In Southern France,
Nice—the capital of the Alpes-Maritimes department
Julien followed the team as they landed in this fifth-largest city in France, feeling a completely different atmosphere from Paris.
This was the unique charm of a Southern French city.
Nice's home ground, the Stade Municipal du Ray, was located in the city center.
The team bus traveled from the airport to a hotel near the stadium.
Throughout the journey, Julien's gaze remained fixed on the view outside the window.
The scenery along the Promenade des Anglais brought an involuntary smile to his face.
Palm trees swayed, and the salty Mediterranean breeze carried sunshine that seemed to splash against the bus windows.
Nice resembled a palette repeatedly washed by seawater.
The ochre-yellow Italian-style building facades, coral-pink shutters, and the cobalt-blue dome of the Orthodox church all appeared softened to creamy hues against the backdrop of the Blue Coast.
Julien also spotted street artists with stands set up along the seafront, using palette knives to blend the waves, beach, and sunshine of the Baie des Anges into oil paint.
"It's really beautiful," Lukaku couldn't help but exclaim from inside the bus.
However, for most of the French players, they were accustomed to Southern France's scenery. They found it beautiful but not particularly stunning.
It was like tourism—everyone traveling from places they'd grown tired of living in to places others had grown tired of, mutually exclaiming, "How beautiful!"
As the bus turned into the old town, the feeling changed again. These 1960s buildings, scattered like stars were filled with historical atmosphere.
Bastia soon arrived at the hotel.
A small incident occurred—the hotel manager was a fan of Julien's, though he was also a OGC Nice supporter.
He specifically asked if Julien could sign his jersey for him.
Julien naturally couldn't sign a Nice jersey, so he refused.
Later, they discovered the manager wanted Julien to sign a national team jersey.
Eventually, Julien accepted and signed.
The manager smiled and said to Julien, "Julien, our entire family are your loyal fans! Believe me, my six-year-old daughter looks forward to your national team matches every day.
Sorry, we won't watch your Bastia games—we're Nice people, we watch Nice matches every week. I have to work tomorrow, but my family will be in the ultras section at the Stade Municipal du Ray."
Julien patted his shoulder and said. "Of course, you'll see me with the national team later next month."
The manager grinned broadly. "We've already bought tickets and requested time off—we'll go to Spain to watch you in the World Cup qualifiers!"
The next day.
The Stade Municipal du Ray, which could accommodate eighteen thousand people was already surrounded by crowds.
Being located in the city center, Nice police had cordoned off key roads.
Julien sat in the team bus as it entered the aging Stade Municipal du Ray.
This stadium had been in use since 1927, and many of its facilities and equipment were quite outdated.
Moreover, the stadium had an interesting quirk: there was no hot water in the away team's changing room.
Teams had complained about this before, even raising it with OGC Nice and the French Professional League, but Nice refused, citing the stadium's age making renovations unsuitable. They claimed there was a hot water system, but it couldn't be used.
When playing at Nice, away teams could only take cold showers.
However, Nice was currently building a new stadium—the Allianz Riviera.
This was a project funded by the Nice city government, belonging to the municipality, though it would certainly become Nice's regular home ground.
Construction had begun in July of the previous year and was expected to be completed by the end of 2013.
It would also be one of the venues for the 2016 European Championship in France.
Germany's Allianz Group was already in negotiations with the Nice city government about naming rights for the new stadium. According to media reports, the deal could be finalized by year's end.
Rothen complained once again in the changing room, "Nice really doesn't treat people properly. What's the harm in installing some hot water? It's so cold no one dares to shower here—we'll have to wait until we get back to the hotel."
Choplin countered him, "He-eh-eh, it's not that they don't have a hot water system—they do have one, it just doesn't work."
Rothen curled his lip. "Their hot water system operates on the same principle as finding parking spaces in Nice's old town: theoretically possible, practically depends on mysticism."
"Hahaha!"
Everyone burst into laughter.
Soon, all the players had gathered their equipment and went onto the field to warm up.
Julien was on the bench for this match.
De Bruyne even told him, "I broke my promise last time, but this time we'll definitely take the lead and not let you come on."
Julien shook his head and said, "You might be disappointed. Regardless of the result, I'll come on to get some match rhythm for the Europa League."
"Alright then."
Besides Julien being on the bench, Mané, one of the regular starters, wasn't even in the starting lineup, he wasn't even on the substitute list.
Mané had pulled a muscle in training.
The team doctor's assessment suggested he could return for the Corsican derby after the international break.
It was purely due to overtraining.
Mané was too eager to prove himself and trained very intensively, resulting in overdoing it.
During warm-up, the Stade Municipal du Ray was nearly full.
With only eighteen thousand capacity, it was far from enough for OGC Nice fans to compete for tickets, so only five hundred tickets were allocated to away supporters.
After warm-up ended and the players returned to the tunnel to wait for kickoff, Julien and the substitute players took their seats on the bench.
At this moment, Nice fans loudly chanted "Issa Nissa!"—a rallying cry in Nice dialect meaning "Come on Nice!"
As the players entered the field, the fans began singing:
Beneath the palms of the Promenade
Our hearts pulse red and black with pride
From azure coast to old town walls
The Mediterranean echoes our battle cries
Looking at Nice's jerseys, Julien had a momentary feeling of seeing AC Milan—both wore red and black striped shirts.
Boom! Boom boom!!
Amid the crowd's roar, the opening ceremony proceeded in an orderly fashion.
The players stood in the center circle.
Tweet!
The referee's whistle sounded, and the match began.
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