Chapter 77: Chapter 77 End of Winter Break, South-North Division Matches Begin
"Wahaha Team’s Staggering Achievements! Chinese Youngsters Second to None!"
"Miracle Coach Milu Becomes the New Head of the Chinese National Team, Charging Towards the Asian Cup!"
"Milu: There’s Huge Hope for Chinese Football, Both Now and in Youth Training! My Friend Trigella Has Recently Taken a Shine to Several Chinese Youngsters!"
"Wahaha Team Draws 5-5 with Sporting Lisbon U15! Their Opponents Have Already Advanced to the Knockout Stages of the Youth Champions League!"
"Jiang Yunzhu: Domestic Fans Shouldn’t Be Too Optimistic, We’re Still Far from European Elite Level in Terms of Youth Training!"
"Behind the 5-5 Draw, There Was a 4-0! Sports Weekly In-depth Recap of Wahaha’s Final Battle in Europe—It Was Actually a Crushing Defeat!"
The dazzling record of the Wahaha Team sparked heated discussions domestically.
And with the revelations from Sports Weekly, people came to understand the entire process of the last match.
"Holy shit! Is this for real? Deng Kai is that awesome?"
"I first thought the stats were wrong, three goals four assists, Sporting only scored five goals in total, where did the other two come from?"
"Who would’ve thought Deng Kai scored one goal and made two assists for Sporting, then switched to Wahaha in the second half and added another two goals and two assists! That’s insane!"
"Isn’t this too much like a microwave, plug and play?"
"This isn’t just a microwave anymore, this is bringing your own system, directly compatible with Wahaha Team!"
"This is utterly just Deng Kai’s show, it’s preposterous!"
"Previously I thought Deng Kai was all hype, but now I realize the Portuguese media doesn’t know how to hype! Damn, if he were in China, he’d be the undisputed king of Chinese football, hands down!"
"Have you heard? Sporting’s youth team wants to sign Gao Lin!"
"What? For real?"
"Not just Gao Lin, quite a few of them!"
Soon, news that Sporting’s youth team wished to sign several Chinese youngsters exploded domestically.
Without a doubt, this was a significant recognition.
And Chinese football at this stage desperately needed such recognition.
This was almost the most hopeful time for domestic fans regarding the national team.
People were eager to hear any and all good news about football.
Subsequently, these reports were confirmed one by one.
Gao Lin, Hao Junmin, Feng Xiaoting, Chen Tao, Yu Shihao, Wu Xudong, and others had indeed received invitations from Sporting.
But!
The original clubs of Gao Lin, Feng Xiaoting, and Chen Tao were reluctant to let them go.
The "transfer fees" they demanded were high.
At least too high for youth players.
Ronaldo’s transfer cost Sporting Lisbon just fifteen hundred dollars.
You expect Sporting to spend hundreds of thousands of Euros for these lottery ticket youngsters.
That’s simply not going to happen.
Not even in a package deal.
Moreover, these youngsters’ current clubs wanted more than just money; they also demanded training equipment, systems, and coaching staff support.
This conflicted with Sporting’s plans to establish their own youth training base in the mainland; they resolutely wouldn’t agree to such terms.
Hao Junmin and Yu Shihao, unbound by clubs, were unable to join Sporting because they couldn’t convince their families.
This was understandable.
Fourteen, fifteen-year-old kids, graduating from middle school, it was time to choose a good high school.
Many prestigious high schools in China were vying for them, even making certain promises regarding their university choices.
Offering them the opportunity to further their studies at a top university.
Choosing between Sichuan University and Sporting Lisbon? Not a difficult choice, definitely Sichuan University.
Peking University or Sporting Lisbon? What’s there to choose? Are you out of your mind?
What parents could pass up conditions like these and let their child go to Portugal to play football?
Compared with the college entrance exam, few would choose to play football.
Moreover, it’s about choosing between playing football overseas and the chance to attend a prestigious university far from home.
Even the young players themselves would hardly make such a decision.
In the end, only Wu Xudong’s parents, coming from the vast plains, expressed that if a man aspires to go far and wide, then if you really want to go out and play football, mom and dad will support you.
In fact, it was because Wu Xudong had already become quite familiar with a group of local delinquents.
His parents worried that if things continued this way, he would sooner or later take the wrong path.
It would be better to send him abroad.
At least he could completely break ties with that crowd of hoodlum friends.
After Deng Kai learned about this, he speculated that the reason he had never even heard of Wu Xudong as a player in his past life, was all these things.
With his speed and ferocity, Wu Xudong would have been quite the character had he mixed with society, becoming a formidable hooligan wasn’t a fantasy.
Ultimately, before the end of the winter break, Sporting Lisbon’s U15 successfully signed Wu Xudong.
They covered his board and lodging, let him study at a local Chinese school in Lisbon, and gave him a monthly living allowance of two hundred euros.
His salary level therefore directly surpassed that of his parents, becoming the main breadwinner of the family.
However, most domestic football media were rather pessimistic about Wu Xudong’s overseas journey.
They believed that China already had the capacity to train talented young players well.
It’s a better choice for players to first mature and stabilize their capabilities at the age of eighteen or twenty before going to Europe to compete.
Yang Chen, Fan Zhiyi, and Xie Hui all succeeded domestically before going abroad to play, and they did well.
If Wu Xudong left too early, what if he was led astray overseas?
Regarding this, Deng Kai had no comment.
But considering the various bad influences at home, like seniority systems, match-fixing, clanism, and career-ending tackles... it’s not guaranteed that one can make it playing overseas, but it’s certainly tough to make it while staying in China.
Deng Kai had left his contact information with all of them, including Yu Shihao, Hao Junmin, Feng Xiaoting.
If not this winter, then next summer, the winter after that, the summer after that.
He’d take the opportunity to scout out any talent he could.
What you can’t see, you let go, but you’ve got to give a helping hand to what’s clearly within reach.
...
The winter break ended.
The Portuguese U15 league entered its second phase—the north-south division games.
The twelve qualified teams were randomly divided into two groups to play round-robin matches within their groups.
The top two teams from each group would advance to the final stage—the championship games.
The six teams in the north were: Porto, Vitória Guimarães, Braga, Rio Ave, University of Coimbra, and Santa Clara.
The six teams in the south were: Sporting Lisbon, Benfica, Oeiras, Estoril, Lierena, and Maritimo.
Yes, Benfica and Sporting Lisbon were in the same group again!
This was just too dramatic.
Deng Kai even suspected that the Portuguese Football Federation did this on purpose.
Knowing there was a story to tell between these two teams, did they just have to set up a match?
And perhaps feeling the need to ride the wave of popularity as soon as possible,
they arranged the face-off between Benfica and Sporting Lisbon for the first match of the second half of the season!
January 26th.
It was still at Estádio Alvalade where over forty thousand fans welcomed Benfica’s youngsters to their stadium.
When Veloso appeared as a starting player for Sporting Lisbon, the fans gave the loudest cheer.
Because Veloso was previously a player for Benfica.
The few Benfica fans were especially furious, cursing Veloso relentlessly, and even launched personal attacks on him and his entire family.
The scene was extremely intense!
