[Football] Bad Boy Batty

"Is that all you're going to eat, Buddy? Have some scrambled eggs." Loach said, looking at Buddy with some worry. Just 10 minutes ago, he had prepared dinner for Buddy strictly according to the nutritionist's arrangement. As a result, the little bastard was very uncooperative. He only ate a few beans and pushed the plate aside.

There were still five hours before the game started, and the team had to arrive one hour in advance. Excluding the time spent on the bus, the coach's speech and some miscellaneous waste, they had less than three hours left, and Batistuta only ate some damn beans and mashed potatoes.

"I said I'm not hungry." Batty sat on a chair in the cafeteria, about ten feet away from the dining table, looking like he wanted to be separated from the full plate of food. He rested his left arm on the iron back of the chair, spread his long legs, one on top of the other, his ankle resting on his knee, and swayed lazily.

"You can't make me eat, man," he said, even jokingly using the slum slang commonly used by thugs.

"Don't talk like that, you sound like a little punk." The black boy frowned, and his eyes swept over Batty's body, frowning even more. Loach patted Batty's elbow that was hanging outside the chair, "Sit down, put your legs down, and your arms, you have to look good."

"Hey! Are you my mom?" Batty complained, he reduced the amplitude of his movements, but still remained almost the same. Just after Loach slapped him for the third time to make him pay attention to his posture, Batty reluctantly sat up straight. "Why can't I go home after dinner? Am I in prison?" he complained.

Just as Batistuta was complaining loudly, Neymar passed by with his dinner. If it was a few days ago, he might have sat next to Batistuta without asking, but now he was not sure.

From the moment Neymar entered the restaurant he had been paying attention to Batistuta, but Batistuta didn't seem to care, so Neymar thought to himself, 'Go to hell, you rude little bastard', and walked straight past Batistuta's table.

Loach stood up and grabbed Neymar. Neymar subconsciously turned his head to look over, and then his eyes met Loach's. For a few seconds, the air froze.

Neymar asked with little eye movements, and the black boy responded in the same way.

Batty raised an eyebrow and looked this way and that way: "Are you two high school girls? What's that weird way of communicating?"

Loach glared at him and Batty shrugged.

It was this indifferent attitude that angered our "second in command". He took the plate from Neymar and said, "Give this to me. You take care of your player first. He doesn't want to eat."

Although Neymar has not fully understood what happened, he has focused on the fact that Batistuta did not eat. He looked at the plate in front of Batistuta, which was full, but the food had obvious signs of use, and it was unclear whether it was another serving.

So Neymar turned to Batistuta with a serious face and asked: "Is what he said true? Are you going to starve yourself to death on the court?"

"Nonsense, I ate something." Batistuta raised his head and faced Neymar. He put away his lazy attitude and straightened his back, with the tip of his nose almost touching Neymar's. He said, "Don't worry, I won't let my stomach growl on the court. I promise, sir."

Batty dragged out the word "sir" so long that anyone with ears could understand its meaning.

Neymar frowned fiercely and took the lead in putting some distance between the two of them. However, before he could say anything, Loach started arguing with Batistuta again.

"You can't lie to the captain, Batty. You just ate a few beans and a few spoonfuls of mashed potatoes. What can that fill you up? Is there a bird in your stomach?" The black boy was indignant. "God is my witness. It's hard for me to make sure you sleep as soundly as an angel every day, but I still have to take care of you, you understand, so I can't let you go to the game on an empty stomach and faint on the court."

"No one will faint on the court, my friend, you make me wonder if the belly is on me or on you?" Batty said, "You take good care of me, sometimes too good, I think you should be awarded the best nanny of the year award, you will make my dead mother ashamed to jump out of the grave!"

"No, don't bring your mother into this, it's different—"

"It's the same to me, and you started it first, you dragged God into it!"

Neymar felt dizzy. The two were still arguing with each other, but Neymar's world became hazy.

His stomach began to burn, and it was not just because of hunger.

He didn't know what he was doing here. Batty and Loach were arguing like a middle-aged couple in their forties. It was another world, and there was no room for him in that world.

As he thought about it, the fire in Neymar's stomach burned, turning his sorrow into anger.

How dare you, how dare you leave him aside? He was clearly here with good intentions to solve the problem, why does he seem redundant now?

"Why don't you two go get a room?"

With a 'ding' sound, Batty and Loach stopped quarreling, and everyone in the restaurant, including the chef, looked over here.

It was Neymar, and he punched the table.

"This is the team, don't flirt here, I'm not your servant."

Then he snatched his plate back from Loach without even looking away, not caring about the soup splashing on his pants.

Neymar looked down at Batistuta and said, "Fuck you."

Neymar looked up at Loach again: "Go to hell too."

After saying that, he left with his plate. Finally, he appeared at the farthest seat in the entire restaurant and raised his middle finger to the two people who looked over.

During the whole process, no one dared to speak, but people's inner world was completely different. Some wanted to fan the flames in this "throne battle", some wanted to take advantage of the chaos, and some did nothing but wait for the show to begin.

However, those people were not Batty. Batty was still sitting on the chair with his head raised. After a while, he let out a gasp that was enough to make people think wrongly. Loach looked at him with disdain: "We made your captain angry."

Batty didn't respond, and sighed to himself: "He's so charming when he's angry."

Loach couldn't stop rolling his eyes. He asked with a desperate look, "So do you have an appetite now?"

"Oh sure," said Batty, "I can eat two large hunks of soft bread and a whole sausage right now."

"..."

Even so, Buddy started eating, crunching the broccoli on his plate and finishing the rest of the mashed potatoes and a large bowl of soup.

Since this restaurant incident, Batistuta's attitude towards Neymar has changed again. He would provoke and tease him from time to time, and every time he would suddenly brake when Neymar was about to attack him. He kept walking on the edge of angering the Barcelona star, and even brought this habit to the national team.

But that’s another story.

……

At 21:45 in the evening, the Brazilian Olympic team gathered at the National Stadium in the capital, ready to face the visiting Iraq. The second round of the 2016 Brazil Olympic Men's Football Group A is about to begin.

Brazil narrowly beat South Africa 1-0 in the first match, while Iraq drew 0-0 with Denmark. Brazil, currently at the top of the group, still fielded its strongest lineup, because one goal does not constitute a very strong advantage, and they want to make sure they can qualify with their heads held high and regain the momentum of being eliminated in the group stage of the Centennial America's Cup; while Iraq will strive for a draw and qualify as the second in the group, so both teams will go all out in this match.

The lineup did not change much, Barbosa continued to advance, Neymar was in the middle, Augusto followed closely, and Jesus and Batistuta were on the wings. It is worth mentioning that the starting goalkeeper Fernando suddenly suffered an ankle injury and could not play, so Ederson was ordered to play in the face of danger.

Batistuta stood behind Neymar in the player tunnel. He still did not forget the captain who made him eat an extra meal, and tried to provoke Neymar to make the same expression again. Just when Neymar was about to be annoyed to death, the little ball boys came to the players, which diverted Batistuta's attention.

Barty's caddie was a little girl with dreadlocks, but her two big eyes diluted the spiciness of the dreadlocks and added a sense of innocence. The little girl was a little shy and didn't hold Barty's hand for a long time. Barty found it interesting and squatted down to ask her name.

"Eunice, my name is Eunice." The little girl's voice was so soft that Batty almost couldn't hear it because of the noisy stadium.

"Did they ask you to be a caddie?" Batty asked, and after getting an affirmative answer, he extended his hand to Eunice, "Hello, Eunice, I'm Batista."

The girl hesitantly placed her hand on Barty's and whispered something.

"Huh? Did you say something just now?" Batty asked. "It's okay, you can speak louder. This is a court. No one will say anything to you."

Then, Batty heard little Eunice say in a loud enough voice: "My mother said not to believe what beautiful men say. They are monsters and will bring disaster to me."

There was a sneer behind Batty. Apparently, Eunice's voice happened to be heard by Neymar. The captain of the Brazilian Olympic team said with a slightly teasing smile: "It seems that someone has got his new nickname, Monster - it sounds really good."

The sarcasm in Neymar's words was as obvious as the yellow jersey of the Brazilian team. Batistuta gave him a fake smile, and Eunice squeezed his palm and added, "I don't think so. You are beautiful, but you will not bring disaster."

"Thank you." Batty patted the little girl's head. "But your mother is right. Don't trust men. Men will only bring you misfortune."

There was no more time, and as cheers rose from the stands, the players walked onto the field led by the referee team.

The game is about to begin.

Batistuta stood in his position, with the cheers of his Brazilian compatriots in his ears, and his heart suddenly calmed down.

The highly-watched arena, the deafening cheers, the flying ribbons; everyone knows his name, and his every decision affects the hearts of thousands of people. This is the life he wants.

And in order to maintain all this, Batty can pay any price.

Want bigger cheers and a brighter spotlight? No problem. Win this game, win every game and he'll get it all.

So 5 minutes later, the Brazilian Olympic team launched the first wave of strong attacks, 10 minutes later they scored a goal, and 15 minutes later they were 2 goals ahead of their opponents.

At the end of the first half, Iraq was almost pinned down in the half court with no chance of fighting back.

Neymar scored twice, Jesus passed and shot, and Batistuta scored the winning goal with a header.

At the end of the game, the Brazilian Olympic team secured first place in the group with a score of 4-0, and topped the topic list with the title of "the first football match in this Olympics with a 4-goal advantage".

[This is samba football! This is Brazil! We are back! We are all back! Our beautiful football! Come on, my boys!]

(End of this chapter)