Ground football: Ronaldo thought I was going to assist him

"On June 1, 1998, the Portuguese Football Federation held the Portugal Diamond Generation Invitational Tournament in an effort to alleviate the pain of failing to qualify for the World Cup for twelve consecutive years."

"The aim is to discover talented players aged 12-15 in Portugal, emulate the current golden generation of Portugal, and illuminate the future of Portuguese football."

"The competition has received strong support from Portuguese giants such as Sporting Lisbon, Porto, and Benfica."

"The organizers invited Portuguese football legend 'The Black Panther' Eusebio and Luís Figo, Portugal's rising star, Barcelona's core player, and one of Barcelona's few foreign captains, to serve as youth initiators."

"They will form their own teams and have a showdown at the Alvadela Stadium in Lisbon, the capital of Portugal."

"To date, Figo has recruited youth talents from various clubs, including Hugo Almeida, Bruno Leiva, Miguel Veloso, and Ruben Amorin."

"The most eye-catching one is Cristiano Ronaldo from Madeira! Three years ago, he shone brightly in the Golden Boy Cup in Portugal and won the tournament's top scorer award."

"Reports indicate that Chris will officially transfer to Sporting Lisbon this summer!"

"And the Black Panthers are represented by Sporting Lisbon youth academy center-back José Fonte and Portimonense youth academy midfielder João Moutinho..."

Benfica's first-team assistant coach, Triguera, shook his head as he listened to the news on TV.

This match is destined to be a one-sided affair.

People these days are too forgetful.

There are too few outstanding players choosing to join the Black Panthers.

The real geniuses are all in Figo's team.

Because young people today prefer Figo.

Perhaps in another decade or so, new fans won't even know that there was a legendary football star named Eusebio.

It's only been three years, and who still remembers Deng Kai, who beat Cristiano Ronaldo to win the Golden Boy Cup Best Player Award?

Beep beep!

Trigra's phone rang.

He put down his glass and pressed the speakerphone button: "What's wrong, Pereira? Has the date changed the day after tomorrow?"

Pereira is the head of player recruitment at Sporting Lisbon.

They will attend the "Diamond Generation Invitational Tournament" with the club president the day after tomorrow and watch the matches live.

However, it wasn't Pereira's voice that came through the phone.

It was a young, immature voice.

"Coach...I want to play football!"

Then both ends of the phone fell silent.

In an instant, Trigra knew who was on the other end of the phone.

Kai!

Deng Kai!

He finally called!

He's finally willing to continue playing football!

Three years ago, the Portuguese Football Federation held the Golden Boy Cup to celebrate the Portuguese national team's qualification for the European Championship finals.

José Fonte, the tournament's best defender, performed exceptionally well, but was eliminated in the semi-finals when he faced the Madeira Nacional youth academy team led by a young Cristiano Ronaldo.

After the match, Fonte received an invitation from the Lisbon youth academy.

Cristiano Ronaldo, the tournament's top scorer and Golden Boot winner, scored twice in the semi-final, single-handedly leading his team to the final, and then scored twice again in the final.

After the match, Cristiano Ronaldo received a grand invitation from Sporting Lisbon.

However, for safety reasons, Ronaldo's parents wanted him to be older before he went to live alone in Lisbon. Therefore, Ronaldo did not publicly join Sporting Lisbon's youth academy, but he used Sporting Lisbon's training program early on and was branded with Sporting Lisbon's influence.

However, Ronaldo's team was the runner-up at the time.

The championship belongs to another little-known team.

In that match, Cristiano Ronaldo scored twice.

But the opposing team's midfielder, Deng Kai, outshone everyone, completing a hat-trick of assists, winning the game 3-2 and taking home the championship trophy!

Deng Kai also won the Best Player award for his outstanding performance.

After the match, the youth training departments of the three major Portuguese league clubs all sent invitations to Deng Kai.

But Deng Kai refused them all.

Just as the Portuguese league teams were wondering what was going on, a reporter revealed that Barcelona had also sent a youth training invitation to Deng Kai.

Because on the day of the Golden Boy Cup final, the legendary Dutchman Johan Cruyff, who was then the head coach of Barcelona, ​​was present.

He went there for Figo's transfer, but unexpectedly, this trip not only brought Figo away from Sporting Lisbon, but also allowed him to discover a promising midfielder.

Cruyff demanded that Barcelona's youth academy buy out Duncan.

This is Barcelona!

Who could refuse?

However, Deng Kai refused!

Once the news was reported, most of the football world knew about it.

This reportedly created another rift between Cruyff and the Barcelona management, indirectly leading to Cruyff's dismissal a year later.

But since Barcelona has extended an invitation, many clubs, regardless of whether they have seen Deng Kai play before, have extended trial invitations to him with a try-it-out mentality.

These include Barcelona's arch-rivals Real Madrid, the Premier League giants Manchester United and Arsenal, Bundesliga powerhouse Bayern Munich, the Italian Serie A trio of Juventus, AC Milan, and Inter Milan...

Without exception, Deng Kai refused them all.

Some people think Deng Kai was trying to sell himself to a higher bidder, but he messed things up.

Because his name contains the character "凯" (Kai), some media outlets mocked Deng Kai as the "football Caesar."

Franz Beckenbauer, the German football emperor, was also known as Kaiser, but the media clearly didn't mean that Duncan was the next Beckenbauer.

They are saying that Deng Kai is like Carlos Kaiser, the biggest fraudster in Brazilian football in the 1980s, who has no real strength or talent and is just a fraudster with a false reputation.

Carlos Kaiser dominated the Brazilian football scene for over two decades without ever playing a single match, yet he was consistently regarded as a superstar of immense talent.

Deng Kai's behavior of rejecting all team offers and trials, and cultivating himself into a peerless prodigy, is very similar to that of Carlos Caesar.

"Really? Are you sure you want to play football? Instead of studying sports data analysis at the University of Lisbon?" Triguera was the only person who had been keeping up with Deng Kai's news for the past three years.

He is a stubborn person, and he is more convinced than anyone else that Deng Kai will make it big, and even become a superstar.

He will never forget his last conversation with Deng Kai when he invited him to join Sporting Lisbon.

"Son, I'm not demanding that you join Sporting Lisbon, but you should at least choose one of these top clubs: Manchester United, Arsenal, Real Madrid, Barcelona, ​​Bayern Munich, Inter Milan, and Juventus! It's your loss if you don't play football, and it's a loss for world football!"

"Coach, I can play football, but not now. I have more important things to do right now!"

"Kay, think it over again. Your technical skills would definitely give you a great future at Barcelona! Or should I help you contact Mr. Cruyff?"

"Thank you, Mr. Trigera, but really, it's not necessary. When I want to play football, you're the first person I'll come to!"

After that, Deng Kai withdrew from the football school and returned to Portugal's twelve-year compulsory education system.

In just three years, he completed all the content of twelve years of compulsory education.

Furthermore, they achieved excellent results in the two major exams in eleventh and twelfth grade.

Ultimately, he was admitted early this year to the Sports Data Analysis program at the Faculty of Information and Technology, University of Lisbon, one of Portugal's best universities.

But this high-achieving student actually said he wanted to play football.

This is just as incomprehensible as Deng Kai's decision to pursue a degree after achieving success in football three years ago.

Triguera could completely understand how the rector of the University of Lisbon felt at that moment.

There is no such thing as true empathy in this world.

Only those who share the same plight can truly sympathize with each other.

The thinking of a genius is something that normal people can never understand.