Chapter 122: Chapter 121: Becoming a Substitute (Please follow, family!!!)
Deng Kai immediately rose to his feet, pulled out his laptop from the box, and began to browse the information on various major websites.
"The New Disney Princess’s Romance Exposed, Her Boyfriend is Shorter Than Her!"
Los Angeles Daily: "This boyfriend is extraordinary! Hathaway falls for a junior football star who won two Champions League titles this year!"
"Who is Deng Kai? Best young player in the Youth Champions League! Ferguson’s most favored young player! The next Beckham!"
The Times: "Starlet falls for rising star, Hathaway’s appearance could affect Deng Kai’s form!"
The Times: "Deng Kai’s position in the national youth team was already unclear, and getting a new girlfriend is very likely to affect his image in the coach’s heart!"
442: "Born in 1985, Deng Kai is too young. Puppy love is common in England, but there is scientific evidence that indulging excessively can affect height development! He must maintain the proper distance from Hathaway!"
Record Report: "Is Deng Kai really going to become the United States’ prince consort? Our correspondent Jiang Yunzhu has already gone to Prague for more exclusive news, so stay tuned!"
Instantly, both the football media and the entertainment media exploded.
No one could have imagined that the second crossover star between sports and entertainment this year would be Deng Kai.
It’s simply unavoidable to associate Deng Kai with Beckham, because Beckham was the first crossover star of the year.
Beckham, just having lifted the treble, had just announced a wedding of the century with the Spice Girl Victoria.
Right on the heels of that, Deng Kai was caught up in gossip with Hathaway, also from the American entertainment circle.
Even if he wasn’t from Manchester United, he still inherited the United tradition.
The Manchester United way has always been like this.
If you use the perspective of admiring Barcelona to look at Manchester United, then you won’t like anyone from Manchester United... That’s why Manchester United bar’s owners have been bashing every United player.
At that moment, Deng Kai explained things to Ronaldo.
He and Hathaway had only just met, and she invited him to dinner out of gratitude. If he had refused, it would have hurt the girl’s feelings.
He and Hathaway might be friends, but right now they were definitely not lovers.
Ronaldo agreed with this but seized the opportunity to fuss about Deng Kai standing him up for a woman.
As a result, Deng Kai could only join Ronaldo for triple training sessions for three days in a row before Ronaldo let bygones be bygones.
Upon hearing this news, Deng Kai’s father and mother had completely different reactions.
Deng’s father said, "Good job, my son. You’ve brought honor to our country, but your children must have the surname Deng in the future and cannot take up United States citizenship."
Deng’s mother, however, repeatedly reminded Deng Kai that although he was growing up, he must take safety precautions.
This left Deng Kai wondering if something had actually happened between him and Hathaway.
You all trust me that much?
Deng Kai phoned Hathaway that very day.
However, through Hathaway’s words, he learned that their film crew was under strict isolation, nearly cutting off all external information.
Had Deng Kai’s call come just half an hour later, Hathaway might not have been able to receive it.
Obviously, director Marshall had received the relevant news, and to ensure the lead actress’s state of mind, he imposed a gag order.
At present, Hathaway was unaware of these rumors.
So Deng Kai did not elaborate, only wishing Hathaway smooth filming, and stating that after finishing all his national team matches, he would personally go to the set to discuss some matters with Hathaway.
Hathaway was overjoyed.
Could this be... the confirmation of our relationship?
Isn’t it too fast?
We’ve only had one date, haven’t we?
But why am I so happy?
The same news, besides circulating in football, also made some waves in the American entertainment industry.
Chinese-American celebrities have been a topic of conversation in the United States these past few years.
Especially since American capital has long targeted the mainland market.
They believe the Chinese market is nearing maturity, with sports, film, entertainment, goods, concepts, and so on - it’s time to enter the Chinese market for preparations and harvesting.
To this end, they have made many attempts with numerous successful cases.
But in the area of sports, despite Chinese people striving in American basketball, it never really managed to generate much excitement.
The NBA Asia Development department’s reason for this is that the football atmosphere in China is much stronger than the basketball atmosphere.
But unfortunately, football is not a commercial sector of the United States. They will enter in the future, but for now, the focus is on promoting basketball.
For this reason, this year they took the lead in inviting a number of domestic basketball stars, including Yao Ming, to the United States for training and friendly matches in an attempt to create buzz.
However, related news, whether in the United States or China, was completely overshadowed by the news about Deng Kai.
The Chinese-Portuguese king’s influence was unstoppable at home. The national football team’s coach analyzed Deng Kai’s passes in detail during internal coaching sessions several times.
This didn’t mean that Deng Kai was stronger than the current midfielders of the national football team.
But Deng Kai’s passing philosophy was extremely advanced, and Milu hoped that players such as Ma Mingyu, Sun Jihai, and Li Xiaopeng would learn from it.
With Deng Kai bravely seizing the Youth Champions League and "guiding" Manchester United to a treble, his popularity in China has skyrocketed, rivaling that of Yang Chen and Fan Zhiyi.
Chinese fans have now enthusiastically dubbed Hathaway as China’s daughter-in-law.
Among them, Jiang Yunzhu’s exclusive interview for Sports Weekly presented the events in clear detail.
Jiang Yunzhu, "Are you and Hathaway in a boyfriend-girlfriend relationship?"
Deng Kai, "No. In fact, the day the media caught us having dinner together was the first day we met."
Jiang Yunzhu, "Ah? Then why were you eating together? Did you invite her?"
Deng Kai, "That afternoon I happened to meet her near a castle outside of Prague. I was playing football, and her movie needed some football scenes, so she asked me for advice."
"As a thank you, she invited me to dinner. It was all that simple."
"We are now friends, but just pure friends, there’s no need for over-speculation."
"At this stage, my focus is definitely on football, especially with the approaching European Youth Championship."
"Coach Violante and I have talked, and we’ve reached a consensus on my position on the field, but I need to work hard for this goal."
"Before reaching the official age to date, I won’t fall into early romance, rest assured. Especially to the young football fans in China, early romance might be appealing, but don’t indulge in it too much, hey!"
...
The related news gradually subsided a bit.
However, within the Portugal U16 national team, there were still some opinions about the rumored romance between Deng Kai and Anne Hathaway.
Almeida thought Deng Kai was too high-profile.
Postiga was envious of Deng Kai’s ability to date a movie star.
Quaresma didn’t see anything wrong with it because he was dating several famous young models himself.
Meireles had an obvious aversion to Deng Kai because after the coach announced their regular game formation, Meireles thought he would be playing right attacking midfielder, only to find the coach frequently asking Deng Kai to try out the position during training, pushing Meireles back to a defensive midfielder spot, which he didn’t like.
Viana was more like the dressing room leader of the team, capable of unifying everyone. His future potential to become the Sporting Lisbon director of football was not groundless.
Quaresma was more famous, but Quaresma and Ronaldo were of the same mold; they were suited to be the team’s ace or role models, not to manage a team.
They were either not emotionally intelligent enough or too proud to bother with it.
Viana didn’t have an aversion to Deng Kai himself, but he did not agree with Coach Violante’s double attacking midfielder formation and didn’t trust Deng Kai’s abilities.
As a result, during subsequent training, the team never managed to execute the tactics Violante wanted.
The rest of the coaching staff began urging Violante to have a backup plan and revert to the double defensive midfielder system.
Thus, Deng Kai ended up wearing the yellow bib symbolizing the substitutes.
It seemed he was about to become someone successful in love but a loser on the football field.
Just like Almeida, who couldn’t win the competition against Postiga within the team.
But unlike Almeida, who deliberately targeted Postiga during training or went hard against other defensive players.
Deng Kai’s method of self-rescue wasn’t to lash out on the field.
He understood what the problems were, so he was going to address those issues specifically and gain some support.
Some people’s words are more effective than countless others.
You need to find the right person to speak for you.
So, one late night, Deng Kai snuck out of his dormitory behind Ronaldo’s back and quietly knocked on Quaresma’s door.
"Who is it?" Quaresma’s voice carried a hint of grogginess.
"Special service, sir. I have brought the best girls from our hotel..."
Before Deng Kai could finish, the door swung open.
As they looked at each other, the air was filled with an awkward silence, and Quaresma then remembered that he wasn’t in a hotel, but at the training base—where would the special service come from?
"It’s you, Kai, well... I didn’t hear anything just now..." Quaresma didn’t know how to explain himself, and he even forgot that, in fact, Deng Kai was the one supposed to give him an explanation.
Deng Kai stepped through the door, "Pavlovian response, I understand."
Quaresma immediately closed the door, fearing that others might learn about his "conditioned reflexes."
That’s right.
In a place like Europe.
Being young and famous means being young and wealthy.
Ever since his first visit to a nightclub, Quaresma had become somewhat addicted.
Double entendres, AKA Fat Peach!
But Quaresma’s skin wasn’t as thick as some of the British stars, and when faced with these matters, he still felt somewhat shy.
He didn’t know how Deng Kai had come to know about all this.
But in the upcoming conversation, he was already at a disadvantage.
