Chapter 71: Chapter 71: Hahaha Visits Portugal
Four days after the battle for tens of millions of Euros, Sporting Lisbon U15 faced their last match of the regional league season.
They defeated Royal Sports Club 3-1 without much of a scare, securing their second place in the league and advancing directly to the next season’s North-South division.
Ronaldo continued his good form in this match and scored twice,
raising his tally to thirty-one goals and maintaining a comfortable lead.
Deng Kai delivered an assist, bringing his personal stats up to nine goals and fourteen assists, also topping the assist chart.
Then, the entire European football scene entered the winter break,
During the winter break, perhaps the biggest event for European fans was Zidane being crowned the 1998 FIFA World Player of the Year thanks to his outstanding performance in the World Cup.
He also became another superstar to have won both the Golden Ball and FIFA World Player of the Year in the same year, following Ronaldo.
But for Chinese fans, the biggest event of the winter was... haha! Team Wahaha charging through European football!
5-3 in a great battle against Schalke 04!
3-1 victory over Eintracht Frankfurt!
2-0 narrow win against PSV Eindhoven!
1-1 draw with Sampdoria!
4-3 thrilling win against Everton!
1-0 tough victory over Crystal Palace!
This team achieved an impressive record in Europe!
And their last battle in Europe was in Lisbon!
...
"Mr. Trigella, we are grateful for your care over the following days! You are the first high-ranking official from a European team to offer us help, and we will always remember it in our hearts," said Lin Tao, a senior executive from Sports Weekly, who personally came over this time.
Accompanying him were Wahaha team’s head coach and other team leaders.
However, Lin Tao was puzzled why Trigella brought Deng Kai to such a high-level meeting between officials.
Was it because of Deng Kai’s Chinese heritage?
Trigella shook his head, "It’s not me who you should be thanking, it’s Deng Kai. He was instrumental in making this happen."
Lin Tao was taken aback, as he had not expected this.
He then turned to the young Deng Kai and said, "Thank you, Deng Kai."
"I’m just doing what I should," Deng Kai’s response drew chuckles.
Several people from the Chinese side were laughing.
"This kid talks like an adult."
"You’re not wrong. Despite his size, he’s quite composed."
Afterwards, both sides had a brief discussion about the upcoming training and friendly matches. Unlike with other teams, Wahaha team would train with Sporting Lisbon for a week before playing the match.
This was also the most important part of Wahaha’s European tour.
Sports Weekly was waiting for this material to strike up a new talking point in the domestic market and subsequently try to catch up to the sales of Football Magazine.
After the formal discussion, everyone agreed on dinner plans for the evening.
Wouldn’t it need to be something special?
Trigella initially intended to refuse Sports Weekly’s dinner invitation, but upon hearing the restaurant’s name, he made no further objection and called the coaching staff right away,
Guys, let’s go. We’re having a feast at a fancy restaurant!
Regarding this, Lin Tao had his own thoughts.
With the spread of the "tens of millions of Euros battle," Sporting Lisbon undoubtedly became the hottest football youth academy of the moment.
At the same time, many people in China were calling for improving Chinese football starting from youth training.
If Sporting Lisbon were willing to share their secrets, then what are the chances that Chinese football won’t rise?
And Trigella was the ace coach of the Sporting Lisbon youth team!
He alone could very well be worth half of Sporting Lisbon’s success.
This dinner was attended not only by the coaching team and Maxa, but also by Deng Kai and Ronaldo.
From Lin Tao’s side, several outstanding Wahaha team players were also invited to participate — Yu Shihao and Wu Xudong.
Deng Kai was full of question marks,
What? In this kind of situation, shouldn’t the excellent players be the strongest on the team or the captain?
Because you never know if the players might catch the eye of Trigella’s side and start their overseas career!
Shouldn’t it be Gao Lin and Hao Junmin coming over?
Deng Kai signaled to Maxa to ask.
Maxa might have struggled with other tasks, but he was brilliant at reading between the lines and instantly understood the hint,
"That, Mr. Lin, you wouldn’t happen to be hiding an ace up your sleeve, would you?" Maxa asked.
Lin Tao, fearing the visitor would not think highly of his players, immediately responded, "I assure you, these two players are the best performers from our Wahaha team this time."
"Yu Shihao scored a total of six goals on this European trip, making him the top scorer in the team right now. Even our forward Gao Lin is overshadowed by him; once he starts running, nobody can stop him."
"Wu Xudong, our fastest player. Don’t be fooled by the fact he plays right-back; he’s got more killing power than our right winger Hao Junmin!"
Deng Kai thought he was hearing things.
Gao Lin and Hao Junmin are not the top players in the Wahaha team?
No way.
Are you telling me that just any two random people off the street are better than future national team starters?
That’s not really dissing the national team, is it?
Afterwards, Deng Kai went over to greet them.
The two young men were extremely surprised by Deng Kai’s Mandarin.
After making the rounds, Deng Kai understood why Lin Tao brought these two players.
Because their ages were probably the best fit for U15.
At that time, it was all too common to change somebody’s age, hometown, ethnicity, and so on, in the sports industry.
If you don’t change it, the coach will change it for you.
Everyone around you is changing it.
So why did the Wahaha team’s European tour achieve such dazzling results?
Because most of their opponents were around fourteen years old, with even fewer at fifteen, and even Rooney, Everton’s starting forward, was only thirteen.
And the players from the Wahaha team?
Some were genuinely sixteen or seventeen years old.
This stage is precisely when a player’s combat strength skyrockets.
Being one year older could potentially bridge the gap between a mediocre player and a genius.
Trigella is an expert in youth training; wasn’t it looking for trouble for Lin Tao to bring over a few over-aged players?
...
The next day, on the training ground, Deng Kai indeed spotted something fishy.
The Wahaha team’s physical condition completely overpowered Sporting Lisbon’s U15.
What Zhao Peng, is there any difference between him and an adult?
What’s so impressive about bullying kids?
Deng Kai’s parents were from Sichuan, China; they enjoyed listening to Cantonese songs and watching Northeastern sketches.
From a young age, they taught Deng Kai multiple languages, making him fluent in Mandarin, Sichuanese, Cantonese, Northeastern dialect, Portuguese, Spanish, English, and others.
Later, Deng Kai also studied French, German, Italian, and Russian in Portugal’s twelve-year compulsory education system.
That’s why Deng Kai became a social butterfly during that period.
His communication with the Wahaha team’s players was even smoother than the internal exchanges within the Wahaha team, which came from all over.
So he quickly became familiar with the Wahaha team’s players.
The Wahaha team’s coaching staff also took note of his performance.
The domestic coaches were baffled looking at Deng Kai’s data.
If Ronaldo’s data is indeed exceptional, Yu Shihao and Gao Lin are no match at all.
But Deng Kai is still outrageous.
His data isn’t outstanding either!
How did he become the football Caesar?
How did he become Portugal’s future national midfielder?
Or is it that when we bring our domestic young players to Portugal, they all reach this ceiling level?
Sometimes, being too kind and too understanding, people gradually lose their awe, especially in areas of their expertise.
Thus, the coaching staff of the Wahaha team had been discussing Deng Kai frequently of late.
In their words, there was occasional disbelief about Sporting Lisbon letting go of Sergio.
In their eyes, compared to Deng Kai as the midfield lynchpin, Sergio had superior physical data, technical data, and training performance.
Did Trigella make a mistake?
This Trigella isn’t up to snuff either!
Is a Portuguese Golden youth coach like this? Maybe not even as good as us!
Through such questioning, these domestic coaches seemed to have found their confidence, indirectly achieving a sense of success.
