Emperor of Football: Julien De Rocca

After the 1-4 thrashing by Bastia, Furlan didn't make excuses at the post-match press conference. He opened by saying. "I made a serious tactical error. The root of this defeat lies in my poor arrangements."

"We shouldn't have been so reckless in playing an attacking game against Bastia. Facts proved that Bastia's offensive capabilities are significantly superior to ours, especially after their De Rocca came on— we were completely overwhelmed."

"De Rocca is a good player. After the match, I asked Sidibe if he was confident about defending Julien next time. Sidibe told me, 'Oh, boss, I don't want there to be a next time.' Well, that's just a joke - Sidibe's defensive ability is perfectly fine. Perhaps it's just that Julien's technical skills are superior."

"As for promotion? Oh, don't ask me that question anymore. If you keep asking, I'll give you the same answer as Hadzibegic- our goal is to avoid relegation."

Upon hearing this, everyone present chuckled.

Because just moments ago at Bastia's post-match press conference, Hadzibegic had once again emphasized that Bastia's primary season objective was avoiding relegation.

However, because Clermont drew with Sedan in their concurrent match, the points gap between Clermont and Bastia was now just 1 point.

Many reporters thought to themselves. wouldn't it be something if Bastia won the title while Hadzibegic kept talking about relegation?

Beyond the match result, what drew more attention was Julien's performance - coming off the bench to score twice, five goals in three matches.

Including the French Cup, he now had 7 goals and 2 assists in five matches.

So, the day after the match, numerous newspapers heavily promoted Julien's magical qualities - top-class ball handling, first-rate finishing ability.

They basically used ambiguous superlatives to describe everything.

Without quantified standards, you couldn't say their writing was problematic, and if newspapers sold well, that was success.

This was journalism!

Media always loved giving rising football stars various "successor to XX" titles.

Parisian media dubbed Julien the "new Ronaldinho," also paying tribute to the former Paris Saint-Germain player.

Meanwhile, in the French U21 team office at Clairefontaine, Erick Mombaerts was reviewing various newspapers that primarily covered young players.

On days without training camps, he was always monitoring France's young players.

Recently, the name Julien De Rocca had appeared in his eyes multiple times.

As head coach of France's U21 team, Mombaerts might not know every detail about French young players, but he had a pretty good grasp of the overall picture.

Mombaerts needed a reasonable squad to face the U21 European Championship.

The European Under-21 Football Championship was held every two years.

The final stage was held in even years before 2007, then changed to odd years starting in 2007.

This tournament also served as the European qualification for the following year's Summer Olympics men's football competition.

Last year, Spain's U21 defeated Switzerland 2-0 to lift their third U21 European Championship trophy.

France's U21 had a miserable showing in that tournament.

They failed to even qualify for the 2012 Summer Olympics men's football, with the entire U21 squad receiving harsh criticism from the federation.

This year, the new U21 European Championship qualifiers were about to begin.

Mombaerts was under tremendous pressure.

With so many strong European teams, but only four spots available for Europe in the quadrennial Olympic men's football tournament, France had missed the Olympics for many editions.

Last year, their poor performance in the European Championship qualifiers was largely due to attacking deficiencies.

This was why Mombaerts had repeatedly noticed Julien - France's U21 lacked absolute attacking talent.

The team's current main strikers - Lacazette, Griezmann, Yaya Sanogo - were all mediocre, not to mention the other fringe forwards.

Now seeing a 17-year-old player who could dominate in Ligue 2, he was intrigued.

Moreover, he'd heard that U17, U19, and U20 teams had also wanted to recruit Julien, but were refused by Bastia.

The reason given was excessive muscle load, with the team doctor advising against too many matches.

Mombaerts knew these were all excuses. After all, FIFA regulations stated that players couldn't directly refuse national team call-ups - they'd face worldwide bans.

So, to refuse, there had to be excuses.

Usually injury or family matters, and national team coaches would turn a blind eye.

Mombaerts believed Bastia's reason for not releasing players was simple. other youth team competitions were too low-level, not only failing to provide Julien with training opportunities but also risking injury.

But his U21 was different!

Facing strong European teams, the competitive intensity was no less than Ligue 2.

The previous European Championship winners, Spain's U21, had an excellent squad with many highly-regarded players like De Gea, Azpilicueta, Montoya, Bojan, Javi Martínez, Parejo, Mata, and others.

Mombaerts slapped his forehead and made the decision to call up De Rocca!

He'd watched De Rocca's match videos multiple times and felt this was exactly the forward the team needed.

Julien had no idea that a fax from Clairefontaine was already being transmitted to Bastia.

Hadzibegic was giving him individual coaching.

"What I just told you is based on analysis of your current match performances. You need to listen. I know you think you can dribble now, but you must understand - this is only Ligue 2."

Julien nodded.

Hadzibegic meant that if he continued playing this way, he'd easily be targeted.

"So, I want to tell you a very common understanding. the most important thing about dribbling isn't strength, speed, or technique - these all have ways to be countered. The most important thing is rhythm!"

Hadzibegic continued. "In our playing era, Maradona was the hardest to defend against. In my matchups with him, although I didn't make too many mistakes, I couldn't relax for a moment. I never knew what his next move would be. I was confident my speed and strength weren't much inferior to Maradona's, but I had no confidence in stopping him - I could only try to limit him as much as possible. He relied on his footwork rhythm."

Julien thought Hadzibegic would tell him how to practice dribbling rhythm.

But Hadzibegic smiled helplessly. "But I can't teach you how to do it. This is football's most unfair aspect—talent. Some people don't need teaching; those who need teaching don't need to be taught. I can only say you should watch dribbling videos of Maradona and Ronaldinh, perhaps you can gain some inspiration from them."

"Okay."

In fact, even without Hadzibegic saying so, Julien already had this habit.

Learning never ends.

Just as Hadzibegic and Julien's conversation was ending, Châtaigner called out Julien's name, asking him to come over.

Approaching Châtaigner, he had an excited expression and said to Julien. "The first step toward the national team has arrived! France U21 has called you up!"