After signing with AC Milan, I will be the king of football!

Chapter 1997 - 523: We Play Attacking Soccer

Manchester City head coach Roberto Mancini gave a TV interview before the match.

He said, "I know Tevez once fouled Huang Kaiwen. To make sure nothing unexpected happens in this game, I’ll have him sit on the bench."

The reporter asked, "You used to coach Inter Milan, the city rivals of AC Milan. Does facing them feel special to you?"

Mancini smiled and said, "Playing against AC Milan is always special, but now our derby rival is Manchester United."

"Does facing Kevin give you a headache?"

The reporter asked.

"Every coach gets a headache facing Kevin. You can ask Ferguson, he won’t have a different answer."

Mancini said, "Kevin is a very special player. You need to assign two players just to mark him, and then you still find you can’t stop him. In this world only Kevin puts that kind of pressure on other teams. I even feel like asking UEFA to suspend him specifically."

"So will you lose this match?"

The reporter asked.

Mancini shook his head and said, "I won’t predict the result before the game, but beating AC Milan is definitely not easy."

"Last question, does Hart really have psychological problems?"

The reporter asked.

The always-elegant Mancini’s face changed in an instant.

In fact, he also suspected Hart might be faking an injury.

But that’s the kind of thing you can’t say in public, otherwise it’s a huge blow to the team’s morale.

Mancini slapped the table, stood up and shouted, "Joe is a very outstanding player. Speculation like that is very unfair to him. It’s disrespectful, and we absolutely cannot accept it."

Later that evening Manchester City sent a lawyer’s letter to the TV station.

By the time the entire Milan squad arrived in Manchester, this matter was already a big scandal everywhere.

They finally managed to dodge the reporters and get to the hotel, only to find all the TV channels talking about this news.

The food in the hotel restaurant that night wasn’t really to their taste.

The Milan Players barely ate.

"This isn’t City messing with us, is it?"

Inzaghi grumbled.

"Don’t think so badly of people. At least they lent us the kitchen."

Huang Kaiwen said with a smile.

When they got back he’d have to have a word with Gagliani: what kind of dump of a hotel had he booked?

"If I’d known, I would’ve brought Salernitana along."

Inzaghi complained.

Roberto Salernitana had once had a short spell at Milan and been Ancelotti’s teammate in Rome.

The reason Inzaghi said that was because Salernitana had switched careers to become a chef and even opened a one-star Michelin restaurant.

"Cut the beef brisket into chunks. If you’re not helping, stop getting in the way."

Huang Kaiwen waved his hand, shooing Inzaghi away.

Ramos was working on the beef, while Kaka was washing bell peppers next to him.

Kroos and the Bender brothers were also making some German dishes.

Gattuso and a few of the old-timers had clustered together, nobody knew what they were planning to whip up.

"One spoonful of paprika, one spoonful of flour, add some black pepper and rub it in well."

Huang Kaiwen continued.

"Didn’t know you could cook Hungarian food, Kevin." Kaka said with a laugh as he chopped the side ingredients.

Huang Kaiwen said, "Saw it once on a travel show. Lily happened to want me to cook, so I gave it a try."

Homestyle Western food really is easier than Chinese food.

A frying pan is easier to control heat with, and with an oven you just set the temperature and you’re good.

And the seasoning isn’t that fussy—just add some water, toss in a bit of parsley or basil or whatever.

After marinating the beef for a while, Huang Kaiwen put the meat into the pan and seared both sides till golden brown. Then he took the beef out, used the leftover oil to sauté minced garlic and onion, and two minutes later added in strips of bell pepper.

Once the bell pepper changed color, he added tomato paste, put the beef back in and stir-fried it, added more pepper, and finally poured in water and dropped in a bay leaf.

"When do the potatoes and carrots go in?"

Kaka asked, holding a ladle.

"Half an hour before it’s done."

Huang Kaiwen said.

Once the few of them finished their part, they saw the others were also busy.

So they just went and sat down in the restaurant to chat.

Now and then everyone cooking together like this really felt like going out on a picnic.

Buffon was the first to bring out his dish and introduced it: "In my hometown, cheese and pasta are both famous, so I made cheese pasta."

Huang Kaiwen: ...

The Yellow Ball King had a hard time accepting that.

He only ate pasta that was mainly savory.

The teammates came out one after another.

Gattuso presented his seafood risotto, and Ambrosini insisted on making Milan-style saffron risotto.

When he was a kid watching costume dramas, what impressed Huang Kaiwen most was that saffron could be used to induce miscarriage—the herb was never absent in palace-intrigue plots.

"This is Bavarian cream mushrooms."

Lars Bender said, "The two of us have it a lot in our apartment."

"I heard you don’t really like beets, Kevin, so I fried pork chops instead."

Kroos said with a smile.

Huang Kaiwen finally let out a sigh of relief.

"Mine is Swiss pan-fried meat: patties made from minced pork, onions and egg, served with German sauerkraut." Rakitic introduced.

Although he played for the Croatia National Team, he grew up in Switzerland.

Right at that moment Kaka also brought over the Hungarian goulash they’d made earlier.

Inzaghi just went ahead and opened a bottle of wine.

Gattuso said, "We’re playing in the UEFA Champions League the day after tomorrow."

"That’s why we’re not drinking tomorrow."

Inzaghi said with a grin as he poured a little for everyone.

Seeing that nobody had started eating yet, Ambrosini joked, "Are we saying grace before the meal or what?"

"Let Kevin say something. I just love listening to Kevin give speeches."

Buffon egged him on.

Huang Kaiwen smiled, waved his hand and said, "Then I’ll just say a few words. Before today, none of us imagined we’d be cooking for ourselves in a hotel. Life is full of unforeseeable journeys. Don’t take victory and trophies for granted—they’re things we have to fight for. Finally, here’s to victory!"