Chapter 421: Chapter 420: MVP Stalwart, Not Five-Time Champion, But Six-Time King!
Crazy, Feng Te has gone completely mad!
The Deng Kai Global Fan Club has been overwhelmed.
So many new fans have flocked in.
Especially the beautiful female fans, all kinds of racy photos swamped in, making him, Feng Te, increasingly gaunt—he couldn’t bear it anymore!
Deng Kai’s popularity had already exploded during this time.
But "Understanding Football" just had to add fuel to the fire.
"Understanding Football": "Quintuple champion? No! Please call him the Sextuple King!"
The accompanying picture was Deng Kai arrogantly staring down Bayern fans after he thought he had scored his first goal.
Being handsome, you really can do whatever you want.
Every angle could be considered a killer shot.
Beside this title was a subtitle—Sporting Lisbon isn’t the first Quintuple Champion, but Deng Kai is the first Sextuple King+Six-time MVP!
"Portuguese League, Portugal Cup, Europa League, U-20 World Cup, Portuguese Super Cup, European Super Cup, six championship titles, six MVP awards, four times selected for the best squad of the tournament, twice top assist provider, twice top scorer!"
"The honors he has garnered this year have surpassed Ajax of 1972 that swept across Europe."
"As the first quintuple champion in the history of European football, people often say that if there were more competitions for Ajax to play in that year, they would have won even more championships."
"But that is only an if; the charm of football lies in its unpredictability, anything can happen on the field. That is just people’s fond wish and a strong description of Ajax’s power."
"However, today, Deng Kai has shown everyone what a real Sextuple King looks like!"
"You can’t say that Sporting Lisbon today is greater than Ajax was because Ajax won the Champions League. But at least, you should know, today’s Deng Kai is no less than the core members of that Ajax team."
"At least, we have reason to believe that there might come a day when Deng Kai truly has the chance to catch up with that flying Dutchman—Johann Cruyff!"
Jiang Yunzhu’s essay-like feature took people back to the European football of the early seventies—that was the era of Johann Cruyff and Ajax.
But as strong as Cruyff was, he also failed to lift six MVP trophies that summer, not even half of them.
Even the article received a personal response from Cruyff himself; whether "Understanding Football" paid for that, well, that’s hard to say, heh heh.
Cruyff: "The first time I heard this name was when the kid turned down a trial invitation from Barça and thus became the football Caesar, in a pejorative sense. He was only about ten years old at the time."
"The first time I really saw him was three years ago at the Portuguese Diamond Generation Invitation Tournament. I attended the event as an invited guest and witnessed him climb the champions’ podium."
"He was very thin and only 1.4 meters tall at the time, but I saw a confident light in his eyes."
"I went back to look at my own photos and realized that when I was young, I was the same."
"So I admire him, but at the same time, I regret his relationship with Barcelona, and I hope to see him wearing the Barça jersey one day in the future."
As a Barça legend and former coach, Cruyff, while expressing his fondness for Deng Kai, still wanted to play the peacemaker.
Because in theory, Cruyff could return to coach Barça again.
And once he coached Barça, Deng Kai’s importance to him would exceed everyone’s imagination.
Deng Kai is the perfect embodiment of Cruyff’s core football philosophy!
While his ball control and dribbling skills are still a bit rough, Deng Kai’s vision, awareness, decision-making on the field, even exceed Cruyff’s initial definition of a midfield core.
Cruyff was the man who took Barça to the peak; his establishment of the Dream Team dynasty is still impressive to this day.
After he left, Van Gaal’s attempts to transform Barça could hardly be called successful, and the Dream Team II dynasty was slow to establish.
If Johann Cruyff could take over at Barcelona with Deng Kai as the core, combined with the "Dream Team" DNA already deeply embedded in Barcelona’s youth training and tactical philosophy, Barcelona could instantly enter an era of "Dream Team II", which could outshine and outlast "Dream Team I".
Facing Cruyff’s eager expectations, Deng Kai replied, "Johann Cruyff is one of the greatest players, I’m a hardcore fan of his, the kind who owns a signed football!"
"My growth is not unrelated to Cruyff; for a long time, I struggled to break away from opponents on the pitch until I studied Cruyff’s ball-carrying and evasive moves—I learned to push, erm... I learned to fend off challenges."
"But to wear the Barcelona jersey, I think that’s something I would have done in my past life. Or perhaps, if Mr. Cruyff were to once again become the coach of Barcelona."
"I have no ill will towards Barcelona’s players, it’s just that with my current experiences, it’s very difficult for me to grow fond of this club. It’s nobody’s fault, it’s what we Easterners often say about fate, pah... ’yuan’!"
Cruyff wasn’t insistent, and Kai was very sensible, saving his face by saying he would consider joining after he became the coach of Barcelona.
So the top priority was to become the head coach of Barcelona once again.
Deng Kai also wasn’t worried about Cruyff becoming Barcelona’s coach.
For the current Barcelona president Gaspart might have stepped into the limelight, but the actual control of Barcelona was still in the hands of the former president Nunes.
The things Gaspart could do were very limited, and among those limited things, appointing Cruyff, who had a fallout with Nunes, as the team’s head coach was certainly not included.
And so, under Cruyff’s wave of promotion, Deng Kai finally started to get fired up this summer!
His stature in football had significantly risen.
This sensation was like how in the future, the Qatari consortium would desperately try to keep Mbappé, thereby vastly elevating Mbappé’s status in football.
In judging status, one must consider influence.
And influence often only becomes apparent after certain events transpire.
Deng Kai had already started to influence the appointment of Barcelona’s head coach, the acquisition of Championship level clubs, and other matters, abilities that many long-established stars did not possess at the time.
...
August 29th.
"Oh! That’s truly an unexpected result."
"I think the fans of Alverca can now shout the words once said by Mourinho, that the Quintuple Champions have fallen!"
"And they won’t get egg on their faces like Mourinho did, because there won’t be any champions produced for the rest of the year."
"Sporting Lisbon actually lost their third round of the Portuguese league match by zero to one."
"Their current form is very inconsistent—three games, two losses, one draw—causing concern."
"They seem to have lost their dominance in the Primeira Liga."
"Yet their players don’t seem dejected after losing; it appears they are still basking in their past glory. This is a very dangerous syndrome for champions."
The thirst for honor is often the most important driving force behind a star’s brilliance.
The players of Quintuple Champions Sporting Lisbon seem to have lost this drive temporarily.
Except for the newly joined players, the performance of the veterans is far from satisfactory.
The media evidence is "even Deng Kai, the one known for his running, saw a significant reduction in his distance covered this match."
The expectations for Deng Kai are now much higher.
Covering ten thousand meters in a single match is no longer impressive to them.
They never considered whether the veterans taking it easy could be a tactical requirement from Sporting Lisbon for the players?
