[Football] Bad Boy Batty

Ever since the 'beating' incident, the internet has been in an uproar.

Some people think that Batistuta did nothing wrong and that people who talk too much deserve to be beaten, while others think that Batistuta has a violent tendency and that hitting others is wrong no matter what they say.

Soon, Ronaldinho joined the battle. He firmly stood up for his son and responded to all the accusations against Batistuta.

However, Batty didn't care about it at all, as if the chaos was not caused by him, and continued to tweet and share his life as usual.

Seeing that they could not find any breakthrough points, a group of reporters went to the training base and blocked the gate. In order to collect information, they stayed up all night, and their nervous appearance scared the cook who was out taking out the garbage.

Mikael saw all of this.

Therefore, he took every opportunity to educate Batty during training.

"I beg you, Batistuta, please don't do anything out of line again, okay? The whole country is waiting for us to bring our first gold medal home." The head coach suppressed his twitching facial muscles and said as gently as possible, "I know that Colombian kid is very annoying, but - if you do it again in the final against Germany, my heart will not be able to bear it."

The original match was already difficult, and if the only two sharp strikers were unable to play, they would face a tough battle against Germany in the final.

You mean Honduras?

No one cares about Honduras. Even if Neymar is placed in the goalkeeper position, the Brazilian Olympic team can easily beat Honduras.

Batty stepped on the ball twice, then rubbed it and bounced it a few times.

After stopping the ball again, Batistuta tucked the ball under his armpit and gave the head coach his brightest smile.

"It won't happen again, sir, I promise you."

……

Although the opponent was weak, the game still had to go on. Four days later, the semi-final between Brazil and Honduras was held as scheduled at the Corinthians Stadium in São Paulo.

Batistuta could not sit on the bench this time, as he was suspended and was not eligible to be a substitute according to the rules. The cameras were frequently focused on him, but Batistuta refused the coaching staff's cap and allowed them to film him openly.

However, thanks to the unreasonable layout of the stadium, the front row of spectators and the bench are very close, and Ederson can talk to Batistuta just by turning his head.

"Have you seen the trending searches today, Batistuta? Your dad is spitting insults at people again," Ederson said, because of the height difference between the bench and the audience, he had to look up to speak. "Those people have said bad things about you, you know, the game against Colombia--"

"You mean my godfather?" Batty blatantly changed the subject. "Edmundo forwarded the news about my beating and wrote 'good'. I saw it and liked it."

"Yeah—I know about that." Ederson leaned half of his body on the railing, "But I'm talking about Ronaldo—"

Before he could finish his words, Batty's glares flew over.

"If you still want me to pay attention to you, change the subject."

Batistuta didn't wear a team uniform today. He wore a simple white T-shirt with a few cross necklaces, which still made him stand out among the fluorescent green and yellow.

Ederson couldn't help but take a few more glances, which aroused Batistuta's dissatisfaction.

"I just asked you to find something else to talk about, not to stare at me stupidly." He pursed his lips and said, "Is it difficult? There are so many things to talk about, such as - guess when the first goal will happen?"

Edson smiled sheepishly and shrugged.

"I guess we'll score soon. Honduras' defense is a mess. Just now their two defenders even collided with each other when they turned around," he said.

Batistuta nodded in agreement: "Indeed, but we haven't scored in 10 minutes. If we can't win this game by more than 5 goals, I will regard it as a failure."

"Is it so strict?"

"Of course." Batty flexed his wrist, "The other side is Honduras."

Ederson smiled, and the moment he turned his head, a white light dazzled his eyes. It was the light reflected by the sunlight hitting the skull ring on Batty's index finger.
Then he noticed the phone Batistuta was holding. There was nothing on the phone case except a bare football.

"By the way, Batistuta, I don't know which team you like best, I mean in Europe," Ederson asked. "I saw on the Internet that many clubs have sent you invitations. Which one do you like?"

Without waiting for Batistuta to answer, Ederson joked: "Based on the clothes you are wearing today, I guess they (tabloid reporters) will link you with Real Madrid. Do you want to go to Real Madrid?"

Batty sneered.

"I don't care which club I go to. I'll go to whoever offers the highest annual salary," he said. "Besides, Real Madrid never wants new players. They only buy the most expensive ones."

This rather arrogant statement scared Ederson, and he opened his eyes wide: "You don't care about a big club like Real Madrid?"

"Why should I care?"

"That's Real Madrid," Ederson said with a longing expression. "Many players dream of playing for Real Madrid since they were young, and if they go to Real Madrid, they can be teammates with Cristiano Ronaldo."

Batistuta raised his eyebrows: "Can Real Madrid offer me the same annual salary as Ronaldo?"

Edson was stunned.

A young player who has just landed in Europe wants an annual salary like Cristiano Ronaldo? He must be crazy.

"No club will pay you that much per year," Ederson said.

"That's it," Batistuta rolled his eyes. "No one can give me Cristiano Ronaldo's annual salary, so I'll choose the one that pays the most. Besides, it doesn't matter where you play football."

At this moment, the first goal of the game was scored. Neymar received a long pass from Marquinhos and shot into the empty net, but the goalkeeper was completely in the wrong direction.

【球进了！1-0！16分钟，巴西1-0洪都拉斯！内马尔完全戏耍了他们的后防线——冲啊小伙子们！时间还够，我们还有好多球要进呢！】

Amid the passionate commentary of the scene, all the Brazilian fans in the stadium sang the national anthem to celebrate.

They are getting closer and closer to their first Olympic men's football gold medal.

Soon, Loach arrived and pulled Batistuta to join the fans in celebrating.

Ederson looked up at Batty in between applause. The honey-skinned boy had a smile on his face, and his seemingly nonchalant cheers concealed an indelible joy.

It's really hard to understand.

Ederson smiled helplessly, and after spending 15 seconds in silence for Batistuta's future club and coach, he focused entirely on the game.

If the team wins more, it is entirely possible that he will get a chance to play in the last 20 minutes.

If I'm lucky, I might be able to become famous in one battle like Batistuta.

……

In the end, Brazil advanced to the final with a score of 6-0 against Honduras. Neymar scored a hat-trick and scored a total of 5 goals, surpassing Batistuta to rank first in the scorer list.

At the same time, Germany defeated Nigeria 2-0 to advance. Top scorer Gnabry scored 4 goals and tied with Batistuta for second place. Both sides were determined to win the gold medal, and the battle was about to begin.

Two days before the final, Mikael called a meeting with the players and projected the opponent information collected by the coaching staff on the screen and explained it in detail.

But it's still the same old story.

Mikael's tactical strategy is called no tactical strategy, or - pass all to Neymar and pass appropriately to Batistuta.

Batistuta was hiding behind Ederson, drowsy. He checked the information of European clubs until 2 a.m. last night. Although he would go to the club that paid the highest price, the tactics also had to match. Otherwise, Batistuta would be very depressed if he went to a team that played defensive counterattacks.

"Bati-Bati!" Edson shook his shoulders and woke up the boy behind him. "It's over, do you want to get up?"

Batty straightened up with his dizzy head, "What time is it?"

"It's 3:," Ederson replied. "The master said we'll be at the training ground in half an hour. We'll be divided into small groups for practice. You can still get some sleep."

There were only a few people left in the meeting room, but Neymar was still there, which was quite unusual because he was usually the first to leave. Oscar was a little unhappy because Neymar, Barbosa and Rafinha had not left, but he still waited for Barbosa to join him.

After looking around, Batty yawned and stretched. "No more sleep," he said. "NIKE sent me new shoes and hoped I could wear them in the match against Germany. I have to try them to see if they fit me."

"Have you signed with Nike?" Neymar responded quickly, as if he had been listening to the conversation between Batistuta and Ederson. "It would be great if you did. We can shoot a commercial together next season."

"I haven't decided who to sign yet," Batty said as he stretched his arm to stretch his muscles. "After all, I don't have an agent. I have to do everything myself."

“You don’t have an agent?”

Most people in the conference room were surprised by this. Neymar quickly thought of Batistuta's past and his trust issues. In addition, he has several gangster bosses as godfathers, so it makes sense that he doesn't have an agent.

"I don't need an agent, I can do it myself, and if I can't do it, the Godfather will help me." Batty said, "Edmundo often throws him to a financial advisor to lend him to me. That guy is good at negotiating, and I just need-"

"That's enough." Rafinha interrupted Batistuta. "It's time to go to the training ground to practice tactics. We will face Germany in the final, so we must show our best side."

Batty hated being interrupted, no matter how important it was.

"What are you afraid of?" He looked at Rafinha with disdain. "That's the German Olympic team, not the German national team. The bottle opener (Thomas Muller) is not here. Are you worried that we will lose to such a half-baked German team?"
Rafinha's eyes widened. "That's not what I meant."

"So what do you mean? Trying to make us look like idiots by being positive?"

"No! I didn't." Rafinha bumped Barbosa, "Hey, did I mean that just now, what do you think?"

Barbosa didn't want to offend Batistuta, so he waved his hands and shut his mouth tightly.

Rafinha was a little embarrassed and turned his gaze to other teammates, trying to get support from them.

He had no intention of targeting Batistuta, he just didn't want Neymar's attention to be all on Batistuta. What he meant was - they are a team, aren't they? Forming small groups is not conducive to team unity.

"Speaking of Muller, I don't like this guy very much." Neymar jumped out to calm things down. "When we played against Bayern in the Champions League before, he was the loudest in the entire player tunnel, always joking and telling jokes, even on the field, it was so noisy."

Oscar quickly chimed in: "Yeah, I heard he's not good at anything, but he can score goals for no apparent reason. I don't know if it's luck or something else."

The bad atmosphere in the room made Batty feel bored. He yawned again and pulled Ederson's sleeve to indicate that they should leave.

But before leaving, Batistuta expressed his opinion of Thomas Muller.

"To be honest, he is my favorite German player. No, I should say my favorite German." The boy tilted his head and smiled. "It's fun to watch him play football. I'm not praising him for his good football. I just - poco (well), maybe I just like this kind of heartless dog-like man."

After saying that, Batty turned around and left the meeting room.

The speaker may not have intended it, but the listener took it to heart, and someone secretly kept his words in mind.

(End of this chapter)