I AM the Football Star-Chapter 411 - 117: San Remo Has Gone Mad, and So Has Maniero
In fact, there is a great competitive relationship between the current Premier League and Serie A.
The former flagship of the Five Major Leagues, Serie A, is declining, while the Premier League is rising.
There are many reasons for the former’s decline.
But an important reason for the latter’s rise is its continuous extraction from the former.
At first, what Serie A didn’t want, the Premier League wanted, what Serie A wanted, the Premier League wanted even more.
Later, as the Premier League fully caught up with Serie A, they began to hit Serie A in another way.
What Serie A liked, the Premier League looked down on, what Serie A didn’t like, the Premier League praised.
The Premier League no longer needed to follow Serie A, the Premier League just liked to have its own unique voice!
...
"Eighty-four!" Lu Yang looked at his data panel and finally felt the true strength of the previous generation of stars.
This is the teammate data in his system panel.
Bernulin has completed his transfer and has become Lu Yang’s teammate.
And Bernulin’s rating is as high as eighty-four!
This is the strength of Juventus’s former defense core!
You must know that Bernulin is already 33 years old, and his current data is by no means his peak moment.
Even so, he still scores eighty-four!
Compared to Latu Yidi, Bernulin has maintained his condition really well, and with his strength, playing for Juventus for another two seasons is not a problem.
But unfortunately... due to the long-standing "misunderstanding" about professional players’ age, Bernulin is seen by the management as an old guy who can hardly play anymore, so they actively promoted the team’s renewal, using young players to replace Bernulin.
And Bernulin, who respects himself and loves Juventus, also believed that he could no longer make significant contributions to Juventus, so he chose to leave.
All along, the issue of players’ age has actually led to the shattering of many "football legends."
At first, professional football was not so professional. At least before the regular means for professional players like physical planning, dietary habits, and high-tech monitoring became standard, there was a very obvious relationship between players’ physical conditions and their age.
Latin American players generally decline significantly after twenty-eight.
European players also begin to decline rapidly after thirty.
This manifests in their competitive level.
It was simply thought to be caused by age, by physical aspect.
But later, according to scientific statistics and analysis, it was found that this was not the case.
It is undeniable that twenty-five to twenty-six years is probably a player’s physical peak, and it is also when a player’s football wisdom truly starts to mature, so many players enter the peak of their careers from this period!
But in fact, after this, the player’s physical condition does decline, although it is a relatively gentle decline.
The point at which a player experiences a cliff-like decline depends on their own "maintenance."
On the one hand, the burden that age brings to the body can be greatly delayed through strict planning and maintenance, and it is not uncommon for players to play superbly even at thirty-five.
Players who can still get big contracts at thirty-one or thirty-two are also not few.
Some players can even maintain a high level of competitive strength in the league approaching forty.
On the other hand, around thirty is an important stage for men, where many players marry and have children, or experience grandparents passing away, or parents getting seriously ill in need of hospital treatment, etc.
This period for men bears the greatest pressure from society and battles against the various cruelties of this world.
They are very tired.
So, it’s not just players; many men will go through a "torture between life and death" around the age of thirty.
What did the famous player Lin Huang Lingard experience during his worst-performing year?
On the field, he faced enormous pressure which is not even worth mentioning.
But in life, his mother was seriously ill and hospitalized, he had two very young siblings to take care of, and he had to support the entire family.
At the same time, the grandfather who was most involved in his upbringing was diagnosed with prostate cancer, and his grandmother faced amputation due to illness.
He also had a one-year-old daughter, and as a new father, he was still a child himself.
He was still a child, yet he had to prepare to say goodbye forever to his closest kin.
In such circumstances, he went astray for a time, trying to relieve his pressure with alcohol and cigarettes, but that only made things worse.
This term has a specific term in China called "midlife crisis."
Yes, thirty is when the midlife crisis starts for many men. The fearsome aspect of a midlife crisis, besides making people experience the hardships of reality, also leads one to truly and abundantly encounter death.
Make no mistake, death is the greatest fear in this world.
And football, being a sport that requires high investment and focus, is fundamentally different from ordinary clerical work. When a midlife crisis arrives, some professional athletes find it very difficult.
The same issue was experienced earlier by basketball player Tracy McGrady, who lost ten close relatives and friends within ten years and developed a fear of the phone ringing.
This is called anxiety disorder!
It is also a mental illness very easily contracted during a midlife crisis period.
If one’s physical condition is poor, it can lead to even more severe consequences.
Even if one’s physical fitness is excellent, the psychological issues it triggers are difficult to heal.
In terms of playing football, it turns into a player always being overly concerned, paying too much attention to the many possibilities of a single pass, driving themselves to a mental breakdown.
