Chapter 368: Chapter 367: The New King Ascends, People Will Only Remember the First
After Quaresma, the atmosphere at the venue could no longer be subdued.
Even before the host could speak, the fans rhythmically chanted:
"Deng Kai!"
"Deng Kai!"
"Deng Kai!"
Host: "Hahaha, it seems that everyone here is knowledgeable about soccer. So, I’ll cut to the chase... Before him, I found it hard to believe that the Best Player Award in Portugal’s top league would one day go to a Chinese descendant."
"It’s not that I have a bias, but I’ve really never seen anything like this happen."
"He won’t even turn sixteen until August this year, he is the youngest player in the history of Portugal’s top division to play, assist, and score! He’s also the youngest core player in the history of Sporting Lisbon."
"He’s about as tall as me, just over 1.7 meters. But in defense, he can rival Matthaus and in attack, he’s on par with the super Deco, on the left, he’s no less than Cristiano, and on the right, he’s like another Quaresma!"
"Thirty-four games, sixteen goals and twenty-one assists—an exaggerated statistic that still cannot capture his role in the team. He is this year’s Best Player in Portugal’s top league, hands down!"
Boom!
The venue instantly erupted.
The fans’ enthusiasm, which was ignited starting with Schmeichel, reached its ultimate explosion at Deng Kai.
Fifteen years old!
Portugal’s top league’s assist king!
Portugal’s top league’s best player!
Can you believe it!
That day, the name "Deng Kai" floated over the entire city of Lisbon.
...
"Proud Boy Cristiano Cries! Besides the Best Young Player Award, he also ranks fifth on the season’s best player list in Portugal’s top league!"
"Madeira’s youth becomes the fifth man in Portugal’s top league after just one season of play! Cristiano Ronaldo writes the miracle of a small-town youngster!"
"Old Tree Blooms Again! Schmeichel secures Best Goalkeeper honor after Manchester United and could continue defending for another three years!"
"Schmeichel gives the trophy to his son: Hopes Kasper will also become the best goalkeeper in Portugal’s top league in the future!"
"Persistence pays off, three thousand armored warriors could swallow Wu! Italian side Chievo’s rejected youth team player crowned Best Center Back in Portugal’s top league!"
"Interest from Inter Milan? Barzagli gets the chance to return to Italy!"
"Jia De’er wins the golden boot in Portugal’s top league for the fourth consecutive year but fails to secure either the best forward or best player awards!"
"Failing to fully earn recognition from Portugal’s top league, Brazilian fans believe that Jia De’er’s goal statistics are inflated, and he doesn’t deserve to be Ronaldo’s backup!"
"Second in assists in Portugal’s top league, third-best player, super Deco clinches the Best Midfielder Award in Portugal’s top league for the second consecutive year!"
"Best Forward in Portugal’s top league, runner-up for Best Player, Quaresma leads Sporting Lisbon to domestic league and cup double!"
"A New King Ascends! A fifteen-year-old wins Best Player Award in Portugal’s top league, interpreting the true meaning of talent!"
"Led by the new king, Deng Kai, Portugal’s top league announces the season’s best lineup, with Sporting Lisbon contributing eight players and emerging as the biggest winner!"
"Fourth on the Best Player list in Portugal’s top league? Jia De’er questions the credibility of Portugal’s top league rankings!"
"The most unworthy MVP in the history of Portugal’s top league? For the sake of the spectacle and traction, Sporting Lisbon strongly promoted a fifteen-year-old Chinese-Portuguese who hasn’t reached adulthood, making the sixteen-goal Best Player of Portugal’s top league an utter joke!"
The road to becoming a king is always tough.
After Deng Kai was honored as the best player in Portugal’s top league, a brief spell of fan’s blessings was soon followed by doubts.
This was, after all, understandable.
Sporting Lisbon fans are in the minority within the Portugal’s top league’s fan community, and Portugal’s top league fans are also a minority within the European fan community.
Apart from Sporting Lisbon having absolute faith in Deng Kai, of course, everyone else would have doubts about him.
After all, just from the title, a player who scored sixteen goals in a single season indeed has no claim to the title of the best player.
But if we add twenty-one assists, team linchpin, locker room leader, participant in forming team tactics, main suggester for key player recruitment, the one who helped Sporting Lisbon rise from fourth to first in the league, from the round of sixteen in the Portuguese Cup to champions, from being eliminated in the first round of the Europa League to reaching the finals, sparking a youth storm that turned heads all over Europe.
Considering the huge turnover in the team’s roster, you could say that Deng Kai was responsible for this storm.
In Serie A, league awards might not take European competition results into account, but who else in other leagues, especially second-tier ones, could afford to ignore European performances?
Are Deng Kai’s sixteen league goals considered few?
The guy scored twelve in the Europa League!
To some clueless folks, the latest wave in the Primeira Liga seems like foul play, a deliberate hype of Deng Kai.
But those in the know, understand that it’s the Primeira Liga riding the wave of Deng Kai’s popularity!
If anyone’s at a disadvantage, it’s Quaresma.
Considering everything, Quaresma arguably deserves the Primeira Liga’s Best Player more so than Deng Kai.
But his second-place finish isn’t scandalous; rather, it vividly illustrates the difference between the "star player" and the "leader."
Quaresma is Sporting Lisbon’s ace, but Deng Kai is the true leader of the team.
Aces may benefit from attention, but leaders gain a boost in both their ratings and overall recognition.
...
"Kai, it’s okay, if you feel bad just cry it out, you’ll feel better," Cristiano Ronaldo kept comforting Deng Kai on the flight from Portugal to Dortmund, encouraging him to let it all out.
Pepe stood nervously in the back with a simple camera, ready to capture the moment Deng Kai sheds tears.
Pepe swears he was pressured into it—he really didn’t want to stab little Kai in the back—but then Ronaldo barged into his bathroom the night before while Pepe showered to snap some revealing photos of Pepe.
Pepe dared not refuse.
There weren’t any negative comments from the media about Ronaldo weeping after winning the award—everyone understood him.
But Ronaldo considered it a Waterloo in his career.
Coincidentally, Deng Kai often teased Ronaldo about this incident, saying that a real man bleeds but does not cry. Ronaldo was surprisingly fragile.
How could the proud Ronaldo accept that?
But if Deng Kai also cried, that would make them even.
"Cry? Why should I cry?" Deng Kai was in high spirits.
"They’re cursing at you, questioning you, wronging you, looking down on you... And you’re not crying?" Ronaldo wondered.
"That’s because I came out on top, people only remember who’s first," Deng Kai said with a slight smile. "If I were second, third, fourth, or fifth, they might not even remember my name... Now, this just proves my success."
Ronaldo frowned slightly, "Saying it like that, isn’t that a bit disrespectful to the person in fifth place?"
Ronaldo himself was fifth on the Primeira Liga’s Best Player list.
Of course, he wouldn’t get mad at Deng Kai—he knew Deng Kai was a polite young man, probably just an oversight on his part.
Deng Kai: "It’s not specifically about the fifth place, it’s more like a lack of respect for the second, third, fourth, and fifth places."
Ronaldo: MMP!
Deng Kai: "Oh, right... where are you ranked?"
Good lord, he really didn’t recognize the fifth.
Ronaldo: WTF?
"Don’t stop me, I’m going to beat the crap out of him!"
If it weren’t for Feng Te, Drogba, and Ibrahimovic holding Cristiano back, he surely would have knocked Deng Kai out.
Such arrogance.
Such insolence!
