Chapter 627: Chapter 626: Demoting Toulon Cup, Still-Haired Colt
Actually, when it comes to awards, even though the Golden Ball now places more emphasis on a player’s performance within the year than the International Football Player of the Year, it still involves a lot of factors related to a player’s personal reputation.
This is unavoidable.
And various football stars speaking out for Deng Kai essentially accelerated the accumulation of his reputation.
Without them, Deng Kai would likely only garner support from fans of Manchester City, plus Manchester United, or perhaps a few more Premier League teams.
Even so, conquering all Premier League fans isn’t guaranteed.
Not to mention fans of other leagues.
But now... fans from AC Milan, Inter Milan, Lazio... and even Barcelona have to grudgingly support their old foe Deng Kai.
After all, they may dislike Deng Kai, but Barcelona and Real Madrid are archenemies. Are they supposed to support Ronaldo instead?
With everything so fervently underway,
why hasn’t Cristiano Ronaldo spoken out?
Deng Kai himself hasn’t stepped forward either.
After some searching, people found out that these two world-class stars had in fact... joined Portugal’s Toulon Tournament training camp!
The Toulon Tournament is an international football invitational held in Toulon, France.
It requires participating players to be under the age of 21.
It holds considerable influence in youth football events.
This is because players at this stage are transitioning from youth to maturity, and improvements in their skills can vary greatly.
Most of these players are already capable of joining the national team.
In 2007, the Chinese team achieved their best result since participating in the Tournament, becoming the runners-up of the Toulon Cup.
Deng Kai and Cristiano Ronaldo are certainly within the age requirement for this event.
But their level...
Initially, Cristiano Ronaldo refused to participate in the event.
But he couldn’t withstand Deng Kai’s taunt, "Are you sure? If so, you’re going to have one less title than me, you know?"
Cristiano Ronaldo had no choice but to give up his vacation and join Deng Kai in the Portuguese U21 team.
There, they met former youth team friends like Lorenzo, and former opponents such as Hugo Almeida, Postiga, Bosingwa, Jorge Ribeiro, and Ricardo Costa.
They are still young stars, but Cristiano Ronaldo and Deng Kai are already contenders for the Golden Ball and the International Football Player of the Year.
This made them feel as if they were in a dream.
Whereas youth team celebrities like Quaresma and Viana did not participate in the Toulon Tournament.
Their status and skills meant that they didn’t need to take part.
For young stars, this kind of event is somewhat of a loss.
If you win, people think it’s expected and your status in football won’t be raised.
But if you lose, you become a stepping stone for others, subject to all sorts of challenges.
It’s a thankless task.
Quaresma couldn’t even understand why Deng Kai and Cristiano Ronaldo would bother participating in this event.
However, during Deng Kai’s training, a major event occurred in European football.
Russian oligarch Abramovich officially launched a takeover bid for Chelsea!
This sparked massive discussions throughout Europe.
People exclaimed in astonishment, the era of money has arrived!
Although Manchester City had previously been acquired by Mansour.
What Mansour actually bought was a Manchester City in England’s second-tier league.
However, Abramovich was acquiring a Premier League-level team.
Last season, Chelsea finished fourth in the Premier League.
They even had a spot in the Champions League qualifiers!
When Mansour bought Manchester City, he spent less than 100 million euros.
But Abramovich’s purchase could likely exceed 500 million pounds in official figures alone!
Not to mention the many "unequal treaties" that will emerge behind the scenes.
Overall, the deal was so massive it captured everyone’s attention.
So much so that Manchester City began to sign players in secret, with hardly anyone taking notice.
It wasn’t until Arsenal complained that Manchester City lacked sportsmanship.
That people realized Manchester City was quietly making moves.
Three million euros!
With the rationale of "fighting on multiple fronts," Manchester City convinced Francesc Fabregas Soler, a 1.78-meter-tall La Masia youngster!
Fabregas was the midfield core of Barcelona’s youth team, with a stunning record of 30+ goals in a single season, yet he had struggled to receive a call-up from Barcelona’s first team.
After the Football Association Cup defeat, Wenger quickly threw himself into the transfer work.
He had Arsenal bid two million euros for Fabregas.
His final mental price for the deal was three and a half million euros.
However, Barcelona chose Manchester City without hesitation for three million euros.
On Manchester City’s end, Maxa personally communicated with Fabregas, ensuring he would have ideal playing time next season, even starting frequently.
Fabregas was tempted on the spot.
Wenger was skilled in helping young players.
Maxa was equally adept at this.
Arsenal had a bigger name, but Manchester City wasn’t short on attention.
Besides, Arsenal was stronger, had more stars, and their matches were tougher, so there was really no guarantee that Fabregas would become a main rotation player if he joined.
But at Manchester City, there were plenty more opportunities.
Without Manchester City, Fabregas would have chosen Arsenal.
But with Manchester City in the picture, Arsenal was no longer a good option.
Therefore, Fabregas completed the deal at lightning speed, joining Manchester City early on!
Of course, Arsenal was not angry, just regretful.
To them, Fabregas was not an urgent need, but a talent reserve for a few years ahead.
Without Fabregas, there were many other outstanding young players.
Even Deng Kai himself took time out of his busy schedule to call Wenger, hoping Wenger wouldn’t mind.
A blessing in disguise, perhaps?
Maybe you’ll end up wishing you never had Fabregas at all?
Such a rebellious player needs to be disciplined by us at Manchester City.
After all, ’Cesc favors Barcelona, but I, Kai, specialize in defeating Barcelona.
If all else fails, at least we can sell him at a high price.
For ’Cesc, this might well be a good thing too.
Joining Barcelona with a high transfer fee and joining at his own expense could yield very different outcomes.
June 5th.
The Toulon Tournament kicked off.
The Portugal and Argentina teams happened to deplane at the same time.
The two teams walked out of the airport together.
Fans donning Portugal’s number 7 and 10 junior team jerseys swarmed the entire airport.
The fame of Ronaldo and Deng Kai was a demoralizing blow to the other players in the tournament.
However, people noticed that Deng Kai actually walked over to the Argentina side and greeted one of the players with a noodle hairdo, even hugging him.
This made the noodle-haired player the focus of everyone’s attention.
Including the Argentina youth team, everyone was asking how the noodle hair managed to know a superstar like Deng Kai?
"Javier, what’s going on? Could the team’s rumor be true?"
In the end, the noodle-haired player named Javier Alejandro Mascherano nodded, "Yes, I transferred, and next season I will play for Manchester City."
Many players from the Argentina youth team let out cries of astonishment, a mix of envy, jealousy, and hatred.
The related news subsequently surged to the top of South American and European football news.
