Lu Wenbin couldn't care less about Ralph's worries, nor could Chinese reporters, and even less so Chinese fans.
All Chinese people who care about Lu Wenbin and the performance of the Chinese national football team are eagerly waiting for Lu Wenbin's national team debut.
Chinese media reporters even put on a live broadcast, reporting Lu Wenbin's whereabouts to the country every day since the end of the 12th round of the Bundesliga between Hoffenheim and Wolfsburg.
Some news websites even publish updates on Lu Wenbin’s whereabouts several times a day.
On November 8, the day after the competition, Lu Wenbin accompanied Kate back to Dietfurt. Four or five news vehicles and more than a dozen Chinese reporters followed up for coverage, which made Lu Wenbin feel helpless.
But he also knows that domestic fans are eagerly awaiting all news about him, and his future commercial value will largely depend on the support of the huge Chinese fans.
Therefore, even though he was a little depressed about losing his privacy due to being followed by reporters, Lu Wenbin could only let the reporters follow him and report his whereabouts to domestic fans.
This is a problem that a star will inevitably face after achieving success, especially in China's special football conditions.
After sending Kate home, Lu Wenbin flew from Frankfurt to Beirut, the capital of Lebanon on November 9.
Lu Wenbin's first national team match was the third round of Group D of the 15th Asian Cup qualifiers, in which China played away against Lebanon.
When Lu Wenbin's flight took off, domestic media reported the news as breaking news.
"European Golden Boot winner Lu Wenbin has departed from Germany and is flying to Beirut, the capital of Lebanon!"
"Asia's No. 1 soccer star Lu Wenbin departs for Lebanon, the Chinese team is about to usher in a new era!"
"Everyone is looking forward to Lu Wenbin's debut for the Chinese national team!"
"Lu Wenbin departs for Lebanon. The Chinese team is about to usher in a new core, a new captain, and a new era!"
No matter how much people hate and are disappointed with the Chinese national football team, it is undeniable that football is still the world's number one sport and the sport with the largest number of fans in China.
From the beginning of live football broadcasts to the 21st century, how many new and old fans has China accumulated
In the 2004 Asian Cup final, China VS Japan, CCTV's ratings in the same period reached an astonishing 18.5%, the market share reached 47%, and the audience reached more than 200 million.
This is not only the game with the highest ratings among all the sports events broadcast live by CCTV in the past decade, it is even higher than the average ratings of the News Broadcast in the past decade.
Of course, the second most watched program was also a football match, namely the 2002 World Cup China VS Brazil match, which also had higher ratings than the average news broadcast.
As for TV dramas, the situation is even worse. Any drama with a viewership rating of 3% is considered a hit.
This shows the huge fan base in China.
Because the national team's performance is not good, there are many people who dislike football and few people who talk about it. Many people regard talking about football as a shameful thing, but it does not mean that the number of fans in China is small.
Even though many people say they will never watch the Chinese national football team again, once there is any good news about the national football team winning a game, they will still search and watch it with relish.
When the Chinese national football team has a crucial battle, everyone says they will never watch the game again. However, the fact that the national football team has won the ratings at the same time countless times tells everyone that the vast majority of Chinese fans are very honest.
The vast majority of Chinese fans feel very disappointed with their team and curse at the same time hoping that Chinese football will one day rise again.
The emergence of Lu Wenbin has fulfilled the wishes of all Chinese fans and made everyone have hope for Chinese football again.
In the past, Sun Jihai and Yang Chen were able to play in the top five leagues and became the objects of pursuit by fans across the country, let alone Lu Wenbin, a European Golden Boot and Triple Crown winner
Ever since the Chinese Football Association announced that Lu Wenbin would join the national football team and become the new core and new captain of the national football team, and would soon lead the team to compete in the Asian Cup qualifiers, the enthusiasm of domestic fans has been completely ignited.
Lu Wenbin's outstanding performance in recent games, scoring goals continuously in the Bundesliga and the Champions League, has further fueled such heated discussions, making fans look forward to Lu Wenbin's national team debut even more.
Even if the Chinese team's players are not as strong as Hoffenheim's and cannot give Lu Wenbin too much support, but with Lu Wenbin's outstanding strength, it should be possible for him to lead the Chinese national football team to break out of Asia and enter the World Cup finals, right
Just like Drogba led Côte d'Ivoire and Shevchenko led Ukraine into the World Cup finals, the driving effect of a superstar with outstanding strength on the national team is very obvious.
Putting aside other things, how many goals can Lu Wenbin bring to the national team with his free kick skills and penalty kick ability
What's more, Lu Wenbin's off-ball running, physique, and shooting accuracy are the best in the football world, so he will definitely score goals in open play.
Being so versatile in both set-piece and open play goals, Lu Wenbin will definitely bring many victories to the national team.
Even if our teammates are not strong, as long as we can make it to the World Cup again, score a goal, get some points, or even win a game, it would be better not to go home in disgrace without scoring a goal, getting a point, or even winning a game like in 2002.
Of course, they have already been eliminated in the 2010 South Africa World Cup qualifiers, and the 2014 Brazil World Cup qualifiers have not yet begun.
Now everyone should first watch the 2011 Asian Cup qualifiers and Lu Wenbin’s national team debut.
Let's see if he can lead the Chinese team to qualify for the 2011 Qatar Asian Cup by scoring as many goals as he did in Europe and at Hoffenheim.
The huge demand from domestic fans is the job mission of reporters, and Lu Wenbin’s every move naturally cannot escape the fate of being tracked and reported.
You can't escape it once you're on the plane, and the same goes for getting off the plane.
Even when getting off the plane in Beirut, there were not only reporters but also hundreds of fans waiting to greet him.
There are still several days before the match between Lebanon and China, but many wealthy, free and impatient domestic fans have already arrived in Lebanon to welcome Lu Wenbin together with local Chinese and overseas Chinese.
They held several banners with slogans supporting Lu Wenbin to welcome Lu Wenbin's arrival.
Of course, Lu Wenbin felt much better when he saw the fans than when he just saw the reporters.
Under the escort of airport security, Lu Wenbin signed several autographs for fans who were nearby while being interviewed by reporters.
However, I didn’t dare sign too many.
Lu Wenbin is now very famous. If he stays too long, not only will he fail to sign autographs for all the fans, but it will also attract more people to watch, and it would be bad if he was completely blocked in the end.
Under the escort of airport security, Lu Wenbin quickly boarded the car sent by the national team to pick him up and headed to the hotel where the national football team was staying.
The Chinese national team led by Gao Hongbo had arrived in Beirut the day before. Since Lu Wenbin was in Europe, he did not have to go back to China, so he flew directly from Germany to Lebanon.
Lu Wenbin is about to meet his national team coach and teammates.