Chapter 21: Trouble
Restelos Stadium, Lisbon.
Scout Figueiredo hurried to the door of technical director Carlos' office and knocked twice.
"Come in." The familiar voice of the boss Carlos came from inside.
Figueiredo opened the door and went in, walked straight to the opposite side of the desk, reached out from the file bag in his hand, took out a simply packaged VCD disc, and gently placed it on the table in front of Carlos.
"Boss, this was just sent over by the Portuguese Football Association."
Carlos took a look and saw the name of the team and the number 36 written in thick black pen on it.
"Is it still about that Chinese player?" Carlos asked calmly.
A week ago, Sporting CP sent a player report about a young player in their team.
In his scouting report, head coach Gorba praised the player highly, believing that he possessed the strength of a leader among his peers, and that his progress was astonishing, his talent was quite high, and his future was worth looking forward to.
Belerence is not one of the top clubs in Portugal, but it is still a Portuguese Super League team after all.
As a technical director, Carlos is well-informed. He has seen countless player profiles, and his recorded player videos and VCDs are piled up like mountains. Every scout and every agent will do everything they can to praise their own players and embellish them with all kinds of fancy words.
These people were like eloquent, shrewd and capable salesmen, and what they wanted to sell was a commodity called players. Carlos was no longer surprised by this.
So much so that when Sporting CP recommended him, although Gorba's description was not very exaggerated, in Carlos's view, it was just a means for small teams to promote players and an exaggeration that they were not familiar with.
How many talents can be found among the mountains of player materials?
In the past week, Sporting CP submitted a total of three reports on the Chinese player, and their urgency can be imagined.
"Yes, they just went to Madeira to play a game yesterday against Maritimo B."
"Another goal?" Carlos raised his head slightly and asked.
Figueiredo nodded, "Another goal."
"Gorba has really invested a lot of money. I guess their finances are quite tight right now." Carlos smiled faintly.
Figueiredo knows that this is a tactic used by many teams.
"But I think you should see it."
After hearing this, Carlos raised his head and looked at the scout in front of him seriously, "What do you think?"
"This time it was a volley shot in the penalty area. It wasn't difficult, but..." Figueiredo paused and thought about the wording. "When I saw him play, I felt that he was a bit like Batistuta."
"God of War?" Carlos was a little surprised.
"A bit like."
Carlos nodded.
It is not new for young players to imitate famous stars with similar characteristics. It can even be said to be a common characteristic of the vast majority of young players. And there are many people who imitate the God of War Batistuta because there are too many fans who like the Argentine God of War.
Of course, most of these fans are in very good physical condition and very strong, which is why they can play like Batistuta.
"Wait, you just said, volley?" Carlos suddenly remembered something.
"Yes." Figueiredo nodded. "This goal was a bit of a steal, and it wasn't difficult. But to be honest, like the previous two goals, it's rare among young players."
Carlos looked at the disc in front of him and nodded, "Okay, put it aside for now. I'll watch it later when I have time."
When Figueiredo was about to turn around and leave, Carlos reminded him again, "Call Gorba to find out the situation. Find a chance to go to the scene and take a look."
Figueiredo agreed.
He knew in his heart that Belerenses was a Portuguese Super League team after all, and they were not very interested in such low-level young players.
Anyway, he is in the satellite club, so there is no need to worry about him running away.
…
…
At the same time, in Benfica's executive offices at the Estadio da Luz, a few kilometres north of the Estadio da Restelo, scout Abel Silva handed a similar disc to Luis Felipe Vieira, the club's director of football operations.
"This is a video of a player I just got from Sporting CP. They have a young Chinese player this season named Su Dong, who just turned 17. He has scored three goals in the last two games."
"Oh?" Vieira was surprised.
The main reason is that this player is from China.
In recent years, major European clubs have been aiming to develop the Asian market, especially China.
As the top club in Portugal, although Benfica has experienced some turbulence in the past two years, it also has ideas about the Chinese market.
Vieira didn't say much. He took out the CD and put it into the CD-ROM drive of the computer next to him.
Not long after, a blurry and barely legible video began playing on the computer screen.
"If I remember correctly, Sporting CP is a partner team of Belarence, right?"
"Yes, they have been working with Bellerenses for many years."
The two teams are very close to each other and communicate a lot with each other. There was even a case where a Belenenses player was loaned to Sporting CP to play, but training was still conducted in Belenenses.
Lisbon's three Portuguese Super League teams all support their own partner clubs in this city, such as Benfica has FT Benfica, Sporting Lisbon has Casa Pia, and Belarence cooperates with Sporting Clube de Portugal.
There are also some teams that cooperate with multiple teams at the same time, such as Amadora and Olharunsson, which are the partner clubs of Porto, Benfica and Sporting Lisbon at the same time.
Such teams are usually teams with strong youth training and excellent player development capabilities, which gives them enough bargaining chips.
Of course, as a big team, there must be more than one cooperating club.
For example, Benfica, although it has no cooperation with Sporting CP, has close relations with them.
The Abel Silva in front of Vieira made his debut in Benfica's youth training and played in the first team for many years, but a year ago he was still playing for Atlético de Portugal and had close ties with this team.
When Athletic Club wanted to bring in Canelas, it was through Abel Silva.
…
The two watched the slightly blurry game video, mainly focusing on the player No. 36.
Especially after he volleyed the ball and scored the equalizer, the expression on Vieira's face changed visibly.
"This shot shows great strength," Vieira said.
"Yes, his awareness of positioning, judgment of landing points, and finally his footwork, I think he plays football a bit like imitating Batistuta, which looks pretty good." Abel Silva said with a smile.
Vieira nodded, "It's interesting indeed."
Last year, Benfica held a presidential election. The incumbent president Azavedo lost the election to the famous businessman Villarrio, who adopted the same campaign strategy as Real Madrid president Florentino, tying up Benfica legendary star Toni and winning all the votes of the fans. After being elected, Villarrio did not hesitate to force out former coach Jose Mourinho, who had just led the team to a 3-0 victory over Sporting Lisbon and won the focus of the city derby.
Not long ago, former President Azavedo was sent to prison on suspicion of money laundering.
Benfica's finances are very bad, which is the reason why Villarrio came to power. After taking office, he had to start drastic reforms, wanting to build a young, vigorous and competitive team. Last season's sixth place in the league was the price paid for this reform.
After the reform, Benfica had an inexplicable desire for young players, especially after seeing the emergence of talents in the youth training camp of its arch-rival Sporting Lisbon, such as Quaresma, Marcelino and Cristiano Ronaldo...
Especially that Ronaldo.
I heard that Sporting Lisbon's technical director recently recommended him to the national team's top executive Freitas, hoping to recommend him to the national youth team. "Although Quaresma is very popular now, please believe that Ronaldo is the hope of Portuguese football in the next decade or so."
Not many people know this, and Vieira is one of them.
As one side gains, the other loses. The opponent is full of talented people, which also makes Benfica very worried.
Introducing high-level talents has become Vieira's top priority.
"Abel, contact Sporting CP immediately. We need to go to the next game to watch it."
After that, Vieira thought for a moment and reminded, "Be quick, don't give your opponent time to react."
Abel Silva nodded.
He knew very well that the opponents here were not just Belerenses, but also other teams.
…
…
Su Dong was not aware that he had successfully attracted Benfica's attention, and he was still the same as usual.
The team returned to Lisbon from Madeira Islands overnight. In the early morning of the next day, Sudong got up on time for training and then went to Parque Eduardo VII.
Ronnie had long guessed that Su Dong would do this, and the two of them practiced hard in the indoor football field in the park.
Only when I was tired from practicing did I rest on the sidelines.
Su Dong casually handed over a bottle of Manniu, unscrewed the cap of the bottle in his hand, and started drinking it.
The drinks exchanged in the system store are really good stuff. After drinking them, the speed of physical energy recovery during rest is obviously faster.
Ronnie looked troubled.
"What's the matter? Are you in trouble?" Su Dong asked with concern.
Ronnie sighed and nodded, "I ran into a little trouble."
Su Dong thought it was a family matter and immediately thought of his brother who was a drug addict. He felt helpless.
He had no way to deal with this matter, and it was not easy for him to express his opinion, so he could only remain silent.
Ronnie didn't want to say anything, and Su Dong didn't ask, so there was silence between the two of them.
When he had almost finished a bottle of water, Ronnie suddenly sighed and said in a sad and indignant tone: "I want to change my agent!"
