“My motherland is not a football powerhouse, so maybe I’ll never have the chance to play in the World Cup during my career. That’s why the Champions League final is my World Cup!” — Brian Carter

A Chinese student who was once forced to give up football starts playing again in England’s amateur leagues. He never imagined he’d one day have the chance to say such words. Back then, all he wanted was to leave some different memories in his otherwise monotonous life as an overseas student.

In the end, not only did he create brilliant memories for himself, but he also left his own mark on the world of football.

A legendary story belonging to Brian Carter on the green field begins in the summer of 2002.

“Return to where I belong, to the top league! Go back to where I should be, Southwest London!!” On this blazing sunny afternoon, the cheers of over four thousand people echoed across King’s Meadow, no less passionate than those in the Premier League...

Volume One: The Wild Years

Chapter One: Brian Carter (Part 1)

The field was surrounded by quite a few people, but the familiar cheers had faded to barely a whisper. Only a few scattered shouts of “Go, go!” could be heard, hardly worth mentioning. Of all the compatriots who had come so enthusiastically to cheer for their own, how many were still paying attention to this match?

His teammates around him had stopped running, shuffling their feet across the pitch as if out for a stroll, faces pale and full of dejection. This was probably normal—facing a 0:4 scoreline, they had lost the motivation to keep playing.

Wearing the red Chinese team jersey, Brian Carter suddenly felt as if he had returned to that last match three years ago. He was the only one running on the field, enduring the coach’s murderous glare, struggling alone in vain. In the end, he scored a goal, but was still substituted, bidding farewell to ten years of football.

Today’s match gave him the same feeling.

He hated this feeling, hated it from the bottom of his heart.

He was even angrier because of it.

The match isn’t over yet, so why give up? So what if we’re far behind? At the very least, we can still try to score! Even if it’s just one goal... we have to get it! It’s a goal to save our pride! Even if we’re beaten black and blue, we should at least try to land a punch on the opponent’s face, not just crouch down, cover our heads, and beg them not to hit our faces!

A blond, blue-eyed opponent in a white England jersey dribbled the ball forward. One of his own teammates ahead of him stuck out a leg in a token attempt to block, but was easily bypassed.

Seeing this, Brian Carter gritted his teeth and charged forward. He was the last line of defense before the backline—he had to stop the attack, even though it wasn’t supposed to be his job alone.

Seeing Brian Carter coming, the opponent smartly passed the ball away. In previous matches, he’d already witnessed the defensive ability of this number 6—not that he was particularly skilled, but because he was so aggressive that you could get hurt if you weren’t careful. It was just a friendly, was it really worth risking your legs?

As the ball was passed away, Brian Carter turned and chased after it.

The opponent who received the ball passed it back again, and Brian Carter seemed to be remote-controlled, turning and chasing once more.

So, on the pitch, it turned into two players passing back and forth, making a fool out of Brian Carter.

The scene was rather comical, and laughter broke out among the spectators. Even some of the Chinese students who had come to cheer for Brian Carter’s team laughed—after all, it was pretty funny to them...

Emily Clark stood in the crowd, watching the scene on the field with a hint of helplessness. She didn’t find it funny; instead, she felt her compatriots were being a bit mean, taking pleasure in it. They were already four goals ahead—was this really necessary? Everyone was a classmate from the same college, and this was just an international student friendly, not the FA Cup final at Wembley, so there was no need for such mockery.

Still, that Chinese boy was really stubborn... Did he know he was being toyed with?

If I were him, I’d just stop and refuse to play along! How could they bully someone like this?

Emily Clark thought indignantly to herself.

But Brian Carter didn’t stop. Instead, he sped up. He could see that as the two opponents passed back and forth, they were getting closer together, and to avoid overhitting the pass, their passes were getting weaker—this was a chance...

When the number 11 on the left passed the ball again to the number 16 on the right, the ball bounced on the turf and slowed down. Brian Carter seized the moment, lunged forward, and slid in with an outstretched leg!

The bouncing ball struck Brian Carter’s toe, sharply changing direction and leaving its intended path.

Seeing this interception, Emily Clark jumped up from the sidelines and shouted, “Beautifully done!!” drawing surprised looks from the people around her. But she didn’t care, because it really was a beautiful tackle.