My Name Is Mendes

Weekend, Tapadinha Stadium.

In the fourth round of the Portuguese Second Division South Group, Sporting Portugal played host to the formidable Olhanense.

This team came from the southern port city of Ollão, part of Faro District along with Faro and Loule. Like the deep-pocketed Loule, it was also a strong professional side aiming for promotion to the Portuguese League.

But unlike Loule, Olhanense had an outstanding youth setup and had established satellite-club relationships with Porto, Benfica, and Sporting Lisbon at the same time, which allowed them to receive strong support from the three top teams.

Unlike Loule, who chased promotion year after year, Olhanense had always been a Portuguese League team and had only been relegated last summer.

Against such a strong opponent, Sporting Portugal had few solutions.

They conceded two goals in succession in the first half and were extremely passive on the pitch. Then, as soon as the second half began, the opponents breached their goal again.

Three-nil. Sporting Portugal did not even have the ability to fight back.

This was also the match that had left the deepest impression on Su Dong so far, the match with the most lopsided gap in strength.

Sporting Portugal was like a soft persimmon, left for the opponent to squeeze and knead at will.

Even Matello, the goalkeeper who had been steady through the first three rounds, was helpless this time.

Head coach Pereira substituted Su Dong on in the sixty-fifth minute of the second half.

Su Dong's appearance off the bench did not change the enormous gap in strength between the two sides.

But in the seventy-third minute, he gave the opponents a huge fright, and at the same time made everyone at the scene unable to help applauding him.

It was a pass from midfielder Canelas, sent directly behind Olhanense's two center backs.

Su Dong had been behind the opposing center backs, but he suddenly started his run, arriving first despite moving later. With greater speed, he darted between the two center backs and got to the pass first inside the penalty area, bringing it under control. After using his body to lean into the opposing center back, he swung his right foot and unleashed a furious shot.

The shot came fast and suddenly, but the opposing goalkeeper threw himself sideways and blocked the ball out with one hand.

A brilliant late burst and fierce shot, and a brilliant flying save.

After Olhanense's goalkeeper climbed up from the ground, he bellowed at his two center-back teammates. Clearly, Su Dong's ferocious shot just now had created quite a dangerous situation for him, almost resulting in a goal.

"Did you get that just now?"

Benfica scout Abel Silva asked the colleague beside him with concern. The latter was holding a small video camera.

"I got it. Almost missed it. His acceleration was really fast."

Abel Silva nodded. Wasn't that the truth?

Looking at his height, he should have been over 1.5 meters. His build did not look particularly strong, but the fact that he could use his body to hold off the opposing center back proved his strength was decent too. The key was his speed and explosiveness.

To have that kind of height and that kind of speed was very rare.

More importantly, from the few times he had received and passed the ball, he was very concise, and his footwork was quite good as well.

Skill, speed, and physicality—such a center forward was even rarer.

"Sporting Portugal has unearthed a treasure!" Abel Silva praised.

In the closing stages of the match, he seized another opportunity.

This time it was a diagonal pass from the left. With his back to the direction of attack, Su Dong used his speed to force his way free of the opposing center back.

Olhanense's center back used both hands and feet all the way, trying to pull Su Dong back, but in the end he failed to get his wish.

However, Su Dong had also been delayed past the best moment. After receiving the ball, another center back was already blocking his path.

Caught between attacks from front and back, Su Dong did not shrink from the challenge. After a sudden stop, he abruptly accelerated, stubbornly using his speed to carry the ball past the opposing center back. From outside the top of the penalty arc, he once again blasted a shot with his right foot, sending out a powerful long-range effort.

But this shot was clearly less threatening than the fierce strike inside the penalty area earlier, and the opposing goalkeeper caught it directly in his arms.

Although he did not score, Su Dong's attack once again won applause from the crowd.

Sporting Portugal's fans naturally saw it clearly as well. After Su Dong came on, his two consecutive shots could both be called Sporting Portugal's most threatening efforts of the match.

Aside from that, Sporting had been passive the entire game.

"That's Su Dong!"

In the main stand of the stadium, among Sporting Portugal's fans, a middle-aged Portuguese man in a suit and leather shoes was looking at Su Dong on the pitch as he walked back with a look of disappointment, a smile of approval on his face.

"For a seventeen-year-old player, he really does have ability," a friend beside him, dressed in casual clothes, said with a smile and a nod.

The middle-aged Portuguese man's eyes remained fixed on Su Dong. "Do you think Rony's claims are worth believing?"

"Hard to say. It does sound a little exaggerated. In less than three short months of hard training, he went from an amateur-level rookie to having the strength of a starter on a semi-professional team. I have to say, his improvement really is astonishing."

"He scored three goals in the previous two matches. That's a fact. Although he didn't score today, against a stronger Olhanense side, being able to produce those two shots shows he isn't weak. His playing style is very much like Batistuta, the God of War."

"So..." The middle-aged Portuguese man looked at his friend in confusion.

"Maybe Rony was right. He's a buried genius, and Sporting Portugal just happened to dig him out."

"Less than three months, and his strength has advanced by leaps and bounds. That really does make one look forward to what comes next." The middle-aged Portuguese man chuckled.

Seeing that the match was about to start, he let out a heavy breath.

Having grown used to watching top-level Primeira Liga matches, watching a lower-tier league with such poor technical quality was torture for anyone. It was frustrating just to look at, because there were simply too many mistakes in passing and receiving.

"Let's go. The match is over. We'll go talk to him."

The match ultimately ended with Sporting Portugal suffering a crushing 0–3 home defeat.

Su Dong, who had scored in two consecutive rounds, failed to find the net this time, but his two shots still left a deep impression. The fans at the stadium were also satisfied with his performance.

In the end, the heavy loss came down to Sporting Portugal's overall strength being far inferior to their opponent's.

This was Su Dong's first defeat in an official match, so it was inevitable that he felt a little down.

Especially since things had gone fairly smoothly for him recently, only for him to be tightly marked by the opponent in this match and unable to play to his usual level. It was only natural that he felt awful.

He returned to the locker room with his teammates, showered, changed, then tied the sandbags he had taken off before the match back on before finally walking out.

By then, Tapadinha Stadium had long since emptied out.

"Hello, Su. Could you spare me a little time for a chat?"

A strange voice suddenly came from behind him.

Su Dong turned around and saw two middle-aged Portuguese men catching up from behind.

One was slightly shorter, about 1.7 meters tall, dressed in a suit and leather shoes, looking very much like one of those corporate executives who worked at big companies downtown. The other was wearing sportswear, dressed much more casually.

"You are..." Su Dong frowned.

"My name is Jorge Mendes. I'm an agent registered with both the Portuguese Football Federation and FIFA," the middle-aged man in the suit introduced himself with a smile. After speaking, he deliberately gestured toward the friend beside him.

"This is my partner, Jorge Manuel."

Su Dong's frown still did not ease, because he did not know either of them.

Mendes sensed Su Dong's wariness and understood at once. Smiling, he added, "We're friends of Rony."

Now Su Dong understood.

Rony had said before that he wanted to change agents, but he had not told him who it was. It was likely these two men in front of him.

"Hello, Mr. Mendes." Su Dong took the initiative to extend his hand.

Mendes quickly shook it and invited him with a smile, "My car is over there. Shall we find somewhere quiet to talk?"

"Of course."

The three of them went to the parking lot opposite the stadium to get the car, then drove toward Belem Tower.

Jorge Manuel was in charge of driving, while Jorge Mendes sat in the back row with Su Dong. Along the way, he took the initiative to talk to him about his career.

In Portuguese football today, Mendes did not count as some big shot.

Previously, he had mostly served as the partner of the famous Brazilian agent Figel. That was the nicer way to put it. Put less nicely, he was mostly just helping Figel run errands and handle business.

Everyone knew that the Primeira Liga was a popular landing point for Brazilian players entering Europe. As one of the top agents in world football, Figel sent large numbers of Brazilian and South American players to the Primeira Liga every year. At times like that, he needed people to help him handle some business while also providing all kinds of services to the players.

Mendes was one of them.

But now, he had begun trying to break away from Figel and strike out on his own.

His first target was Sporting Lisbon, because this club's youth academy had produced a high rate of talent lately, and the players were of quite good quality. Besides first-team genius stars such as Quaresma and Edgar Marcelino, youth-team players like Cristiano Ronaldo, Hugo Viana, and Jose Fonte were also quite good.

Although this was only Su Dong's first meeting with Mendes, the Portuguese agent left him with a very good impression. From his words, Su Dong could also vaguely guess the blueprint the other man was sketching out.

For established stars like Figo, Simão, and Quaresma, Mendes simply had no ability to compete with Jose Veiga, so he adopted another approach: poaching young players whom Jose Veiga could not yet be bothered with, but who had great potential. He wanted to use this group of players to open up a breakthrough.

"I'm not afraid to be frank with you. I've already signed Hugo Viana, and I'm currently actively connecting with clubs in the Premier League. I have partners over there as well. What I want to do right now is help Viana enter the first team, ideally get into matches and produce good performances. Then I'll have a way to move him to the Premier League."

"Not only the Premier League. In Serie A, La Liga, and the Bundesliga, I also have very good partners. As long as a player has the ability, I can move him to any club in the top leagues."

When Mendes said this, his expression was incomparably confident and very convincing.