Chapter 35: Chapter 35 The Wahaha Team
Italy.
Jiang Yunzhu, having been rebuffed in Milan, opened the official website of the Lisbon team she was closely following.
The first thing she saw was the headline in red on the website:
"Congratulations to the U15 Squad for their 1-0 Victory over Pilsen, Securing a Key Battle in the U15 European Youth League!"
She smiled.
Because the subheadline was "Superstar Chris Goes the Distance to Provide an Assist, Football Caesar Deng Kai’s Extreme Sliding Shot Breaks Through the Gates of Čech City!"
But soon, Jiang Yunzhu was stunned.
Because what followed was a dense array of reports about Deng Kai’s injury.
Deng Kai seriously injured?
Jiang Yunzhu’s heart trembled.
She immediately called her superior to request a return to Lisbon.
The leader scolded her for her lack of understanding, especially since the "Wahaha Team" had already started training in China, but most of the opposing teams had not yet been confirmed.
You didn’t manage to contact a single Serie A giant, and you still have the nerve to go to Lisbon?
To this, Jiang Yunzhu replied, "These giants obviously look down on our project. I believe it’s a waste of time to stay in Italy; it would be better to look for opportunities in the second-tier leagues of Portugal, the Netherlands, and others."
"Portugal’s Porto, Benfica, Lisbon, Netherlands’ Ajax, PSV Eindhoven, Feyenoord. Even Germany’s Dortmund, Leverkusen, Schalke 04, France’s Marseille, Monaco, Lyon, Paris Saint-Germain are all possibilities!"
"Several of these clubs’ youth training programs are even stronger than those of the giants!"
Jiang Yunzhu’s idea finally gained the leader’s approval, and she flew back to Lisbon as a result.
...
In the end, on the evening of the following day, Lisbon issued an official statement regarding the highly concerned matter of Deng Kai’s injury.
According to the diagnosis, Deng Kai would be absent from all matches for the next five to seven weeks.
This included at least five league games and one or two youth Champions League matches.
And these seven games could pretty much decide the fate of Lisbon’s U15 season.
After all, without securing a top-four spot in the league, there would be no playoffs to play.
Out of eighteen games, thirteen had already been played, rendering the remaining matches almost meaningless.
The same was true for the European competition—if Lisbon lost another match, they would be prematurely ousted from the group stage with no further matches to play.
For a time, the media was very pessimistic about the future of Lisbon’s U15.
When Deng Kai was present, they didn’t credit Lisbon’s victories to him.
But without Deng Kai, they finally recognized his impact on the game in a different way.
November 3rd.
Lisbon faced Royal Sporting Club at home.
But Lisbon, fresh from a triumphant three-game winning streak across all competitions, suffered a crushing defeat in this match.
A humiliating 0-5 loss.
Ronaldo, who had given his all in the previous game, simply lacked the stamina this time and performed moderately.
November 9th.
Lisbon continued to play at home, welcoming the team from Aves.
Aves, the current bottom of the league in points.
Lisbon had only won one match before, and it was against Aves.
Yet this time, perhaps influenced by Deng Kai’s absence, Ronaldo began attempting to cooperate with his teammates, passing the ball to them.
In the end, relying on Ronaldo’s goal, pass, and strategic play, the team narrowly defeated Aves 3-2, preserving their dignity.
But even against the last-place team, they struggled.
The morale of the Lisbon team, instead, dropped even lower after this game.
Just when everyone thought the Lisbon U15’s season was coming to an early end.
A shocking piece of news came from the hospital.
"Deng Kai’s recovery is going well! He’s been discharged!"
Subsequently, the official website of Sporting Lisbon reported, "Deng Kai has joined recovery training and can train with the team in the next two days. He may play in the match against Sacha Vien next week!"
Portugal’s major football newspaper, Record Report, even published an exclusive interview with Deng Kai.
The contributor was still Jiang Yunzhu, a Chinese journalist from Sports Weekly.
The headline read, "I have no talent! But I train longer than others, recover faster than others, because I want to play football!"
This report also allowed fans to understand a "real" Deng Kai for the first time.
...
The exclusive interview with Deng Kai was completed during his hospital stay.
Jiang Yunzhu was very surprised when she first met Deng Kai.
She thought Deng Kai would be nervous, or extra excited because she was a Chinese journalist, or even that he would look down on her because of the relatively unknown name of her domestic publication.
But there was none of that.
Nothing at all.
"Please sit, you all came much earlier than I expected," Deng Kai said politely.
"You all? Your Mandarin is very standard," Jiang Yunzhu grew to like Deng Kai even more. He was not an ABC, which was rare.
During this time period, the new generation of Chinese descendants often disdained learning Chinese.
Many even took pride in shedding the Chinese label, believing it to be embarrassing.
It was not until later, when the country became more powerful, that more and more ABCs started playing the patriotism card and began to return.
"We all communicate in Chinese at home. You, the journalists from China. At this stage, the focus of domestic football media is mainly on the five major leagues, right? In fact, people don’t really care about the Bundesliga or Ligue 1," Deng Kai’s knowledge of domestic news trends surprised Jiang Yunzhu, "I’m curious about your interest in the youth development of the Portuguese league."
"It seems you know quite a lot," Jiang Yunzhu responded, "Actually it’s quite fortuitous, currently our Sports Weekly is in the midst of... But now we’re stuck at the cooperation with clubs part."
"The big clubs in Italy don’t give us face! I came back this time partly because I heard you were injured, to see how you were doing. After all, I’ve been following your progress for a long time and was waiting for the right opportunity to introduce you to domestic fans!"
"On the other hand, I also thought about whether there was a chance to talk with the three giants of the Portuguese league to facilitate this collaboration."
Jiang Yunzhu briefly mentioned the "Wahaha team."
However, Deng Kai showed great interest in this.
He inquired about the specific names of the young players involved in the training camp.
He knew about the Jianlibao team but not the Wahaha team, it seemed that this plan was not successful in his previous life.
But now... the wings of the butterfly seemed to have already started flapping!
"As for the ages, I won’t go into detail, but there’s some leeway. Of course, we hope the Wahaha team’s performance can be a bit more spectacular, or else it would be difficult to compete with the achievements of the Jianlibao team," Jiang Yunzhu spoke freely, "The young players this time mainly come from two sources."
"One is the recently concluded Nike Cup National Championship, which produced a batch of excellent young players."
"Including the Nike Cup’s best player, top scorer, and golden boot winner—Yu Shihao."
"Nike Cup’s best central defender, Shao Jiawei."
"Nike Cup’s best squad left-back, player from the Sichuan Quanxing youth team, Chen Tao."
"Nike Cup’s best squad right-back, player from Inner Mongolia Tongliao No.1 Middle School, Wu Xudong."
Deng Kai furrowed his brows.
This didn’t sound familiar at all.
The strength of this Wahaha team didn’t seem so great!
Jiang Yunzhu didn’t notice Deng Kai’s expression and continued, "The other half comes from recommendations by excellent football organizations from all over the country, including the central defender from Henan Jianye youth team, Zhao Peng."
"Midfielder from Wuhan City Football School, Hao Junmin."
"Goalkeeper prodigy from Wuhan Steel City No. 10 Elementary School, Zeng Cheng."
"Player from Dalian Yi Teng Football Club, Feng Xiaoting."
"Talented striker from the China Football School, Gao Lin, and more!"
