The road to godhood starting from Ligue 1 Chapter 167

“Gaio, you should get a good rest tonight. Just watch me take them down!”

In the locker room, Lukaku was getting ready while talking to Gaio.

Lukaku, who averaged a goal per game, found the joy of football at Bastia.

Now, he felt invincible. Messi, Ronaldo, he was the strongest!

Gaio said, “I hope you don’t miss the goal three times.”

Lukaku laughed, “That’s impossible. Tonight, I’ll show you what a Belgian Klose looks like, an aerial beast!”

In Haxhibegic’s tactics tonight, since Gaio wasn’t in the starting lineup, new signing Ilan played on the right, and Lukaku had to play as a lone striker.

The players walked towards the player tunnel.

Sionne, who was on the bench for this match, saw Aubameyang and walked over with a smile to greet him.

They had both been in the Bastia youth academy in 2005. Although Sionne was a year older than Aubameyang and quickly moved up to the first team, Sionne knew all three Aubameyang brothers at the time.

Gaio walked past them.

Seeing the still somewhat naive “Aubameyang,” he couldn’t help but think of this Gabonese international’s future experiences at Dortmund, Arsenal, Barcelona, Chelsea, and other teams.

Before that, he was an AC Milan youth player.

Before AC Milan, he was a Bastia youth player.

Gaio had learned about this from the Bastia youth academy. Aubameyang stayed at the Bastia youth academy for two years.

Then AC Milan spent 100, 000 euros to sign all three brothers.

However,

The Aubameyang brothers did not get the recognition of the AC Milan coaching staff. The youngest and most talented of them, Aubameyang, was the one wearing the Saint-Étienne jersey tonight.

He was loaned by AC Milan to various French teams: Dijon, Lille, Monaco.

Saint-Étienne was his fourth stop.

In January of this year, Aubameyang’s ability was recognized by Saint-Étienne, who decided to buy him. Even then, AC Milan, Aubameyang’s owner, still questioned his ability and sold him for a mere 1.8 million euros, without any expectations for him.

Now, Aubameyang was a pure Saint-Étienne player, with no ties to AC Milan.

As if feeling the gaze, Aubameyang turned to look.

His eyes met Gaio’s, and they nodded to each other in a friendly manner.

Then they walked past each other.

When Aubameyang saw Gaio, a fighting spirit rose in his mind. Last season, he lost the Golden Boot race to Giroud.

This season’s biggest opponent was Gaio.

Aubameyang had always played in France, so he was very familiar with Gaio.

This was a name often mentioned by the French media.

There was even a phenomenon now—if a French youth team had a player with excellent dribbling skills, people would not only call him “new Ronaldinho” or “new Messi,” but also “new Gaio.”

To win the Ligue 1 Golden Boot, Gaio was a name that had to be faced.

Stade Armand Cesari.

Before the match, when the starting lineup was released without Gaio, the fans were slightly disappointed.

But the atmosphere at kickoff was still passionate!

Blue smoke spread throughout the stadium.

The players played like CS, with people bumping into each other after the smoke screen.

Gaio sat on the bench.

Mané and Klose sat beside him. Mané’s eyes were full of eagerness to play.

Klose, on the other hand, was very actively being a water boy.

He dreamed of playing in Ligue 1.

But as an amateur player who was still playing in the fifth division last season, even a minute of playing time this season would make him excited enough to share the news with his family.

So,

For that one minute of playing time, he trained incredibly hard every day.

After all, this was his only chance to touch the top league.

Whoa!

Cheers from the fans erupted on the field.

Lukaku was down again!

After De Bruyne pulled wide, he made an overhead pass. Lukaku jumped hard, and then, surrounded by two defenders, he didn’t get the ball, bumped his head, and fell directly to the ground.

Gaio shook his head.

Bastia’s offense was a bit difficult to play. Saint-Étienne clearly didn’t play aggressively just because Bastia was a promoted team. Instead, they played a low block, putting Aubameyang as the lone striker.

They used Aubameyang’s speed to counter Bastia.

Speaking of Aubameyang.

His biggest advantage was his speed.

Relatively speaking, his dribbling skills were quite ordinary. Although he played on the wing, his close control was significantly inferior to smooth and agile dribblers. His flexibility was average, and his balance was even worse.

He could only rely on speed to overtake.

When he first returned to Ligue 1, in the 2009- 2011 seasons, he only delivered a mediocre record of 6 goals in 65 appearances.

This was why AC Milan felt their lottery ticket was a bust.

After joining Saint-Étienne in 2011, Aubameyang met the mentor of his life—Galtier.

This coach, who left the last traces of his playing career in China’s Jia-A League with Liaoning, had his first official head coaching job at Saint-Étienne.

Before that, he had been an assistant coach to Perrin at Lyon and Saint-Étienne.

Galtier believed that Aubameyang was more suitable for the center-forward position. He placed the extremely fast and tall Aubameyang at the spearhead position.

And he taught him how to use his speed advantage to make runs, poach goals, and score.

Aubameyang transformed from a winger into a super striker who could make runs and had speed. He used his speed in the right place, making repeated sprints in the center and cleverly looking for opportunities, instead of getting bogged down in physical battles on the wing.

It has to be said that this is the ability of a head coach.

A good head coach can improve players, not waste their talent.

Beep! !

On the field, the referee’s whistle blew.

He pointed to the center circle.

Saint-Étienne scored!

The goal was scored by their central midfielder, number ten Cohade. Aubameyang dribbled fiercely, and after being double-teamed, he passed the ball back to Cohade.

Cohade scored a world-class goal.

Novais had no chance and could only watch the ball enter the net.

The fans at Stade Armand Cesari shook their heads helplessly.

But,

Bastia’s moment of disappointment was not over. Fifteen minutes later, Saint-Étienne’s left-back Brison made an overlapping run and sent in a cross. Aubameyang made a ghost-like run, using his speed to suddenly burst forward.

A volley!

0- 2.

Bastia was two goals down in just 33 minutes.

Haxhibegic kept shaking his head.

The offensive play was actually very good, just lacking a scoring opportunity, but they couldn’t stop conceding goals faster at the back.

Chatham in the stands also looked serious.

This goalkeeper has to be replaced.

Novais was too short, and his reactions weren’t that fast either.

After giving a shot of Saint-Étienne’s celebration, the broadcast camera immediately zoomed in on Gaio on the bench.

The commentator also said, “Bastia seems to be suffering from ‘Gaio dependency’ syndrome…”