Braving the severe cold of winter, Zhuang Mingge and Karin set foot on the land of Russia for the first time, but Zhuang Mingge and others did not complain too much. After all, this time, he was visiting Moscow by the other party's invitation.

When the draw results of the Cup Winners lottery were announced, the head of the Moscow Spartacus club called Fiorentina the next day and made a request to Fiorentina that sounded extremely funny and unreasonable: they hope that the two rounds of the Cup Winners quarter-finals could be played in Moscow (that is, the second round of the game in Fiorentina will also be played in Moscow).

At that time, Antonioni sternly rejected the Russians' opinions with a look of "What international joke are you playing?", and the other party then made another request: they hoped to postpone the away game in Fiorentina by one week before the game was played.

Antonioni was stunned for a moment, and after asking the other party carefully, he realized that the reason why Moscow made such an outrageous request to Florence was actually very simple: because of their club's poor financial situation and they were unable to afford the team's long-distance travel expenses. They could not afford the plane tickets, either gave up the second round of the game or had to take a slow and bumpy long-distance bus to travel between Russia and Italy.

The reason why Spartacus club did not have this problem in previous games is that the opponents they encountered in the first few rounds were teams from the former Soviet Union, and they could take long-distance buses to reach the competition site at the specified competition time.

After hearing the news, Zhuang Mingge immediately stated that he would pay for the air ticket for Spartak.

Zhuang Mingge's "generous move" obviously won the other party's favor. Later, during the second call between the two parties, the person in charge of Spartak invited Zhuang Mingge to visit Moscow. Of course, all the expenses still need to be paid out of his own pocket...

Taking a taxi, Zhuang Mingge and Karin entered the city of Moscow. Looking at the depressed scene on the streets, they couldn't help but sigh at the hardships of the Russian people's lives. I believe that as a high-consumption football sport, in the former Soviet Union, there may not be many people who have this leisure and elegant attention, right?

Well, although from the perspective of the cards, the Russian national team is not very bad.

When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, the powerful "Soviet Red Army" fell apart overnight: goalkeeper Prom returned to his hometown of Estonia; while neighboring Latvia, which was on the Baltic coast, snatched Pajas; Georgia, a small land, owned Avilaz; Kancherski, who was floating in Manchester United, finally decided to be loyal to Ukraine; and Belkovic, who had played for Dynamo Kiev, Ukraine for many years, rejected the invitation of the Ukrainians and eventually joined the Belarusian national team.

It seems that in terms of the number and quality of the stars divided, Russia has become the biggest winner in this division because they also have many former Soviet internationals such as Harin, Mostovoi, Karpin, Alenichev, Shalimov, Onopko, Korivanov and Kiryakov.

But this Russia, which has lost the soul of the Soviets' "perseverance and unity" in the violent turmoil, has never recovered from the slump of Yugoslav football.

Just when Zhuang Mingge was immersed in his memories of Soviet football, the taxi had arrived at the headquarters of the Spartak Club in Moscow, a slightly dilapidated office building, and only an old man in an old fur coat worked as a doorman at the door.

The Spartak Football Club of Moscow was founded in January 1922. In 1936, the club won the first league championship. It was a strong team in the Soviet Union and even in Russian football history. It has won the Soviet Union League championship trophy 12 times (second only to Dynamo Kiev), won the Russian Football Super League championship 3 times, won the Soviet Cup 10 times, and won the Russian Cup championship once.

Even such class-powered teams have fallen to this point, and the current situation of other Eastern European teams can be imagined.

"Haha, Chairman Corleon, welcome to the Spartacus Club in Moscow." After receiving the notice, a strong man in a suit (although the edge of the suit was a little furrowed), was seen to be 1.9 meters tall, and greeted Zhuang Mingge enthusiastically.

After introduction, Zhuang Mingge knew that the man who received him was the chairman of the club, Igor Ivanov.

"I'll talk about something else later. I need to ask one thing first. Florence players will arrive in Moscow by plane a little later. I wonder if there are any good accommodation places to recommend in Spartacus?"

"Haha, Chairman Corleon, you have asked the point. We have arranged the accommodation location for you. It is the best hotel in Moscow, and I guarantee you will be satisfied." Speaking of this, the Chairman was a little embarrassed and said hesitantly, "But... if you have accommodation fees, please..."

"You don't need to worry about this anymore. We in Florence will pay for it on our own." Hearing Zhuang Mingge's words, the hesitation on the face of the Chairman disappeared.

"Thank you so much, Chairman Corleon."

"We still need to understand each other wherever we are.

"Then, Chairman Corleon, please go upstairs and rest for a while, and I will take you to my office to sit."

"You're welcome, this room is the most luxurious in this building." When I came to the chairman's office, Ivanov served tea and water to Zhuang Mingge and Karin, and it was impossible to tell that he was the chairman of the club.

Zhuang Mingge looked at the office and was obviously much better than the room in Dynamo Zagreb...at least its walls are still intact.

"Mr. Ivanov, I think we should talk about the serious matters quickly. We came here just after getting off the plane, and we still need to take a little jet lag."

"Ah, OK, no problem!" Ivanov immediately put down his work when he heard Zhuang Mingge say this, sat on another sofa and said, "Chairman Corleon, this time I invited you to Moscow is not the intention of our Spartacus club. We are just entrusted."

"Huh?" Zhuang Mingge raised his eyebrows and asked, "Who wants to see me?"

"This, I have his business card here." Chairman Ivanov immediately took out a beautifully printed card from his pocket and handed it to Zhuang Mingge.

"Damn it! It's him!" Zhuang Mingge saw this name and understood why the Chairman was so respectful to him and why the other party had to go through such an unnecessary procedure to meet him.

The card has a Russian name printed in English, and it is transliterated...

"Boris Berezovsky!"
Chapter completed!