[Football] Bad Boy Batty

After consultation with a professional medical team, Neymar's right foot injury was confirmed to be a fracture of the fifth metatarsal two days later. After analysis, the experts gave advice on surgical treatment. Considering the upcoming America's Cup and World Cup, Neymar agreed to the experts' plan.

As Manchester City beat Burnley 2-0 away, Neymar's surgery was completed in Barcelona. The club officially announced that the surgery was successful and he will return to the training ground in 12-14 weeks.

On his birthday, Manchester City beat Tottenham 1-0 to advance to the League Cup final. After the game, the entire Manchester City team went to his villa to attend his birthday party.

"Happy birthday." Batistuta bent down and kissed Neymar on the forehead, then threw a small gift box into his arms, "I ordered a watch for you, with a headscarf on both sides, from McQueen."

Neymar shook the box, but didn't show much joy. He wore a red dress suit today, and even though he had just had surgery and could only sit in a wheelchair, he was still the focus of the party.

"How much?" Neymar asked.

"I made the gears inside and designed the pattern myself. It cost about 200 yuan." Batty crossed his arms and looked at him. "Why, do you think it's not good enough for you? Then give it back to me. I'll place an order for a Patek Philippe for you tonight."

"No, no." Hearing that it was Batistuta who did it himself, Neymar was happy again, "I love this."

He quickly opened the box, immediately replaced the one on his wrist with the one Batty gave him, and then tied the McQueen skull scarf around his neck.

After doing all this, Neymar looked up, made a cocky expression, and asked, "How do I look?"

"Pfft..." Batty didn't give him any face at all, "You look like a weird combination of a gangster and a cowboy."

"Thank you. I'll take that as a compliment." Neymar took off his hat and did an awkward salute. He then turned his wheelchair and motioned for Batistuta to push him to the stage to give a speech. "You'd better get used to it quickly. When I'm 80, I'll need to sit on this thing every day. I'll have to trouble you then."

Batistuta rolled his eyes, freed one hand and patted Neymar on the head.

"You're already 80 years old and you still want to exploit me." He pushed Neymar to the main seat, helped to tidy up everything, and bowed his head to help him tie the scarf again under the gaze of everyone. "Go, give your speech, I have a surprise for you later."

……

When the party was in the final stage, Batty took out his surprise. It was not something expensive, but some balloons prepared by him, Niu Qiu and Qiao Lin. Each balloon contained a different gift. The so-called surprise was a game that everyone in the party could participate in. The rules were very simple. You could not use your hands. You just had to squeeze the balloon to get the gift inside.

With the ultimate weapon, the wheelchair, Batistuta and Neymar dominated the party, grabbing almost half of the balloons. When all the balloons were popped, they started playing the childish game of chasing people.

Batistuta stood on the back of the wheelchair to control the direction and speed, while Neymar determined the target. The two of them roamed the scene like rockets, knocking over the guests' wine glasses or trays several times, but that did not stop them.

In the end, the two people who were having so much fun even knocked over the birthday cake tower, and cream, syrup and jam were spread everywhere, affecting almost everyone nearby.

This finally caused public outrage.

But before Neymar Sr. and Rafina came to settle the score with them, Batistuta pushed Neymar away from the crime scene and hid in a private place.

And this deserted place refers to the garden behind Neymar's villa.

On the grass, Batistuta stopped to catch his breath. He fastened Neymar's wheelchair with buckles, then left it alone, stepped back, and fell on the soft grass.

"Hey--"

Neymar kicked Batistuta twice, but Batistuta didn't move, so he had to jump down with his injured foot and lie on the grass side by side with Batistuta.

"You're so stupid," Batistuta said, nudging Neymar with his elbow. "If there was a stand in that cake, we'd both be in the ambulance right now."

"It's obviously your problem, why are you putting the blame on me?" Neymar was dissatisfied and hit back with his elbow, "I'm sitting in a wheelchair and can't do anything."

"You told me to speed up over there."

"I only asked you to hit Chris (his friend) and not go straight for the cake."

"That's your fault, bad decision."

"Screw you."

"Fool."

"You are the stupid one."

"Bounce back."

The two of them were talking on the grass while looking at the stars. After a long time, they seemed to be tired and stopped tacitly. A few seconds later, they burst into laughter.

"Happy birthday, Ney." Batistuta suddenly said, turning his head to look at Neymar, "When I first met you, you were a childish annoyance. I didn't expect that you are 30 years old now."

"Hey!" Neymar reached out and hit Batistuta in the stomach. "I'm only 30 next year."

Batty muttered something, "It doesn't matter."

"It's a big difference." Neymar also turned his head and poked Batistuta in the face. "I tell you, even if I'm 40 years old, I can still make you weak in the knees."

"I doubt it." Batty raised the corners of his mouth slightly.

There was a pause.

"Sorry to ruin your cake, Ney, but you haven't made a wish yet," Barty said. "Tell me what you want, and maybe I can help you make it come true."

"A wish." Neymar thought about it.

"I guess - keep up the strength you have now?" Batty joked. "Don't worry, dear. I won't destroy your confidence."

"Go away, I'm in good physical condition." Neymar waved his hand, "If I could really make a wish--"

Neymar paused for a long time, looking like he was thinking seriously, so Batistuta put away his joking attitude and waited quietly for his answer.

"God bless you," he said. "I want a new fifth metatarsal."

Uh.
The atmosphere suddenly became heavy.

Batty said nothing, just patted his shoulder gently.

After all, when it comes to this, he has no better comfort.

A few minutes later, Batti's phone rang with a special attention tone. He opened it to check, and after seeing the content of the message, he jumped up excitedly.

"Oh hoo!!"

"What's wrong?" Neymar asked curiously, "Did your godfather put you in the DC movie as an Easter egg again?"

"No." Batistuta showed his phone to Neymar with a bright smile, "Manchester United is out! In the League Cup, they lost to Chelsea 1-3! That madman was also sent off with a red card. Hahaha, it seems God is listening to my prayers!"

Neymar was stunned for a moment, then burst out laughing.

He should have known that the only thing that could make Batistuta laugh like this was either bad luck for Manchester United or bad luck for Augustus, and if both happened at the same time, it would be a good day worth celebrating.

"Come on, Batty." He made a fist gesture, "Don't lose before I go back to the court." Batty smiled confidently.

"You're not even telling me." He raised his chin, "Our goal this season is to win the championship with all the wins."

Neymar laughed along with him.

Batistuta turned around and secretly thanked the Red Devils who made mistakes next door and the crazy Frenchman. If it weren't for them, he wouldn't know how to change the subject.

……

A week later, before Valentine's Day, Manchester City visited Anfield to challenge the defending champions Liverpool. Liverpool's performance this season has declined seriously, and fans generally believe that it is related to the poor condition of their main central defender Van Dijk after returning from injury.

Of course, this is a good thing for Manchester City.

As Neymar will be absent for a long time, Guardiola made some adjustments to the tactics. Aguero's form just improved, so the Catalan returned to a 4231 positioning.

He made some changes in the starting lineup.

Phil Foden replaced Neymar as left winger, Aguero was the lone striker at the front, De Bruyne and Rodri played as double defensive midfielders, and De Bruyne's position was originally taken by B席. As for central defender, Laporte returned from injury and partnered with Ruben Dias, while Stones was in poor form and temporarily sat on the bench.

Regarding John Stones, Batty observed him for a few days and came to a completely different conclusion from what was said online.

Fans generally believe that Stones was gradually marginalized due to the joining of Dias and Ake. Coupled with the impact of injuries, he was unable to adjust his mentality, resulting in him being abandoned by Guardiola due to his inability to keep up with training.

But Batty feels that Stones' problem does not occur on the training ground, his problem lies with himself.

It has nothing to do with the newcomers, his national team, injuries, or even football.

Batty believes it is a problem in his private life.

However, every time Batty wanted to talk to him about this, he avoided him, as if he was deliberately avoiding him. So Batty didn't contact him again. He would knock on his door again after some time, when they were shooting a commercial or some other time.

Back to the game.

Neymar is watching the live broadcast with his friends at home, while also taking advantage of the medical team's care to speed up his recovery.

"It's okay Ney, it's just Liverpool, they will be fine," one of them said.

"What are you talking about?" Another one knocked his head. "Ney's absence from the team has a big impact on the offensive end. We must be very careful. I think it's almost 1-0. It will be a difficult victory."

Oh, yes.
Neymar is injured now and we cannot let him feel that the team does not need him.

The person who was being scolded understood what his friend meant and immediately changed his words to agree with him.

Neymar didn't say anything, he just focused on watching the live broadcast on TV. The camera turned to Batistuta, the Manchester City king waved at him, and Neymar raised his lips in the air.

Believe in yourself and go win.

……

However, it is not known whether someone's bad luck worked, Liverpool took the lead after 13 minutes of the game, and Manchester City fell behind in the first 15 minutes for the first time this season.

Halfway through the first half, Foden was tripped in the penalty area, giving Manchester City a penalty kick.

Following the camera, Neymar saw Foden pass the ball to Batistuta, and then he watched Batistuta kick the ball to the bottom left corner. Alisson quickly got down to the ground and beautifully blocked Batistuta's penalty.

[Unbelievable! Manchester City's King missed a penalty kick, Manchester City missed the chance to equalize! The camera was focused on Batistuta, and it was obvious that he was quite upset now...]

At the end of the first half, Manchester City was still trailing 0-1.

After the half-time break, Manchester City gave people a different feeling when returning to the field. Guardiola moved De Bruyne's position forward and replaced B Silva with Gundogan to increase the hardness of the midfield, reduce the pressure on the defense, and at the same time move the ball more to the left.

Manchester City attacked from the left, looking for opportunities in Liverpool's hinterland. Arnold followed too closely and failed to make up for Foden's pass in the first place. Robertson did not dare to attack. Henderson and Wijnaldum guarded Batistuta. Aguero, with no one around him, received a pass from De Bruyne and shot into the net.

Six minutes into the second half, Manchester City equalized the score.

Then Manchester City finally got back on track and showed their strong dominance this season. Foden scored twice, De Bruyne assisted a hat-trick, and Batistuta also achieved self-redemption.

In the end, the Blue Moon Army reversed the situation after falling behind at halftime and defeated Liverpool 4-1.

In an interview after the game, Batistuta talked about his unhappiness about missing the penalty, but more importantly, he praised Phil Foden.

"Phil is amazing! He is a genius, not only in terms of his skills, but also in his heart," Batty told reporters. "Today at halftime, I should have said something, you know, I'm the captain, but I was immersed in that damn penalty kick, and it was Phil who reminded and encouraged me - Hey, Phil! Come here!"

Foden happened to pass by and was caught by Batistuta for an interview.

The two people in front of the camera put their arms around each other's shoulders and acted intimately, and the locker room bullying incident that had been circulating for several months came to an end.

After a round of business compliments, the reporter showed a photo to Batistuta.

"Look at this, can you recognize him?" the reporter asked.

Batistuta raised his eyebrows and took the photo. It was a photo of a Manchester City game that had happened a long time ago. In the center of the picture were Manchester City players wearing blue jerseys. Batistuta had only seen them in the club's history museum.

Then--

"Wait?" He was surprised to find that there was a childish boy sitting there with his arms folded and frowning on the sidelines. He looked quite familiar. "Is this - Phil? Is that you?"

"Yes." Foden smiled a little embarrassedly, "I was a ball boy at the club at that time, about 13 years."

"Wow!" Batistuta took the photos and compared them back and forth. Then he hooked Foden's neck and rubbed his melon-like hair hard, while squinting at the camera: "See, he has Manchester City blood in him, and he is also a genius! I think I found the future king!"

Foden lowered his head slightly and did not rush to deny it.

The reporters nearby looked at them with smiles on their faces.

At the same time, at Neymar's home, the post-match interview on TV had just ended and the highlights of the game began to be broadcast. His friends were making noise nearby, and it was not known whether they were deliberately making noise or not, but the noise was so loud that it drowned out the TV.

"Don't worry, Ney. That guy won't take your place." Someone comforted him, "When you recover, you will still be a regular starter for Manchester City."

Seeing this, others also echoed.

Neymar smiled and nodded perfunctorily.

In fact, he didn't hear it at all. When they spoke to him, he was staring at the goal replay on the screen. The camera switched from the field to the corner flagpole. Phil Foden, who scored the goal, was running towards him. A few seconds later, Batistuta also appeared in the camera, jumping on his back with an excited smile.

Neymar stared at it for a long time, not knowing what he was thinking.

(End of this chapter)