Because Hoffenheim's original home stadium, the Dietmar Hopp Stadium, can only accommodate more than 5,000 people, the capacity is too low to meet the requirements for playing in the Bundesliga.
Therefore, the German Football Association requires Hoffenheim to find another venue, otherwise Hoffenheim will not be qualified to participate in the Bundesliga.
The new stadium invested by Dietmar Hopp in the Rhine-Neckar District has not yet been completed and cannot be put into use.
Therefore, the club can only borrow the home stadium of other teams in the surrounding area.
Hoffenheim is not far from Stuttgart, less than 100 kilometers.
However, as a competitor in the Bundesliga, Stuttgart will naturally not lend the stadium to Hoffenheim.
If loaned to Hoffenheim, when Hoffenheim plays against Stuttgart at home, Stuttgart will have to use the visiting team's locker room in their own stadium, which is not pleasant to think about.
After searching for a long time, I finally found Mannheim Football Club 50 kilometers away.
Mannheim is currently playing in the fourth-tier German regional league, with low attendance and ticket revenue, and has no competitive relationship with Hoffenheim in the Bundesliga.
Therefore, Mannheim is willing to rent their home stadium, the Mercedes-Benz Stadium, which can accommodate more than 26,000 people, to Hoffenheim to earn some rent and use it as Hoffenheim's home stadium in the Bundesliga this season.
Of course, it won't actually take a whole season, as the newly built Rhein-Neckar Stadium is expected to be put into use after the winter break.
But Mannheim finally caught a big boss, how could he agree to let you use him for only half a season
In the end, in order to avoid being kicked back to the Bundesliga by the Football Association for not being able to find a venue, Hoffenheim had no choice but to pay a season's rent.
Who said Hoffenheim has a boss who is a Forbes billionaire
Sometimes, this kind of extortion is inevitable, just like Chelsea basically has to spend a lot of extra money when buying players.
After confirming the home ground for the 2008/2009 season, the team's first friendly match opponent was also determined, which was Mannheim.
Even though it was just a friendly match and the venue was more than 50 kilometers away, more than 2,000 fans still flocked to Hoffenheim.
Including the curious Mannheim fans, more than 5,000 people came to this friendly match.
In front of more than 5,000 fans, Hoffenheim, already a Bundesliga team, beat Mannheim 8-1, not giving the "landlord" any face at all.
In this game, Lu Wenbin, wearing the No. 9 jersey, scored a free kick and five goals in open play, a total of six goals. Even the Mannheim fans could only applaud Lu Wenbin to express their admiration.
Perhaps because the level gap was too big in this friendly match, the experience points given were quite low, only 50 points for each assist, 100 points for a goal, and 200 points for a win.
Lu Wenbin had no assists and only received 600 points for 6 goals + 200 points for the team's win, a total of 800 experience points. The experience value increased to level 12 50012/100,000.
After the first friendly match, the team returned to the training base for training.
A few days later, on July 16, the Chinese Football Association announced the final list of the national Olympic team for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and Lu Wenbin was not on the list.
Kate understands Chinese. When she saw this news on a Chinese website, she couldn't help but call Lu Wenbin in surprise and asked if the level of Chinese football was very high. Even a German 2nd Division Golden Boot winner like Lu Wenbin couldn't get into the Chinese Olympic team composed of young people under U23.
Lu Wenbin had no choice but to tell Kate that he had provoked the fans after scoring a goal in the game last season. The Football Association believed that he was impulsive and should not join the National Olympic Team because he would increase instability.
Kate was disdainful after hearing this and told Lu Wenbin that it was impossible for a national team to not recruit a strong striker because of such a trivial matter.
There must be other reasons, but Lu Wenbin just doesn't know them.
Lu Wenbin thought about it and felt that what Kate said made sense, but he couldn't guess why. Anyway, if he wasn't called up, then he wouldn't be called up. He would just stay in the club and strive to complete the triple crown mission this season.
As a result, after a few days, Lu Wenbin's mood improved.
Because he had previously used 2 skill points to increase his potential value of physique, it really went from 12/13 to 13/13.
In addition, Lu Wenbin's height and weight are still slowly increasing, and his body is still developing.
On July 22, Hoffenheim traveled to England and played a friendly match with Blackburn Rovers, who ranked seventh in the Premier League last season, at Ewood Park.
This game taught Lu Wenbin a profound lesson and made him realize how far he was from being able to gain a foothold in the Premier League like Van Nistelrooy.
Blackburn Rovers not only has the rough and tough defensive style common to British teams, but its back line also has much more defensive experience than the German second division teams that Lu Wenbin had encountered before.
Maybe the physical fitness is not too far behind, but the tough defensive style and experience are indeed very different.
Lu Wenbin was already a little tired from the long expedition across the sea, and he suddenly encountered an opponent with such a different playing style, which made him even more uncomfortable.
After 60 minutes of game, Lu Wenbin was knocked down countless times, but the opponent was not called for a foul by the referee, who said it was a reasonable collision.
Within 60 minutes, Lu Wenbin only scored one goal for Hoffenheim, but Blackburn scored three goals against Hoffenheim. Hoffenheim fell behind Blackburn 1-3 away from home.
In the 60th minute, Lu Wenbin was replaced by Demba Ba by Ralph.
The Blackburn fans in the stands also laughed loudly:
"Is this the strength of the Bundesliga Golden Boot?"
"It's already the Bundesliga 2. How strong do you expect him to be? If he's really that strong, why isn't he the Bundesliga Golden Boot winner?"
"Hehe, so what if he's the Bundesliga Golden Boot? He'll still be at a loss in the Premier League!"
"Yeah! With his frail body, he can only play in the German league! If he comes to the Premier League, I guarantee he won't be able to finish a season and will have to stay in the hospital!"
"good!"
Now Lu Wenbin’s English is good enough to understand some daily conversations.
Sitting on the bench and listening to the occasional discussions coming from the stands behind, Lu Wenbin made up his mind: he must conquer the Premier League no matter what.
Otherwise, no matter how many achievements and honors he has achieved, they will be unconvincing.
Of course, definitely not now!
With his current 13/13 physique, it is really beyond his capabilities to come to the Premier League now. Although it is not to say that he has done nothing, it is definitely not as amazing as his debut in the German 2nd Division last season.
We can only wait until he becomes stronger in the future, and then he will sweep the stadium. Especially this Ewood Park Stadium, he will score at least four or five goals, so that these fans will no longer be able to make a sound.
In the end, Hoffenheim lost to Blackburn 1-3 in this friendly match.
One reason is that Lu Wenbin and the entire Hoffenheim team are not used to the rough style of play in the Premier League, and another reason is that the team has traveled across the sea and everyone is in poor condition.
Although it was a friendly match, the match was of high quality because the opponents were Premier League teams from the same top five leagues. The system gave the same single-match experience rewards as the official German Cup matches.
Therefore, although Lu Wenbin only scored one goal, he was rewarded with 2,000 experience points, which was more than the experience he gained from scoring 6 goals in the previous friendly match.
Lu Wenbin's experience rose to level 12 52012/100,000.