Chapter 23: Laila's Thoughts

  In fact, Chu Jiang received invitations from more than just one club in Torino.

  Perhaps due to the tireless efforts of Colombo and others, or perhaps due to the proactive promotion by Chievo and Zhujiang, within three days of arriving at the training base in Turin, Zhujiang received trial invitations from four Serie B clubs, including traditional second-tier powerhouses Livorno and Empoli.

  In the end, Du Ling and Chu Jiang successfully signed a contract. It was not only that Du Ling chose Chu Jiang, but also that Chu Jiang acknowledged Du Ling.

  The Turin team, affectionately known as the "Bulls", is one of the oldest and most glorious teams in Italian football history. Before the Superga air disaster, Torino dominated almost all the honours in Italy for nearly a decade. At that time, ten out of eleven players on the Italian national team were from Torino. In a sense, the Italian national team was another Torino team. The Torino team at that time was respectfully called "Torino's Divine Team" and was invincible.

  After the Superga air disaster, the Italian national team went from being a top-rate power to a second- or third-rate European club in a short time and remained so for twenty years. The heavily damaged Torino began a series of reconstructions that have yet to restore it to its former glory.

  Despite the twists and turns of fate, the Bulls have never given up; although they have been repeatedly teased by fate, the blood of the indomitable spirit has long been cast into the veins of the Bulls. The life of the Bulls is not exhausted, the battle is not stopped, not only inspiring themselves, but also moving countless Torino fans. It was such a charming team that when it was on the verge of relegation, there were still 50,000 fans who took to the streets, wearing red and black Bulls jerseys to express their loyalty to the team.

  The more he understands the history of the Bulls, the more he can feel the unique charm of this team. This spirit of fighting against fate has deeply moved Chujian, making him more willing to work for the Bulls.

  After arriving in Turin, Zhu Jiang immediately called his family to share the good news that he had signed with a strong Serie B team. If Zhu Jiang can represent Torino in a match, his parents at home can even find a video recording of that match and watch their son's performance personally.

  Chu Jiang's parents were overjoyed when they heard the news, never expecting that their child who had never been abroad before could bring them so many surprises after going overseas. However, as a mother, she felt heartbroken for her son's hard work and struggles in a foreign land, and repeatedly asked to come to Italy to take care of him over the phone.

  For his mother's request, Chu Jiang felt warm in his heart, but he still politely declined. Although he had signed a formal professional contract, 6,500 euros per year was barely enough for a football player. If his mother came to live with him, it would inevitably greatly increase the economic expenditure. Although there were some savings at home, Chu Jiang hoped to be self-sufficient and did not want his family to bear the heavy economic burden because of him.

  Moreover, the most crucial reason is that Chu Jiang's mother does not speak English, let alone Italian, and has never been abroad. Chu Jiang's daily training takes up a lot of time, leaving little time to spend with his mother. He feels sorry for his mother and does not want to see her being lonely in a foreign country just to take care of him. Therefore, Chu Jiang did not agree with his mother traveling all the way to Italy for his sake.

  After officially joining Torino, the training intensity of Chu Jiang in the "Gatekeeper Cultivation System" was upgraded from level 3 medium to level 2 high; the experience value for each training session increased from 5 points to 10 points, a full doubling. Moreover, the system no longer issued warnings about reduced experience due to mismatched levels to Chu Jiang. In other words, the system believed that Chu Jiang's training level at Torino was consistent with his own level.

  At the same time, the league where Chu Jiang is located has also changed from the Italian Youth League of Chievo Youth Team to Serie B. In the ranking system, the Italian Youth League belongs to the third-level low-level league, with a basic experience of 100 points per game, which is 20 times more than the games Chu Jiang played in the Jianghai City International Milan Football School at the beginning.

  However, compared to Serie B, the Youth League is naturally inferior. In the system's ranking, Serie B belongs to the second-tier mid-range, with each match providing a basic experience of 300, which is three times that of the Youth League. If Chujing can become a starter for Torino, relying on more than 40 league matches in a year, he will gain at least 12,000 experience points. This speed of gaining experience makes Chujing quite satisfied.

  "But, I wonder how much experience a Serie A match would be?" Chu Jiang couldn't help but indulge in fantasies about the Serie A. However, he quickly suppressed such thoughts, after all, the Serie A was still far away from him. Only by playing well in Serie B did he have the qualification to dream of the Serie A, otherwise it would just be an unrealistic fantasy like looking at flowers in the fog or fishing for the moon in the water.

  During his time in Chievo's youth team, the system also showed Italian Youth Cup matches, which were of the same level as the league. However, unlike the league, experience gained from cup matches was not fixed. According to the system, "the experience gained from each match would change according to the strength of the opponent, the round of the competition and the importance of the match."

  After Chujang signed with Torino, the cup match became the Italian Cup. To be exact, it was displayed as "Italian Cup Qualification Second Round". The match time is August 16th and the opponent is Cosenza (za). This cup match has a basic experience value of 100 evaluated by the system, which is similar to that of a youth league match. This means that the system thinks Cosenza is relatively weak and not a match for Torino. In fact, this is indeed the case. Historically, Cosenza had clashed with Toro nine times, but unfortunately, Cosenza had no wins at all. In these nine matches, Toro achieved eight wins and one draw, with impressive results.

  So far, Zhu Jiang has 115 experience points. If he can participate in the Italian Cup against Cosenza, his experience points will increase by 100 or even 200 points. However, whether Zhu Jiang can represent Torino and play his first professional match is still in the hands of coach Mihajlovic.

  Compared to the other two goalkeepers in Turin, Chu Jiang's advantage lies in his ability not being inferior to those two, young and with potential, and also having a free kick that can score directly. However, language is not proficient, coordination with teammates is poor, and lack of game experience are all Chu Jiang's shortcomings.

  In this case, the attitude of head coach Lyle towards who can represent Dalian in the first match of the new season is crucial. How to move Coach Lyle? Chu Jiang doesn't know. But he knows that only with good training will everything be possible.

  So in every training session, Chu Jiang would give it his all. This kind of effort naturally also fell into the eyes of Lyle and assistant coach Destro.

  The captain of the Torino team is Rolando Bianchi. Bianchi is a key player for Torino and has a high influence within the team. Throughout his career, he has played for many strong teams such as Manchester City and Lazio, and is a powerful center forward with expertise in scoring goals. After Torino's relegation, many top-tier league teams invited him to join, but he chose to stay with Torino. This move made him bid farewell to the national team coach's vision, but earned him the passionate adoration of the Torino fans.

  However, before Chu Jiang arrived in Chicago, Biyombo was injured during training and is still recovering. Therefore, Chu Jiang and Biyombo did not have much intersection. Compared to the captain of the Bulls, Chu Jiang is more familiar with the team's deputy captain Angelo Ogbonna.

  Ogbonna, who has just turned 22 years old, is a mainstay of Torino's defense and also a key member of the Italian youth national team. Like Inter Milan's Balotelli, Ogbonna's ancestral home is Africa, and he grew up in Italy from a young age, having been selected for various levels of the Italian national youth teams. Although both are black geniuses, Ogbonna is very low-key, vastly different from Balotelli's arrogant personality.

  As an outstanding representative of Torino's youth training system, 22-year-old Ogbonna not only became a mainstay of Torino but also took on the role of vice-captain of the Bulls. Due to his importance to Chu Jiang, in the training base, head coach Liel Dat specially arranged for this deputy captain of the Bulls and Chu Jiang to be in the same room, and ordered him to help Chu Jiang integrate into the team faster.

  For the task assigned by Lyle, Ogbonna listened with a smile. As a member of the national youth team, Ogbonna was not very unfamiliar with Chujang. In the national youth team, Ogbonna had heard his teammates from Inter Milan mention Chujang's name, saying that he was a goalkeeper who was extremely good at scoring goals. As a central defender, Ogbonna had never met a goalkeeper who was good at scoring goals, so when he heard Chujang's name, he took note of it. Unlike mature and steady coaches, young people are more likely to admire players who are good at attacking, and Ogbonna is no exception.

  Ogbonna didn't expect that this alternative goalkeeper named Chu Jiang would become his teammate so quickly. Due to the small age gap, plus they already had some good feelings towards each other, the two young men soon became close friends.

  Apart from Ogbonna, Chongjiang is not short of friends in Turin. In the Turin team, midfielder Andy Iunco, who was once a member of Chievo, still owns half of his ownership rights today. For his younger brother Chongjiang, who also comes from Chievo, Iunco naturally takes good care of him as an elder brother. There is also young talent Arlen Stefanovic, known as "Gerrard II", who is a player from the Appiano youth training camp. With Chongjiang also coming from Appiano, the two naturally have more common topics to talk about. In addition, there is young defender Danilo D'Ambrosio, who has a good relationship with Ogbonna and is also a member of the Italian national youth team.

  With the help of these friends, Chu Jiang's integration into the Torino team was naturally not slow, and his progress in learning Italian was also very ideal. With the help of the club, Chu Jiang enrolled in a language class in Torino. With the triple help of the language class, Italian friends and "language" skills, Chu Jiang can now basically communicate with his teammates.

  However, not all teammates welcomed Chu Jiang. At least, as a competitor to Chu Jiang, Morello and Brazil were not happy about his arrival. Especially after seeing Chu Jiang's outstanding performance in training and the favoritism of their teammates and coaches towards him, the two had some discontent towards Chu Jiang. However, since Chu Jiang's threat to their positions was not yet clear, they did not make things difficult for him.

  This situation, of course, did not escape the eyes of head coach Lierdah. In his view, the "catfish effect" brought by Chujang had only a little effect. As for the competition among the three, Lierdah was not worried at all, but rather welcomed this situation. The goalkeeper position is crucial to the team, but it happens to be Torino's weakness. How to strengthen Torino's strength in the goalkeeper position is what Lierdah cares about most.

  According to Petra Ecclestone, the introduction of Rubino has made no progress. Lierda is somewhat dissatisfied with this, but also has to prepare for the possibility that Rubino may not come. After all, the new season is imminent!

  "In two days, the Italian Cup match against Cosenza will begin. The opponent is not strong, it's a good opportunity to test and see if these three goalkeepers, especially the new goalkeeper, can meet the team's needs."

  Watching the three goalkeepers training actively on the field, Lyle's thoughts had already floated to the game two days later.

  "Who should I send out?" Lyle pondered...