After finishing the Asian qualifying match against Qatar Olympic team, Lu Wenbin immediately flew to London, England to attend the 2012 Laureus Sports Awards ceremony.
On the evening of February 6th local time, the 2012 Laureus Sports Awards ceremony was held grandly at Central Hall Westminster in London.
At this award ceremony, although it was great that Lu Wenbin's opponent Djokovic won three Grand Slams and five Masters titles last year, Lu Wenbin's triple crown at Inter Milan, as well as his abnormal records of ten goals in a single game, five goals in eight minutes, and 144 goals in the year, seemed even more incredible.
Therefore, the most anticipated Best Male Athlete Award was given to Lu Wenbin. Following the FIFA Golden Ball Award, Lu Wenbin also won the Laureus Sports Award for two consecutive years.
After attending the Laureus Awards ceremony, Lu Wenbin and his girlfriend Kate returned to Spain the next day.
On the evening of February 8, the second leg of the 2011/2012 Spanish King's Cup semi-final was held at the Bernabeu. Lu Wenbin, who had participated in the Auas preliminaries and the Laureus Awards Ceremony, naturally sat on the bench.
Even though Lu Wenbin did not start, Real Madrid still successfully defeated Valencia 3-0 and won the game.
Because the game went smoothly, Lu Wenbin was not sent on the field by Mourinho until the end of the game.
Real Madrid defeated Valencia 6-1 in the first leg away and 3-0 at home in the second leg, with a total score of 9-1 in both legs, and advanced to the 2011/2012 Spanish King's Cup final.
Real Madrid's final opponent is Athletic Bilbao, which had won the other semi-final that ended the day before.
Athletic Bilbao is currently ranked in the middle of the La Liga standings and is not very strong on paper.
But Athletic Bilbao, which is composed of players of pure Basque descent, can perform very tenaciously in some games and make it very uncomfortable for their opponents.
The final result of this final cannot be predicted in advance.
All we can say is that if Lu Wenbin plays, Real Madrid will win the championship 99%. If Lu Wenbin doesn't play, the outcome is unpredictable.
After a few days of rest, on February 13, in the 23rd round of La Liga, Real Madrid faced Levante at home.
Levante is the dark horse of La Liga this season, ranking fourth in the standings, only behind Real Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia, and surpassing a number of strong teams such as Atletico Madrid, Athletic Bilbao and Sevilla.
After the game started, Levante's performance was indeed extraordinary. It was not a fluke that they were still ranked fourth in the standings halfway through the season.
In the 13th minute, Real Madrid scored the first goal with Lu Wenbin assisting Higuain, but just a few minutes later, Levante equalized the score.
In the 29th minute, Lu Wenbin scored a free kick to expand the score for Real Madrid. But not long after, Levante scored another goal with a quick counterattack to tie the score.
However, Levante only scored these two goals.
Before the end of the first half, Lu Wenbin scored a goal in the penalty area to complete his second goal.
In the second half, Lu Wenbin scored the third goal through a long-distance counterattack to complete his hat trick.
Before the end of the game, Lu Wenbin was substituted, but Ronaldo scored a beautiful free kick in the final stoppage time, helping Real Madrid lock the score at 5-2.
Levante played well in the first half, but because of the huge gap in strength, they finally lost 2-5 to Real Madrid.
If it weren't for Lu Wenbin's hat trick, Levante might have been able to tie with Real Madrid.
This is what is abnormal about Real Madrid now: their strength is already terrifying, and with the addition of a goal-scoring machine and master organizer, Lu Wenbin, Real Madrid has rarely been defeated in the La Liga, and their unbeaten streak has lasted for 27 games.
After the league game with Levante, the next league game will be five days later.
Therefore, Mourinho gave the players a day off and then returned to training.
On February 18, 2012, before the 24th round of La Liga, a major event occurred in Chinese football: the Chinese anti-gambling and anti-gang case that had lasted for more than two years was finally sentenced.
Lu Wenbin has also been waiting in front of the computer, learning the latest situation through reporters he is familiar with.
In several previous interviews with Chinese journalists, Lu Wenbin had expressed his hope for a strict and severe trial.
At Lu Wenbin's level, even the Chinese Football Association can no longer threaten him.
Therefore, Lu Wenbin is not afraid of offending these criminal suspects from the Football Association, clubs, and players.
Last month, a national leader even issued a special instruction on the matter, demanding that no bad guy should be let off and no good person should be wrongly accused.
Don't be afraid of losing face or making a fool of yourself. You must thoroughly clean up the atmosphere in domestic football and create favorable conditions for the healthy development of Chinese football.
The leader's instructions and the pressure from public opinion led by Lu Wenbin determined the tone of this trial to be strict and severe.
As Lu Wenbin waited, the trial results kept coming:
Xie Yalong, former chairman of the Chinese Football Association, was sentenced to 25 years in prison and life imprisonment for taking bribes;
Former Football Association Chairman Nan Yong was sentenced to 25 years in prison and life imprisonment for taking bribes;
Yang Yimin, former director of the Football Management Center of the General Administration of Sports, was sentenced to 25 years in prison for bribery and banned from house arrest for life...
More than a dozen people involved in the case, including former Football Association officials, General Administration of Sports officials, players, referees, club staff, etc., were sentenced to the longest term of 25 years in prison. Others were also sentenced severely, with the shortest being a full 5 years.
In addition, all of them are banned from playing football for life. (The plot of the novel has been modified, and the punishment is much more severe than the real trial.)
Seeing the trial result, Lu Wenbin breathed a sigh of relief.
He hopes that the result of this trial can effectively deter current Chinese football practitioners and allow everyone to focus on how to improve the league and competitive levels rather than on other crooked ways.
As long as there is a good football atmosphere and the national team members work hard with one heart, if they fail in one session, they will succeed in the next session, and if they fail in the next session, they will succeed in the next session. Lu Wenbin will always lead Chinese football to achieve good results in the World Cup.
Just as Lu Wenbin had expected, at the same time when he received the trial results, the Chinese media also announced all the trial results, and people all over the country knew about it.
Such a heavy sentence shocked China and even the world of football.
FIFA immediately issued a statement praising China's determination to take drastic measures to catch so many corrupt officials and give them heavy sentences. It hopes that Chinese football will improve and make progress after this anti-gambling and anti-gang trial, and make a breakthrough under the leadership of Lu Wenbin.
As for the concerns of some people that the severe trial and lifelong ban of all the people would affect FIFA's perception of Chinese football, this did not actually happen.
Now the only person FIFA is really paying attention to is Lu Wenbin. How Chinese football is rectified and judged has nothing to do with them directly.
As long as Lu Wenbin is a living signboard, and the influence of football and FIFA in China is increasing, they don’t care about anything else!
PS: There is a surprise in the author’s words below.