Both Borussia Dortmund and Zhou Yi's individual special training were underway.

Klopp specifically issued a gag order to all players, forbidding them from revealing the existence of the new training facility until after the two legs against Barcelona were over.

For him, this was a secret weapon to use against Barcelona. If it was leaked in advance, how could it be considered a "secret weapon"?

Thus, the entire Borussia Dortmund team was secretly preparing for the match against Barcelona.

In the meantime, in the twenty-sixth round of the league, Borussia Dortmund narrowly defeated Werder Bremen 1-0 at home, continuing to maintain their leading position in the league standings.

March 25th, the twenty-seventh round of the league, was the last league match before the first leg against Barcelona.

Before this match, everyone thought that Klopp would definitely rotate the squad, replacing most of the starting players in preparation for the match against Barcelona.

Although everyone felt that Klopp was doing this in vain, Klopp would still do it.

Sure enough, in Borussia Dortmund's away game against Cologne, most of Borussia Dortmund's starting players, including Zhou Yi, were rested. Some people weren't even included in the matchday squad, like Zhou Yi.

Borussia Dortmund, with two-thirds of its starting players replaced, still defeated Cologne away, and surprisingly, their advantage was very obvious.

In the first half, Cologne was able to maintain a 1-1 draw with Borussia Dortmund at home, but in the second half, Borussia Dortmund suddenly exerted their strength, scoring five goals in a row... finally defeating Cologne with a score as lopsided as 6-1.

It should be noted that this was just a Borussia Dortmund team with most of its starters rotated.

After this match, the German media exclaimed at Borussia Dortmund's astonishing dominance in the Bundesliga. They were already capable of slaughtering their opponents with a substitute lineup.

Some media even believed that meeting Barcelona in the Champions League quarter-finals might actually be a good thing for Borussia Dortmund. Because once they were eliminated, they could completely focus on the league. At that time, with their dominance in the league and their huge points advantage, neither Bayern Munich nor Schalke 04 could pose a threat to them.

The league title this season was very likely to be theirs again. Borussia Dortmund would successfully defend their title!

※※※

After finishing the away game against Cologne, the entire Borussia Dortmund team returned to their base camp, and the media reported that they had begun preparations for the match against Barcelona.

But in reality, Borussia Dortmund had already begun preparations for the match against Barcelona long ago.

Of course, no one knew about Borussia Dortmund's secret weapon. The Borussia Dortmund players kept their mouths shut. This fully demonstrated Klopp's prestige within the team.

As the Champions League match drew nearer, there were more and more media reports about the match.

The Catalan media revealed Zhou Yi's connection with Barcelona.

The Catalan reporter who had been directly challenged by Zhou Yi last time dedicated himself to uncovering the story between Zhou Yi and Barcelona.

In fact, he had dug it up very quickly, but the reason why he didn't report it was because he couldn't believe the story. So he spent more time verifying it from various sources, hoping to prove that the story was fake, a product of Chinese media's wishful thinking.

But unfortunately, after verifying it from various sources, he found that this was a real event, not a story made up by someone to attract attention.

Near the end of that reality show, the reality show team from China was arranged to play another match against Barcelona's youth team, La Masia U17. In the first encounter between the two sides, the La Masia youth team had an absolute advantage. They relatively politely only beat the Chinese football teenagers by twelve goals.

Logically speaking, the result of this final match was without suspense.

But the La Masia youth team was actually defeated by a last-minute goal from the Chinese football teenagers in this match!

The one who scored the winning goal for the Chinese team, the one who defeated La Masia with a last-minute goal, was Zhou Yi.

Thanks to his outstanding performance in the match, Zhou Yi rightfully gained the favor of La Masia.

Up to this point, it was an inspirational story of a teenager finally gaining the favor of Lady Luck through hard work.

Few people could refuse the call from La Masia.

But Zhou Yi refused.

He really did refuse La Masia's invitation, rather than La Masia looking down on him.

This really wasn't made up by British media or Chinese media.

The reporter interviewed Garcia, the technical director of La Masia at the time, who was responsible for recruiting Zhou Yi.

He told the reporter in detail about his "confrontation" with Zhou Yi at the time.

"...We were one step late. At that time, he had already reached an agreement with Borussia Dortmund. Nevertheless, I still tried hard to persuade him, but he insisted on following his previous agreement with Borussia Dortmund... Seeing his performance in Borussia Dortmund now, I sometimes still regret not being able to sign him. He is, in my opinion, the player who is closest to being Xavi's successor..."

Garcia gave Zhou Yi a very high evaluation.

This surprised the reporter.

All along, the Barcelona media and fans have been very worried about who would be Barcelona's midfield brain after Xavi retires.

It's probably impossible to find a second player in the world who plays like Xavi.

But La Masia's technical director believed that Zhou Yi could be Xavi's perfect successor.

It's just a pity that this perfect successor is now in Borussia Dortmund...

After he published this past event, it quickly attracted more attention.

Before, when Borussia Dortmund played against Arsenal, some media reported that Zhou Yi had attracted the interest of Arsenal and Barcelona, but he ultimately chose Borussia Dortmund.

At that time, because it was reported by the English media, the focus of the report was naturally on Zhou Yi's rejection of Arsenal. As for the story between Zhou Yi and Barcelona, it was not described in great detail, only mentioned in passing.

Now, everyone finally knew the detailed process of Zhou Yi's rejection of Barcelona back then through this report.

For those who didn't know much about this matter before, they felt that their eyes had been opened.

Everyone knew the status of La Masia training camp in football youth training. It was no exaggeration to say that it might be more important than Barcelona's status in the world football scene.

If a teenager could be favored by La Masia, it would simply be a major event worth writing about by the media in his country, and the player would immediately be crowned with the title of "genius."

Receiving training at La Masia was almost the highest dream of all football teenagers in the world. No one could refuse this invitation.

But Zhou Yi refused.

And he refused very firmly.

If it was at that time, many people would have thought that Zhou Yi was simply crazy. He rejected La Masia's invitation and would definitely regret it for the rest of his life.

But now, such words could not be said.

Looking at Zhou Yi's achievements in Borussia Dortmund, having just turned twenty years old, he was already the core of Borussia Dortmund's midfield, and in the entire European football scene, his performance could rank among the top ten midfield organizers.

If he had chosen La Masia at the time, would he have been able to squeeze Xavi onto the bench in Barcelona's first team?

No matter how you look at it, this was almost impossible.

So no one could say that Zhou Yi's choice to join Borussia Dortmund was a failure.

His experience once again proved an unbreakable truth, which was that "once you enter a wealthy family, you are trapped for life." Barcelona's youth training camp, La Masia, was a paradise for football geniuses, but Barcelona's first team was not necessarily so.

※※※

Guardiola was studying their opponent in the Champions League quarter-finals. He had been doing this all along.

Although the outside world believed that with Barcelona's current strength, they could completely dominate Europe and no one could stop them. The only thing that could stop them from defending their title was probably God.

But Guardiola didn't think so. There were too many uncertainties in football matches. Even if Barcelona's current strength was higher, it didn't explain anything. This was not a guarantee of winning.

Borussia Dortmund participated in the Champions League for the first time in many years last season. Before the match, everyone thought that Borussia Dortmund was just there to experience the atmosphere of the Champions League. But who knew that they would actually reach the Champions League quarter-finals.

Those teams that underestimated them all became victims under their knives.

Guardiola dared not underestimate this team.

The most important player on this team was of course their core, Zhou Yi. This young midfield genius was the driving force behind Borussia Dortmund.

After observing and analyzing Zhou Yi, Guardiola found that this kid was really a bit like Xavi...

Especially the action of constantly turning his head to observe when he was playing, it was exactly the same as Xavi!

At this moment, Guardiola learned that Barcelona had actually almost met Zhou Yi...

Looking at the reports in the local Catalan media about Zhou Yi rejecting Barcelona's invitation, Guardiola felt incredible.

We were almost about to get Zhou Yi?

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ps, I am very sorry to inform everyone that due to the continuous European Cup, leading to irregular work and rest, my body can't bear it, and I can't concentrate. So the number of manuscripts has been sharply reduced. Now there are only eight chapters left, less than ten chapters. I have to start the rhythm of one update a day again.

I'm really sorry, I will restore the number of manuscripts as soon as possible...