The invitational tournament exploded in popularity after it began.
In Europe, there had been celebrity team matches before, and people saw plenty of star players normally, so it was not quite this insane.
But in Asia, in Hong Kong...
It was hard to understand if you had not lived through that era.
When Real Madrid's six superstars came to China, people practically wanted to put them on pedestals.
As for Hong Kong, it had always been born with a filter for foreigners.
So many foreign dignitaries and football legends arriving at once made Hong Kong suddenly perk up.
The more objective media wrote that it showed the motherland's influence.
Others simply put on the same old face, claiming that stars were only willing to come to Hong Kong and the like. Some people had been servants for so long that they simply could not change.
When the Union Jack came down, they were more miserable than if someone had died.
But no matter how proud they were, they had to admit that Dejan the Football King had influence—and that he had put a massive green hat on Charles.
Though it had only been a little over three months, The Princess's pregnancy was already becoming fairly noticeable.
The headline "Domestic British Crown Prince" was eye-catching enough on its own.
Hong Kong's media was no worse at this than those teachers on Fleet Street.
It was not until the invitational tournament officially began that the attention around Dejan Lu and his girlfriends finally dropped a little.
There was no helping it. Hong Kong loved gossip.
A British princess, Italy's Number One Beauty, and the lead singer of a rising Japanese group.
Those were practically all elements Hong Kong media loved.
The free-kick competition was divided into qualifiers, group stages, and finals.
Some