Chapter 390: Chapter 389: Trinidad and Tobago U-17 World Cup
Attentive friends might have already noticed that Deng Kai was rather inactive in this summer’s transfer window.
But early signs had already hinted at his whereabouts.
This summer, Deng Kai and Ronaldo heeded the call of the Portuguese Football Federation and led Portugal’s U16 to participate in the Trinidad and Tobago Youth Tournament.
There was even a special training camp before the competition.
Most of the U16 players were old friends of Deng Kai and Ronaldo, it was also where legends began.
This led to an explosion in attention for this edition of the Youth Tournament.
After all, these were two living legends of European "top-tier players"!
Quite a few Sporting Lisbon fans were actually against Deng Kai and Ronaldo participating in what they considered a "meaningless" match.
Yes, for the typical fifteen or sixteen-year-old players, the European Youth and World Youth Tournaments are indeed the best stages.
For those a year or two older, the European and World Junior Tournaments are equally the best platform.
But Deng Kai and Ronaldo were not typical.
Last year, the honor and exposure from the European Youth Tournament still added to their accolades.
But this year, let alone the World Youth Tournament, even the World Junior Tournament wouldn’t bring them much benefit.
Because the level of attention and honors they had already received far exceeded the Youth and Junior Tournaments themselves.
Ronaldo himself, following advice from professionals, was planning to decline the call-up and rest well over the summer.
With the team fighting on three fronts last season, and likely to do so again next season, even adult players could hardly endure it, let alone an underage player like Ronaldo?
Don’t forget, it’s only been a year and a half since Ronaldo’s heart surgery; he still has to submit his health data once a month to medical institutions for body status confirmation.
Yet, under Deng Kai’s "earnest persuasion," Ronaldo still participated in this edition of the Youth Tournament.
"If you don’t participate, then I’ll have one more championship title than you do!"
Indeed, there were many reasons for Deng Kai’s participation in this tournament.
The demands of a "champion harvester" were one of them.
Helping Ronaldo gain a few championships he hadn’t yet won was another goal.
A request from Jiang Yunzhu was the third reason.
This brings us to China’s U16 team, which had also qualified for the Trinidad and Tobago Youth Tournament.
To ensure Chinese players were as visible as possible to European football professionals, the Chinese national youth team had been preparing for a long time.
However, as news spread that Deng Kai and Ronaldo would not be participating in the tournament, the event even faced the risk of suspension.
Over fifty broadcasters indicated they would drop out of this edition if Deng Kai and Ronaldo were absent.
And more than six sponsors were considering withdrawing their support.
The Chinese team doesn’t make it to every Youth Tournament.
This opportunity was too good to let slip away.
So Jiang Yunzhu reached out to Deng Kai, hoping he would compete and maximize the attention on this edition of the Youth Tournament.
Facing Jiang Yunzhu’s request, Deng Kai bluntly told her, "Chinese football is beyond saving."
Jiang Yunzhu didn’t believe it, "How can that be? This time we might actually make it to the World Cup finals!"
Deng Kai replied, "And then fail to score a single goal... This isn’t even about football, there are too many problems with soccer in China, it’s irredeemable."
Jiang Yunzhu argued, "I know there are many problems, but we can change, we can fix them, address the issues where they exist."
Deng Kai responded, "You think there are a lot of problems now? I can tell you responsibly that in ten, twenty years, the problems will only be more serious. Your approach won’t work."
Jiang Yunzhu felt both angry and helpless.
Due to her family background, she was more aware of the problems in Chinese football than the average person, which went far beyond the level of play and the condition of the pitches.
Jiang Yunzhu: "Then what’s your plan?"
Deng Kai: "There actually is one. But... it depends on whether you can invite someone influential enough..."
Afterwards, Deng Kai revealed a bit of his plan to Jiang Yunzhu.
Jiang Yunzhu was stunned.
By the time she came to her senses, Deng Kai had hung up the phone for several minutes already.
While shaking her head, Jiang Yunzhu muttered softly, "Disband... disband... How is that possible... Disband... Can we really do that... disband, do we really need to disband... to save domestic football?"
However, Deng Kai on the other end of the phone hadn’t expected that Jiang Yunzhu might actually be able to invite someone influential enough.
But that would also require Deng Kai’s cooperation.
So, after several communications with Jiang Yunzhu, Deng Kai confirmed his attendance for this year’s, oh no, participation in this year’s U-17 World Cup, and held back some internal news about promoting youth team players to the first team at Sporting Lisbon.
...
Meanwhile, domestic news related to this year’s U-17 World Cup was already everywhere.
Breaking! Chinese soccer star Deng Kai confirmed to participate in this year’s U-17 World Cup! European Golden Boot Ronaldo will also compete!
This is the highest-level U-17 World Cup with player participation in history!
Unfortunately! The national youth team did not get into the same group as Portugal to witness the power of the strongest youth team!
The group stage looks promising! The national youth team will face Finland, Colombia, and Mexico!
The national youth team squad freshly announced! Two youngsters from Shide FC, Feng Xiaoting and Dong Fangzhuo, are lucky to be selected but are unlikely to play due to their positions on the depth chart!
An explosive reveal by a player’s parent: Getting into the national youth team costs at least a hundred thousand yuan? The Football Association responds: False reporting! There’s no such discount!
Special sports channel program: China’s team and Deng Kai at the Trinidad and Tobago U-17 World Cup!
All sorts of news were buzzing, and there were even rumors that high-level leaders were paying close attention to the U-17 World Cup, possibly even planning to discretely attend a few matches.
This motivated the domestic football association to not only provide excellent service for the matches but also to work harder to block some "false" information that was "harmful to football."
However, fortune was not in their favor.
Less than twenty-four hours after the domestic U-17 World Cup squad was announced, Sporting Lisbon updated some player promotion and relegation information, which caught the attention of domestic fans.
Hao Junmin, Yu Shihao, Shao Jiawei, and Chen Tao were promoted from Sporting Lisbon’s U17 to U19.
Wu Xudong and Veloso were directly promoted to the first team, ready to battle in Portugal’s Primeira Liga next season...
The domestic media paid attention to these names because their ages were eligible for this year’s U-17 World Cup.
Veloso was selected for the Portuguese U-17 World Cup squad and, barring any surprises, was a starter.
Wu Xudong, who is of the same caliber as Veloso, was unfortunately not selected for the national team.
The other four equally talented Lisbon youngsters were also left out of the domestic squad.
This inevitably led people to question the level of Sporting Lisbon.
What kind of lousy club are you?
Even your first team players can’t make it onto our national U-17 World Cup squad!
Sporting Lisbon: Cough cough, we’re not any major club, let’s not even mention ancient honors. Just this past season, we were merely the humble winners of the UEFA Europa League, Primeira Liga, and Taça de Portugal.
As for youth training, every year for the past three years, we’ve had teams winning national championships, and in Deng Kai’s year, we even won the Youth Champions League.
Oh, is that so.
So if Sporting Lisbon’s strength isn’t the problem, who would you say is the problem?
Suddenly, domestic media and fans began to incessantly question the national youth team.
But the Football Association remained silent in response to this the whole time.
