[Football] Bad Boy Batty

Batistuta looked at Caoi and said, "Caoi, you are a defender, so just defend well. Why are you dribbling the ball around? You can't even make a good long pass. And if you leave, your responsibilities will be shared by Maki and Santos, so they keep calling you back. Did you listen? Short passes have no tactical effect and long passes can't be made in place. What are you doing?"

Then he turned to Augusto and said, "You too, I don't know what your role is on the court, a mascot? A mascot will encourage the players and boost the atmosphere of the fans. What else did you do besides blocking our running and preventing us from attacking and defending? VIP limited-edition tickets to watch the game?"

The two men were furious after being humiliated in public. They let go of each other and cast hateful eyes at Batty at the same time.

Batistuta changed his supporting leg and continued: "If you played better, just a little bit, we would have been ahead by at least 2 goals in the first half, and Neymar wouldn't have had to wait until I got on the ball to score a goal."

"Stop talking, stop talking to Batistuta, we are all teammates." Barbosa couldn't stand it anymore and ran out to mediate. He and Batistuta were teammates in the club. When they were in the club, everyone knew Batistuta's temper so they didn't care. But after coming to the Olympic team, he was really afraid that Batistuta would be beaten up.

So he pulled Batty's wrist and said, "We won in the end, didn't we? That's more important than anything else. Don't talk about those useless things, Batty."

"Won?" Batty shook off his hand without appreciating it. "1-0, South Africa, you call that a win."

The young man exhaled and looked at Barbosa with full dissatisfaction. "And you, if you must find someone to blame today, it's you and Augusto. I gave you a few chances, but you didn't know how to count them. You just kept shooting and dribbling, but did you score a goal? All the tasks in the middle were given to Neymar, and he was targeted again. I think we deserve to lose this time."

Barbosa, who was faced with a thankless task, blushed. He certainly knew that what he did was wrong, but his original intention was just to prevent the chaos in the locker room.

Barbosa was so angry that his face turned red and he looked up at Batistuta: "What about you? You are also a Maverick. The coach yelled at you several times. What qualifications do you have to criticize me?"

"I have assists, what do you have?" Batty sneered, "And if Mikael had let me go earlier, maybe we would have been more than 1-0."

Batty was going crazy and talking nonsense, as if he said everything in one go just to make himself the target of public criticism.

"Brazil is finished. We lost miserably at home in the World Cup, didn't even qualify from the group stage of the America's Cup, and were ranked 6th in the Americas in the World Cup qualifiers. We didn't even get a good start in the Olympics, and yet we still talk about a six-star Brazil in the future. We should be thankful that we can get into the World Cup in Russia!"

"enough!"

The door of the locker room was violently opened. It was head coach Mikael, followed by some players and members of the coaching staff. Everyone's face was livid. Of course, in the football kingdom of Brazil, if anyone dared to say that, no matter if you are a famous player or an ordinary citizen, you would definitely be scolded to death.

Batistuta looked over, his sight passed over Mikael and fell on Neymar behind him.

The captain of the National Olympic Team no longer had his usual innocent smile but was instead expressionless, with disapproval in his eyes, which made him feel his throat tighten and he quickly shifted his gaze.

"I'm going to put you in solitary confinement!" The head coach was furious. He held up his waist and shouted the punishment to Batistuta. Then he stopped and took a deep breath: "I don't want to hear you talk anymore. You must be put in solitary confinement until I say stop."

Just put me in solitary confinement. It’s not like I haven’t experienced this before.
Batty has also experienced even more extreme things, such as being locked in a closet crawling with spider webs and cockroaches.

Compared to this, what Mikael said about being locked up was just a vacation. Even an angry head coach could only let Batistuta stay in the room and not let him go out, that's all.

Just when Batistuta didn't care, the head coach called out the captain's name: "Neymar, come on, it's up to you."

Batistuta frowned slightly, his eyes following Neymar. The Brazilian captain stepped forward. "Sir?"

"You are the captain. You did a great job today and really cared about the team." Mikael said slowly, "Bati is not going back with us today. You come and lead him. Teach him what team spirit is."

Neymar was stunned. He never thought that there would be a day when he would teach others about teamwork.

"Is it okay?" Mikael asked when Neymar didn't answer.

"Of course, sir." Neymar came to his senses and responded. He looked at Batistuta, who had a face full of dissatisfaction and stubbornness. He smiled and said, "I will definitely teach him."

Batty's eyes darkened where no one could see.

Tsk tsk.

...After everyone left on the bus, Neymar took Batistuta in a nanny car and drove back. There was a lot of space in the back of the car, and they sat face to face. Batistuta propped up his chin and looked out the window, as if in a daze.

Neymar cleared his throat and said, "You really went too far today, Batistuta. Your accusations hurt everyone, and we will face Iraq in four days. Have you ever thought about how we will face the opponent after your accusations? And have you ever thought that we will be in the final after three rounds, and it is possible to face Germany?"

Batistuta pursed his lips, his eyes quickly swept across Neymar's face and finally fell on his toes.

"You're wasting your energy." He did not answer Neymar's question. "You are asked to teach me teamwork? Mikael is crazy."

Neymar looked at the hair on Batistuta's forehead, and he thought of Batistuta's previous life again.

So, is it Batistuta's past that makes it difficult for him to trust others now?
This is very likely. Batistuta had a hard childhood, without a father, his mother was involved in a gang, and there were a bunch of bastards around him who were spying on him. Neymar dared not think that if Batistuta had been timid at a certain point in time, or made a mistake, would he still be able to see Batistuta now?
Batistuta raised his eyes tentatively and met Neymar's eyes. He was surprised to find that there was something in the other's eyes that he hated.

For example, sympathy.

"What's that look?" Batty said dangerously, "Don't make me regret telling you my story."

Neymar shook his head: "I didn't."

"You have. Do you think I haven't seen that look?" Batty said in a cold tone. "I've seen it too many times. Don't treat me like a good kid who's so easy to fool. And my past doesn't mean anything. Don't confuse them."

Neymar shrugged his nose. Batistuta was more sensitive than he thought.

Deep down, Neymar believed Batistuta had an inferiority complex, the result of a very bad childhood, but he hid it with a flamboyant exterior, rivet-studded jackets. He did a good job, and almost got away with it.

The Barcelona superstar sighed, it is too difficult to be the captain.

However, what makes Neymar feel relieved is that he finds it difficult to go back to the state of hating Batistuta at the beginning, which has nothing to do with Batistuta's past.

"I know what you're thinking," Batty sneered. "You're thinking that I'm hard to get along with now because I had a bad life before. I'm a bad person. I have trust issues and character flaws. You also think I'm too independent on the court, right?"

Batti was in an extroverted state, his cheeks were red, his pupils were shaking, and his voice was trembling slightly as it rose.

"Hey, calm down Batty." Neymar put his hand on Batty's knee and slowly soothed the increasingly irritable Batty. "I don't think you are bad, I never think you are difficult to get along with, I like you very much, and I want to help you."

Neymar and Batistuta looked at each other, and he could see the vacillation hidden inside, Batistuta was wavering between trusting him and not trusting him.

"It's true, I think it's comfortable to get along with you, you're very funny, and there's never a dull moment when we're together. And you don't have any trust issues, look at Loach, you've been with him for many years, right?" Neymar slowed down and imitated the club's big brother Puyol to counsel Batistuta.

"I had a lot of problems myself, and I had a lot of problems when I was at the club. What they said was not entirely wrong. But being able to recognize the problems and being willing to try to change is the most important thing."

Batty sat there and took a deep breath, his left hand covering his scar tattoo through his clothes.

Neymar continued: "Each of us had problems in the game just now. You were indeed very lonely when you first came on the court, but this is normal. You watched our performance in the first half from the sidelines and it was indeed very bad. I agree, but we will not give up. No one wants to. Giving up will make people feel relaxed. It will be very comfortable to relax and stop tensing yourself, but every one of our players and coaches did not give up, because we want to win, we want to go to the end and win the first Olympic gold medal belonging to Brazil."

Batistuta gradually calmed down after listening to Neymar's words. He quickly raised his head to glance at Neymar, and when he found that Neymar was staring at him intently, he quickly turned his head back.

"Whatever," he said.

For Batty, this is the biggest compromise and setback.

(End of this chapter)