As the World Cup approaches, major brands have also begun to work on their advertising videos. For example, Adidas and Nike, two giants in the sports world, have chosen September to shoot when there are fewer matches.

In the morning, Batistuta called De Bruyne to take a private jet to the United States to shoot an advertisement for Nike. In order to protect commercial secrets, the players involved in the shooting were not informed of the content of the shooting.

"I don't care about the plot, as long as we shoot in front of a green screen." Batistuta lazily sat on the sofa and said to Neymar on the tablet. They were on a video call.

Neymar also had some shooting needs today, but it wasn't for Nike, so he and Batistuta were going to different places and couldn't take the same plane.

"Who told you to sign with Puma?" Batty whistled to express his regret. "I heard that the filming location you are going to is very close to Adidas. You can go find Leo after the filming."

"But I want to find you." Neymar pretended to be angry and flicked the nose of the little bastard on the screen. "Listen to me, Batistuta, I will finish the filming as soon as possible and will be there in about an hour."

Batty raised an eyebrow. "You really want to fly from San Francisco to Los Angeles on a one-day shoot? Just to see me?"

"'Just' to find you?" Neymar was incredulous. "You are really spoiled, Batistuta, I will find you, wait for me - when will you finish filming your part?"

"How would I know? They didn't give me a script." Batty yawned. "Maybe I'll have to stay there all day. The person in charge gave me a heads-up in advance, saying there will be guys I don't like there."

"Oh?" Neymar immediately became alert, "They are talking about-"

"I don't know. It can't be that French lunatic. He signed with Adidas and is probably annoying Leo right now." Batty waved his hand impatiently. "You can come if you want, but Nike won't let you in. Don't expect me to pick you up. That's it. Bye."

Looking at the screen that had been cut off and turned black, Neymar touched his nose. This might be the longest time Batistuta had been angry with him. If he had known this, he would not have told that little lie and ran to Ibiza early.

Back to Batistuta, he was much more relaxed and happy than Neymar. The Manchester City captain threw away the tablet and pinched a few grapes from the plate next to him with his fingers and put them into his mouth. Because he was greedy and took too many, some of them fell through his fingers and rolled away.

"If you still remember that you have an organ called a mouth, you should know that if you want to eat them, you can ask me for help. I'll bring them to you." De Bruyne picked up the grapes on the ground and threw them into the trash can on the table. "Since you've hung up his video call now, can I sit over there?"

"Oh, Kevin, even if I'm playing (the video), you can sit over here." Batty smiled at him with his eyes curved, then slowly stuffed a grape into his mouth and deliberately peeled the grape skin with his tongue.

De Bruyne moved his throat, but sat firmly in his original position: "Don't make trouble, we have an advertising task today, and the loach is still next door."

(Loach: "I'm not here, uh, just pretend I'm not here!")
Batistuta signaled with his eyes again, De Bruyne shook his head again and gestured for him to sit down.

"God, you're so boring." The little king gave him a middle finger. "If Ney was in the same position, he would have already--"

"Don't try to provoke me." De Bruyne was unmoved. In order to divert Batistuta's attention, his brain was spinning rapidly, and he finally thought of a good entry point.

"I'm a little curious, Batistuta, who else but the French could the Nike head remind you of your annoying person?" he asked.

"——Good question." Barty was really attracted and ate two more green grapes. "I have some ideas about this, but I can't guarantee that it's true."

"Tell me."

"Well, since this is a commercial for the World Cup, and it's Nike, I assume they will bring together many stars, including those from ancient times." Batty analyzed slowly, "Ancient times, stars, everyone knows I don't like them, and I need to remind them or the filming may be interrupted. With all these factors added up, I can only come up with one answer."

"Ronaldinho." De Bruyne also thought, "Do you think they will invite Ronaldinho?"

"Why not?" Batistuta spread his hands. "That's the World Cup that ignited the world. Nike is a commercial company. They need a gimmick."

"The new king of football reconciled with his biological father. Do you think they will use this?" De Bruyne asked.

"It's possible," Barty shrugged. "But I won't agree to it."

"I thought you didn't express any dissatisfaction with the reminder from the person in charge." De Bruyne asked again. Seeing that Batistuta was in a good mood, he also made a little joke by the way, "If you need someone to hold you back, remember to tell me. The hourly wage is only 5 pounds."

"Wow, so cheap?" Batty said deliberately exaggeratedly, "I'll pay you 50 pounds an hour, don't stop me, if you can help me beat him, I'll give you another 0."

For a moment De Bruyne couldn't tell whether Batistuta was making a joking remark or what.

Batty waved his hands: "Okay, okay, no kidding, I'm not as impulsive as before, I won't beat him up."

"So--"

"It's impossible to reconcile, and it's impossible to pose for photos." Batty raised his chin and said arrogantly, "But it's okay to cooperate with them in making jokes."

"what do you mean--"

"Have you read the script, Kevin? I have two clips: 'pushing someone away in disgust' and 'giving the middle finger to the glass window upstairs.'" Batty smiled, "If that someone refers to my biological father, I would really, really, really like to show my disgust for him in front of the camera."

……

Facts proved that Batistuta's guess was correct. Nike did invite Ronaldinho to the shoot. Batistuta did not take the initiative to say hello, but he did not refuse when the other party came to him to chat.

"Ah! Batty! I'm so glad you're here!" The director shook Batty's hand enthusiastically, then took out the storyboard draft he had drawn and told him how he should act later, "Your first shot is your entrance. Make a dazzling debut, okay? I won't restrict your movements. You can step on the ball with your hands on your hips, hold the ball with one hand, or do a fancy kick. Whatever you want, as long as you think it's cool, the photographer will follow your movements."

This is not a difficult task, Batty nodded in agreement.

"The next scene is you dribbling past the defense and scoring a goal. You run to that line and kick the ball out. Any direction is fine as long as it goes up. We will add special effects in post-production. After that, uh, you may not like that scene, but please remember that this is the company's request. I am just satisfying their wishes and making this ad better."

"Of course." Batty said he would not embarrass the director. "I will not bring my personal feelings into commercial activities. You can shoot with confidence. Do whatever you want to attract people."

"That's great!" The director clapped his hands, and then happily told Batistuta about his and Ronaldinho's parts. The plot was similar to Batistuta's guess. The content of the entire advertisement was roughly: Scientists opened a shuttle to verify who was stronger, Batistuta in 2022 or Ronaldinho in 2002, which triggered a battle between stars from different eras.

The young Ronaldinho, who was summoned inexplicably, didn't know that the person in front of him was his son. He first showed off his tricks, and then was shown off by Batistuta. Finally, the old version of Ronaldinho appeared and accused him of treating his son like that. The young Ronaldinho was very confused, but still followed his own advice and wanted to give Batistuta a hug. Batistuta pushed him away in disgust, and gave Ronaldinho upstairs the middle finger.

"Don't worry, we'll blur out your middle finger," the director said. "So, you—"

"Okay, no problem." Batty shrugged in acceptance. "It's a very good plot."

The director was obviously relieved. Although he was not familiar with English football, he had heard a lot about the temper of the new king of football and his all-powerful godfather.

"Great! Excellent!" He patted Batistuta's arm. "Well, there's one more thing I need your help with, Batistuta. It's about that Belgian midfielder. We need him to cooperate with a clip, and he definitely won't like it."

Oh ho?

A shot that would attract attention but that Kevin would surely not like?
Batty became interested when he heard this. He raised his chin to the director and said, "You go ahead."

"Yes--"

……

[beep——]
Davis (Wild Boar Davis) made a foul on the field, but the referee mistakenly gave the yellow card to De Bruyne, even though they were wearing different jerseys.
So the angry De Bruyne walked towards the referee, and regardless of Batistuta's obstruction, he shouted to the camera several times: "Let me talk!"

"CUT! Perfect!" The director called a timeout. He leaned out from behind the host position and gave a thumbs-up to everyone on the field. "Alright, next one!"

The filming was paused, and Batistuta could no longer hide the smile on his face. He supported De Bruyne and laughed little by little until he squatted on the ground.

De Bruyne: …

"I don't like this. If you didn't force me to do it, I would have refused." De Bruyne was unhappy. "This part was not in the script they gave me before. I need my agent to talk to them."

"I reasonably doubt you would have come if they had shown you that." Batistuta finally stood up, and after seeing De Bruyne's long face, he couldn't help laughing out loud.

"Laugh, laugh, little bastard." De Bruyne slapped Batistuta lightly.

"I can take this (slap), but you have to admit, Kevin," the little king quietly hooked his fingers with the Belgian midfielder with a smile on his face, "this is a complete classic."

De Bruyne didn't say anything. He turned his head and looked at Batistuta. Batistuta gave him an innocent face and lightly probed with his fingertips.

This is so unfair.

Linking fingers on the set of the Nike advert was almost as good a deal to De Bruyne as their secret kiss in the middle of the pitch a few years ago.

"There won't be a next time." He grabbed Batty's hand and warned, "Next time, no matter how much you beg me, it won't work."

Batty's smile widened and he nodded.

But they all know that there will be a next time.

……

Halfway through the shoot, Batistuta gradually got used to Ronaldinho constantly greeting him, but what he and De Bruyne said on the plane about the French was actually correct, there was indeed a Frenchman in the studio whom Batistuta didn't like very much.

It was about to be their turn to act against each other, and Batty took the initiative to go over and talk to him, jokingly.

"Good afternoon, Kilian," he said. "How are you doing lately? Has Macron come to you crying and begging you to come back again?"

Mbappe had just finished two filming sessions and was sorting out his new national team jersey (2022 World Cup version). When he saw Batistuta coming over, he couldn't help but be stunned for a moment, but he quickly reacted.

"Hello, Batistuta," he responded politely, but Mbappe also had something to say in response to Batistuta's second half of the sentence, "I'm doing fine recently. How about you? When are you going to marry Augustus?"

Batty smiled and said: "When you become the president of France."

"Really? I thought it was the time for France to win the World Cup again." Mbappe continued to retort, "If it is, it won't be too far away. You'd better prepare quickly."

"Why, you want to win the gold cup for two consecutive times?" Barty said in complete surprise. "Who told you that's possible?"

"Isn't it possible? I remember you did it before." Mbappe thought, "Isn't it? Sweden in 1958 and Chile in 1962. You can do it, why can't we?"

Batty sneered loudly. "You can try," he said, "but I promise you, you won't get anything. And by 'you' I mean you and Augustus. This year, this season, I won't let you succeed again."

"Then you have to work hard." Mbappe showed a friendly smile, "Why not start with the derby, in early October, and see if you can hold on."

"Oh my god, I'm so looking forward to it!" Batistuta stepped back and gave the French striker two little 'biubiu' gestures. "Then it's a deal, Kiki, see you at Etihad."

(End of this chapter)

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