Ground football: Ronaldo thought I was going to assist him

Italy.

After being turned away in Milan, Jiang Yunzhu opened the official website of Sporting Lisbon, a website she was closely following.

She immediately saw the headline on the official website that was highlighted in red:

Congratulations to the U15 team for defeating Viktoria Plzeň 1-0 in a crucial U15 UEFA Youth League match!

She had a smile on her face.

The subtitle reads: "Supernova Chris's long-distance run provides an assist, and football's Kaiser Duncan's incredible sliding shot breaches Cech's goal!"

But soon, Jiang Yunzhu was stunned.

Because what followed was a dense barrage of reports about Deng Kai's injury.

Deng Kai seriously injured?

Jiang Yunzhu's heart skipped a beat.

She immediately called her supervisor and requested to return to Lisbon.

The leader reprimanded her for her lack of understanding, after all, the "Wahaha Team" had already started training in China, but most of the opposing teams had not yet made their commitments.

You haven't even been able to contact any of the Italian Serie A giants, and you still have the nerve to go to Lisbon?

In response, Jiang Yunzhu said, "These big clubs obviously don't value our project. I think it's better to look for opportunities in the second-tier leagues in Portugal and the Netherlands than to waste time in Italy."

"Porto, Benfica, and Sporting Lisbon from the Portuguese Primeira Liga; Ajax, PSV Eindhoven, and Feyenoord from the Dutch Eredivisie; even Borussia Dortmund, Bayer Leverkusen, and Schalke 04 from the Bundesliga; and Marseille, Monaco, Lyon, and Paris Saint-Germain from Ligue 1 are all viable options!"

"Several of these youth training programs are even stronger than those of the top-tier youth academies!"

Jiang Yunzhu's idea was eventually approved by her superiors, so she flew back to Lisbon.

……

Finally, on the evening of the following day, Sporting Lisbon issued an official statement regarding the highly publicized injury to Deng Kai.

According to the diagnosis, Deng Kai will miss all of the team's games for the next five to seven weeks.

This includes at least five league matches, and one or two UEFA Youth League matches.

These seven matches will almost certainly determine the success or failure of Sporting Lisbon U15's season.

After all, in the league, if you don't make it into the top four, you won't get to play in the playoffs.

There were a total of eighteen matches, and thirteen of them have already been played. The remaining matches are almost meaningless.

The same applies to European competitions. If Sporting Lisbon loses another match, they will be eliminated from the group stage and will have no further matches to play.

For a time, the media was very pessimistic about the future of Sporting Lisbon U15.

When Duncan was playing, they didn't think Sporting Lisbon's wins were because of him.

But when Deng Kai wasn't around, they finally recognized his impact on the game in a different way.

November 3rd.

Sporting Lisbon will host Real Sporting CP.

However, Lisbon, who had just experienced a three-game winning streak across all competitions, suffered a crushing defeat in this match.

A humiliating 0-5 defeat.

Cristiano Ronaldo, who gave his all in the previous match, was simply lacking in stamina and performed poorly in this game.

November 9th.

Sporting Lisbon continued their home game, welcoming Aves as their opponent.

Aves are currently at the bottom of the league standings.

Sporting Lisbon had previously won only one game, against Aves.

This time, perhaps influenced by Deng Kai who was no longer on the field, Ronaldo began to try to cooperate with his teammates and pass the ball to them.

Ultimately, thanks to Ronaldo's goal, assist, and playmaking, the team narrowly defeated Aves 3-2, saving face.

But they still played so hard against the team that was last in the standings.

Sporting Lisbon's morale actually dropped even lower after this match.

Just when everyone thought Sporting Lisbon U15's season was going to end prematurely.

However, the hospital delivered shocking news.

Deng Kai is recovering well and has been discharged from the hospital!

Subsequently, Sporting Lisbon's official website also reported: "Deng Kai has participated in recovery training and will be able to train with the team in the next two days. He may play in next week's match against Sacha Venezia!"

The Portuguese football newspaper Record even published an exclusive interview with Deng Kai.

The contributor is still Jiang Yunzhu, a Chinese reporter from Sports Weekly.

The title is: "I have no talent! But I train longer and recover faster than others because I want to play football!"

This report also allowed fans to get to know the "real" Deng Kai for the first time.

……

This interview was conducted while Deng Kai was in the hospital.

Jiang Yunzhu was very surprised when she first met Deng Kai.

She had thought Deng Kai would be nervous, or that he would be particularly excited because of her identity as a Chinese journalist, or that he would look down on her because of the name of her relatively unknown domestic newspaper.

but no.

There was nothing there.

"Please sit down. You arrived much earlier than I expected," Deng Kai said politely.

"Us? Your Mandarin is very standard." Jiang Yunzhu's impression of Deng Kai improved greatly. It was so rare that he wasn't an ABC (American-born Chinese).

During this period, the newly born Chinese immigrants were very dismissive of learning Chinese.

Many people even take pride in shedding the Chinese label.

Because they think it's shameful.

It wasn't until the country became stronger that more and more ABCs (American-born Chinese) started to play the patriotism card and return to China.

"We communicate in Chinese at home. You're journalists from China. Right now, the focus of domestic football media is mainly on the top five European leagues, right? Actually, people don't really pay much attention to the Bundesliga or Ligue 1." Deng Kai's understanding of domestic news trends exceeded Jiang Yunzhu's expectations. "Why are you paying attention to youth training in the Portuguese league?"

"It seems you know quite a bit," Jiang Yunzhu said. "Actually, it's quite a coincidence. Currently, our Sports Weekly is... but we're stuck on the issue of partner clubs."

"The big clubs in Serie A don't give me any special treatment! I came back this time partly because I heard you were injured, and I wanted to come see you. After all, I've been following you for a long time and have been waiting for the right opportunity to introduce you to fans back home!"

"On the other hand, we were also looking for an opportunity to talk to the three giants of the Portuguese league and facilitate this cooperation."

Jiang Yunzhu briefly mentioned the "Wahaha Team".

However, Deng Kai showed great interest in it.

They inquired about the specific names of the young players participating in the training camp.

He knew about the Jianlibao team, but not the Wahaha team. It seems that this plan failed in his previous life.

But now... the butterfly's wings seem to be flapping!

"Regarding age, I won't go into details, there are some adjustments involved. After all, we also hope that the Wahaha team can achieve some outstanding results, otherwise it will be difficult to compete with the Jianlibao team," Jiang Yunzhu said eloquently. "This time, the young players mainly come from two sources."

"One is the Nike Cup National Championship, which just concluded. A number of outstanding young players emerged from this event."

"Yu Shih-hao is a grand slam winner of the Nike Cup's Best Player, Top Scorer, and Golden Boot awards."

"Nike Cup Best Center Back: Shao Jiawei"

"Chen Tao, left-back for the Nike Cup All-Star Team, Sichuan Quanxing Youth Team."

"Wu Xudong, right back of Nike Cup All-Star Team, Tongliao No.1 Middle School, Inner Mongolia."

Deng Kai frowned slightly.

I've never heard of this before.

It seems the Wahaha team isn't very strong!

Jiang Yunzhu, oblivious to Deng Kai's expression, continued, "The other half are recommendations from excellent football organizations across the country, including Zhao Peng, the center-back from the Henan Jianye youth team."

"Hao Junmin, a midfielder/forward from WH City Football School."

"Zeng Cheng, one of the ten young goalkeeping prodigies of Wuhan Steel City."

"Feng Xiaoting of Dalian Yiteng Football Club."

"Gao Lin, the talented center forward from China's football academy, and so on!"