Chapter 269: Chapter 268: Star Falls, Drogba’s You Know What
Deng Kai: "Scoring in the Portuguese league is easier... just kidding. The competition level in the Primeira Liga is indeed much higher than in the second division, but fortunately, both I and our team are able to adapt to this pace."
Reporter: "In this game, you had a total of seven players score goals, but none of your players are in the top five of the scorers’ list. How do you view this situation?"
Deng Kai: "This shows that we have a strong ability to create opportunities, and nearly everyone has the chance to score. So our opponents should be careful, any one of our players can be the one to change the scoreline!"
Reporter: "But doesn’t this also indicate that you lack players with explosive scoring abilities?"
Deng Kai laughed: "How ’explosive’ is explosive? In fact, both Quaresma and Ronaldo had many scoring opportunities this game, even Ibrahimovic had multiple chances to net."
"If they had taken all those chances for themselves, of course they might appear on the scorers’ list, just like Jia De’er. But then we definitely would not have scored seven goals."
"Between individual honors and team honors, I think the latter is more important. I believe others share the same thoughts as me."
Lisbon Sporting is on top of the league table after three years! Delivers the season’s first major scoreline with a 7-0 victory!
A 7-0 massacre over Belenenses! The king returns to Lisbon Sporting, and the winds of change blow through Alvalade!
Eleven players under the age of 20! Lisbon Sporting unleashes a youth storm!
A shot and three assists! Lisbon Caesar tops the assist chart in his first Primeira Liga match! An assist hat-trick leads the team to a historic victory!
While people were debating whether Deng Kai and Ronaldo are just training with the team or benchwarmers, they have become the team’s starters and even the core!
Quaresma leads the field with the most dribbles, highlighting his crucial role!
Viana integrates perfectly into the team, delivering a core player performance!
The lowest player rating for Lisbon Sporting was Feng Te, yet it was higher than the highest rating for any Belenenses player!
The Golden Ball’s age is just a number! Matthaus fires the Heavy Cannon, leading the youngsters to the top of the Primeira Liga!
After a quiet season, Lisbon Sporting finally became the darling of the media once more.
From now on, every move they make will be the subject of discussion.
...
"Ding! You have won a match, your rating for this game is SSS!"
"You have earned a base reward*30, obtained a football star drop ’Drogba’s Slide’."
"Drogba’s Slide: Sliding is the most common and classic celebration in football, and amongst them, Drogba’s slide is the most widely known. You have acquired a blue-player-level skill ’Barbaric Collision’. There’s a chance to leave three marks during the slide."
"Barbaric Collision: Your ability to resist challenges is enhanced when you push forward with the ball."
The so-called base rewards are random drops like blue shards, agility poles, and medical bandages.
Deng Kai was supposed to get a drop from Matthaus or Ibrahimovic.
But in the end, it’s the straightforward Drogba with the drop.
And what’s given is his signature...celebration move.
There are many legends about Drogba’s three marks. The scientific explanation is that Drogba’s trailing foot was placed sideways, causing both the toe and heel to plow marks on the turf, resulting in three stripes.
But what people enjoy discussing the most is the exaggeration of Drogba’s ’little brother’, saying three stripes corresponds to three legs, sounds reasonable, doesn’t it?
Of course, this skill won’t increase the length of any special parts, but there’s a chance for Deng Kai’s slide to mysteriously produce three stripes.
This...
If Deng Kai manages to score before Drogba, then he’ll just have to apologize to Drogba.
In the world of football, three stripes mean fear, and that’s what I, Kai, might lack.
"Barbaric Collision" is also a very practical skill.
This skill may sound crude, but nearly any top midfield master possesses it.
No matter if it’s the seemingly fragile Modric, the slightly slender De Jong, or the strong Debruyne, the robust Bogba, and so on, the ability to withstand challenges during advancement is the foundation of their evasion.
A midfielder who falls at the slightest touch will never become a good midfielder.
"Kai, let’s go!"
Outside the small villa, Ronaldo was juggling a football while calling for Deng Kai.
Behind him, Drogba, Ibrahimovic, Barzagli, Pepe, Terry, and others were all present.
This was the Lisbon Sporting extra training group.
At first, all these players were staying in the player’s dormitory.
But because they often practiced together and would go eat something together after practicing, as the relationships warmed up over time, Ronaldo invited everyone to stay in the small villa he rented.
Different from Deng Kai, Ronaldo did have to bear the cost of the small villa.
Therefore, seeing that everyone was pleased with this new arrangement, he suggested they share the rent.
After a discussion, everyone agreed since the costs were not high, and the conditions were much better than at the player’s dormitory.
So every morning, they would all run with the ball to the football field together.
Of course, the route they took was a pedestrian path, at a distance from the highway, so there were no safety hazards.
"I’m coming, I’m coming." Deng Kai grabbed a football and stepped out of the door, joining the others in dribbling to the training field.
Along the way, many people were taking pictures.
Some had footballs and followed behind them, clearly influenced by their activity.
Running to the training field with the ball had always been a habit of Deng Kai and Ronaldo.
As their fame grew with their big win of seven goals in the Primeira Liga, so did their notoriety.
What had originally been a local tale began to attract more and more attention.
The government even started planning a special "football greenway" to encourage and commemorate this behavior, which could also be developed into a new tourist attraction.
It’s undeniable that in Europe, playing good football opens up countless possibilities.
Of course, some professional players opposed this showy behavior, arguing that such dribbling would not aid a professional player.
The media also stopped Deng Kai once to ask a similar question.
Deng Kai responded, "Apart from pure imagination, any expressed behavior can be perceived as showing off, the difference lies in whether its impact is positive or negative."
"If it can make more kids fall in love with football, get them out running and jumping instead of just playing video games, give people who don’t engage with football a simple understanding of it, then why shouldn’t we do it?"
"Whether or not this method is effective is not important. Ronaldo, myself, all of us, we have many efforts beyond just this style of dribbling. We have professional training methods, and we don’t just stop at dribbling the ball."
"But we can’t expect every ordinary football enthusiast to use those professional, dull, and difficult training methods, as that would diminish the enthusiasm regular people have for football."
"Football, being the number one sport in the world, needs not only top-notch, high-level competitions to retain fans but also more innovative ways of promotion to maintain and expand its base, and there’s no conflict in that."
