When Chu Zhongtian saw that Hoffenheim had sent him a transfer invitation, he felt it was amazing - what happened this summer? A group of teams used themselves as tools to check and balance the players in the team who were making transfers or making a raise on the grounds of transfers. Now another team that didn't know which league in Germany was in Germany came to express interest in him... He checked the Internet.

First of all, using the Chinese search engine Baidu, there is very little information found. Think about it, no one in China knows the name of this team yet. What valuable information can it have?

Searching for Hoffenheim in English, the official website of Hoffenheim's club was found.

In Chu Zhongtian's memory, two seasons ago, Hoffenheim was still playing in Germany's Division C.

In fact, there is no so-called "League C". Germany's first and second divisions are the German North and South Regional Leagues, which are equivalent to the level of the C leagues of other countries, so Chu Zhongtian would think that Hoffenheim is a team playing in the League C league.

The North-South Regional League (nord, süden_regionalliga) is divided according to geographical location. The four southern states, Bavre, Bayern, Rhine-People, and South Rhine-Rhine-South Regional League, and other federal states are included in the North-South Regional League. The top two in each district advance to the Bundesliga, the bottom four in the South Regional District are relegated, and the bottom five in the North Regional District are relegated.

The North and South Regional Leagues are below the German Senior Regional League (Oberliga). According to the division of the North and South Regional Leagues, there are five districts in the north and four districts in the south. The first place in each district is promoted to the regional league and relegated to two to five teams per year according to the size of the league in this district.

Further down is Germany's promotion of the league league (landesliga/verbandsliga), or five districts in the north and four districts in the south. The number of teams to be promoted based on the number of relegations in the previous league is determined. This is the last level of the professional league.

Further down there is the amateur league, which is also the real foundation of the pyramid.

In the past, Chu Zhongtian always thought that the "League C" was an amateur league, which was due to his lack of understanding of German football. Although CCTV broadcasted the Bundesliga for more than ten years, he was not a Bundesliga fan and rarely watched the Bundesliga broadcast. The only time he was interested in the Bundesliga was when Yang Chen shone in Frankfurt. To be precise, what he was interested in was not the entire Bundesliga, but a team in Frankfurt. Later, Yang Chen gradually could not play as the main player in Frankfurt, and his performance was not as good as before. He no longer watched the Frankfurt game, and he did not watch the Bundesliga broadcast.

Hoffenheim's official website is German, which is not a problem for Chu Zhongtian. He studied German with Mathilde for a year, and he could basically meet the needs of daily life in terms of listening, speaking, reading and writing.

He found Hoffenheim's historical record from Hoffenheim's official website.

He noticed that in the 2006-2007 season, Hoffenheim was still in the German North and South Regional League, and then the team advanced to the second place in the southern Regional League. In the 2007-2008 season, the just-concluded season, Hoffenheim advanced to the first place in the league and finally entered the German top league.

It turned out to be a three-level jump... Chu Zhongtian understood. Unexpectedly, the unknown team had such a big change after playing warm-up match with them. They were promoted to two levels for two consecutive years and became a new team in the Bundesliga next season.

But if you keep going to Zebra, you want to join?

This is too naive. I don’t have to worry about going to the place. So many clubs hope that they can join. As long as they nodded, they can even go to AC Milan. Why do they have to go to an unknown new team without any European competition? It’s hard to say whether they can stay in the Bundesliga after next season.

Chu Zhongtian knew nothing about this team, and he was not interested in getting to know this team.

Without hesitation, he tied the team out of his alternative list.

※※After preliminary screening, Chu Zhongtian called James Merry and planned to tell him his opinion. However, before he could express his decision, he heard a piece of news that surprised him first.

"Chu, are you in China?" James Merry asked.

Chu Zhongtian replied: "Yes, I'm at home in Chengdu."

"How is your family?"

"Everything is OK, thanks for your concern, James."

"Well, that's good. Also, I have something to tell you. Hoffenheim's head coach Mr. Rangnick contacted me yesterday and hope to have an interview with you."

Chu Zhongtian was stunned for a moment, then reacted. "Hoffenheim's head coach? Are you going to have an interview with me?"

"Yes, the name of their teams I give you on the list of teams that are interested in you should be included. It's not a day or two that Rangnick is interested in you, Chu. I've talked to him before, but I don't know if you still have any impressions, but he's interested in you since two seasons ago. Do you still remember? In the 2005-2006 season, Metz once played a warm-up match with Hoffenheim."

If it were a day ago, Chu Zhongtian would not remember it, but now he still remembers it.

"The head coach of Hoffenheim was not Rangnick in that game. But he had received an invitation from the chairman of Hoffenheim Club, and he was watching the game on the spot that day. He noticed you and has been paying attention to your performance since then. He told me that if Hoffenheim had not been promoted to the First Division, he would have wanted to buy you..."

Chu Zhongtian was stunned when he heard the phone.

He didn't know that the unknown team had such a fate with him... "Now he wanted to interview you because he told me that he had a plan, but he couldn't express it clearly on the phone or through me. Only in person can he explain it clearly. He knew that you could speak German, so in person was the most unhindered way."

"But I am in China..."

"So he is going to China to find you."

Chu Zhongtian felt that the head coach named "Rannik" was really crazy. He had never seen a head coach jumping half of the earth to interview in order to persuade a player to join... But he himself was not very interested in joining Hoffenheim. He now prefers to join Villarreal and Fiorentina. After all, both teams are qualified to participate in the UEFA Champions League. The yellow submarine can directly participate in the main competition, while Fiorentina will start from the qualifying round.

"My opinion is that it's okay to meet. Anyway, it's him who runs around, not you. You just need to wait for him in your own home."

Chu Zhongtian thought about it. Since Rangnick came to see him in person with such sincerity, it would be unreasonable if he didn't see him. Just as James Merry said, he had no loss when he met the other party.

So he agreed.

※※※ Since we have decided to meet this head coach, Chu Zhongtian will not fight unprepared. First of all, he needs to understand what kind of coach this person is and what ability he has to lead a regional league team to upgrade for two consecutive years. He has never looked down on a weak team because Metz was also weak before. But Metz had an excellent head coach Jean Fernandez. He wanted to know whether Hoffenheim could rise like a Rockets because they also had an excellent head coach.

With the blessing of the Internet, he easily found a lot of information about Rangnick.

Rangnick, born on June 29, 1958, is about to turn 50 and over fifty years old on June 29 this year. As a coach, his age has entered his golden age.

He has been a player, but he has no brilliant experience to boast about. He has spent all his football career in low-level leagues. However, there is no such regulation in this world - a successful head coach must have been a successful player before.

So the unremarkable experience of the player era did not have any bad impact on him now.

He started his coaching career with the Ulm Youth Team. Later, in the 1983-85 season, Rangnick played as a player and coach for his hometown team Bucknan. At that time, there was a warm-up match that impressed Rangnick. At that time, the team played against Dynamo Kiev, led by Ukrainian football legend Lobonnovsky. After the game, he said this, I felt that there was one more person on the court when I played. This was a brand new football. He worked as a coach in Stuttgart in 1985-87, but soon he went to Lippoldswell as a player and coach again to coach there. After hanging up the boots, Rangnick began his independent coaching career at Cooper (sc_korb). Two years later he returned to Stuttgart to start coaching and manage daily things.

From that time on, he began to be fascinated by AC Milan, where Saki coached. He would record every AC Milan game, edit and organize every game process, and build a database of players' movements. To do this, he had to be a workaholic who was obsessed with football, and Rangnik was such a person. He even spent his vacation time on football, just to observe the training sessions of the then coach Foggia and legendary Czech coach Zeman.

In the 1995-96 season, Rangnick began to coach the first team with a higher level, Rutlingen, who was in the Southern Regional League. He brought the team to fourth place in the first season. In the second season, the team was still in the promotion ranks before Christmas, but Rangnick did not continue and turned to Ulm, who he had played for. Since taking office in the middle, Rangnick's team only won sixth place in the remaining half season, but in the second season, that is, the 1996-97 season, Rangnick successfully led the team to the Bundesliga as the first in the league.

In the German sports TV program aktuelle_sportstudio on December 19, 1998, Rangnick, who was coaching in the German Second Division, held a magnetic tactical board on TV, explaining his belief in parallel four defenders and regional defensive tactics. At that time, such a tactical system was still new for German football, and most teams were still using the scavenger defense system. However, it caused an uproar after the show was broadcast. His school did not receive praise and support, but was ridiculed as a "professor" by traditional forces. Although it was exactly the same as the title of Arsenal coach Wenger in the Premier League, it was far from the same as the talented coach of the Premier League. At that time, Rangnick was considered just an academic coach, and his theories were far less than those of German traditional spiritual will and other experts.

On May 3, 1999, Rangnick officially took over Stuttgart and finally ranked 11th after playing the last five games of the season. Later, Rangnick began his first complete Bundesliga coaching journey. He promoted timo_hildebrand, who was only 20 years old and introduced 23-year-old marcelo_bordon from St. Paul. In the end, the team ranked eighth in the middle. In the 2000-01 season, he bought Alexander_hleb for 150,000 euros, signed christian_tiffert freely, and promoted 18.

The team successfully entered the League Cup through the Toto Cup at the beginning of the season, but it was obvious that Rangnick was not prepared for the two-way battle. When the team entered the League Cup quarterfinals 16 knockout, they struggled in the Bundesliga for a long time. When they were eliminated by Vigo Celta in the European game, Rangnick was also fired by the club and was dismissed. Stuttgart eventually barely relegated with a three-point advantage. However, Rangnick has left the prototype for the youth storm set off by the team in the future.

In the 2001-02 season, Rangnick returned to the Bundesliga coach Hannover 96, leading the team to win the Bundesliga championship that year. After thirteen years, he returned to the Bundesliga and scored 93 goals in the Bundesliga record. Hannover won eleventh in the first season of returning to the Bundesliga, but Hannover suffered a decline in his record in the second season. However, it is worth mentioning that the main center back of the German national team, Per_mertesacker, was promoted to the first team this season by Rangnick and made his Bundesliga debut against Cologne. In March 2004, Rangnick was dismissed by the club after the team lost 0:1 to Borussia Mönchengladbach and lost five games.

On September 28, 2004, Rangnick replaced Heinkes as Schalke 04 head coach. Although he was eliminated in the first round of the League Cup, he advanced all the way to the finals in the German Cup, but eventually lost to Bayern 1:2. In addition, Schalke was only behind Bayern in the league championship. Although he failed to win the championship, the two runner-up results also allowed Rangnick to quickly conquer the hearts of fans. In the second season, the team freely introduced Ernst (fabian_ernst) and signed Kevin_dennis_kurányi and Rafini.

Rafinha, and promoted Schalke's main goalkeeper manuel_neuer from the u19 youth team. However, the team's record in the league was mediocre, failed to advance in the Champions League group stage, and even lost 0-6 to Frankfurt in the German Cup. Due to the disagreement with manager Assauer and the team's big-name players, Rangnick left half a year before the contract expired. However, before Assauer fired him, the professor waved goodbye to fans in the last home game against Mainz during the winter break. Schalke created an impressive record of 88 points in 44 rounds, making him the best league record coach in the history of the Royal Blues.

Later he signed a contract with Hoffenheim, and Chu Zhongtian knew what happened next.

After reading these information, Chu Zhongtian discovered that many of the stars he knew were related to this unknown head coach.

He had to revisit the coach.

This should definitely not be a "nameless man". On the contrary, he does have the strength, and his coaching in Bundesliga teams such as Stuttgart, Hannover 96, Schalke 04 tells it all.

It seems that his success in Hoffenheim is definitely not luck... He suddenly became interested in Rangnick, very curious, and was eager to see him.

※※Two days later, Chu Zhongtian met Rangnick himself at Shuangliu International Airport in Chengdu.

Rangnick wore a pair of glasses and looked gentle. He didn't look like a football coach, but like a teacher who taught in school. It seems that the nickname "Professor" given to him by the Germans is really appropriate. Although this nickname was originally derogatory, Chu Zhongtian believed that with his achievements in Hoffenheim, the derogatory elements in this nickname should be getting weaker and weaker.

"Hello, Mr. Rangnick." Chu Zhongtian, who was in charge of picking up the plane, took the initiative to extend his hand to the German man in front of him.

"Hello, Chu."

After the two of them exchanged greetings, Chu Zhongtian took Rangnick into the car. The person driving was his Chinese agent Xu Xiaodi.

"You don't look like a football coach at all, Mr. Rangnick."

"Haha!" Rangnik laughed. "You are not as skilled as a non-German."

Chu Zhongtian arranged Rangnick in a business hotel not far from his home. This was Rangnick's request. He was not here for vacation, so it doesn't matter where he stayed. It would be best to be able to communicate with Chu Zhongtian, so Chu Zhongtian found him a hotel closest to his home, which only takes ten minutes to walk.

After taking Rangnick to the hotel room, Chu Zhongtian planned to say goodbye. He thought that Rangnick was exhausted from traveling and should have a good rest.

Unexpectedly, Lannik grabbed Chu Zhongtian: "I want to talk to you now, Chu. If we can negotiate today, I will go back tomorrow."

"Don't be so anxious..." Chu Zhongtian smiled in surprise. "You have a good rest today, and I'll take you to have a walk tomorrow..."

Rangnick shook his head and interrupted: "I'm not here to travel, Chu." After he said this, he smiled and looked at the junior high school with a difficult time.

So what are you here to do? Chu Zhongtian didn't ask that because he knew what Rangnick was here to do.

He looked at the door and nodded, "Okay, Mr. Rangnick. Let me call my agent so he won't wait for me."

Then he took out his cell phone and asked Xu Xiaodi to go back to the hotel by himself without waiting for him, and he had to stay with Rangnick. Then he called his home and told his parents that he might have to go back later. His mother told him to pay attention to safety, while his father told him to pay attention to details and be neither humble nor arrogant during the conversation with Rangnick.

After all this last night, Chu Zhongtian turned off his phone and looked at Rangnick: "We can talk now, Mr. Rangnick."
Chapter completed!