Ground football: Ronaldo thought I was going to assist him

Compared to Ronaldo's training results, Deng Kai's training sessions, which were equally intense, were much less impressive.

Once he gets going with his dribbling speed, it's easy for him to lose the ball.

Faced with the football, he didn't even have a chance to make a save because of the uneven grass.

In passing and shooting training, he couldn't keep up when the distance was too far.

His training performance was among the worst in the youth team.

But what surprised Maxa was that Deng Kai's performance improved significantly.

After half a month of training, although he was still at the bottom of the team, he caught up in all events and was no longer far behind the others in the team.

If this continues, he might reach the mid-level of the talent pool in two months.

Keep in mind, this is the U15 team.

Deng Kai had just celebrated his thirteenth birthday.

A two-year age gap during the youth training stage is as big as climbing to the sky.

The U15 national youth team can win the U13 World Cup!

Aside from a very few exceptional players like Lukaku who can defy age limitations, even a player as strong as Ronaldo only experienced a dramatic surge in performance after his body had fully developed by the age of sixteen or seventeen.

When it comes to physical development, Maxa became worried again.

Based on current information, Deng Kai's physical development is relatively slow, and his potential seems limited.

Trigra repeatedly urged that Deng Kai be given special attention and training, which Maxa really didn't understand.

Even if Deng Kai really makes a name for himself in the U15 team, or even dominates the field.

But will other clubs be willing to take him on when he turns sixteen or seventeen?

If he can't be developed, that's fine. But if he is, he'll likely become a midfield maestro who can only dominate in youth leagues.

How much of the club's resources will this waste?

How many fans were heartbroken at the same time?

This kind of hopeless training should never have existed in the first place.

Of course, Maxa didn't dare tell Trigra these things.

Although he didn't know exactly how much Trigra had staked on Deng Kai, he was sure it was a considerable amount.

And so, Deng Kai and Ronaldo would run from their homes to the training ground with the ball every morning, and then run back home with the ball every evening, as if they had inexhaustible energy.

Sometimes even Cristiano Ronaldo gets very tired.

But Deng Kai wasn't tired at all, and he even forced Ronaldo to sleep and get back to partying.

How could someone as competitive as Cristiano Ronaldo accept the idea that a shorter person is more resilient than him?

The two tormented each other, which eventually led to the start of the Portuguese U15 league!

……

The format of the Portuguese U15 league differs from that of the well-known top-tier leagues; it is divided into three stages.

The first stage is the regional competition. Portugal is divided into five regions, with ten teams in each region, playing a round-robin tournament, which means playing eighteen matches.

At the end of the season, the top two teams in each group will advance directly, for a total of ten teams.

The third and fourth place teams from each group will advance to the playoffs. After fierce competition, two winners will be selected to advance and will be randomly assigned to the next round of the North and South regional competitions along with the ten teams that were previously selected.

The competition will be a round-robin tournament within the region, with a total of ten matches.

The top two teams in the standings advance to the final championship match, which consists of four teams.

The four teams will continue with an internal round-robin tournament, consisting of six matches.

The team with the highest points is the U15 league champion for that year.

The advantage of this format is that it provides a sufficient number of matches for strong teams.

Weaker teams shouldn't get bogged down in the game; they should end the season early and focus on improving themselves through training.

However, this format also has its controversial aspects, namely the lack of a decisive knockout tournament where a single match determines the winner; instead, the winner is determined entirely by points.

Supporters of this competition format believe that the absence of direct elimination helps protect the mental well-being of underage players.

They are still young, and there is no need for them to experience such a thrilling elimination tournament too early, as it could easily leave them with psychological trauma.

The primary objective at this stage is training, not the pursuit of honors.

Opponents argue that this kind of training is not conducive to the players' development after entering the professional arena.

You'll have to adapt sooner or later. If your goal is to play professionally, you should go through these hardships that professional players inevitably experience as early as possible.

The choice of format for Portugal's U15 tournament shows that the former has received more support.

However, in recent years, in order to promote the development of football, UEFA has been pushing for the introduction of a knockout format in youth leagues.

To this end, they proposed the "European Youth League" project.

That is... the UEFA Youth League!

After numerous meetings and consultations, the "U15 European Youth League" was officially established this year.

The competition format is completely modeled after the Champions League, aiming to make this tournament the Champions League for European youth players!

The news, once confirmed, sparked a great deal of interest across Europe.

Everyone knows that the NBA is the most commercially valuable basketball league!

But the most popular basketball game among the locals is the NCAA!

Is this because the NCAA has a higher level of competition?

Obviously not.

It's because the NCAA allows the most basketball enthusiasts to access and participate.

Liking the NBA is a personal matter.

But liking the NCAA is a family, a clan, a school, a community, and a region's business.

In Europe, where football culture is highly developed, the UEFA Youth League has a similar significance, because 95% of youth training players will not be able to play in European competitions in the future.

In fact, most people will never work in a football-related industry.

However, the club may not support this approach.

Because the revenue from the UEFA Youth League is limited.

However, frequent matches will inevitably increase the club's expenses on youth training teams.

Moreover, the club's consideration of honors is limited to the first team. Whether the youth team wins awards or not is not important, as long as they can provide player reserves for the first team.

Given this conflict, not many clubs are willing to participate in the UEFA Youth League.

Ultimately, through UEFA's efforts, they found 26 clubs willing to participate in the UEFA Youth League and whose youth training levels met the competition requirements.

This includes Sporting Lisbon!

If this year's tournament is successful, UEFA will consider launching a higher-level and more popular "U17 European Youth League" in the future.

Therefore, Sporting Lisbon U15 has a very tight schedule this year.

However, Maksa, who had just taken charge of the U15 team, was not a good "head coach".

On August 18th, Sporting Lisbon U15 played their first round of the league.

Deng Kai and Cristiano Ronaldo started together.

However, Deng Kai's performance was not satisfactory.

Long passes are inaccurate.

Their physical strength is too poor.

The speed is not fast enough.

They lack the ability to contest high balls.

These weaknesses were fully exposed in the first game.

This is a real match, not just an intra-team practice game.

Of course, everyone will target your weakest link.

In the 40th minute, Maksa was forced to replace Duncan.

Sporting Lisbon's situation is starting to improve.

Ultimately, thanks to Cristiano Ronaldo's brace, Sporting Lisbon defeated Aves 4-2 away from home, taking away three points.

On August 24th, Sporting Lisbon U15 played their first home game in the second round of the league.

This time, Deng Kai was substituted after playing for less than 30 minutes.

The team also lost 2-5 to the visiting team, Sacha Venezia.

After the match, the Lisbon-based football newspaper Bora described Deng Kai's performance as disastrous.

The commentator further stated, "This was a performance-driven signing; both Sporting Lisbon and Duncan were performers, and they each benefited. The victims were Sporting Lisbon's fans and the seven genuine youth academy graduates who were expelled from the youth team because of Duncan's arrival!"

This statement immediately ignited a firestorm in the Portuguese youth training community!