Soccer: I became Bruno Fernandes.

Chapter 4: Novara

On August 8, 2012, Bruno arrived in Novara, a small city in northwest Italy, accompanied by Gialreta and others.

Novara is a crossroads connecting three major Italian cities: Milan, Turin, and Genoa. It's also only about forty kilometers from the Swiss border, making its geographical location very advantageous, with relatively developed commerce.

However, despite being a football club with a history of over a hundred years, Novara hasn't achieved much in its 104-year history. They haven't produced any notable achievements or heavyweight players, and even the few big-name players who have played for the team are very few.

In Italian football, Novara is relatively unknown. This is mainly because the club's historical record is mediocre. Apart from a few seasons, most of the time, they've been playing in the Italian third-tier league, and at one point, they even dropped to the fourth-tier league, Serie C2!

In 2006, the De Salvo family, who owned a private hospital group, took over the team and completely changed its fate. They not only invested in building a new dedicated sports center but also spared no expense in signing new players. Finally, in the 2009-10 season, under the leadership of Attilio Tesser, the team won the Serie C championship and returned to Serie B after 33 years.

In the 2010-11 season, Novara continued to perform well, ranking third in Serie B, just behind two big-spending Serie A relegation teams, Atalanta and Siena. In the subsequent promotion playoffs, Novara eliminated Reggina and Padova, achieving back-to-back promotions within two years and returning to the top Italian league after 55 years.

...

However, last summer, Novara didn't make any big signings in the transfer market, and their performance in the previous Serie A season was not outstanding either. They have been struggling in the relegation zone since the beginning of the season.

In January of this year, in a desperate move, Novara sacked the coach, Tesser, who led them to promotion and hired Mondonico. But the change of coach didn't improve the team's performance, so in March, Novara announced Mondonico's dismissal and rehired Tesser.

At that time, Novara had almost confirmed their relegation, and rehiring Tesser was also to prepare for the next season in Serie B.

This summer, the De Salvo family showed no intention of increasing their investment, which led to the disintegration of last season's squad. Most of the key players were poached by other teams, and the team could only supplement the squad by signing free agents and buying young players like buying lottery tickets.

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

The team's situation made coach Tesser very helpless.

Fortunately, the club didn't make any unrealistic demands in terms of performance, such as promotion to Serie A.

As one of the 21 teams involved in last season's match-fixing scandal in Italy, Novara not only received a fine but will also be deducted four points in the new season.

For Novara, which was already in dire straits, this was adding insult to injury.

It can be foreseen that Novara will have a very difficult time in Serie B in the new season.

...

When Bruno arrived in Novara, Coach Tesser was busy preparing the team 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 be away to Grosetto on the night of August 25.

However, that won't be Novara's first game of the new season. Four days earlier, Novara will host Romesnese at the Silvio Piola Stadium in the second round of the Italian Cup.

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

Gialreta brought Bruno to Novara's training base, Novarello, and handed him over to Coach Tesser before leaving, promising to help Bruno solve the accommodation and Italian language teacher issues as soon as possible.

Tesser didn't pay much attention to Bruno either. This Italian old man didn't speak Portuguese, and he wasn't very good at English either. The two only had a simple conversation in English, and Tesser called the team's former captain, Raffaele Rubino.

This 34-year-old veteran has been with Novara for many years, playing as a forward and being a veteran in the team.

However, in last season's Serie A matches, due to age and ability issues, he rarely had playing opportunities. He only played six times throughout the season, scoring one goal. Most of the time, the vice-captain, Caralberto Rudy, wore the captain's armband during matches.

Rubino took Bruno to the dressing room to meet his teammates and expressed his welcome.

He was very familiar with this routine, after all, Bruno wasn't the first new player to join Novara this summer. Before him, nearly ten new players had joined Novara's first team, some were veteran players from other Italian teams who joined on a free transfer, and some were young talents poached from various clubs in Italy.

With the few Italian phrases he had mastered over the past two days, Bruno greeted his teammates.

After deciding to transfer to Novara, Bruno persuaded his mother to spend 50 euros at the second-hand market to buy him a second-hand smartphone. He then downloaded a translation app and started to learn Italian by himself.

Two days later, he could stutteringly introduce himself in Italian, but he couldn't understand what others were saying.

...

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

Two days later, the team manager, Gialreta, found Bruno and informed him that his accommodation and Italian language teacher issues had been resolved.

In fact, these two issues were solved together.

Through personal connections, Gialreta found a family near Novarello for Bruno to stay with. The owner of this family, Rossi Ricci, is a high school teacher and a die-hard Novara fan. Not only did he agree to let Bruno stay with them, but he also agreed to teach Bruno Italian for two hours every day.

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

This was completely a friendly price. Under normal circumstances, this price wouldn't even cover the accommodation fee, let alone hiring a private tutor to learn Italian.

It was purely because Mr. Ricci saw Bruno as the hope of the team that he agreed to it almost obligatorily.

Mr. Ricci's family is a typical family of four. He is a Portuguese teacher at a local middle school, while his wife, Elisa, is a full-time housewife, mainly responsible for housework and taking care of their two children, Isabella and Abraham, who are attending primary school.

The Ricci family sincerely welcomed Bruno's arrival. Their first impression of Bruno, who appeared clean and polite, was very good. As for Isabella, ten years old, and Abraham, eight years old, they were very curious about their new big brother from Portugal.

The Bruno of today was no longer the sloppy appearance of his original self before crossing. Although he was only wearing the training uniform provided by the team, it was clean. His messy long hair had been cut short, looking neat and spirited.

Having experienced the harsh realities of society, he was very aware of the importance of first impressions.

...

Two days later, Bruno experienced his first game since joining Novara from the stands of the Piola Stadium. Novara narrowly defeated Romesnese 4-3 in the second round of the Italian Cup, advancing to the third round.

However, their luck wasn't very good. In the third round, they drew the strong team, Fiorentina, and it was an away game.

It seemed that they might have been eliminated from the Italian Cup before the start of the new league season.

However, for Novara, this might be good news. They could focus their energy on the league in the new season.

Sure enough, a week later, in the first match of the Italian Cup third round, Novara was defeated 2-0 by Fiorentina at the Franchi Stadium, ending their Italian Cup journey for this season.

(End of chapter)