Chapter 257: Chapter 256 This God, I’ve Got It Covered
On the pitch, Ibrahimovic lost possession after a series of dribbles outside the opponent’s penalty area led to being surrounded and tackled by multiple players.
He aggressively fought back, lunging forward with a sliding tackle to regain the ball.
Although the tackle sounded fierce, in reality, Ibrahimovic mainly used the advantage of his long legs to poke the ball away.
He didn’t even fully go to ground.
What’s more, his flexibility was excellent, so most of the force from the slide tackle was absorbed by himself, rather than transferring it to the opponent upon collision.
Even the strictest referee would not consider it a foul.
However, Jia De’er, who was staggering after losing the ball, turned around and gave a fierce shove, sending Ibrahimovic flying.
Ibrahimovic was nearly 1.95 meters tall.
But Jia De’er was also close to 1.9 meters.
And Jia De’er was much more robust.
He was stronger than the younger Ibrahimovic and Drogba.
"Do you even know how to play football?" Jia De’er burst out in anger.
Half of it was from being intercepted by Ibrahimovic, the other half was simply because he disliked Ibrahimovic.
That’s how football is, if I have the slightest issue with you, as soon as there’s a physical clash, things can get heated quickly.
"What are you doing?" Deng Kai rushed to confront Jia De’er immediately.
At 1.9 meters against 1.65 meters... one could say it was quite the height mismatch.
"Get out of the way!" Jia De’er reached out to push Deng Kai aside.
Ronaldo and Feng Te reacted swiftly, immediately coming over.
Ronaldo held back Jia De’er without a word.
When a big shot is dealing with a situation, the underlings don’t have negotiation power; their job is simply to get physical if needed.
"Jia De’er, don’t do this," Feng Te said while trying to pull Jia De’er away.
"Who the hell do you think you are? A kid who hasn’t even grown a full set of hair is trying to clash with me!" Jia De’er pushed Feng Te away with a backhand.
See, that’s what happens to underlings who don’t know their place.
"This..." Not far away, Deschamps wanted to step in to stop the dispute immediately.
But he first glanced at Matthaus.
No matter what, Matthaus was currently the team’s star player.
And not just any star, but a top-tier one.
Below Matthaus, there were several levels of emptiness, then came celebrated stars like Deschamps and Pinto, followed by key players of the team like Jia De’er and Quaresma.
After them were ordinary veterans like Bento and the team’s Crown Prince like Viana.
As for Ronaldo, Deng Kai, and others, they might not even be part of the starting lineup.
Before Trigella had made a decision, these youngsters were more like rewards for good performance in the youth team, allowing them to train with the first squad.
"It’s just kids playing house, no need to intervene. And besides... the little guy is not weak," Matthaus remarked, nudging his chin in the direction.
Deschamps looked back over.
Pepe, Barzagli, and Drogba also joined the group.
Together with Ronaldo and Ibrahimovic, five people stood behind Deng Kai, able to impose quite a shocking presence.
After all, even Ronaldo, the shortest among them, was over 1.8 meters tall.
On the other side, Pinto and Bento hesitated, moving towards the scuffle, but very slowly.
They were also new to the team, whereas Jia De’er was the lead striker.
It didn’t make sense to offend Jia De’er.
But you couldn’t possibly offend six people either.
In any team, this wouldn’t just be an ordinary small faction.
Especially including Deng Kai and Ronaldo.
At Benfica, Pinto had witnessed Deng Kai and Ronaldo’s strength and temper, and he was quite aware of Trigella’s deep affection for them.
At this rate... these two kids might even become starters!
At the very least, they’re key substitutes.
It was the same for all of them.
Kwame Ayew, Marcos, Santos, and those other peripheral figures didn’t dare to intervene, only circling around from a distance.
"Yo, looking for backup? Relying on these shorties and skinny sticks?" Jia De’er was not at all intimidated, at least he wasn’t verbally.
But his honest body did not continue to move forward.
"Ibrahimovic’s tackle was completely within the rules, everyone could see he held back," Deng Kai stared at Jia De’er, "but your move, in any match, would have gotten you a red card."
"So you think it’s whose fault?"
"If you think training is just a game for kids, why do you train at all? Don’t you have any professionalism?"
"Oh, so you want to be treated like Matthaus? Sure, Hercules Cup, European Championship, World Footballer of the Year, Golden Ball, get any one of those and you can talk. Do you have any?"
"We are all just regular players. If you feel Ibrahimovic’s tackle has made you lose face, then you should tackle back. But not by treating him with boxing methods."
Deng Kai was very determined, and later on, Ibrahimovic would be nicknamed ’God.’
Now, Kaiser announced, this ’God’, he’d got his back!
"Hmph!" Jia De’er was very disdainful, but didn’t continue the argument.
After all, with so many people on the other side, if it really came to a fight, he’d be the one at a disadvantage.
Just then, Maxa came running over, scolded Jia De’er, and said he would take Jia De’er and Ibrahimovic to the office.
"I’m going too, I saw everything, I’m a witness," Deng Kai spoke up.
Maxa said that was fine.
Jia De’er frowned, clearly annoyed by this ’troublemaker’ kid.
Ibrahimovic didn’t speak, but a warm current flickered through his heart.
In a strange land, having someone who’s of a higher status and stronger than you choose to stand in front of you when you’re being bullied, even willing to go with you to face the terrifying office and the terrifying head coach.
How could anyone remain unmoved?
As for this, Deng Kai just wanted to tell Ibrahimovic, it wasn’t that scary, Mister Trigella and Little Maxa were both reasonable people, after all.
Indeed, after entering the office, Trigella started by giving Jia De’er a severe reprimand.
After all, Trigella was the head coach, newly in charge and coming in hot, Jia De’er had collided head-on with him, so he couldn’t blame Trigella for not showing any mercy!
After a torrent of scolding, Jia De’er was punished to go run laps on the training field.
Jia De’er was dissatisfied, but when he remembered Trigella’s words, "If you don’t run laps, apologize to Ibrahimovic in front of the whole team," he could only endure it.
Honestly, this spectacle had somewhat intimidated Ibrahimovic.
Such punishment for a key player like Jia De’er, the mainstay of the forwards.
What kind of criticism would a newcomer like him face?
"Kai, Jia De’er didn’t hurt you, did he? God forbid something had happened to you, I would have really..." Trigella began but he stopped mid-sentence upon remembering Ibrahimovic was also there, and he motioned for Ibrahimovic to sit down, "Sit down, both of you, let’s talk this through slowly."
Ibrahimovic’s world came crashing down.
Wasn’t Mister Trigella, renowned for nurturing young talent just like Professor Wenger, supposed to be stern and impartial, hardly one to show emotion?
What was this...
"Kai, would you like to drink iced water, or would you prefer some tea?" Maxa, on the other hand, directly and skillfully picked up the tea-making equipment.
"Why not iced tea?" Deng Kai asked.
"That’s not a problem at all!" Maxa said with a slight smile, knowing that Coach Kai, oh no, now it should be Director Kai, was the real Sports Director of the team this summer — the only one.
Ever since learning that Director Kai would return this season, Maxa had practiced his various skills earnestly.
He learned how to brew tea, bake egg tarts, make coconut jelly, "ginger milk curd", tiramisu, latte art, Wudu bean jelly, and other combination of classic Chinese and Western dishes over the summer.
It was all to make Coach Kai feel at home.
