Between November 10 and 16, Europe held two matches between the national teams. Those powerhouse football clubs were deeply affected by the so-called “FIFA virus.” Even though the Forest team was not a big club, it still felt the impact.
The “FIFA virus” referred to the period stipulated by FIFA for the international top league tournament during which the national teams transferred a large number of players from the football clubs to conduct the intensive national team competitions. When the players returned to their respective clubs, they were physically and mentally exhausted. With their conditions declined, they played in the football club matches like they were sleepwalking.
This viral outbreak could be long or short. A short outbreak only affected one or two games. As for the long ones, there was another name for them: “World Cup Syndrome.” The players who performed well at the World Cup often fell into a downturn season.
Twain had met with another difficult problem in his coaching career: how to deal with and overcome the “FIFA virus.”
The Forest team’s main players list was reviewed.
The main goalkeeper, Edwin van der Sar, was drafted by the Netherlands national team.
Leighton Baines was originally the main force of England’s under 21 national youth team. But he was not selected due to his injury.
Sun Jihai was China’s national team’s main player. If he returned to China, he would need to travel across the Eurasian continent. That was not something to be pleased about. The long journey would greatly affect the player’s physical function and state of play. But fortunately, nothing deviated from history on that point. The Chinese national team was eliminated in the first stage of the German World Cup qualifiers for the Asia region. China lost to a Middle Eastern team in the supposedly fixed match. That happened a year ago on November 17. In the near future, Twain would not have to wrangle with the Chinese Football Association over Sun Jihai’s long-distance flights.
As the main force for Spain’s under-21 national youth team, Gerard Piqué was drafted to participate in the youth team competition.
The loss on the defensive line was smaller. After all, Pepe had not been selected for the Portuguese national team and the Brazilian Football Confederation did not come to him. Brazil had always been like that. There were too many local geniuses. Many footballers who played in Europe had been called geniuses in their country. However, only a handful was able to join the Brazillian national team. At that time, the top Bundesliga striker, Aílton, considered the idea of becoming a Qatar citizen to play in international games. The Barcelona midfielder, Deco, was even more thorough. He directly applied for Portuguese nationality and joined the Portuguese national team.
Countless geniuses had been unable to join the Brazillian national team in their lifetimes. What was another exceptional talent in the English Premier League?
In the midfield, Albertini had already announced his withdrawal from the Italian national team. He could use this time to take a good rest at home without the constant travel. Despite George Wood’s outstanding performance, there were a lot of star midfielders in England. Eriksson could not even manage his existing roster, never mind recruiting a newcomer. Therefore, Wood, highly praised by the media, could also take advantage of his rare free time to accompany his mother.
Ashley Young, who had always been England’s under-21 national youth team’s main force, was drafted into the youth team tournament. Like him, Aaron Lennon was enlisted, but in the under-18 youth team competition.
Although always the substitute player in the Forest team, Brynjar Gunnarsson was also recruited by the Icelandic national team.
As expected, Franck Ribéry was selected for the French national team. The French media had started to speculate on that very early on. Originally from a low-level league, the previously poor kid was now prominently chosen for the Gaul legion, like the classic Chinese phrase of a pheasant becoming a phoenix.
Mikel Arteta was perhaps the most frustrated midfielder in the Forest team. He was skilled and had performed well on the Forest team. However, no matter how well he performed, the Spanish national team was closed to him. Arteta might only be able to lament his untimely birth. At a time when the Spanish national team had Xavi and Iniesta at the helm, there was no need for another holding midfielder. Even Real Madrid’s Guti had not been put on the Spanish national team for a long time.
Arteta had only played a few games on behalf of Spain’s under-21 national youth team. He still had never represented the Spanish national team.
The midfield was the most affected, with the largest number of players drafted.
The situation with regards to the strikers was simple. Nicklas Bendtner was the Denmark national youth team’s main fixture. He must return to his country for the competition. Like him, Mark Viduka could not be missing in the important game to determine whether Australia could be in Germany next year. He had become the player with the longest flight distance on the team. It was a great test of his physical fitness. Fortunately, the Australian bull had always been proud of his excellent health.
And the other outstanding striker on the Forest team, Nicolas Anelka, was not selected for the French national team due to his terrible relationship with the French Football Federation.
Freddy Eastwood was overlooked because of his injury.
In that way, the Nottingham Forest First Team’s main list of twenty-three players now had eight players selected for their respective national teams. And most of them were part of the main force.
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Twain’s attitude was contradictory towards the national team games.
For the players who could not play in the club at the moment (like Brynjar Gunnarsson and Aaron Lennon), Twain still wanted them to maintain their condition through the national team games.
And those players who were the main force players in the club, Twain did not want them to be the main force in the national teams because that would add to their burden.
In reality, that thinking was selfish. But what football club manager was not selfish?
Everyone wanted their players to be healthy, not be in a state of decline from not playing for long periods. Twain was the same. Even though he was an Englishman now, he was not patriotic. Is it to be expected that the English national team wants my players? Who’s going to take responsibility when my players are injured playing for the country?
It was also fortunate that the Chinese national team was eliminated a year ago. If not, Twain would have had to wrangle with the Chinese Football Association. He used to be from China and was still Chinese at heart. But if you want to take my player away from me? No way!
Fortunately, Albertini had already announced his withdrawal from the national team. Otherwise, the old Demetrio, who had just recently recovered from his injury, could be worn out by both the national team and football club. Who could withstand it? The cost of players who were injured while playing for the national teams would still borne by the football clubs in the end. It was unreasonable for the clubs to pay wages and bonuses to the players, only to be worried about the national teams which had no hope of reaching the finals.
It was said to be the responsibility of every player to play for the national team. But still, Twain would only be happy to let his players compete on behalf of their countries if FIFA ruled that the national teams would be responsible for all the medical expenses of the players who were injured during the national team tournaments and compensate for the clubs’ loss.