Emperor of Football: Julien De Rocca

"U21?"

Julien was somewhat surprised to hear this news.

"Yes! They faxed the team, hoping to call you up to the U21 squad before the next international break."

Julien nodded slightly, falling into trance.

Châtaigner was right-- national youth teams were indeed the first step toward the senior national team.

But Julien wasn't particularly enthusiastic about joining the senior national team or any youth teams.

Thanks to the French national team's excellent tradition of "internal fighting," the senior team was a mess, with the long-standing "Marseille faction" and "Paris faction" constantly at odds, plus conflicts between domestic players and foreign players.

France's youth teams followed suit. The players were all very strong, but they just couldn't play good football.

The biggest incident occurred over a year ago at the South Africa World Cup.

During halftime of France's 0-2 loss to Mexico in the group stage, coach Domenech criticized Anelka's first-half performance, while Anelka showed no respect and directly insulted Domenech.

The French Football Federation subsequently decided to expel Anelka from the national team.

Expelling a main striker from the squad during an ongoing major tournament was extremely rare in international football.

Three days later, during routine training, captain Evra quarreled with the fitness coach. The players then collectively went on strike and expressed their opposition to the federation's expulsion of Anelka.

Coach Domenech was even forced to stand up and read a collective statement from the players.

At that World Cup, France ultimately finished last in their group, leaving South Africa in an ugly and somewhat absurd manner.

Subsequently, Domenech was also sacked, and Blanc took over.

But clearly, Blanc hadn't yet gotten control of the French national team dressing room.

Joining the French national team now would simply be a waste of time.

Julien calculated that waiting for Deschamps to take charge would be the right time to join the national team.

Deschamps would go on to manage France for three World Cups, relying on his control of the dressing room.

Whether as a player or coach, Deschamps had extremely high prestige in French football— as captain, he led France to win both the 1998 World Cup and 2000 European Championship; as a coach, he achieved success with Monaco, Juventus, and Marseille.

Only Zidane could consistently outrank him. But current Zidane was still just a rookie in the coaching field.

So, for Julien, in terms of the national team, Deschamps was the coach worth betting on.

As for the U21 team, it didn't offer much competitive value for Julien.

The current U21 official matches were already finished; they'd have to wait until June for the new European Championship proper matches. In the meantime, there would be friendlies at most.

Friendlies didn't count toward victory points.

However, as Châtaigner said, this would benefit future national team selection and help build relationships early with this generation of excellent young French players.

In Julien's memory, the future core of the French national team, Griezmann, was still in the youth setup.

Having already made contact with Mbappé and now potentially building a relationship with Griezmann-- with their support, wouldn't he be able to dominate the future French national team?

He just needed to figure out how to connect with Deschamps.

This could be considered using information advantage to plan ahead for the national team.

After brief consideration, Julien decided to go with the U21.

"Sure, I have no problem with it."

"Good, then I'll help you arrange it."

Châtaigner's face also showed satisfaction. Other youth teams might be skippable, but he also highly recommended U21.

With this experience, Julien's value would rise even more!

Currently, Transfermarkt hadn't updated French league valuations yet - they'd have to wait until the end of March.

This perfectly coincided with the timing after Julien's French Cup quarterfinal and the international break.

This way, Julien's value could be maximized!

Using the current team's peak player, midfielder Rothen, who had a peak valuation of 25 million euros at PSG, as reference, Julien should be worth at least 10 million euros.

The more Châtaigner thought about it, the more he felt that signing Julien was an incredible bargain!!

Châtaigner couldn't help but smile. While others avoided these problem players, he was willing to give them opportunities.

Not to mention Julien, even Rothen was once a famous troublemaker, but now at Bastia, he played wholeheartedly for the team.

When Rothen played for Troyes for two seasons, Troyes was still in Ligue 1, and he impressed numerous Ligue 1 teams.

Paris Saint-Germain and Monaco both wanted to sign him.

As a Parisian who grew up dreaming of joining Paris Saint-Germain, plus having graduated from Clairefontaine, he naturally favored Paris teams.

With this double buff, the transfer to PSG seemed certain.

But then, the unexpected happened.

Just as Rothen was about to transfer to PSG, even going for medical tests and contract signing, PSG's then-coach Louis Fernandez publicly questioned the transfer, believing Rothen lacked ability.

As for why the coach would do this, there was no point examining reasons— Louis Fernandez was simply like that, periodically losing his mind and acting illogically.

He even drove away capable players like Anelka, Luccin, Dalmau, and Okocha.

At that time, Monaco's coach, Deschamps, was just starting his coaching career. He watched talent respectfully, and personally approached Rothen for heart-to-heart talks.

Then Rothen chose Monaco.

After a season of adjustment, in the second season under Deschamps' guidance, Rothen had his peak season, winning that season's Ligue 1 assist crown!

His performance at Monaco also earned him a spot in the French national team.

However, his best position was left midfielder, where peak Pires played, and occasionally Zidane would shift left—how could he possibly get opportunities?

He managed only 13 national team appearances.

Later, when both Deschamps and Louis Fernandez left their respective teams, Rothen finally realized his PSG dream.

PSG spent exactly 10 million euros in transfer fees to sign Rothen-- that was 10 million euros in 2004!

Subsequently, Rothen played five seasons at PSG with generally decent performance.

But there were more problems— Rothen was a troublemaker, causing issues whether at PSG or with the national team.

Later, he was loaned out by PSG to various teams, with his level declining dramatically.

His skills kept deteriorating while his temper grew worse.

Only Deschamps had managed to contain him for two seasons, creating his peak.

In 2010, PSG completely terminated Rothen's contract, making him a free agent. But for a full year, no one was interested.

Until last year, in the 2011 summer window, Châtaigner took an unconventional approach—just like his controversial signing of Julien and signed Rothen.

This season, Rothen directly became Bastia's key player.

Perhaps after experiencing so much, especially that year without football, Rothen was finally willing to rein in his emotions.

But at 34 years old, how much did he have left in the tank?

Julien had no idea Châtaigner had thought so much.

He wasn't concerned about his market value. His mind was entirely focused on self-improvement - honest training was the right path.

Through this period of training, combined with good match form, Julien saw his attributes had improved overall.

However, the changes were mostly in the four-to-five-point range.

"Still got to keep training!"