Chapter 177: Chapter 176: Professional Football, Starting From Now
Afterward, Ronaldo took the initiative to call Trigella, hoping to secure a ticket to Moreirense.
Trigella was too delighted to refuse, how could he?
Terry only gave Deng Kai a big thumbs up in his heart, YYDS!
Then, through his connections, Trigella loaned out his faction’s players, including Deng Kai, Ronaldo, and Feng Te, to Moreirense.
Since he was orchestrating both sides, the loans went through very smoothly.
Sporting Lisbon wouldn’t deny Trigella this bit of courtesy.
After all, Trigella was a veteran of the team, a meritorious figure in youth training.
On core interests (the position of head coach), the higher-ups would rather make a mistake than hand it to a rival.
But in less significant matters, they were quite happy to do a bit of face-saving.
For example...
When Moreirense officially announced that Trigella had become their head coach for the second half of the season, the Sporting Lisbon official website put up an elaborate banner to send him off: "Wishing Trigella dazzling success at Moreirense! The fans of Sporting Lisbon will love you forever!"
Look, how touching.
This is such a warm-hearted club.
The club’s higher-ups have such a grand vision.
If anyone truly knew what had happened behind the scenes, they definitely couldn’t become fans of the club.
But the reality is that players have their ups and downs, their off-field influences, and player fans are prone to collapse.
So, some fans, not daring to face the ones in their hearts, say instead that they are fans of the club. Because even in its lowest points, a club still has relatively shining stars that prevent them from falling.
At the same time, many Sporting Lisbon fans noticed the loans of Deng Kai and Ronaldo.
They thought this move was somewhat improper.
Two fifteen-year-old players going to play in Portugal’s second division—couldn’t this be rushing things?
It was understandable that Trigella brought his own people over, but why not find someone from the first team?
Even the reserve team would do.
Could Deng Kai and Ronaldo potentially be ruined by this?
After all, the environment is so important to a player’s development.
In this era, seventeen or eighteen is about the best age for a player to debut in professional matches.
Any earlier, and there is suspicion of forcing growth.
Any later, it indicates you might not be good enough.
These small-scale discussions were bound to lead nowhere.
But there was one person who was certain to be hurt by these discussions, and that was...
Feng Te: Does it mean no one noticed I was also loaned out?
...
Throughout the winter break, Deng Kai and Ronaldo did not stop training.
Even so, Deng Kai’s training volume was slightly greater than Ronaldo’s.
Because Ronaldo was doing recovery and adaptation training.
Whereas Deng Kai was doing more intense training.
Ronaldo was envious of this, wishing he could do the same kind of heavy strength training, but Deng Kai rejected the idea.
Ronaldo: "You’re younger than me, and shorter than me, why can you do it and I can’t?"
Deng Kai, speechless: "Describing it like that is prone to misunderstanding. I’m younger than you, shorter than you—that’s called being short... but my development has stabilized, so I can lift more weight."
"But you’re still growing, so you can’t. You still have the chance to grow taller, run faster, understand?"
Ronaldo, with a sigh: "Kai, you need to have confidence in your height, why don’t you try those injections that Messi took?"
Deng Kai: "It’s not something that injections can solve, but don’t worry, I won’t always be just one meter sixty-five. This height is enough for me now, and when it’s not, I will have ways."
Ronaldo, with a face full of fear: "Leg-lengthening surgery?"
Deng Kai responded with a slap.
Thanks to his completed growth, as well as half a season of adaptation, Deng Kai’s personal data saw another leap forward before his strength training.
=
Overall Technique: 63.93
Offensive Positioning: 68+3
Ball Control: 76+1
Dribbling: 67+4
Shooting: 60+5
Set Pieces: 61+4
Long Passing: 64+5
Short Passing: 76+2
Defensive Positioning: 63+5
Interception: 61+3
Tackling: 49+5
Blocking: 40+4
Clearance: 45+5
Header: 51+6
Curve: 58+4
=
Overall Physical Rating: 66.75
Speed: 61+6
Explosiveness: 65+5
Stride Frequency: 73+2
Foot Strength: 58+4
Jumping: 55+4
Strength: 55+5
Agility: 73+2
Stamina: 61+5
=
Vision: 8
Left Foot: 3
Right Foot: 7+1
Injury Resilience: 3+1
Conditioning Sustainability: 5
=
This time, the data improvement mainly came from the physical enhancement.
After adapting to his body, related technical attributes also improved.
Including Deng Kai’s right foot and injury resilience also improved.
This kind of improvement is different from the one gained through long-term training; it is a natural result of physical development.
That’s exactly why many physically dominant players are so abnormal.
They don’t even need to train, when their bodies develop, their personal abilities skyrocket.
With Deng Kai’s increased training in the future, some of his attributes will see significant improvement.
However, apart from that, over the coming period, his data growth will slow down substantially.
...
The winter break ended.
All major leagues were preparing to kick off again.
Deng Kai and Ronaldo had rented an apartment in Moreirense early on.
With the return of all teammates, there was a preliminary understanding during team training.
Deng Kai quickly figured out the ins and outs of this team.
Overall, it was indeed a lousy team.
Furthermore, there was no ambition, and climbing to the top league this season was practically impossible.
It was not only because this team was at the bottom of the league table, but also because the only two players who could barely be considered stars had transferred to top-division teams during the winter break.
One of them even went to be a substitute.
The oldest player on the team was the thirty-three-year-old captain and center-back, Manuel Altino.
Then there was the thirty-year-old goalkeeper, Joao Ricardo.
A twenty-nine-year-old center-back named Orlando, and a twenty-eight-year-old midfielder, Armando Macedo.
There were several other players who were twenty-seven and twenty-six years old and had played for the team for a long time.
Their mentality was one of complete apathy.
Deng Kai was rather happy about this.
Because the other side of apathy implied no competition or contention.
Surprisingly, the team had no opposition to Trigella’s outrageous move of making Deng Kai the midfield core.
They didn’t care who was selected as long as it wasn’t them; they just wanted to coast through with the least effort.
Of course, Moreirense also had several younger players; most were rejects from big clubs’ youth teams who came to the second division as their last chance.
If they failed to make an impact here after one or two years, they might as well stay with the group of old apathetic players currently at Moreirense.
Don’t think the old apathetic players aren’t skilled—after all, they’ve mixed in professional competitions for nearly a decade.
Younger, less capable players often have careers lasting less than four years.
The only bright spot in this team might be their own youth product, the center-back Kilop, who is nineteen this year.
He is a member of the Portugal national youth team and regularly selected for it.
He and Quaresma have been teammates in the national team.
However, it’s clear that Moreirense will not be able to hold on to Kilop; he is expected to join a top-division team after this season. He can play as a starter in a less dominant team, or he will be a substitute for a while at a powerhouse, but he will definitely get playing time.
With young players looking to make a breakthrough and old players content with coasting, it’s no wonder that despite having a squad not at the very bottom of the league, Moreirense is at the bottom of the points table.
After joining, the first thing Trigella needed to do was to unify the team’s mindset.
