Cannot Delay Any Further

After seeing Shevchenko's strength with their own eyes, Su Dong and Rony both became even more motivated.

Every day, apart from training with their respective teams, the two of them spent basically all their remaining time grinding hard at Edward VII Park Stadium.

With Bull, whose recovery speed was astonishing, helping him, Su Dong showed no mercy when farming King of Football Points.

It was worth mentioning that after leveling up to Ball Three, combined with the effect of the achievement [Rock Solid], every duel between Su Dong and Rony brought him 500 King of Football Points. That made his efficiency in farming King of Football Points truly rock-solid.

Of course, considering the more than one million King of Football Points needed to level up, the 1,000 King of Football Points consumed for every single point of potential raised, plus his daily expenses, Su Dong was still relatively cautious in how he used his King of Football Points and did not dare spend too extravagantly.

And after leveling up to Ball Three, his potential did not rise slowly, but the speed at which his actual strength improved had slowed.

This was also reminding Su Dong that he needed to take on more intense challenges.

For example, participating in higher-level matches and receiving higher-level training.

As for his transfer, Su Dong left it entirely to Mendes to handle.

The Portuguese agent's current career focus was in Lisbon. He devoted himself entirely to planning for Su Dong, reporting the latest developments to him from time to time, as well as some of his personal thoughts and judgments, while Su Dong would also tell him some of his own ideas.

Setting aside all the turmoil surrounding the transfer, Su Dong poured all his attention into training and matches.

In the two remaining matches in December, the opponents were not very strong, and he scored three goals.

In one match, he scored a brace. In the other, he scored his team's only goal in a 2–1 away defeat.

After these two matches were played, the Portuguese league also temporarily came to a halt, ushering in a two-week Winter Break and Christmas.

And at this point, Su Dong's transfer became even more confusing.

Vieira sat in his office at Estádio da Luz, staring at the monitor in front of him with tightly furrowed brows.

News websites were full of reports about Machado being dismissed. In the end, he had still failed to make it through this cold winter.

As the outside world had speculated, the young manager Mourinho had indeed headed north to Porto.

This was not good news for Benfica.

The current Portuguese Super League standings were very tight among Sporting Lisbon, Boavista, Porto, and Benfica. Among them, Benfica were ranked the lowest, but if they wanted to qualify for European competition, Benfica had to step over Porto, or the two teams ahead of them.

Now, Porto had changed managers, and Mourinho would bring even more uncertainty.

Just as Vieira was suffering from a pounding headache, there was a knock on the office door.

"Come in."

Scout Abel Silva walked in with an anxious expression and went straight to the desk. "We just got news that Mendes went to Alcochete yesterday."

"Alcochete?" Vieira's brows drew even tighter.

As early as two years ago, Sporting Lisbon had bought a plot of land in the suburban town of Alcochete and begun building a new training base. They had invested a considerable sum into it, which had left the club spending more than it earned over the past few years, forcing it to keep producing young players.

"What was he doing in Alcochete?" Vieira asked with concern.

Abel Silva shook his head. Clearly, he knew nothing about that.

"He's the agent of Hugo Viana and Cristiano Ronaldo. Logically speaking, it's perfectly normal for him to go to Alcochete, but going at such a sensitive time... could Sporting Lisbon be..."

In the battle for Su Dong, Benfica were at the very front. Belenenses, as Sporting Portugal's parent club, also held an extremely obvious advantage. As for the other teams, such as Leiria and Setúbal, they all lacked competitiveness in front of the two Lisbon clubs.

When Mourinho was at Leiria, he had been very interested in Su Dong, and Porto had also once arranged for scouts to observe Su Dong. But for now, Porto's top priority was changing managers. Bringing in Su Dong was not their most urgent need.

What was strange, however, was that Sporting Lisbon, also a Lisbon team, had remained completely silent all along.

That in itself was already very suspicious.

Now that Mendes had suddenly visited Alcochete, one had to admit it was highly suspicious. Was Sporting Lisbon also about to make a move for Su Dong?

"That guy Mendes is too hard to deal with!" Vieira said with a pained expression.

Mendes's approach made it clear that he wanted to wait for the highest bidder and fight for the greatest benefits for Su Dong.

Perhaps he did not care about money. What he wanted more was the club's plans and promises in areas such as player development.

But that was precisely the most troublesome part.

If it were only about money, then with Su Dong's current influence, at most they would give him two thousand Euro a month. Whether it was Benfica or Belenenses, neither would care about that bit of salary.

But if he wanted better development, that would be very difficult.

"Call him again. Tell him he must give us an answer before Christmas."

Vieira had already lost patience.

He did not want to drag this out any longer.

When Mendes received Abel Silva's call, he was in the office of Belenenses technical director Jorge Carlos. He even deliberately took Abel's call right in front of the other man.

On the phone, the agent still showed off that silver tongue of his, the one that could talk the dead back to life, and continued to adopt a vague delaying tactic, leaving Abel, who wanted to force him to state his position, with no choice but to hang up.

This left Carlos, sitting opposite him, utterly speechless.

He had thick skin, a silver tongue, and most importantly, he knew how to work a room.

Mendes was the sort of person you hated so much in private your teeth ached, yet when you met him face-to-face, you had no choice but to greet him with a smile and see him off politely.

Especially after seeing Mendes hang up the phone and look at him with a victor's smile, Carlos almost wanted to hit him.

"I heard you went to Alcochete yesterday?" Carlos asked bluntly.

"Yes." Mendes was still smiling, and he did not hide it.

"About Su Dong?"

"Yes."

Mendes's frankness surprised Carlos somewhat, but on second thought, there was nothing much to say about it.

"Two or three months ago, even Vega probably never imagined you'd be able to run him ragged like this now." Carlos changed the subject.

Mendes merely nodded calmly, unmoved by praise or blame.

Among Sporting Lisbon's hottest young prospects, Hugo Viana was now no worse than Quaresma, but he had switched early to Mendes's camp, and Cristiano Ronaldo had also moved under Mendes.

Not only that, this foxlike, cunning fellow was also desperately trying to poach Quaresma and Marcelino. It looked as if he intended to dig out Vega's foundations completely.

It was said that Vega was already so furious he was practically smoking from every orifice, and had declared that sooner or later he would teach Mendes a lesson.

In just two or three short months, the situation had changed dramatically. Who could have expected it?

Of course, Vega himself was also to blame for what lay behind it.

Over the past few years, his business had grown larger and larger, almost monopolizing the path for Portugal players to go abroad to play football. But because of that, Vega's attitude toward players and domestic clubs had become increasingly forceful, and he had even faintly begun to regard himself as the godfather of Portugal football.

Brazil had a godfather called Figel, but Portugal's teams were clearly unwilling to have such a domineering godfather of their own.

"I received some news. I heard you're very interested in Carlos Fernandes of Farense?"

Mendes's sudden words startled Carlos.

This actually could not be considered much of a secret. Anyone who had some understanding of Portugal's transfer market knew it. What truly shocked Carlos was why Mendes had suddenly brought it up.

"And Henrique Anjoes of Leixões. He also plays in the third tier. Anjoes's scoring efficiency isn't as good as Su Dong's, but it's indeed quite good, especially his speed. You're trying to snatch food from Porto's mouth."

Belenenses' biggest problem this season was that the team's attacking ability was decent, even stronger than Boavista's, but their defense was far too poor. Among those issues, the defense on the left flank was a very serious problem.

Carlos Fernandes played for Farense, who were in the Primeira Liga relegation zone, and was one of the best-performing left backs in the Primeira Liga this season. At the same time, he was also capable of playing left center back.

"Jorge, just say it." Carlos realized Mendes was hinting at something.

Mendes smiled and nodded. "I went to Alcochete yesterday. To be honest, Sporting Lisbon are very interested in Su Dong."

"Mm." Carlos was not surprised.

"As you know, Carlos Fernandes came from Sporting Lisbon's youth academy. He was loaned out for three consecutive years before transferring to Farense last summer. But in the contract, Sporting Lisbon have a priority buy-back clause within two years."

Carlos's hand visibly trembled. He truly had not known about that clause.

"Aurelio Pereira's meaning is that Boloni doesn't want Carlos Fernandes, but they think very highly of Su Dong."

When Mendes said this, he raised a pair of cunning eyes and looked at Carlos with a beaming smile.

"You have the right of first refusal on Su Dong, while Sporting Lisbon have the priority buy-back right for Carlos Fernandes. Aurelio's meaning is that if you voluntarily give up your right of first refusal on Su Dong and let him join Sporting Lisbon, then they will also give up their priority buy-back right on Carlos Fernandes and let you negotiate directly with Farense."

When Carlos heard this, he sank deep into thought.

"Besides that, you should know that my relationship with Porto is quite good. Leixões are Porto's satellite club. I can help you settle Henrique Anjoes."

If there had still been some hesitation just now, then now, Carlos was basically tempted.

Leixões was a port city near Porto and had always had close ties with Porto. Twenty-two-year-old Henrique Anjoes had performed well, and Porto might not necessarily be uninterested.

If it was really as Mendes said, giving up priority on Su Dong in exchange for priority on Carlos Fernandes and Henrique Anjoes, then it was definitely a very worthwhile deal.

"Can you guarantee Su Dong will transfer to Sporting Lisbon?" Carlos asked with concern.

This was the premise of their cooperation.

"Sporting Lisbon will show sincerity in persuading him. If he doesn't transfer to Sporting Lisbon, you can step in at any time. By the same logic, whether you can persuade Fernandes and Anjoes to transfer will depend on your own ability."

When Carlos heard this, he had already made his decision.

In his eyes, Su Dong was merely the future, but these two players were the present.

Brothers, let your tips and recommendation votes come down even harder! Many thanks!