[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-emperor-of-football-julien-de-rocca":3,"chapter-emperor-of-football-julien-de-rocca-emperor-of-football-julien-de-rocca-chapter-44":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"english","Emperor of Football: Julien De Rocca",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},1555831,2020,"Chapter 44: Chapter-44 Training","emperor-of-football-julien-de-rocca-chapter-44",44,"\u003Cp>\"U21?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Julien was somewhat surprised to hear this news.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Yes! They faxed the team, hoping to call you up to the U21 squad before the next international break.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Julien nodded slightly, falling into trance.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Châtaigner was right-- national youth teams were indeed the first step toward the senior national team.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But Julien wasn't particularly enthusiastic about joining the senior national team or any youth teams.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>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.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>France's youth teams followed suit. The players were all very strong, but they just couldn't play good football.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The biggest incident occurred over a year ago at the South Africa World Cup.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>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.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The French Football Federation subsequently decided to expel Anelka from the national team.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Expelling a main striker from the squad during an ongoing major tournament was extremely rare in international football.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>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.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Coach Domenech was even forced to stand up and read a collective statement from the players.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At that World Cup, France ultimately finished last in their group, leaving South Africa in an ugly and somewhat absurd manner.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Subsequently, Domenech was also sacked, and Blanc took over.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But clearly, Blanc hadn't yet gotten control of the French national team dressing room.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Joining the French national team now would simply be a waste of time.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Julien calculated that waiting for Deschamps to take charge would be the right time to join the national team.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Deschamps would go on to manage France for three World Cups, relying on his control of the dressing room.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>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.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Only Zidane could consistently outrank him. But current Zidane was still just a rookie in the coaching field.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So, for Julien, in terms of the national team, Deschamps was the coach worth betting on.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As for the U21 team, it didn't offer much competitive value for Julien.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>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.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Friendlies didn't count toward victory points.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>However, as Châtaigner said, this would benefit future national team selection and help build relationships early with this generation of excellent young French players.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In Julien's memory, the future core of the French national team, Griezmann, was still in the youth setup.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>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?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He just needed to figure out how to connect with Deschamps.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This could be considered using information advantage to plan ahead for the national team.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After brief consideration, Julien decided to go with the U21.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Sure, I have no problem with it.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Good, then I'll help you arrange it.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Châtaigner's face also showed satisfaction. Other youth teams might be skippable, but he also highly recommended U21.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With this experience, Julien's value would rise even more!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Currently, Transfermarkt hadn't updated French league valuations yet - they'd have to wait until the end of March.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This perfectly coincided with the timing after Julien's French Cup quarterfinal and the international break.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This way, Julien's value could be maximized!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>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.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The more Châtaigner thought about it, the more he felt that signing Julien was an incredible bargain!!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Châtaigner couldn't help but smile. While others avoided these problem players, he was willing to give them opportunities.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Not to mention Julien, even Rothen was once a famous troublemaker, but now at Bastia, he played wholeheartedly for the team.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>When Rothen played for Troyes for two seasons, Troyes was still in Ligue 1, and he impressed numerous Ligue 1 teams.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Paris Saint-Germain and Monaco both wanted to sign him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As a Parisian who grew up dreaming of joining Paris Saint-Germain, plus having graduated from Clairefontaine, he naturally favored Paris teams.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With this double buff, the transfer to PSG seemed certain.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But then, the unexpected happened.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>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.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>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.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He even drove away capable players like Anelka, Luccin, Dalmau, and Okocha.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>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.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then Rothen chose Monaco.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>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!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His performance at Monaco also earned him a spot in the French national team.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>However, his best position was left midfielder, where peak Pires played, and occasionally Zidane would shift left—how could he possibly get opportunities?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He managed only 13 national team appearances.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Later, when both Deschamps and Louis Fernandez left their respective teams, Rothen finally realized his PSG dream.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>PSG spent exactly 10 million euros in transfer fees to sign Rothen-- that was 10 million euros in 2004!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Subsequently, Rothen played five seasons at PSG with generally decent performance.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But there were more problems— Rothen was a troublemaker, causing issues whether at PSG or with the national team.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Later, he was loaned out by PSG to various teams, with his level declining dramatically.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His skills kept deteriorating while his temper grew worse.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Only Deschamps had managed to contain him for two seasons, creating his peak.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In 2010, PSG completely terminated Rothen's contract, making him a free agent. But for a full year, no one was interested.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Until last year, in the 2011 summer window, Châtaigner took an unconventional approach—just like his controversial signing of Julien and signed Rothen.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This season, Rothen directly became Bastia's key player.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Perhaps after experiencing so much, especially that year without football, Rothen was finally willing to rein in his emotions.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But at 34 years old, how much did he have left in the tank?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Julien had no idea Châtaigner had thought so much.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He wasn't concerned about his market value. His mind was entirely focused on self-improvement - honest training was the right path.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Through this period of training, combined with good match form, Julien saw his attributes had improved overall.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>However, the changes were mostly in the four-to-five-point range.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Still got to keep training!\"\u003C\u002Fp>",1203,"2026-06-06T07:35:05.902Z",1,"novelbin.me","1e400e2cc9de2d3db0f9d2fc30beb9387d6115fdbacb6f67bff057fc09b00990","emperor-of-football-julien-de-rocca-chapter-45","emperor-of-football-julien-de-rocca-chapter-43",628,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Femperor-of-football-julien-de-rocca-cover.jpg"]