Chapter 4: All Crazy
The south gate of Edward VII Park faces Marquis of Pombal Square, which is the meeting point of five important traffic arteries in Lisbon and is also an important subway station.
Go around the circular square, pass two intersections, turn east onto Duke of Loreto Street, and walk another 600 meters to reach Don José's apartment.
This is the dormitory the team arranged for Ronnie.
I passed the access control and went straight upstairs to the dormitory door. Just as I was about to take the key, the door suddenly opened from the inside.
"Ah, Ronnie, why are you back now? You haven't been seen all day, where have you been?"
The speaker was a tall, strong, dark-skinned African-American boy.
His name is José Semedo and he is from Cape Verde.
"Nothing. I was bored, so I went to the park to practice." Ronnie replied calmly.
Semedo shrugged. Everyone in the team knew that Ronnie was a training maniac. He could even train in the gym until after two in the morning and was only driven away by the club security.
However, he is also a standout in the team’s youth training camp.
When the two passed each other, Ronnie smelled the strong scent of cologne on Semedo and frowned.
"Jose, where are you going?"
Semedo turned around, grinned, showing off his dazzling white teeth, and said, "Ugo said he wants to introduce some hot beauties to us. Are you interested in going with us?"
Now is the league suspension period, the youth training camp has no training, and they are free to move around.
Ronnie shook his head with an expression that said, "I knew it would be like this."
"Come on, Ronnie, you are the most handsome among us. Don't always think about that girl from Madeira. Now that you come to Lisbon, you should open your arms and accept new and better things, right?" Semedo advised.
Ronnie shook his head, "Go ahead, I'm not interested in this."
"That's because you haven't tasted its wonderful taste yet." Semedo "seduced".
Ronnie said nothing and walked straight into the dormitory.
He and Semedo are teammates in the youth training camp, and these are the only friends he has in the team.
Because both of them have Cape Verdean blood.
Ronnie's father's grandmother was from Cape Verde.
This makes them naturally close to each other, and they become friends and roommates, but that's all.
…
Semedo left, but the air in the dormitory was still filled with the strong scent of hormonal cologne.
Ronnie smiled helplessly, walked to the phone and dialed a familiar number.
"Hello, this is Pontes." As soon as the phone was connected, a familiar voice came from the other end.
"Hey, Lionel, I'm Ronnie." Ronnie greeted warmly.
"Oh my god, Ronnie, what on earth made you want to call me? God, I haven't heard your voice in ages."
Lionel Pontes was excited on the other end of the line.
Over the years, he has been bragging to everyone that Ronnie is the most talented and capable talent he has ever coached.
Moreover, the two are from the same place and can be considered as fellow villagers.
Ronnie is not a person who is very good at chatting with others, even when facing his fellow villager who has coached him in the youth team for four years.
He quickly changed the subject to the purpose of the call.
"It's like this, Lionel, you have a lot of experience in youth training. I have some training questions that I want to ask you. I hope you can help me."
"I'm afraid that won't work, Ronnie." Pontes on the other end of the phone said with some regret, "You know, I'm only good at training children aged 10-15. I've taught you all my skills before. I'm afraid I can't answer your question now. I suggest you ask Aurelio or Nuno ."
Aurelio Pereira is Ronnie's mentor and the team's youth training director.
Nuno Nare was Ronnie’s previous youth training coach, but he probably won’t be the coach in the new season.
"That's the question I want to ask about this age group." Ronnie was a little embarrassed.
"Oh, tell me about it."
"It's like this. If there is a 16 or 17-year-old player whose basic technical movements are not standard and regular, is there any way to correct them and help him improve?"
"Sixteen or seventeen years old?" Pontes on the other end of the phone shook his head in embarrassment. "That may be difficult, because it has become a habit and formed muscle memory. But Ronnie, your technical movements are quite standard. You don't need to worry about this problem."
"Lionel, I'm not talking about me, I'm talking about a friend of mine."
"That shouldn't be the case. Normally, if your skills are not up to standard, you won't be able to pass our team's assessment and enter the youth training camp."
"He's not on our team."
"Other teams?"
"Um."
"Your friend?"
"We just met today."
"Oh my God, you actually made new friends. This is absolutely unbelievable, but also a happy thing. You actually have friends, haha..."
Ronnie was embarrassed on the phone because he didn't think of himself as a loner.
At best, he just doesn't interact much with other teammates.
How can a person who practices hard all day have time to make friends?
"Let's get down to business, Lionel, is there any solution?"
"He has already missed the best age for developing his skills."
"I know you can find a way. This is your expertise, isn't it?"
"Well, there is a way, but it's really difficult because it takes a lot of effort to change a person's habits. Do you think he can do it?"
"I don't know." Ronnie shook his head. He had only known Su Dong for a day. "But he and I got along well. He is an avid football fan and trains like he's risking his life."
"same as you?"
"almost."
"There is still a chance," Pontes replied. "It can be corrected through training equipment and props, and the training needs to be slightly modified. I will think about it and send a copy of the information to your email tomorrow."
"Tomorrow?" Ronnie frowned. "Let's catch up tonight, okay? Thank you, Lionel, I'll treat you to dinner another day."
"Are you in a hurry?"
"Yes, I have an appointment for tomorrow morning."
"What time is it?"
"Five o'clock."
When answering, Ronnie's mind rang with Su Dong's words: Have you seen Lisbon at 5 am?
A slight smile appeared on his lips. I've seen it at two in the morning.
"Sure enough, they are just like you, both are crazy." Pontes said on the phone.
…
…
As a Virgo, Su Dong demands perfection from himself.
When he returned to the dormitory, took a shower and lay on the bed, he entered the Road to Football King System and first added the potential values of the four major attributes of technology, shooting, speed and strength to the full value of 99 points.
Later he found that he still had a lot of King of Football points left, so he made a concerted effort to increase the potential values of the two attributes of defense and steals to the maximum.
27,000 points of Football King Value were spent in one go, and Su Dong had almost spent all the Football King Value he had accumulated this afternoon.
However, looking at the personal attribute panel, with all potential values at 99 points, I felt much better.
Virgo men are so plain and boring.
In today's one-on-one duel with Ronnie, although my strength has improved slightly, the improvement is not huge.
Su Dong feels that he still needs to receive more professional youth training guidance in the future, especially some of his unprofessional technical movements and skills, which need to be corrected.
But don't underestimate this point.
Unprofessional technical movements and skills will not only affect the stability of performance, but also easily cause injuries.
Many people say that the reason why Ronaldo gets injured so frequently is related to his playing habits, especially his pendulum dribbling.
Many South American players are like this. To put it nicely, it is creativity or a casual flash of inspiration. To put it bluntly, their technical movements are not standardized and scientific, and everyone acts on impulse.
Of course, the players trained through the more standardized and scientific European youth training system appear to be somewhat mechanical and lack some spirituality.
These are too far away from Su Dong, he has not reached that level yet.
Now, he hopes to keep his feet on the ground and improve his ability as soon as possible.
At the very least, we have to work harder and strive to gain a foothold in the youth team of Sporting CP, even if it is just a youth training camp for a third-level team.
…
After practicing for a whole day, Su Dong was exhausted and fell asleep early.
The next morning, before five o'clock, he was woken up by the alarm clock.
After brushing his teeth, washing his face and changing his clothes, he ran all the way to the King Edward VII Park Stadium.
At the south gate of the park, he saw Ronnie walking towards him from the east from afar.
There was no one around, so the two of them easily saw each other and smiled at each other at the same time.
"What is this?" Su Dong saw that he was holding a lot of things in his hands.
"Agility ladder, obstacle cones, obstacle poles..." Ronnie introduced the equipment in his hand, "They are all used in the training later. This is the hellish devil training that I carefully prepared for you."
After saying that, Ronnie gave him a threatening look and said, "It's not too late for you to regret it now."
Su Dong snorted twice, without saying anything, he walked over, took the equipment , and walked straight into the park.
He knew very well that this was prepared by Ronnie to help him correct his technical movements.
Although the two had only known each other for one day, they had similar interests. Especially when Su Dong felt Ronnie's thoughtfulness, he felt warm in his heart.
This was the first warmth he felt since arriving in Portugal.
Ronnie didn't say much and followed Su Dong into the park.
He did all this purely because he admired Su Dong, a peer with a similar personality, and he didn't even think about asking for anything in return.
He simply treated Su Dong as a friend.
Isn't that what friends are supposed to do?
The two did not go to yesterday's three-person training ground, but went directly to the largest seven-person training ground.
"Let me tell you, I learned this training method from Lionel Pontes." While setting up the venue and placing the equipment, Ronnie introduced the origin of the method to Su Dong.
"You certainly don't know Lionel Pontes?"
"I tell you, he is the best youth training expert in Portugal, especially good at training players aged 10-15."
At this point, Ronnie paused, turned around, and laughed as he criticized Su Dong, "Your basic skills right now are probably equivalent to that of a 10-year-old child. You are still a long way from defeating me."
Su Dong knew it clearly, but he showed no weakness.
