[Football] Bad Boy Batty

"Come on! You have to shoot! He's right in your face!"

"there!"

"I can't see anything! Where where where??"

"Ouch! Who hit my butt!"

"Hey, watch out! Don't hit it on the head! This thing hurts!"

"Oh my god! How many did Batty kill? Five?"

The timer ended, the lights came on, and the room was bright again. Batty took off his protective goggles and kicked Lucas in the butt.

"What's the use of you guys? You're all wimps!"

The boy was wearing camouflage uniform and military boots, with messy light-colored hair, looking like a new recruit who had just reported in. He put down his gun and leaned against the wall, took off the red ribbon on his arm that symbolized the Red Team, and looked around with his hands on his waist.

"The midfield commander and the defensive general are both in our group, but I'm the only one who scored a goal throughout the whole game!" Batistuta complained angrily, "You, you, and you, go back to the training camp!"

Yes, on the last day of May, Manchester City captain Kompany organized a team-building activity for the players. Except for Aguero and Otamendi who had been called up to the national team, everyone else came to an indoor paintball shooting venue. They were divided into two teams and started a paintball battle in the dark.

Batistuta was assigned to the red team, and his teammates included De Bruyne, Lucas, Stones, Foden, Sterling, Fernandinho, and Zinchenko.

Looks like a pretty strong fighter, right?

But no.

They lost miserably.

From the very beginning when no one was willing to step up to choose the captain, Batty felt that their group was doomed, so he stepped forward to serve as the captain of the red team.

But he never thought he would lose so badly. Apart from the five people he killed with his previous shooting experience, no one else in their group got a kill. From the beginning to the end, they seemed to be just shopping. There was no tacit cooperation at all. Zinchenko almost shot and injured a friendly soldier.

As for the Blue Team, they were like a well-disciplined army under the leadership of Kompany. They wiped out the opponent several times before Batistuta broke out.

"You have so many great players, but no real warriors." Kompany walked out with a smile, "Oh yeah, except Batistuta."

"I don't know what to say, Raheem's laughter is so loud, like a banshee." Kyle Walker came to Kompany with a paintball gun like a gangster, "Welcome the winner, Batistuta and his useless men!"

Batty tore off his red armband and threw it to the ground, showing his canine teeth to Walker: "Just now in the second round, someone shot at my ass, was it you!"

"Don't accuse me casually. If I want to target you, I will hit you on the head." Walker whistled, "Maybe it was Bernardo. I heard him and Edson conspired to get you!"

B patted Walker on the head from behind and said, "Don't blame us. Wasn't that your idea?"

"Yes, it was you who said to shoot all the paintballs at Batty's butt. Don't blame us." Edson also came out. "Bernardo and I clearly said to shoot at his chest, one on the left and one on the right, and it happened to be... poof!"

Before the Brazilian goalkeeper could finish his words, Batistuta threw his eye patch as a weapon, hitting Ederson on the forehead. He then raised his middle finger and said: "You are done, Ederson. From now on, I support Alisson to be our first goalkeeper."

I don’t know if it was Ederson’s expression or something that tickled Sterling’s funny bone, but he rolled on the ground holding the paintball gun and laughed. And he just happened to tickle Sane’s funny bone, as if Donald Duck’s laughter was echoing in the stadium.

As we all know, laughter is contagious.

In less than half a minute, the entire paintball shooting venue was filled with the laughter of Manchester City players. Even Batistuta, the one who wanted to win the most but lost the most today, couldn't help laughing.

But the laughter stopped abruptly with the appearance of a person.

"Neymar? Why are you here?"

……

The Paris star seemed a little uncomfortable under the gaze of everyone. He shrugged his shoulders and glanced at everyone, finally falling on De Bruyne, who had the strongest reaction.

"I'm here to wait for Batty." He said slowly in his broken English, "A vest-passing staff brought me in. I didn't know you weren't done yet."

Batty shrugged. "In fact, we were about to get married—"

"If you have any manners, you should have left the moment you saw we weren't done yet." De Bruyne reached out and pushed Batistuta back as he was about to leave. "Today is our team-building day. You're not a Manchester City player. You shouldn't be here at all."

Neymar didn't quite understand De Bruyne's long sentence, but he heard a few key words, such as "Manchester City", "should not", and "team building".

"I'm here to find Batistuta. You're not him, so why should you speak for him?" Neymar frowned, showing the same attitude as when he was arguing with his opponent on the court. "Don't stop him. If Batistuta wants me to leave now, let him tell me himself."

Suddenly, all eyes were on Batty again.

"Let him out. This is our team building. He shouldn't just barge in even if the game is over." De Bruyne said with a frown.

"I didn't mean to disturb you. Maybe the staff member took us the wrong way. Do you want me to leave?" Neymar was not to be outdone.

Batty pursed his lips.

disaster.

He knew they would quarrel when they met, so he calculated the time and asked Neymar to wait until they finished before coming over. Who would have thought that Neymar would show up 40 minutes early and was brought in directly because of the language difference.

Batty pinched his palm secretly.

Relax, you had a car crash a few years ago when you were playing for Sao Paulo, and you handled it well that time, so don't be afraid this time, he thought.

"We're almost done, wait for me outside," Batistuta said to Neymar first, then turned to De Bruyne. "Don't worry about him, he just went to the wrong place, there's no need to raise it to the club level, maybe he'll transfer here next season."

As soon as the words fell, there was an awkward silence in the venue. Damn it.

What did he just say! Transfer? God, why did he bring that up all of a sudden? Walker must have just shot him in the head with a paintball gun to make him say such a stupid thing.

Batty rolled his eyes secretly and cursed himself in his heart.

Recently, there has indeed been another controversy surrounding Neymar's transfer. A reporter revealed that Neymar was very dissatisfied with the environment in Ligue 1 and complained that the club did not give him the core position that was promised at the time.

Then news spread that Neymar wanted to return to Barcelona at his own expense. His team quickly issued a statement to refute the rumor, but then Neymar Sr. publicly stated in an interview that his son was not happy in Paris this year.

A considerable number of people believe that Neymar Sr. is putting pressure on Paris, which indirectly proves the authenticity of "Neymar wants to leave Paris".

And it was at this critical moment that Batty blurted out those words.

If someone leaks this news to the media in the future, it will definitely cause another stir. Not only Batistuta and Neymar, but Manchester City will also be pushed to the top of public opinion.

Barty wagged his lower lip.

"Anyway——"

He started talking, but couldn't find a suitable topic to change the subject, and the atmosphere remained maddeningly awkward.

Fortunately, the loach appeared in time to save the world.

“Oh my god oh my god!!”

The black boy rushed in holding a tablet, not even noticing Neymar standing at the door: "Stop playing, Batistuta! Tite is about to announce the roster!"

Batty's eyes widened: "WHAT!?"

Isn’t this what happened? A major event that is enough to divert attention.

……

"Will the roster be announced today?" Jesus squeezed out from the back, his face full of disbelief, "Did I remember it wrongly? I thought it would be tomorrow!"

Ederson and Fernandinho had similar surprised expressions, only Neymar shrugged again and leaned against the door frame. This was exactly what he wanted to say to Batistuta.

Brazil coach Tite managed to catch everyone off guard.

"I just found out about this, too. Even the reporters attending the press conference were stunned." Loach disconnected the Bluetooth connection, turned up the volume to the maximum, and then leaned the tablet against a pile of sandbags in the venue. Then he tilted his head to Batty and said, "Come and listen, it's about to start."

Several Brazilians led by Batistuta gathered around, and the others looked at each other and slowly came behind them to watch the announcement of the Brazilian team's World Cup roster together.

[Those who will be attending the World Cup in Russia are: Alisson (Roma), Ederson (Manchester City), Neto (Bournemouth)]

Tite read out the names in the order of 'goalkeeper - defender - midfielder - forward'. The moment Ederson heard his name, he jumped up.

A few seconds later, Fernandinho's name was also read out, and the Manchester City midfielder excitedly waved his fists several times.

Batty put his hands in his pockets, looking calm on the surface.

"I'm definitely on the roster," he said. "He'd be crazy not to take me."

That being said, his nails were almost digging into his flesh in his pockets where no one could see.

[…Douglas Costa (Bayern), Gabriel Jesus (Manchester City), Neymar (Paris), Firmino (Liverpool), and Batista (Manchester City)]

The moment he heard his name, it was as if the heavy stone hanging in his heart finally fell to the ground. Batty took a deep breath with all his strength.

"That's right! We are all on the roster! The World Cup! Here we come!!!"

"That's great, congratulations!"

Led by Kompany, all the Manchester City players at the scene applauded and congratulated their teammates on their selection into the national team. Brazil was one of the first countries to announce its roster, and many players who were still waiting to be called up cast envious glances at Batistuta and his team.

"I really hope we can announce it soon." Lucas leaned on Batty's shoulder and pretended to wipe away tears. "It will be too painful to wait any longer. I will definitely lose sleep."

Batty, in a good mood, patted him on the head and said, "Don't worry, you will definitely be on the list."

Lucas muttered something and took the opportunity to rub Batistuta's neck. De Bruyne behind him reached out and pulled him off Batistuta, but before he could say anything, Neymar, who had been standing at the door for a while, cleared his throat.

"In addition to announcing the roster, there are also matters concerning training. The gentleman will call you later and ask you to gather in Liverpool. There is a friendly match against Austria on the 2nd, and another one against Croatia on the 8th. We have to go to Vienna to participate in that match." He said in a relaxed tone, "I have prepared the plane and will go to Liverpool tonight. There are still 5 hours to prepare from now on, so - who wants to join me?"

Batty blinked and walked over first.

Then Loach and Ederson followed Batistuta to Neymar, but Jesus and Fernandinho refused as they wanted to spend more half a day with their families.

Looking at the four people who were leaving talking and laughing, De Bruyne's eyes darkened.

"Don't worry, you still have a chance to meet Batistuta on the court." Lucas patted De Bruyne on the shoulder, then lowered his voice and said the second half of the sentence: "- if you can make it to the quarterfinals."

This sounded quite provocative. De Bruyne raised his eyebrows and curled the corners of his mouth at Lucas.

"I am very confident about Belgium this year," he said. "Don't worry, when Belgium eliminates Brazil, I will go to comfort them, in person."

(End of this chapter)