his hands and looking a bit nervous, Ling Feng suddenly took the initiative to pat his shoulder and smiled:
“Hey, mate, welcome to England.”
Turning his head to look at the young Asian black-haired lad beside him, Mahrez was stunned at first, and then a ripple arose in his heart.
This was his first time playing for Leicester City, and facing a Premier League opponent, he was more or less nervous.
Ling Feng’s smile relaxed him a little.
Coupled with the fact that both of them were of mixed race and their skin tones were closer, Mahrez couldn’t help but feel a sense of closeness to this black-haired young man who struck up a conversation with him.
Nodding to Ling Feng, Mahrez replied in not-so-fluent English: “Thanks.”
Smiling, Ling Feng also didn’t forget to high-five the black defensive midfielder, his more familiar U21 teammate beside him, encouraging each other.
“Come on, Jamal!”
“You too, Ling.”
Seeing this, manager Pearson not far away couldn’t help but raise his eyebrows.
“This kid quite has the demeanor of a general.”
However, he didn’t know that Ling Feng seemed very calm on the surface, but his heart was already surging.
Standing beside the future Premier League MVP Mahrez, his ears echoing with the chorus of Stoke City fans and the shouts of the players on the pitch, Ling Feng was completely infected by the warm atmosphere of the scene.
Even the slight earthy smell of natural turf wafting into his nose made his heart race, intertwining excitement and thrill.
Once upon a time, he fantasized about becoming a professional player, standing on the green pitch of the top five leagues, enjoying the cheers of the audience.
Now, he was standing on the stage of the century-old English FA Cup, playing against a Premier League team!
This was just too cool!
The assistant manager pulled the three of them aside and briefly explained the tactics to them individually.
In short, go up and play freely!
After waiting on the sidelines for a while, a dead ball finally occurred on the pitch.
At this time, the referee, who had been waiting for a long time, held up the substitution board.
The voice of the stadium announcer also spread throughout the stadium via the broadcast:
“The time has reached eighty minutes, and Leicester City is preparing to make three substitutions at once.”
“Number 26 Riyad Mahrez replaces number 35 David Nugent.”
“Number 26 Mahrez is the new signing Leicester City just spent 500,000 euros to buy from Ligue 2.
And the two youngsters, number 23 and number 37, were just promoted from the Leicester City youth team…”
“It seems Leicester City intends to give up.”
Amidst the songs of the Stoke City fans at the scene, Ling Feng excitedly stepped onto the turf of the pitch with his right leg.
Leicester City’s main formation was 442.
However, after substituting the main striker Nugent, only one lone striker was left up front, the future “Soul of the Blue Foxes”, Jamie Vardy!
Thus, under the manager’s command, the team’s formation changed to 4231, and Ling Feng became the team’s attacking midfielder.
Mahrez went to the right-wing position, while the other black lad also promoted from the U21s went to the defensive midfield position.
“Come on, guys, don’t give up!”
Seeing Vardy, who was at the very front, raise his arms to cheer on his teammates, Ling Feng suddenly felt a sense of a lifetime having passed.
In the past, he could only control these real-life stars in various football video games.
But at this moment, he had truly become teammates with Vardy and Mahrez, fighting side by side on the pitch!
The loud songs of the Stoke fans, the announcer’s voice, and the shouts of the players on the pitch were all clearly audible and incredibly real.
In an instant, Ling Feng subconsciously clenched his fists, his expression and eyes becoming unwavering.
His former football dream had now become a reality right in front of him.
And what he had to do was never let it slip away, and firmly grasp this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity in his own hands!
Perhaps seeing that Leicester City had substituted three people at once and they were leading the score, Stoke City also subbed off three main players to rest.
Even so, the stronger Stoke City suppressed Leicester City in their own half, trying to score another goal and completely kill the game.
However, under Vardy’s encouragement, the Leicester City players united as one, all retreating to defend their own half.
Ling Feng was no exception.
Because the defensive formation was too crowded with not much space for penetrating passes, Stoke City midfielder Charlie Adam couldn’t hold back his inner attacking desire and fired a sudden cold shot from the edge of the penalty area.
However, the forcefully shot football was blocked by the body of Jamal, the black defensive midfielder who had just come on, and bounced up.
Then, Leicester City centre-back Wasilewski jumped on the spot and headed the ball powerfully out of the penalty area.
Watching the football flying towards his side, Ling Feng’s eyes sharpened.
He stepped forward, controlled it with his chest, and settled the ball steadily at his feet.
The attention of everyone in the Britannia Stadium was drawn over.
Looking at the football at his feet, several passing options suddenly popped up in Ling Feng’s mind.
In the next second, he made his decision:
The counterattack starts now!
The black-haired young man in the number 23 blue jersey was seen lightly tapping the football with his right foot, pushing it slightly forward and to the right.
Immediately after, without even lifting his head, without the slightest hesitation, he swung his right leg back forcefully and pushed forward with the inside of his foot.
A deadly ground through ball, like a scalpel, was sent out!
The football skimmed quickly across the turf, spanning a distance of sixty meters from near the center circle, passing straight between Stoke City’s only two remaining defenders, and arriving precisely outside Stoke City’s penalty area.
And a blue figure wearing number 9 arrived swiftly!
It was exactly Leicester City’s lone striker, Jamie Vardy!
Mahrez transferred to Leicester City on January 11th.
(END CHAPTER)