This is a Sad Story

Perhaps because he had just been to the reserve team's rest area, Su Dong's impression of the first team's locker room felt especially strong.

It was stifling.

The reserve team's rest area had been as lively as a nightclub, the players gathering in little groups of three or five, chatting about all kinds of topics. When Jose Semedo and the others got going, they would even let out those wicked, almost demonic laughs.

But none of that could be seen in the first team's locker room.

Everyone sat in front of his own locker, packing up his things, or sat there listening through headphones, or did nothing at all, eyes closed to rest. Some simply looked left and right, watching the others.

The only thing was, no one spoke.

It felt especially strange, as if these people were not a team at all, but strangers who did not know one another.

It was Su Dong's first time stepping into this locker room. To him, every one of these players seemed lofty and unreachable, and his heart was filled with excitement, though he inevitably felt a little nervous too. Seeing that no one else was speaking, he said nothing either and moved closer to Rony.

Once he drew near, he discovered that the boy from Madeira Island was not doing much better either. He was just as nervous.

The two boys, both new arrivals and equally nervous to the point of not knowing what to do with themselves, looked at each other, then broke into wry smiles at the same time.

"Hey, Rony."

At last, someone broke the silence, walking over and greeting Rony in a soft voice.

"Hey, Hugo." After high-fiving him, Rony bumped shoulders with him. "This is our new teammate, Su Dong."

"Su, this is Hugo Viana."

Of course Su Dong had heard of him. He was currently the most promising player under Mendes, and also the talented midfielder Mendes valued most right now. Known as Rui Costa II, he had started overtaking on the bend in October, surpassing Quaresma to become Sporting Lisbon's number one talent.

Perhaps because they were all players under Mendes, Hugo Viana was also very friendly toward Su Dong. After a high-five and a shoulder bump, he sat down between Su Dong and Rony.

"Why isn't anyone talking?" Su Dong asked, a little puzzled.

Hugo Viana smiled. "It's always been like this. Slowly, you'll get used to it."

After a pause, seeing the confused expressions on Su Dong's and Rony's faces, Hugo Viana smiled and explained a little more.

"The youth team and the first team are two completely different worlds. The youth team has some competitive pressure, sure, but it actually isn't that great. Once you get to the first team, it's different. Everyone here carries a kind of worry in his heart, and everyone is anxious about his future, because no one knows how he'll perform in the next match. No one dares guarantee what will happen to him next."

Su Dong nodded, understanding somewhat in his heart.

This kind of survival crisis really would make everyone stay constantly on guard, not daring to be careless at any time.

Just like Quaresma.

In the first match of the season against Porto, this player had shone brilliantly and was instantly hyped up as Sporting Lisbon's number one talent, Portugal's hope for the next ten years. After that, he received heavy use from the club.

But who could have imagined that, several rounds later, he would still only be hovering between the starting lineup and the rotation?

And what was even more unexpected was that, starting in October, Hugo Viana, promoted from the youth team, seized a starting place in the team's midfield in one stroke, leaping up to become the team's number one rising star and firmly taking control of a starting spot.

There were many reasons behind all this. There were factors from the opponents, reasons within the team itself, and also the head coach's desire for change.

Who could possibly think all of that through clearly? Who could have predicted it?

A survival crisis could easily make people anxious, but at the same time, it would also make everyone maintain a sense of awe.

Only with awe in their hearts would they give everything in every match and every training session.

Beyond that, they simply had no extra mind to do anything unnecessary or meaningless, including idle chatter in the locker room.

Su Dong still had no way to feel this pressure from first-team competition for the time being, but he had already seen some of it.

Sporting Lisbon's first-team player composition was actually very interesting.

Including Su Dong, there were thirty players in total.

These players were mainly divided into two groups. One was mature players around thirty or older, such as Jardel, who was already twenty-eight, along with the twenty-nine-year-old Sá Pinto, as well as veterans like Barbosa and Cruz.

They all shared one trait: they had experience in the Big Four Leagues. Some had retired after achieving success, while others had been squeezed out after running into various problems. But in the Portuguese Super League, these players were still quite capable.

The other group consisted of young prospects, such as Quaresma, Marcelino, Viana, Rony, and others.

These players were either products of the club's own youth academy or rookies on whom high hopes had been placed. For example, head coach Boloni's countryman, the twenty-year-old Romanian center forward Niculae, was a scorer Boloni had strongly advocated bringing in.

It could be said that these two groups took up almost the overwhelming majority of the squad. Players who were truly around twenty-five, in the prime age of their professional careers, were few and far between.

What caught Su Dong's attention was a tall center forward brought in during the Winter Break, the twenty-five-year-old Greek striker Dimitris Nalitzis. This center forward had first transferred from Thessaloniki in Greece to Udinese in Serie A in July, then moved to Perugia in October, before transferring to Sporting Lisbon during the Winter Break.

In just a few short months, he had already moved through three clubs.

During his time in Serie A, he had played only three matches in total, two league matches and one cup match.

Anyone could see that this was because Boloni was not satisfied with the team's forward-line setup. Gisvi and Lourenço were still relatively young, so he had brought in Nalitzis, who was in his prime, as a substitute for Jardel and Niculae.

And the reason Su Dong paid attention to him was not only because he was one of the few players in the team in his prime, but also because he would be one of his competitors, even if, for the time being, Su Dong was still far from seeing any hope of making an appearance for the first team.

From Sporting Lisbon's first-team squad setup, it was not hard to see that this team was still just like the other teams in the Portuguese Super League.

The reason it lacked core players in their prime was that the better-performing core players had all been sold.

This was the current state of the Portuguese Super League.

Sporting Portugal could not keep its players, and Sporting Lisbon likewise could not keep them.

Of course, the prerequisite was that the player had to perform well enough.

Captain Barbosa broke the silence in the locker room.

He introduced the three newly joined teammates to everyone present. Su Dong, Rony, and Nalitzis stood up one by one at the captain's roll call and greeted their teammates, but only a few responded.

More of them looked at the three with wariness in their eyes, clearly worried about competition.

Marcelino, for example.

This player, who also had African ancestry, had been a dominant figure in the youth team and was known alongside Quaresma and Rony as one of the Sports Tower Three Musketeers. But after entering the first team, his development had fallen far behind Quaresma's, and he had even been overtaken by Viana.

So far, he had not played even a single minute for the first team.

It was another rather sad story.

"I heard that his performances in the first team have been terrible," Rony leaned close to Su Dong's ear and whispered.

Su Dong frowned. "Why?"

"They say he couldn't adapt. Who knows?" Rony said with a shrug.

Marcelino's performances in the youth team had been no worse than Quaresma's, but after the two entered the first team, their situations became worlds apart.

It was truly baffling.

Most of the senior players, including the team's star man Jardel, looked at Su Dong and the others with cold eyes. It did not feel as if they were looking at their own teammates at all, but rather like people standing on the street watching passersby.

Su Dong understood that in their eyes, he had not earned their recognition at all and was not yet qualified to become their teammate.

Every one of them was probably wondering how long these new guys could last.

It was not just the players. Head coach Boloni was the same.

Unlike reserve-team head coach Jean James, who had specially received Su Dong and held a long conversation with him, first-team manager Boloni did not have time to say much to the three of them at all. Before training began, he merely had a brief talk with them on the sidelines.

The content of the talk was simple—one could even say perfunctory.

Boloni encouraged Su Dong, Rony, and Nalitzis to work hard to improve themselves and show their best form in training.

"I will be paying close attention to your performances in training. At the right time, in the right match, I will arrange appearances for you as appropriate. I hope that when the time comes, you'll be able to produce performances that satisfy everyone."

Su Dong kept nodding as he listened, but in reality, he knew very well that saying this was the same as saying nothing.

Boloni would not give them opportunities easily, just like with Marcelino.

That player had entered the first team at the start of the season, yet so far, he had not even made a one-minute appearance.

Also lacking opportunities were Gisvi and Lourenço. On the other hand, Niculae, the Romanian center forward, was a compatriot Boloni had focused on bringing in, and had always received Boloni's heavy use and trust.

Even though Niculae's performances were not as outstanding as Jardel's.

Boloni was perfunctory, and the three of them likewise did not take it too much to heart.

After the token conversation, the head coach used his pre-training speech to introduce Su Dong and the other two to everyone, hoping the team would offer them help and work hard to help them integrate.

The response was still sparse.

Su Dong and Rony did not care about that either.

The two exchanged a glance and both saw the defiance and stubbornness in each other's eyes.

Around them, there had never been any shortage of indifferent, cold gazes, but they would always use their performances to prove themselves.

It had been that way before, and it was the same now.

And so, in the training that followed, they worked extremely hard.

During the initial warm-up and recovery training, they were both able to keep up with the main group, which made them think that first-team training did not seem like much after all.

But once they truly entered high-intensity training, the two felt immense pressure. Especially when they began the split-squad drills, they were completely unable to keep up with the rhythm.

Physique, technique, awareness...

Everything—every single thing—was behind.

Su Dong felt as if he had returned to the miserable situation he had been in when he first took part in Sporting Portugal's training. In fact, it was even worse than back then.