Teacher, You're Finally Back

Bild newspaper: "Beckenbauer personally names the artist of the pitch—Sampdoria's Number Seven, Dejan Lu, may well be the strongest Hornets catcher."

Dortmund were nicknamed The Hornets, and Bild newspaper showed them no mercy at all.

Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung: "Dortmund lost to an opponent they had no way of defeating. This was a painful experience. In the battle between aces, Andy Müller once again displayed the cowardice of a weakling. West Germany cannot place its hopes on him."

This Ruhr area newspaper was equally unsparing. Not everyone liked a fragile player like Müller.

The Times: "West Germany still fantasizes about reunifying Germany. Events in Poland have given them some hope, but we have already seen West Germany's true nature on the pitch. They are simply not prepared to become a major European power."

West Germans had always refused to recognize East Germany's diplomatic independence and hoped to reunify the country. As their ally, Britain firmly opposed German reunification, and Thatcher would leap out at the slightest sign of trouble.

After using the Heysel Stadium disaster to strike at the Labour Party, her control over the newspapers had reached its peak.

At the very least, she could ensure that most newspapers followed the direction she wanted most of the time.

The Liverpool Echo was one of the few dissenters, after all, since it had to sell papers in the Liverpool area.

The Liverpool Echo wrote: "The seven-year period is nearly over. Liverpool should return to European football. To reclaim their former standing in Europe, they must bring in outstanding players. Several young Sampdoria players would be a perfect fit. They have shown great potential in the Cup Winners' Cup."

This match also caused quite a stir across the football world.

FIFA was always saying that football should stay away from politics, yet football had never been separate from politics for even a moment.

As the protagonists, the entire Sampdoria squad stayed overnight in Dortmund before boarding the plane in high spirits the next day.

A few of the guys started playing cards again.

Mancini, whose luck had been terrible, egged him on. "Dejan, want to play a couple of hands?"

"Sorry, I'm not interested in gambling."

Dejan Lu shook his head.

"It's fine. Just treat it as entertainment."

Vialli persuaded him.

Unable to withstand the two of them taking turns persuading him, Dejan Lu could only go over and play with them.

He had learned Scopa a long time ago.

If you lived in Italy, it was easy to come across it.

It was a scoring card game.

It used cards numbered one through ten in all four suits, with two to four players.

Four cards were laid face-up first, then each player was dealt three cards.

Everyone took turns playing cards. If the card played matched the value of a face-up card, they could take both cards. If it equaled the sum of two cards, they could take the played card and both face-up cards.

If the card played could not match a face-up card or equal the sum of two cards, it had to be placed face-up on the table.

Once everyone had played their three cards, another three were dealt. After all the cards had been played, the remaining cards on the table went to the last person to take cards.

The final score depended on things like who had the seven of diamonds, how many diamond cards they had, how many sweeps they made, and how many cards they collected.

In short, it was a game that was easy to pick up after a few rounds but difficult to master.

Dejan Lu was fairly good at this sort of game.

After getting used to it for one round, Dejan Lu began to strike back.

"My luck is pretty bad."

Mancini glared at Pari. "Is there something wrong with the way you dealt the cards?"

"If you don't want to play, let me take over."

Pari said irritably.

"Who said I didn't want to play? I'm mainly worried Dejan's girlfriend will have a problem with me taking him gambling." Mancini muttered, "Scopa just isn't for me. We should switch to something else."

Vialli pretended not to hear him.

He and Mancini were close, but he did not like having that guy as a partner in games.

Mancini might have decent Football IQ on the pitch, but when it came to games, he always relied on instinct and often did not think at all.

Winning with someone like that as a partner was pure luck.

Dejan Lu said nothing.

The stakes in Dou Dizhu doubled too quickly. Mancini's salary probably would not be able to handle it.

There was still too little money in football these days.

It would not be until Arsenal signed Campbell on a free transfer that football saw its historic weekly wage of one hundred thousand pounds.

When they got off the plane, Mancini followed behind Dejan Lu.

Seeing that they were about to leave the airport, he quickly tugged at Dejan Lu's sleeve and said without much confidence, "You can't tell Federica about the IOU."

"Don't worry."

Dejan Lu smiled and waved him off.

Relieved, Mancini immediately dragged the others out for dinner.

"Sure. I'd have to cook for myself if I went home anyway."

Vialli said.

"I'll pay. I've been the one winning."

Dejan Lu said.

"Long live Dejan!" Pagliuca and Lanna shouted together.

The group took a bus and followed Mancini to a seaside restaurant called Funicolare Zecca-Righi.

The menu was quite cheap. A main dish cost only a few dollars per person, and even eating freely would not cost much.

"You don't need to deliberately save me money, Roberto."

Dejan Lu said while looking over the menu.

"I'm not saving you money. The main thing is that the food here is really good. I used to bring Federica here all the time."

Mancini said.

After they ordered, a somewhat strange young man served their food.

After setting down the dishes, he kept staring at Dejan Lu.

The restaurant owner immediately came over, patted him on the shoulder, and said, "Hurry back and clean up."

Only after the young man left did he point at his head apologetically. "My youngest son isn't very intelligent, but he likes Dejan a lot. He's always wanted to save up for a motorcycle. He may have frightened you just now. I'll warn him."

"There's no need. We're fine. Please don't punish him."

Dejan Lu said immediately.

The owner's smile grew wider. He turned and walked to the bar, brought back a bottle of wine, and placed it on their table. "It's on the house."

"I didn't know about that."

Mancini said sympathetically.

Vialli rolled his eyes. He had noticed it the moment he arrived.

The restaurant was not busy now. The young man sat at a table, slowly taking coins from his pocket and counting them.

"He looks happy."

Pagliuca said.

"Simple people tend to be happier."

Dejan Lu said.

Lanna lowered his head and looked at his wallet, only then remembering that he had given his salary to his girlfriend.

After they finished eating, Dejan Lu paid the bill and left a tip. The young man immediately went to the bar to get change.

Mancini complained somewhat unhappily, "I thought you'd give him a bigger tip."

"I don't think Dejan did anything wrong."

Vialli said, then stopped speaking when he saw the young man coming over.

"Thank you."

After taking the change, Dejan Lu asked, "I heard you want to ride a motorcycle?"

"Y-Yes!"

The young man smiled brightly. "Th-that day on TV, I-I saw it. It was very, very..."

"Dashing?"

Seeing that he could not think of an adjective, Vialli asked.

"Y-Yes!"

"Riding isn't all that great." Dejan Lu slowed his speech and advised him, "There are many ways to like motorcycles. If you want to compete, you can learn to repair them. Then we can be a team and enter races together."

The owner, who was pretending to wipe down a table nearby, instinctively turned his head and looked at Dejan Lu gratefully.

The group comforted the young man for a few more moments before leaving.

"See? Dejan handled that much better."

Vialli said. "You're too impulsive."

"He's still a cheapskate."

Mancini complained.

"This isn't about being stingy." Dejan Lu smiled. "His life is destined to be harder than other people's, so learning to persevere is a good thing."

"Even if it was a well-intentioned lie, it was still nice."

Pagliuca said with a smile.

"Who told you I won't be competing in motorcycle races?"

Dejan Lu asked.

They were all stunned.

They had not expected Dejan Lu to be so crazy.

Motorcycle racing was one of the sports with the highest fatality rates.

"Don't risk your life to do a good deed."

Vialli urged.

"It's fine. I know what I'm doing."

Dejan Lu said.

The group split up and went home.

On the way back, Mancini was full of worries.

Just as they were about to reach the apartment building, he pointed at the entrance and said, "Why is there a homeless person sitting there? Damn it, what is the doorman doing? I need to tell Mr. Mantovani to replace him."

What if a homeless person attacked their families?

Italy had plenty of thieves and Gypsy people, but it was an unspoken rule that they did not operate outside wealthy people's homes.

Just as the two were about to reach the apartment entrance, the "homeless man" suddenly rushed toward them and wailed in Japanese, "Teacher, you're finally back!"