Chapter 26: Mourinho's vengeful attitude
Who is the top club in Portugal?
This honor has always been controversial.
Benfica, Sporting Lisbon and Porto all have supporters, but overall, Sporting Lisbon is basically ranked last and has the weakest momentum, while Benfica has the largest audience and is even almost recognized as the traditional top giant.
In terms of the number of championships, Benfica has won 30 Portuguese top league titles and two Champions League titles. These two figures are second to none in Portugal and are unmatched.
But the problem is that Benfica has been in turmoil since it last won the top league title in 1994.
Porto is currently recognized as the strongest team in the Portuguese Super League. From 1994 to now, in seven years, Porto has won five top league titles, and has won 18 top league titles, surpassing Sporting Lisbon's 17 titles.
Not only that, Porto also won the European Cup in 1987.
Sporting Lisbon is also a traditional strong team, having won two top league titles in the past seven years. However, whether in terms of the total number of championships or the most prestigious Champions League, Sporting Lisbon lacks a lot of honors.
Therefore, in the competition for the top spot, Sporting Lisbon's voice is the weakest. Currently, it is basically a competition between Porto and Benfica. The former is a new upstart and the latter is a traditional powerhouse.
…
When Su Dong walked into the Hall of Fame at the Luz Stadium, he saw a wide array of championship trophies, from which he could easily see the strength of Benfica. Legendary stars and world-class players such as Eusebio and Rui Costa all came from this team.
Many geniuses, including Argentine wind son Caniggia and Czech genius Bobowski, have left their footprints here.
The person in charge of the reception was the scout Abel Silva.
During this period of time, he has been in contact with Su Dong and Mendes.
Although Sporting CP is a cooperative team of Belenenses, Belenenses was a little negligent towards Sudong at the beginning, so that it lagged behind Benfica in many aspects.
Of course, as a satellite team, Bellerenses still has advantages when the transfer period really comes.
The employees of the Hall of Fame are responsible for introducing Su Dong to the history of some important trophies and the legendary stars behind them.
At the end of the visit, he said to Su Dong with anticipation: "I hope to see your name here in the future."
Although it's a bit old-fashioned, I have to say it's really exciting.
This is Benfica, the most traditional and powerful club in Portugal.
…
After visiting the Hall of Fame, Abel Silva took Su Dong and his party to the home team's locker room before the game started.
The current head coach of Benfica is the legendary player Toni.
His career was quite brilliant, but his coaching was not so good.
He coached Benfica twice before, once for only nine games and once for only twelve games. Of course, both times he was in charge of the team midway through the season.
Later, he went to coach Bordeaux in Ligue 1 and Sevilla in La Liga, but his results were mediocre. He was fired after only ten games in charge of Sevilla.
But even so, he still became the head coach of Benfica.
Tony obviously knew that Su Dong and his group would come to visit, but with the competition approaching, his expression looked very solemn. This was related to the fact that Benfica's performance this season was not ideal and did not meet the expectations of the outside world.
It cost more than 10 million euros to buy back Simao and more than 20 million euros were invested in the transfer market. This is definitely a huge investment for the Portuguese Super League team, but so far, Benfica is only ranked fifth in the league, lagging behind tonight's opponent Leiria.
Tony simply maintained his composure, shook hands with Su Dong politely, and sent him away.
Then Su Dong met the long-famous Benfica top star Simao.
This is definitely a star player with European-level strength and Benfica's strongest force at the moment.
"I heard that you have been performing very well recently." Ximang was quite polite to Su Dong.
Su Dong also responded modestly, and took out the paper and pen he had prepared long ago, asking for an autograph and a photo.
In addition to Simao, Portuguese internationals Thiago and Maniche, who have performed well this season, are also on Su Dong's list of people asking for autographs and photos. Another one is German goalkeeper Robert Enke.
The German goalkeeper has performed very well this season and has received attention from top teams including Barcelona and Manchester United. I believe it is only a matter of time before he joins a top team.
After walking around the locker room , Su Dong got a few autographs and took photos with the players of Benfica's first team, and became familiar with them, which meant he had achieved the purpose of his trip.
But when they walked out of the home team's locker room and prepared to go to the fans' stand upstairs, they met Leiria's head coach, Portuguese Jose Mourinho, outside the visiting team's locker room.
"Hey, Jorge, what are you doing here?"
Jose Mourinho saw Su Dong and his group from a distance and shouted to Mendes.
"Ha, Jose." Mendes immediately went up to him. "A war is imminent, and you still want to stay here?"
Mourinho raised his eyebrows and raised his chin confidently, "Who else knows Benfica better than me?"
The scout Abel Silva standing by was a little embarrassed but couldn't say anything.
Mendes smiled politely without commenting.
"If I'm not mistaken, you are Su?" Mourinho's eyes fell on Su Dong.
Among the four people in the group, Su Dong is the tallest and the most eye-catching.
"Hello, Mr. Mourinho, I am Su Dong." Su Dong took the initiative to extend his hand.
Su Dong still has great respect for this head coach who has the best coaching results in the Portuguese Super League this season.
Leiria itself is not a strong team. Before Mourinho took over as coach, their performance was pretty good, but they are currently ranked fourth in the league, which is definitely surprising. This shows Mourinho's coaching ability.
There are even media reports that Porto coach Machado's coaching results have not met expectations and he is likely to be sacked. Once Machado is sacked, he will be replaced by Leiria's young coach Mourinho.
This is the great man who is about to take over Porto.
Although he was a little excited in his heart, Su Dong remained calm on the surface.
To put it bluntly, whether Mourinho is great or not has little to do with him.
"Jorge, we haven't seen each other for a long time. After the game, let's sit down and have a drink?" Mourinho invited.
"Of course no problem." Mendes agreed readily.
"Su, do you want to join us?" Mourinho invited.
Su Dong looked at Mendes and nodded immediately, "Of course, thank you."
After agreeing on the meeting place, Mourinho said goodbye and walked into the visiting team's locker room.
…
"He stayed here on purpose to block us."
Walking up the stairs to the stands, Mendes whispered to Su Dong.
This surprised Su Dong, and he even felt flattered.
is it possible?
"Don't think too much. This doesn't mean they value you that much, because every team is very interested in making such a future investment. You are only seventeen years old. The cost of signing you at this time is very low, but as long as you can become a professional player, it will be hundreds of thousands or even millions of euros in revenue. What do you think?"
Mendes' words were like pouring a bucket of cold water on Su Dong's head.
To put it bluntly, it's all about interests.
"Leiria is only about a hundred kilometers away from Lisbon. It would be a lie to say that they haven't heard of you. Now it seems that they are also very interested in you, which is a good thing."
Su Dong understood what Mendes meant. The more teams were interested, the more popular the player would be, and the more bargaining chips he would have.
Of course, the prerequisite is to clearly know your own upper limit and the other party’s bottom line .
For example, with Su Dong's current strength, it is basically impossible to forcibly demand a place in the first team.
It was at this time that Su Dong felt the benefits of having an agent.
"Mourinho is very capable. I have been in contact with him for the past two years. He has been an assistant to Robson, Van Gaal and others in Porto and Barcelona. He coached Benfica before and achieved good results. But later, because of the Benfica presidential election, the chairman who supported him was sacked and the new chairman replaced him with Toni."
At this point, Mendes smiled at Su Dong and said, "This guy is vindictive. Benfica will suffer tonight."
…
…
It turns out that Mendes' guess was correct.
Benfica didn't just suffer a little, they suffered a lot.
Mourinho's team is indeed not as strong as Benfica, but this team responded with a 4-3-3 formation and ended up defending quite well. Although the players were not strong enough, their tactical execution was very good, which made Benfica, which already had problems with offense, very depressed.
On the contrary, Leiria, with two counterattacks, Brazilian player Dellei scored twice to help Leiria beat Benfica 2-0 away.
This made Abel Silva feel very embarrassed.
Originally, I invited Su Dong to watch the game because I wanted him to see the team win, but I didn't expect them to lose like this.
If it weren't for Leiria's inability to seize opportunities, this would have definitely been a disastrous defeat.
Combined with Mourinho's confident look in the player tunnel just now, it's really a bit...
Mendes laughed in his heart and raised his eyebrows at Su Dong, as if to say, see, was I right?
It was also the first time for Su Dong to see a game coached by Mourinho. It felt very smooth, without too many surprises and accidents. He completely restricted Benfica. Apart from a few dangerous situations created by Simao and a few passes by Thiago, the team did not give Benfica any chance throughout the game.
He is really a very capable head coach.
Su Dong thought to himself.
…
After the game, Su Dong and his group did not leave.
Mendes did not even hide it from Abel Silva and told him clearly that he wanted to stay and meet Mourinho. Abel Silva had no way to deal with it.
After waiting for about half an hour in a cafe next to the stadium and across the parking lot, Mourinho finally arrived.
He first apologized to everyone, and everyone was understanding. After all, as the head coach, he still had a lot of things to do after the game.
But no one expected that this vindictive Portuguese man turned around and looked at Su Dong as soon as he apologized.
"Su, if I were you, I would never consider joining Benfica."
