From the man behind the football king to the football king

On August 8, 2012, Bruno followed Giaretta and his party to Novara, a small town in northwest Italy.

This is a crossroads connecting Italy's three largest cities: Milan, Turin and Genoa. It is only more than 40 kilometers away from the Swiss border. The geographical location is very advantageous and the business is relatively developed.

As for Novara Football Club, although it is a team with a history of more than 100 years, it has not had many honors in its 104-year history, and it has not had any heavyweight players, even in the football field. There are also very few big-name players who have played for the team.

It can be said that in Italian football, Novara is just an unknown person. This is mainly because the club's historical record is too average. Except for a handful of seasons, it spent most of its time in the third-tier Italian league, and was even downgraded to Serie C 2, the fourth-tier Italian league!

In 2006, the De Salvo family, which owns a private hospital group, took over the team and completely changed its future fortunes. Not only did they invest in the construction of a new dedicated sports center, but they also invested heavily in signings. Finally, in the 2009-10 season, the team won the Serie C championship under the leadership of Attilio Texel and returned to Serie B after an absence of 33 years.

In the 2010-11 season, Novara Football Club continued to perform well, ranking third in Serie B behind only Atalanta and Siena, two hugely expensive Serie A relegation teams. In the subsequent promotion play-offs, Novara eliminated Reggina and Padua in succession, achieving two consecutive jumps in just two years and returning to the Italian top league after 55 years.

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However, Novara did not make any big signings in the transfer market last summer, and its performance in Serie A last season was not outstanding. It has been stuck in the relegation zone since the beginning of the season.

In January of this year, Novara, who was ill and sought medical treatment, fired Texel, the meritorious coach who led the team to upgrade, and invited Mondonic to coach. However, the coaching change did not bring improvement to the team, so in March Novara announced that Mondonic was dismissed from get out of class and invited Texel back.

At that time, Novara had basically been confirmed to be relegated, and they wanted to return to Texel in the hope of preparing for Serie B next season.

This summer, the Salvo family has no intention of increasing investment. This caused the team's lineup to fall apart last season. Most of the main players were poached by other teams. The team can only rely on old players who are exempt from signing and lottery tickets. The general method of buying young people is to replenish the lineup.

It was under such circumstances that Bruno was brought to Italy by Novara.

Regarding the team's situation, head coach Tessel is also very helpless.

Fortunately, the club did not make any unrealistic demands in terms of record, such as promotion to Serie A or something.

As one of the 21 teams involved in the gambling case in Italy last season, Novara was not only fined, but also deducted 4 points in the new season.

This is just adding insult to injury for Novara, which is already in dire straits.

It is foreseeable that Novara will have a very difficult time in Serie B in the new season.

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When Bruno arrived in Novara, Texel was leading the team to prepare intensively for the new season.

According to the schedule of the new Serie B season, the first round of matches will start on the last weekend of August. Novara will challenge Grosseto as a guest on the evening of August 25th.

However, that was not Novara's first battle of the new season. In four days, Novara will sit at the Silvio Piola Stadium to face Romezini of Serie C. This is the second round of the Italian Cup in the new season.

If they advance, Novara will go on to play in the third round of the Italian Cup a week later.

Giaretta took Bruno to Novara's training base Novarello, handed it over to head coach Tessel and left. When leaving, he said he would help Bruno solve the problem of accommodation and Italian teachers as soon as possible.

Texel also did not take care of Bruno. The old Italian man did not speak Portuguese and was not very good at English. The two simply communicated in English, and Texel called the team's old captain Raffaele. Rubino.

The 34-year-old veteran has played for Novara for many years as a forward and is a veteran of the team.

However, in Serie A last season, due to age and ability issues, he had few opportunities to play. He only appeared 6 times throughout the season and scored 1 goal. The one who wears the captain's armband more often in games is vice-captain Carlalberto Rudy.

Rubino took Bruno to the locker room, met with his teammates, and expressed his welcome.

He is already very familiar with this set. After all, Bruno is not the first player to join this summer. Before him, nearly ten new players have joined the Novara first team, some of which are visa-free from other Italian teams. Some of the veterans are little monsters poached from various Italian clubs.

Bruno also greeted his teammates with a few Italian sentences he had mastered in the past two days.

After confirming that he wanted to transfer to Novara, Bruno pestered his mother to spend 50 euros to buy him a second-hand smartphone in the second-hand market, then downloaded a translation software and began to learn Italian by himself.

Two days later, he was able to introduce himself in Italian with difficulty, but he couldn't understand what others said.

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In this way, Bruno was initially integrated into the team and began his life in Italy.

Two days later, the team's general manager Giaretta found Bruno and told him that he had solved the problem of his accommodation and Italian teacher.

These two problems are actually solved together.

Through personal connections, Giaretta found a place for Bruno to stay not far from Novarello. The owner of this family is Rosie Ricci, a middle school teacher and a die-hard Novara fan. Not only did he agree to let Bruno live in his house, he would also teach Bruno two hours of Italian every day.

For this, Bruno needs to pay 500 euros per month.

This is a completely friendly price. Under normal circumstances, this price is not even enough for accommodation, let alone hiring a tutor to learn Italian.

It was completely because Mr. Rich agreed that Bruno was the star of hope introduced by the team, almost on an obligatory basis.

Mr. Rich's family is a typical family of four. He is a Portuguese teacher at a local middle school in Novara. His wife Elisa is a full-time housewife. She is mainly responsible for housework and picking up and transporting her two children, Isa, who are in elementary school. Bella and Abraham.

Mr. Rich's family expressed a sincere welcome to Bruno's arrival. He and his wife Eliza had a very good first impression of Bruno, who was clean in appearance and polite in speech and manner. Ten-year-old Isabella and eight-year-old Isabella Abraham, who is 6 years old, is very curious about his elder brother from Portugal.

Today's Bruno is no longer the slovenly and slovenly person he was before time travel. Although he was only wearing the training uniforms provided by the team, he was cleanly washed; his long hair, which was originally as messy as a chicken coop, had been cut short and neatly tidied, making him look very energetic.

Having experienced social beatings, he knows very well the importance of first impressions.

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Two days later, Bruno experienced his first game with Novara in the stands of the Piola Stadium. Novara narrowly defeated the visiting team 4:3 in the second round of the Italian Cup. Romezini, advanced to the third round of the Italian Cup.

However, they were not very lucky. They drew the powerful Fiorentina in the third round and played away from home.

It seems that before the start of the new league season, they may have been eliminated from the Italian Cup.

But for Novara, this may be good news. They only need to focus on the league in the new season.

Sure enough, a week later, in the third round of the Coppa Italia, which started first, Novara was defeated by Viola 0:2 at the Stadio Franchi, ending this season's Coppa Italia journey.