I Am Scouted by Real Madrid-Chapter 196 - 71: Transfer Rumors, the World’s Three Strongest Players

After winning the award this time, Messi responded again, "When the ball is at my feet, all I think about is how I can help the team do better. I always think about moving forward, shooting, and scoring. I’m thinking about what I should do, not how I should do it."

"That’s the way I play football. I’m very calm about it. It’s my style. Indeed, my off-the-ball movement still needs improvement."

The interview seemed normal until now, but when recalling his career, Messi talked about last season’s hat trick against Real Madrid.

He also brought up his previous comments about the championship.

"I am a Barcelona player."

"For Real Madrid, I just want to say that I am grateful to Barcelona. They helped me and signed with me, so I will never join Real Madrid. I want to always play for Barcelona, and if, one day, I hope to return to play in the Argentinian league, but that wish may not be realized for a long time."

"Real Madrid just lost a league match."

"This is normal."

"As I said, they always perform poorly in the second half of the season. We can seize this opportunity to narrow the gap further."

"We are now only 2 points behind Real Madrid in the standings."

Real Madrid has suffered repeated defeats recently. In this round of the league, before the match between Real Madrid and Getafe began, Barcelona had already achieved a 5-1 victory against Levante.

In just one month, they have caught up by 7 points and are only 2 points behind Real Madrid.

The suspense for the La Liga championship is back again.

Messi did not mention Chen Zhong from start to finish. Some people think this is a form of disregard, while others believe it’s a form of respect. But Stoichkov’s words suddenly put this issue in the spotlight.

Stoichkov, nicknamed "Thunderbolt Fire", often surprises both in the Bulgarian national team and at Barcelona due to his fiery temperament.

A free kick from 40 meters away, the furious act of throttling an opponent, and even the fierce remark against Real Madrid, "The blue sky is always above the white clouds," are classics worshiped by Barcelona fans.

Supporting Barcelona and opposing Real Madrid seems to be Stoichkov’s lifelong task.

Two weeks ago, after Messi made his "second half" comments, Stoichkov predicted that Real Madrid would soon lose because of the enormous pressure of leading, and be overtaken by Barcelona.

And just as this prediction seemed about to come true, Stoichkov turned his focus to attacking Real Madrid’s "new star", "Bernabeu’s darling", "Raul’s successor"—Chen Zhong.

The reason was because in an interview, someone asked him what he thought of Chen Zhong.

But Stoichkov didn’t mention Chen Zhong at all and instead talked about Messi.

"Messi is one of the three best players in the world."

"The other two names are Kaka and Cristiano Ronaldo."

These three coincidentally were the three candidates for last year’s Ballon d’Or, Stoichkov’s choices, even Real Madrid fans couldn’t refute.

And after this interview, many Barcelona fans posted clips of Chen Zhong’s previous interviews, which included statements like: "Because Real Madrid only wants the best players, I have to become the best player."

Evidently, with only a 2-point difference in the standings, they are eager to unsettle Chen Zhong’s mindset.

Although they don’t admit it verbally, in their hearts, they also recognize that Chen Zhong is now crucial for Real Madrid.