Chapter Forty-Three: Shame Gives Rise to Courage

For an adult player, switching positions is an arduous task. Utility players who can handle multiple roles are rare, and the inertia of habit is powerful; most people feel lost when forced to abandon the position they’ve played since childhood. Yet for young players, changing positions is a commonplace affair. First, their youth leaves them eager to explore new roles; second, their techniques aren’t yet set in stone, making adaptation easier; third, many young athletes haven’t actually found the position that best suits them. Like choosing a career, only a handful of prodigies shine everywhere; most people only truly flourish when they find the post that fits them best.

The football world is rich with such stories. The Italian goalkeeping legend Toldo first played as a striker, only donning the gloves when the team’s regular keeper was injured—a temporary fix that became a twenty-year career. At the European Championship the following year, he famously stopped four out of six penalties against the Netherlands. Then there’s Batistuta, the Argentine “God of War,” who began as a basketball player, switching to football simply because his school paid better bonuses for soccer—a decision that turned him into Argentina’s finest center-forward since Kempes. Even in today’s Chinese national team, both left-back Wu Jiying and right-back Xie Feng started as strikers, but switched to fullback due to fierce competition up front, later making immense contributions during the 1998 World Cup qualifiers and finals.

Yet, for Long Bisheng, the process of adaptation proved more challenging.

He was not a clever man—neither stupid nor quick-witted. For such people, change comes even harder. In his year at Xi’an, all his training, besides the basics, was tailored for a central defender. Simple-minded as he was, when he focused on one thing, he did it more thoroughly than those with nimble minds. But when it came time for change, it was all the more difficult.

Fortunately, he had a patient coach who offered meticulous guidance on every technical aspect and a group of capable, enthusiastic roommates who always accompanied him through extra drills, helping him improve step by step.

Even so, the days that followed left the physically gifted Long Bisheng utterly exhausted. His learning curve was not steep, but he knew well the saying: "Diligence makes up for lack of talent."

Lacking the head start, having less innate ability, and now facing a new position, he resolved to make up the difference with sheer hard work. So, despite his fatigue, he gritted his teeth and added at least two extra hours of practice every day. While others rested on weekends, he followed Ding Yu’s individualized training routines, so busy that he barely had time to seek out Azati, who was also in Yun Jia Tianyu’s system.

Though they lived in the same city, Azati had been reassigned to the Yun Jia Tianyu U-17 squad, with different living and training quarters. Before the semester began, Long Bisheng had tried to ask around about Azati, but no one seemed to know of a Xinjiang player by that name.

What Long Bisheng didn’t know was that, not long after joining Yun Jia Tianyu, Azati had adopted a Han name. “Azati” means “liberation” in Uyghur; he chose “Li” as his surname and called himself Li Fang.

Even more, Long Bisheng was unaware that Li Fang had already established himself in the U-17 squad with his tireless running and precise crosses, and was likely to be promoted directly to the reserves—meaning he might soon appear with the first team.

Those two boys who once played together on the grasslands were now on divergent paths. The older, Li Fang, was starting his professional journey, while the younger, Long Bisheng, was still battling his way through football school.

By this time, October was nearing. Although the height of summer had passed, the southern city of Yun Jia still sweltered under the lingering sun. Long Bisheng, drenched in sweat beneath the blazing sky, worked through fundamental drills one after another.

His roommates were all diligent in their own right—even the frail Zhou Wei often put in extra sessions. Yet none subjected themselves to the near-brutal self-discipline Long Bisheng did. As the days rolled by, these elite youths, gathered from around the nation, began to genuinely admire him.

No one knew that Long Bisheng’s relentless effort was fueled not only by his awareness of the gap between himself and the others, but also by an intra-class scrimmage held a week after school started.

In that match, Long Bisheng played as a forward for the first time, directly up against his roommate from Room 505, Li Jie.

Long Bisheng suffered a crushing defeat. Despite his superior height and strength, Li Jie’s sharp anticipation and excellent positioning rendered Long Bisheng utterly ineffective. His footwork failed him, he lost the ball while dribbling, his passes were intercepted, and even when the team switched to wing play in hopes of creating headers for him, he failed every aerial duel, even against Li Jie, who stood five centimeters shorter.

When the game ended, Long Bisheng’s stats were a humiliating string of zeros—no successful dribbles, no dangerous passes, no shots on goal, not even a single headed ball won.

How could this be?

Long Bisheng agonized over the mystery. He knew his skills were lacking in other areas, but heading was supposed to be his strong suit. He was taller and jumped higher than Li Jie—how could he lose every header?

“You don’t know how to position yourself or use your body,” Li Jie told him after the game. “You’re much stronger than me—if we just collided, I’d lose outright. But I never let it come to that. Whether I front-marked you or got into position early, those are the ways a shorter defender deals with a tall center-forward. Long, if you want to beat me, you’ll have to work much harder at these things.”

It was this advice from Li Jie that drove Long Bisheng to practice with such desperation, determined to shore up his weaknesses.

Shame gives birth to courage; those who understand this truth will never be defeated by failure.