Upon learning that Zhao Zhao had accepted her interview request, Ma Fanfan quickly brought her production team and flew from Beijing to London, then transferred to Sunderland.
This could take over ten hours, but for Ground Football, it was worth it.
Zhao Zhao's popularity was growing rapidly!
His recent four consecutive wins in the Premier League not only allowed Sunderland, originally at the bottom, to slowly climb out of the relegation zone, but also led to endless praise for Zhao Zhao from the outside world.
Titles like "Genius Coach," "Tactical Maverick," "Youngest Coach in Europe's Top Five Leagues," "Most Miraculous On-the-Spot Commander," "Calm Coach, Unmoving as a Mountain"—
All sorts of titles were being thrown at Zhao Zhao!
The same was true for domestic media.
Whether it was traditional TV stations or online sports media, everyone was scrambling to interview Zhao Zhao to get firsthand information about this mysterious Coach.
However, it was clearly very difficult to interview Zhao Zhao.
Indeed, last week, Zhang Wenwu seemed to have gotten an interview, but in reality, he hadn't.
But luckily, besides not cooperating with Zhang Wenwu's interview, Zhao Zhao had not agreed to any other media invitations either.
Therefore, although Zhang Wenwu was rebuffed by Zhao Zhao, he still made the exclusive interview with Zhao Zhao the top priority for the Ground Football project team.
He couldn't let the dignified CCTV lose to those messy online media in this regard!
He would also contact Anderson, Sunderland's Football Director, every one or two days, but each time he was undoubtedly rejected.
And this time, Zhao Zhao actually took the initiative to agree to be interviewed!
Zhang Wenwu naturally quickly sent Ma Fanfan.
After the failed interview last time, Ma Fanfan had put forward many good suggestions, and Zhang Wenwu naturally hoped she could put them into practice herself.
As for Zhang Wenwu himself, he was, of course, already afraid of Zhao Zhao and would not go in person again, not even if it killed him!
For Ma Fanfan, this was also a relatively important task in her career.
She first became a host for Ground Football three years ago, in 2014.
It was then that she became widely known to Chinese fans.
However, in the program team, she often only played the role of a "vase," with the main work being completed by the male host beside her.
Previously it was Duan Xuan, and now sometimes it's Zhu Xiaoyu, sometimes Shao Shengyi.
Ma Fanfan generally only needed to dress beautifully and stand by, delivering a few unimportant lines.
If she could complete the program team's important task this time—securing an exclusive interview with Zhao Zhao—it would undoubtedly play a very important role in Ma Fanfan's future path at the station.
It was precisely for this reason that Ma Fanfan, upon receiving the notice, immediately made thorough preparations, collecting a lot of information about Zhao Zhao.
As a professional host who graduated from the Communication University of China, this could be said to be a necessary skill.
Doing so allows one to carefully analyze the interviewee's personality and preferences, so that during the program, one can take the initiative, and also use some small tricks to close the distance with the interviewee, win their favor, and adjust the atmosphere.
Then, one can naturally ask some questions that the audience is more interested in, instead of being brushed off with formulaic answers.
Even worse would be to end up with nothing, like Zhang Wenwu last week!
However, as Ma Fanfan sat on the plane, looking at the thick stack of personal information about Zhao Zhao in front of her, she sighed:
"He truly is a magical person."
This young Coach of Sunderland was clearly quite different from the football coaches she had known before.
It could be said that ever since Zhang Wenwu said last week that he would assign her the task of interviewing Zhao Zhao, Ma Fanfan had gone through these materials no less than ten times, yet she still had an elusive feeling about this young man who was the same age as her!
Speaking of the coaching profession, in the current world of football, there are basically two main categories.
One is the most common: those who were professional players, continued to make a living from football after retirement, and found it relatively easier to succeed.
For example, Ancelotti, Guardiola, and Diego Simeone are all like this, including Ferguson, Wenger, Klopp, and Mourinho, who were not very famous during their playing days, are also like this.
Or, to put it another way, the experience of being a professional player can make it easier for them to understand the profession of football, and thus easier to become an excellent Coach.
The other category is those who were not professional players before becoming coaches; such people are relatively rare.
The most famous might be Arrigo Sacchi, the former Coach of the Italy national team and AC Milan, who was a shoe salesman before becoming a Coach…
There's also the Portuguese Boas, who started coaching football at 17, and at 33, led Porto to win the Europa League, becoming the youngest Europa League winning Coach in history.
But the problem is, even they started from the grassroots, and after years or even more than ten years of training, they gradually became the Coach of a top League team.
And this Zhao Zhao???
It's one thing that he has no professional football experience, but his previous life experience was also unremarkable, just an ordinary international student.
Perhaps the most commendable thing about him is that in a short period, he successively obtained UEFA's C, B, A, and even Professional coaching licenses, which qualified him to enter Sunderland's academy as an intern Coach.
To put it harshly, such a Zhao Zhao is not worth any space in CCTV news reports.
Perhaps after N more years, where N could be ten or twenty years, once Zhao Zhao has made his mark in coaching and can finally serve as the Coach of an England lower-level League team, he might then attract some attention from domestic media.
After all, even coaching in League Two or even the fifth or sixth-tier Leagues would already be a pioneering achievement for a Chinese Coach!
But Zhao Zhao clearly skipped all of that quickly.
In just one month, he had already become the Coach of a Premier League team, and with victories over Manchester United and Manchester City, he quickly became the darling of all the Sunderland People, one could say he had garnered the favor of countless fans!
This experience is truly amazing.
Even Zidane, who was already a legend during his playing days, didn't achieve success so quickly before leading Real Madrid to win the Champions League!
If he was just a lucky guy who got incredibly lucky, how would you explain those four beautiful victories? How would you explain Guardiola's professional praise for him?
If he was a hidden master, where did a 25-year-old like him get the ability to become a master?
Could it be, as many foreign counterparts say, that he is truly God's illegitimate son left in the East?
"He truly is a mysterious man!" The deeper she researched, the more interested Ma Fanfan became in this man.
Looking at Zhao Zhao's handsome photo in the material, Ma Fanfan's eyes turned into stars again:
"Hmm, a mysterious, charismatic, super handsome man."