His dominant performance away at Leeds United put Ling Feng once again in the hot topics of social media networks, newspapers, and magazines.
Eighteen years old, handsome, outstanding football skills…
He carried all the labels to attract attention and become the focal point!
Although the English Championship is the second tier of English football.
However, its intensity and excitement level rank easily within Europe’s top ten.
Its influence within England and even across European football cannot be underestimated.
Therefore, after this match, Ling Feng once again graced the sports pages of many media outlets and magazines.
Whether watching on TV or inside the stadium, the spectators and fans who saw Ling Feng play could not deny one fact: Ling Feng is a rising star in football!
When this youngster played football, his brimming talent and flair were already overflowing.
Furthermore, continuously coming off the bench to provide assists and help the team win fully demonstrated his immediate combat readiness.
Even though he had yet to start a single game for Leicester City, he had already become the most dazzling star in the local Leicester area!
Therefore, on the day after the match, the local Leicester newspaper, the Leicester Mercury, selected the photo of Ling Feng opening his arms to receive the fans’ cheers and applause as their front-page cover!
And the headline on the cover was a single enlarged, bolded word—”Genius!”
For Ling Feng, this handsome youngster with Leicester ties, the Leicester locals treated him entirely as their own boy.
When your own child performs exceptionally well, parents will naturally feel proud and wish they could show off to the whole world!
Therefore, it wasn’t surprising that the Mercury used a full two pages to report on him.
In this report, the writer first briefly described Ling Feng’s short professional career, starting from his steady progress in the youth team, to his sudden emergence in the FA Cup, and then his promotion to the first team and consecutive substitute appearances.
Then they invited football commentators to analyze Ling Feng’s playing style and break down his various abilities for the readers.
Finally, the Mercury even launched a prize-winning fan poll at the end of the newspaper page.
The voting topic was to guess how many assists Ling Feng would ultimately record this season.
Fans could go to the newspaper’s official website to vote, and the fans who ultimately guessed Ling Feng’s exact assist count for the season would win a free newspaper subscription for a year!
Besides the local newspaper riding the wave of popularity, many football media outlets and magazines began a new round of hyping (and setting up for a fall) Ling Feng’s performances…
…
Leicester, Belvoir Drive Base.
Inside the team’s massage room.
Ling Feng, Mahrez, and other players who had just completed their physical training were lying on the massage beds, receiving exclusive massages from the team’s physiotherapists.
Just as Ling Feng closed his eyes and enjoyed the soothing soreness coming from his thigh muscles, Mahrez’s voice rang in his ears:
You made the front-page headline!”
Hearing this, Ling Feng didn’t even open his eyes and replied directly:
“I didn’t read it, but my parents bought a copy of the newspaper this morning, and they called to tell me about it.”
Ling Feng’s calm reaction stunned Mahrez, making him mutter to himself again: Is he really only eighteen?
If it were him, he would definitely call his parents, siblings, and even friends to show off to them.
Looking at Ling Feng with his eyes tightly shut, Mahrez couldn’t help but voice the doubts in his heart:
“Why do you look like you’re not excited at all?”
“It’s just making a front-page headline, it’s no big deal.”
Although he said that, Ling Feng was already blooming with joy inside.
This was his first time ever making a newspaper headline!
Mahrez didn’t know that Ling Feng had already asked his mother to safely preserve this newspaper of his first headline appearance as a keepsake.
Of course, to maintain his composed persona in front of his teammates, he couldn’t tell anyone about this kind of thing.
Not even Mahrez, who was his closest friend in the entire first team!
At this point, Mahrez seemed to have thought of something else, picked up the iPhone from the bedside, and asked Ling Feng again: “By the way, Ling, how many Twitter followers do you have now?”
“I don’t know, I don’t have Twitter on my phone.”
Hearing this, Mahrez showed a surprised expression: “What?
You actually don’t have Twitter?!”
As a young man who loved football, Ling Feng’s predecessor had always focused all his attention on football, with no time to make friends, let alone play on social media.
For him, a smartphone’s functions were just making calls, team group chats, and listening to music.
“Then you definitely don’t know that the fans have gone crazy commenting on the club’s official Twitter account!”
“What do you mean gone crazy?”
“Look!”
As soon as he finished speaking, Mahrez handed his phone to Ling Feng.
Taking it and looking, Ling Feng saw that Leicester City club’s official Twitter had been flooded with various comments from Leicester City fans:
“Ling Feng is the next midfield master!” New chapters come out on g.com first.
“Let him start, please!”
“He deserves a start!”
“Manager, Ling starts, understand?”
The majority of the Leicester City fans’ comments, apart from praises, were appeals to the club and manager to give him more playing time or to let him start right away.
Among them, what surprised Ling Feng a little was that the comment with the highest number of likes actually came from Gary Lineker!
Gary Lineker, former England international.
During his career, he played for clubs like Leicester City, Everton, and Barcelona, winning honors such as the Premier League Golden Boot, FWA Footballer of the Year, and the World Cup Golden Boot.
He is also the second highest goalscorer in the history of the England national team, with 48 goals in 80 appearances, second only to Bobby Charlton.
After retiring, he focused on football commentary work.
In 1999, he became the presenter of BBC’s flagship football program “Match of the Day,” continuing to this day.
Leveraging the massive influence of “Match of the Day,” the Guinness World Record holder for the longest-running football program, this gentleman nicknamed “Football’s Gentleman” undoubtedly commands immense respect in the English football landscape.
He is witty, humorous, extremely quick on his feet, and combined with his vast football knowledge and top-notch eloquence, he has always been deeply loved by the public.
It is worth noting that what made him most influential was not how many stars or matches he commented on, nor his identity as a famous “Messi fanboy,” but a self-deprecating quote.
It was after being eliminated by the German team on penalties in both the 1990 World Cup and the 1996 European Championship that Lineker delivered a famous quote that still circulates in the football world today:
“Football is a simple game.
Twenty-two men chase a ball for 90 minutes and at the end, the Germans always win!”
The grievances and rivalries between England and Germany on the football level couldn’t be fully explained even in ten days and ten nights.
Therefore, this quote became an eternal pain in the hearts of many English people.
And as a well-known die-hard Leicester City fan, Lineker also paid attention to Leicester City’s matches from time to time.
He would occasionally post comments under Leicester City’s official Twitter to show his presence.
And this time, his comment was very surprising: “Ling Feng is absolutely the most creative midfielder Leicester City has ever had!
From today on, I am his fan…”
Ling Feng was somewhat overwhelmed by the praises from this senior figure.
You know, the last player he praised so highly was Messi!
And the celebrity effect was indeed extraordinary.
Lineker’s comment directly surpassed fifty thousand likes!
(END CHAPTER)