Figo II

Before training, Matello took Su Dong to the team doctor's room for a simple physical examination.

It was supposed to be routine, but Su Dong was surprised when they measured his height.

When he had first joined the team, he had measured 1.83 meters. This time, however, he had grown a little, reaching 1.86 meters. It caught Su Dong off guard.

"You're only sixteen, right in the middle of growing. Eat a little more, and I'm sure you'll break 1.9 meters." The team doctor smiled encouragingly.

A professional footballer's physique was important. Strength and muscle could be built through training, but height could not.

Even on the Iberian Peninsula, where technical skill was highly valued, physical condition was an important selection criterion in the youth systems of Portugal and Spain. Every year, many young players were released because they failed to meet the height requirements.

Sporting Portugal had a twenty-two-year-old player whose physical condition had been deemed inadequate and who had been thrown out by Benfica.

Su Dong was a little worried. If he continued growing taller, would it affect his speed and agility?

Of course, it was not absolute.

First Team training was different from Youth Team training. The intensity was greater, and the content was more compact.

Although it was only a semi-professional team, training still lasted the standard ninety minutes.

It was the same as a football match. The purpose was to form a habit, allowing the players to stay focused for as much of the ninety minutes as possible.

Some coaches preferred one hundred and twenty minutes instead. It depended on the head coach's preference.

Sporting Portugal's head coach was a middle-aged man in his fifties named Antonio Pereira. Supposedly, he had no professional football background, and Sporting Portugal was the first team he had ever coached.

There was a saying within the team that in two years, Matello would replace Pereira as head coach.

Such things were perfectly normal.

Su Dong was currently at the lower-middle level among semi-professional players. He had no problem keeping up with First Team training, and in his view, some of the team's substitutes were even worse than him.

But during the team-splitting drills that followed, Su Dong exposed quite a few problems.

The first was his physical strength.

The lower the league level, the more intense the physical challenges became, and the rougher the play was.

Su Dong was physically weak to begin with. It was only natural that sixteen-year-old him would suffer when facing adults.

Another issue was that he was new. His teammates had all gone through a relatively complete preseason, and some had even played for the team for several years. They had better chemistry with one another, while Su Dong seemed somewhat out of place on the field.

These two factors caused Su Dong to perform poorly in his first training session. Even he felt somewhat disappointed.

Instead, captain Matello came over to comfort him immediately after training.

"It's all right. Everyone is like this at the beginning. Every newcomer needs some time to adapt to a new environment. Take it slowly. We all have faith in you." The captain patted Su Dong on the shoulder encouragingly.

Su Dong nodded silently. He understood the reasoning, but he still felt awful.

"The coaching staff has arranged special training for you. Starting today, you'll stay behind and train for an extra hour. I'll be in charge."

Su Dong could not have asked for more. He asked with concern, "What will we work on?"

"Shooting, receiving with your back to goal, meeting crosses from the wings, and so on. Basically, you'll train everything a striker needs to train." After Matello finished speaking, he seemed afraid that Su Dong might resist and added, "Trust me. These exercises will definitely help you."

Su Dong smiled faintly. Having someone train with him was equivalent to helping him farm King of Football Points. This was a good thing.

After a ninety-minute training session, Su Dong had accumulated more than five hundred King of Football Points. It was rather insignificant, and the efficiency was far lower than during his duels with Rony.

The extra training that followed only gave him thirty King of Football Points per duel, which was equally unimpressive.

Still, even a tiny mosquito was meat.

Drops of water could wear away stone, and grains of sand could build a tower. Su Dong was not picky.

At first, Matello had worried that Su Dong would be like the other young players—fond of playing around and resistant to extra training. Even after Su Dong agreed, he feared the boy was only humoring him. But once the extra training began, he discovered that Su Dong was truly giving it his all.

After realizing this, Matello taught him even more seriously.

Taking a cross from the wing and shooting directly looked easy during a televised match, but in reality, it was extremely difficult.

Su Dong had not yet reached that level. He needed to control the ball before shooting.

Even so, it placed a great demand on his first touch, especially when facing the highly experienced captain Matello.

This man had not the slightest bit of fame in Portuguese football. The fans of Belenenses had probably long forgotten this Youth Team player, who had made only nine appearances. Yet when defending Su Dong at close range, he always shut him down completely.

"Your movements are too obvious. They're too easy to read."

"That won't do. You haven't even started your shooting motion, and the opposing goalkeeper already knows which way you're going to shoot."

"Also, there's no defender right now. If a defender works together with the goalkeeper, you won't even have a chance to get your shot away."

"Professional teams and youth teams are completely different worlds. Even though we're only in the third tier, our opponents still can't be underestimated. Some players are fully capable of playing at the Portuguese League level, or even the Portuguese Super League."

Although he was a goalkeeper, Matello had come through a professional club's formal Youth Team system. He was highly experienced and was also studying coaching, so he specifically guided Su Dong's shooting technique.

When to use what kind of shooting technique against what kind of pass was a discipline in itself.

Especially on the pitch, opportunities vanished in an instant. A striker had no time to think and had to react on instinct.

Besides that, as a goalkeeper, Matello also told Su Dong about goalkeepers' mentality and habits. He even told him about the characteristics of some strikers he had faced before.

All of this was fresh and immensely beneficial to Su Dong, who had just emerged and was only beginning to experience adult football.

In central Lisbon, there was a famous seafood restaurant with a world-famous name: Romario.

But make no mistake—this had absolutely nothing to do with the Brazilian superstar Romario.

The restaurant was renowned far and wide. Not only did Lisbon's locals flock to it, but tourists also came from all over after hearing of its reputation.

Su Dong invited Rony and Jose Semedo to dinner there.

Bread Crab and Tiger Prawn were the restaurant's signature dishes. They ordered one serving for each person, along with some specialty snacks. Everything was seasonal seafood caught that very day, especially fresh and delicious.

Naturally, the price was not cheap.

The three of them ate their fill, and the bill came to seventy-one euros.

"If you weren't treating, I wouldn't have come to a place like this to eat even if you beat me to death," Jose Semedo said, clicking his tongue.

He had also come from the bottom rung of society. His entire family was counting on him to become a professional footballer, preferably in the Portuguese Super League, so that he could help his family escape poverty.

Su Dong did not take the money too seriously. It was not that he spent recklessly; he simply valued his friendship with Rony and Semedo more. After all, his most important task right now was improving his own strength.

Those two were his cheat codes for farming King of Football Points.

"After you treated me to a meal, I should give you something in return." Rony grinned as he pulled three football tickets from his pocket and waved them in front of Su Dong. "These were incredibly hard to get. Tickets to this weekend's Portuguese Super League opener. Want to go?"

"Of course." Su Dong did not even need to think.

It was the Portuguese Super League opener, a major clash between Sporting Lisbon at home and Porto.

During afternoon training, the players from Sporting Portugal had still been complaining that tickets were impossible to find and scalpers were raising their prices.

Jose Semedo naturally wanted to go as well. It was such a rare opportunity.

"I heard Quaresma has been performing well with the First Team. Mbo Mpenza is going to be sent away. Do you think Quaresma will play?" Semedo asked.

Rony's expression immediately darkened when he heard the name Quaresma. He curled his lips. "Who knows?"

Semedo grinned at Su Dong and explained, "He and Quaresma are mortal enemies. The two of them, along with someone called Edgar Marcelino, all claim to be the strongest players in Sporting Lisbon's Youth Team."

Su Dong had heard of Quaresma in the newspapers. The media described him as Portugal's finest talent under twenty, and many people said he was Figo II.

He had never expected Rony to be competing with Quaresma. That was indeed impressive.

"I'm telling you, he's only two years older than me. Once I'm a little older, I'll definitely crush him," Rony said indignantly.

He was clearly unhappy that Quaresma had entered the First Team before him.

Jose Semedo reminded him with a grin, "Actually, he's only a year, three months, and a few days older than you."

"Get lost!" Rony chased after him, ready to hit him.

Semedo naturally would not sit around waiting to be beaten. He had already sprinted away, calling back from a distance that he had a date with a pretty girl at Parque das Nações and had to leave first.

After watching Semedo disappear, Rony shook his head with a smile and said to Su Dong, "Actually, he's a very good friend, and he's talented too. He's just too lazy."

Su Dong did not know Semedo well, but after meeting him a few times, he had indeed found him somewhat lazy.

"He's actually very talented. He joined Sporting Lisbon at the same time as me, so we were teammates. But not long afterward, he was released because of his poor training performance. It took him more than a year to come back, and he's still the same."

At this point, Rony snorted and chuckled. "He must have made plans with Hugo Pina. That kid is from Belém in Lisbon and holds Sporting Lisbon's transfer-fee record for players under sixteen—three hundred thousand euros. He used to be the brightest player on our team, but now..."

There was no need to say more. Not only had Quaresma and Marcelino entered the First Team, even Rony had left him far behind.

"During all these years at Sporting Lisbon, I learned one thing: the greatest talent doesn't necessarily become the best player. Football is fair. As long as you're willing to work hard and fight, it will definitely reward you."

Rony suddenly gave him such a profound speech that Su Dong was left blinking in surprise. It felt somewhat unfamiliar.

But soon, the familiar Rony returned.

"That's why I'm so certain that I'll definitely defeat Quaresma."

At that moment, the Madeira Island youngster's eyes were filled with absolute determination.

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