New Book Preview: A Player Who Doesn't Want to Be a Referee Isn't a Good Coach

"Emergency announcement: Any spectators holding professional football referee certification, please proceed to the players' tunnel. We urgently need an assistant referee for the match to continue."

"I repeat, anyone holding..."

May 10, 2002. Tardini Stadium. Second leg of the Italian Cup final: Parma vs. Juventus.

An accident brought the match to a halt.

In the sixty-eighth minute, Prince of Zebras Del Piero collided with assistant referee Pulis, injuring the latter's eye and leaving him unable to continue officiating.

Fourth official Babini replaced Pulis as the on-field assistant referee.

But five minutes later, Juventus player Zambrotta made a powerful clearance that struck Babini in the head, giving him obvious concussion symptoms and leaving him unable to continue officiating.

The referee team had no choice but to seek help from the stands.

Before long, a young man climbed down from the spectator stands and entered the pitch, making his way to the referee.

"Hello. I hold an Italian intermediate coaching license and a referee license, with certificate numbers 89757 and 186816 respectively. I am qualified to serve as an assistant referee." He Tianqi's emotions were a tangled mess.

He had never expected to enter a professional pitch in such a way.

As someone who had been "born knowing," he had guided his parents into becoming first-generation wealthy and then poured all his energy into football.

Simply because he loved it.

With match awareness and tactical understanding far beyond ordinary people, he had joined Juventus's youth academy at an early age and been selected for the Italy Youth National Team above his age group several times.

He had been teammates with players like Nesta, Buffon, Zambrotta, Pirlo, and Gattuso.

But as time passed, his mediocre talent became his Achilles' heel.

He went from a star of tomorrow to an overage player in the