The Vengeful Mourinho

Who was Portugal's number one giant?

That honor had always been disputed.

Benfica, Sporting Lisbon, and Porto all had their supporters, but overall, Sporting Lisbon was basically ranked last and had the weakest momentum, while Benfica had the broadest base of support and was even almost universally recognized as the traditional number one giant.

In terms of titles, Benfica had won thirty Portuguese top-flight league championships, as well as two Champions League titles. Both figures were unmatched in Portugal, second to none.

But the problem was that after winning their last top-flight title in 1994, Benfica had fallen into turmoil.

Porto was currently the recognized number one powerhouse in the Primeira Liga. In the seven years from 1994 to now, Porto had won five top-flight league titles, bringing their total to eighteen and surpassing Sporting Lisbon's seventeen.

Not only that, Porto had also won the European Cup in 1987.

Sporting Lisbon was also a traditional powerhouse and had won two top-flight titles in the past seven years, but whether in total championships or on the most prestigious Champions League stage, Sporting Lisbon was lacking quite a bit in honors.

So, in the fight for the title of number one giant, Sporting Lisbon's voice was the weakest. At present, it was basically a battle between Porto and Benfica—the former the new aristocrat, the latter the traditional powerhouse.

Su Dong walked into the trophy room at Estádio da Luz and saw a dazzling array of championship trophies. From this alone, one could easily see Benfica's heritage. Legendary stars and world-class names like Eusébio and Rui Costa had all come from this club.

Many talents, including Argentine Wind Son Caniggia and Czech Genius Poborsky, had once left their footprints here.

The one in charge of receiving them was the scout Abel Silva.

During this period, he had been the one keeping in contact with Su Dong and Mendes.

Although Sporting Portugal was Belenenses' partner club, Belenenses had been somewhat neglectful toward Su Dong at the start, which meant they lagged a little behind Benfica in many respects.

Of course, as a satellite club, when it really came time for a transfer, Belenenses still had an advantage.

An employee of the trophy room introduced Su Dong to the history of some important trophies, as well as the legendary players behind them.

As the tour was about to end, he said to Su Dong with great expectation, "I hope to see your name here one day."

It was a little clichéd, but one had to admit, it really did make people look forward to it.

This was Benfica, Portugal's most storied traditional giant.

After touring the trophy room, and while there was still some time before the match began, Abel Silva led Su Dong and the others to the home team's dressing room.

The current head coach of Benfica was the legendary player Toni.

If one were talking about his playing career, it had been quite brilliant. But when it came to coaching, he really was not that great.

He had twice coached Benfica before, once for only nine matches and once for only twelve. Of course, both times he had been brought in midway as a firefighter.

After that, he had gone on to coach Bordeaux in French Ligue 1 and Seville in La Liga, but his results had been very average as well. At Seville, he had been dismissed after only ten matches.

Even so, he had still become Benfica's head coach.

Toni had clearly known in advance that Su Dong and the others would come to visit, but with a major match imminent, his expression looked very grave. This was related to Benfica's less-than-ideal results this season, which had failed to meet outside expectations.

They had spent more than ten million Euro to buy back Simão and invested more than twenty million Euro in the transfer market. For a Primeira Liga club, this absolutely counted as a huge outlay. But so far, Benfica was only fifth in the league, still behind tonight's opponent, Leiria.

Toni merely maintained his manners, shook Su Dong's hand as a formality, and then sent him away.

After that, Su Dong met Benfica's long-famous number one star, Simão.

He was definitely a star with European-level ability and was also Benfica's strongest combat power at present.

"I've heard about you. You've been performing very well lately," Simão said, rather politely toward Su Dong.

Su Dong responded modestly, and while he was at it, took out the pen and paper he had prepared long ago and asked for an autograph and a photo.

Besides Simão, the Portuguese internationals Tiago and Maniche, who had performed well this season, were also on Su Dong's list for autographs and photos, along with the German goalkeeper Robert Enke.

The German goalkeeper had performed extremely well this season and had already attracted attention from giant clubs including Barcelona and Manchester United. It was believed that joining a giant club was only a matter of time.

After making a round through the dressing room, Su Dong obtained several autographs and photos, made himself familiar in front of Benfica's first-team players, and could be considered to have achieved the purpose of this trip.

But as they walked out of the home team's dressing room and prepared to head upstairs to the fans' stands, they ran into Leiria's head coach outside the away team's dressing room—the Portuguese man Jose Mourinho.

"Hey, Jorge, what are you doing here?"

Jose Mourinho spotted Su Dong's group from afar and called out to Mendes.

"Ha, Jose." Mendes immediately went up to him. "A big match is about to start, and you still have the mind to hang around here?"

Mourinho raised his eyebrows and lifted his chin confidently. "Who knows and understands Benfica better than I do?"

The scout Abel Silva, standing to the side, looked a little embarrassed, but there was nothing he could say.

Mendes simply smiled politely without committing himself.

"If I'm not mistaken, you're Su?" Mourinho's gaze landed on Su Dong.

Among the group of four, Su Dong was the tallest and the most eye-catching.

"Hello, Mr. Mourinho. I'm Su Dong." Su Dong took the initiative to extend his hand.

Su Dong still respected this head coach very much, as he had the best coaching record in the Primeira Liga this season.

Leiria itself was not a strong team. Before Mourinho took over, their results had been decent, but for them to currently sit high in fourth place in the league was absolutely surprising. Mourinho's coaching ability was clear to see.

There were even media reports claiming that Porto head coach Machado's results had fallen short of expectations and that he might very well be dismissed. And if Machado was dismissed, the one to replace him would be Leiria's young coach Mourinho.

This was a formidable figure who was about to take over Porto.

Though Su Dong felt somewhat excited, on the surface he remained perfectly calm.

When it came down to it, whether Mourinho was amazing or not did not have much to do with him.

"Jorge, it's been a long time. After the match, shall we sit down and have a drink?" Mourinho invited him.

"Of course, no problem," Mendes agreed readily.

"Su, would you like to join us?" Mourinho asked.

Su Dong glanced at Mendes, then immediately nodded. "Of course. Thank you."

After they agreed on a meeting place, Mourinho said goodbye and left, walking into the away team's dressing room.

"He deliberately stayed behind to catch us."

As they walked up the stairs to the stands, Mendes said quietly to Su Dong.

That really surprised Su Dong, and even made him feel a little flattered.

Was that possible?

"Don't overthink it. This doesn't mean they value you that much, because every team is very interested in making this kind of investment for the future. You're only seventeen. Signing you now would cost very, very little, but as long as you can become a professional player, that would mean returns of hundreds of thousands, even over a million Euros. What do you think?"

Mendes's words were like a bucket of cold water poured over Su Dong's head.

In the end, it was all driven by profit.

"Leiria is only a little over a hundred kilometers from Lisbon. If they said they'd never heard of you, that would definitely be a lie. From the looks of it now, they're also very interested in you. That's a good thing."

Su Dong understood what Mendes meant. The more teams were interested, the more sought-after the player was, and the more leverage they would have in negotiations.

Of course, the premise was that they had to clearly understand his own ceiling, as well as where the other side's bottom line lay.

For example, with Su Dong's current ability, if he insisted on demanding a first-team spot, that was basically impossible.

It was only at this moment that Su Dong felt the benefits of having an agent.

"Mourinho is very capable. I've been in contact with him these past two years. He once served as an assistant to Robson, Van Gaal, and others at Porto and Barcelona. Before this, he coached Benfica, and his results were very good, but later, because of Benfica's presidential election, the president who supported him stepped down, and the new president replaced him with Toni."

At this point, Mendes smiled at Su Dong. "That guy holds grudges over the smallest slight. Benfica is going to suffer a little tonight."

Facts proved that Mendes's guess was right.

Benfica did not just suffer a little; they suffered thoroughly.

Mourinho's team was indeed not as strong as Benfica in terms of ability, but this team responded with a 4-3-3, and their defense was extremely well organized. The players were not as strong, but their tactical execution was right on point, which left Benfica, who already had problems in attack, feeling very frustrated.

On the contrary, Leiria relied on two counterattacks, with the Brazilian player Derlei scoring a brace to help Leiria defeat Benfica 2-0 away from home.

That left Abel Silva feeling very embarrassed.

He had invited Su Dong to watch the match live because he wanted him to see a victory for the team, but he had never expected them to lose like this.

If Leiria had not lacked the ability to take their chances, this definitely would have been a crushing defeat.

And when combined with Mourinho's confident manner back in the players' tunnel, it really was a little...

Mendes, on the other hand, was secretly laughing to himself. He raised his brows at Su Dong, as if to say, See? Didn't I tell you?

This was also the first time Su Dong had watched a match coached by Mourinho. It felt very steady, without too many surprises or accidents. He had completely restricted Benfica. Apart from Simão creating a few dangerous situations and Tiago making a few passes, Benfica had not been given the slightest chance throughout the match.

He really was a very capable head coach.

Su Dong thought to himself.

After the match ended, Su Dong and the others did not leave right away.

Mendes did not even hide it from Abel Silva. He laid his cards on the table and told him plainly that he was staying behind to meet Mourinho. There was nothing Abel Silva could do about it.

They waited for about half an hour in the café beside the stadium, across from the parking lot, before Mourinho finally arrived late.

He first apologized to everyone, and they all understood. After all, as the head coach, he still had many things to handle after the match.

But no one had expected that this grudge-bearing Portuguese man would turn to look at Su Dong immediately after finishing his apology.

"Su, if I were you, I definitely wouldn't consider joining Benfica."