Chapter 43: Chapter 43 Never Tell Him We Can’t Beat Feyenoord (Extra)
The Youth Champions League is a great opportunity to make a fortune.
With Hugo having Ronaldo as an insider, if the intelligence is detailed enough, they could even bet on relatively accurate scores!
The return on investment was enough to drive people mad.
"Just put down 20,000, and our family won’t be short of money for the next three to five years!" Hugo was very firm, unwilling to give up this opportunity.
Of course, he did have his family in mind, it was just that his way of showing love for the family was problematic.
Deng Kai disapproved of this method completely.
In the end, Deng Kai and Hugo had both turned red with confrontation.
If it weren’t for Ronaldo staying in between, they might have come to blows, well... it’s probably more accurate to say that Deng Kai would have been unilaterally beaten up.
"Please leave, you’re not welcome here! And don’t come looking for Ronaldo in Alcochete anymore, I will never let you harm him! Get out, get out! Die a dog’s death!" Deng Kai ordered him out.
Ronaldo persuaded Hugo to leave first and handed him a bag.
Hugo took the bag, turned, and left, slamming the door so hard the whole house shook.
The sound of him going downstairs was thunderous.
"Kai, don’t be angry, this thing... I’m sorry." Ronaldo knew Deng Kai had his best interests at heart.
But after all, Hugo was his brother.
The words "after all" could really put people in a tough spot, causing even the most capable to stumble.
Yet, Deng Kai’s expression suddenly changed, showing none of the anger or annoyance!
He looked towards the door, gestured for Ronaldo to be quiet by placing a finger on his lips, and deliberately said loudly, "Ronaldo, don’t tell your brother about the team’s matters anymore."
"Especially the next match."
"We simply can’t win against Feyenoord."
"And don’t mention the tactics of Coach Maxa to anyone."
"His conservative strategy aims to minimize our goals against."
"In this European match, thinking small is the same as winning. As long as the loss isn’t too ugly, both fans and the team’s management can accept it."
"After all, we are the core of the team, yet we are one or two years younger than players of the same level in other teams. Having our current achievements is already commendable."
Hearing Deng Kai "spill the beans" inside the room,
Hugo, who had returned to the doorway, slightly raised the corners of his mouth.
Youthful!
The Chinese kid was still too young.
He didn’t even know the saying that walls have ears.
This was a sure bet!
Wait a minute, isn’t ’walls have ears’ a Chinese idiom?
???
...
Lisbon, a slum district.
"Hey, Hugo, how did it go?"
As soon as Hugo returned, his friends surrounded him eagerly.
"Of course, it went without a hitch!" Hugo said, "Definitely a low score."
"Low score?" Hugo’s friends were surprised.
During this time, Sporting Lisbon had been winning consecutively, clearly on the rise.
Their star forward, Cristiano Ronaldo, topped the league’s scoring charts, and their new midfield core, Deng Kai, was hailed as a midfield prodigy with top-notch passing and playmaking.
This European match was their all-out battle for qualification.
If they lost, they would definitively have no chance to qualify.
Sporting Lisbon was going all out, and on the other side, Feyenoord played offensive football, with a super striker, Fan Peixi, who performed even better than Ronaldo in European matches.
Moreover, youth team games were prone to high scores.
It could be said that no matter how this match was played, it wouldn’t be a low-scoring game.
"Feyenoord is too strong; Sporting Lisbon never intended to win the game," Hugo confidently recalled Deng Kai’s words, repeating them verbatim, "Their record in European competitions isn’t good, and even if they fight to the death, they might not advance."
"But the league is different, they’ve found their form in the league and, if they go all out, they might even make it into the southern or northern zones or even the championship zone."
"The Sporting Lisbon management also values the players’ consistent performances in the league over the cup competitions."
"Their coach, Maxa, needs to prove his coaching and training abilities with league results, not by relying on the more luck-dependent cup competitions."
"So in the next European match, Sporting Lisbon will completely play defensively, and a zero to zero score is what they most desire. Even if they do concede a goal, as long as it isn’t an ugly loss, that would be acceptable."
After Hugo finished speaking, his fair-weather friends all around began to clap in admiration.
When the friends dispersed, Hugo opened the package that Cristiano Ronaldo had given him.
There were two things inside.
The former was a book.
Hugo didn’t even touch it.
The latter was an envelope filled with some money.
Although it wasn’t much, it was what Cristiano Ronaldo had saved from staying at Deng Kai’s home; it was a subsidy for Cristiano’s family, entrusted to his brother to give to their mother.
Hugo hesitated for a long time looking at the money.
"Sorry, Chris, your brother will make big money, just believe in me!"
Hugo gripped the money tightly, having made his choice.
"Mike, help me place a bet again, I want to wager..."
...
"Fuck? You knew he was eavesdropping and yet you told him all that?"
"You’ve really lost it!"
"I gave him fifteen hundred! Some of that was even my advance allowance!"
"What if he loses it all?"
"Our family can’t withstand this kind of turmoil!"
Seeing Cristiano hysterical, Deng Kai added, "Fifteen hundred is nothing. Looking at your brother, he’s clearly prepared to gamble much more; I reckon it won’t be less than that amount."
Deng Kai held up a finger.
And Cristiano suddenly went from frantic to calm, with cold sweat on his forehead, "Ten thousand US Dollars? You mean... no, he doesn’t have that much money, he..."
Deng Kai looked at Cristiano, "But he has so many fair-weather friends, ah. Who do you think would be the one to suggest making a big bet in the first place? I’m sure it wasn’t your brother; he’s actually a decent person."
"Only a milk seller would persuade you to drink milk."
"Only a phone seller would tell you that your next computer doesn’t have to be a computer."
"Those who encourage gambling are often the bookies themselves."
"Among your brother’s friends, who he’s gotten close with recently, there’s definitely someone who’s a subordinate of a bookie. It’s also possible that there are subordinates of someone throwing matches; basically everyone but someone like your brother, who’s a novice, might have other identities."
"You haven’t heard of your brother having these friends before, right? Trust me, even their contact with your brother has been selective because he’s known in the youth training world as the brother of the next big Portuguese star, Cristiano Ronaldo!"
Cristiano had a sudden realization.
So that was it!
While for most fans, Cristiano Ronaldo was still a nobody.
The rare senior fans who follow the players might only pay attention to the reserve team at best.
Who cares about the U15 players?
But for those who make a living from football, such as scouts, youth trainers, betting organizations, and underground football betting agency workers, they were already very familiar with that name.
A player who scores frequently, improves rapidly, and has a strong desire to win, and is fast.
These people are sometimes even more accurate than the clubs in judging young players.
Because while clubs might just want to take a chance on a lottery ticket,
these people live off these children!
Never use your hobby to challenge someone else’s profession.
