However, from the third season, Defoe gradually lost his main position and became a substitute for "Little Keane" Robbie Keane and Darren Bent.

So, in his fourth season at Tottenham, Defoe transferred to Portsmouth, the team where his old mentor, Ray White, was.

In Portsmouth, no, it should be said that under old Ray, Defoe was like a fish in water.

Ray knew Defoe inside and out and had great trust in him, and the combination of the two allowed Portsmouth to make rapid progress. Not only did they avoid relegation, but they also brought Portsmouth to the upper middle level of the Premier League - this was also the best period for Portsmouth.

Later, Ray went to Tottenham, and Defoe immediately submitted a transfer application and went to Tottenham to follow Ray.

Portsmouth fans felt the stab in the back.

Then soon, Crouch also left Portsmouth the following year, stabbing Portsmouth in the back again.

Portsmouth never recovered from that slump and fell all the way to the Championship.

What is really bizarre about Defoe is not that he returned to Tottenham, nor that he offended the two clubs he worked for, but an incident that happened when he was playing for Tottenham in 2006.

In the ninth round of the Premier League on October 22, 2006, when Tottenham Hotspur faced West Ham United at home, Mascherano, who was a West Ham United player at the time, was bitten hard by West Ham United's "little traitor" Defoe while defending.

Mascherano on the tip of the tongue was much earlier than Chiellini on the tip of the tongue! In 2006, the gourmet Suarez had just landed in Europe and had not yet joined Ajax. Instead, he was playing for Groningen in the Eredivisie. The first time Suarez bit someone was in 2010 when he was at Ajax, four years later than Defoe.

Therefore, Defoe is the originator of football gourmets.

In the front line of this Tottenham team, Crouch and Defoe can be considered an old partner. They seem to be a combination of one tall and one fast, but in fact they are a combination of one fast and one faster.

Tottenham's starting left midfielder is No. 3, Gareth Bale, once Southampton's rising star, a talented Welsh player, nicknamed "The Monkey King", "The Real Golfer", "Bale's Shortest Line Between Two Points", and "Flounder Farmer Professional".

Gareth Bale is 21 years old, 185cm tall and weighs 81kg. Because he looks like the Monkey King in Journey to the West, and both are extremely fast and can save people in danger, he is called the Great Sage by domestic fans.

Later, Bale joined Real Madrid and went to China to play commercial games. He learned that the fans called him the Great Sage. After figuring out the meaning of this nickname, Bale was very happy. Bale said that this was much better than his teammates calling him monkey. Bale even made a heart shape to the domestic fans.

As for Bale's shortest nickname between the two points, it is entirely due to Bale's famous skills - overtaking on the outside lane and overtaking on the curve, which is also the capital for him to be transformed from a full-back to a winger by Old Ray.

As for the real golfer, it means that Bale really loves playing golf. This is different from another golfer, Bellamy, who likes to hit his teammates on the buttocks with a golf club and make a swing celebration after scoring a goal the next day. Bale really loves playing golf.

Playing football is just a profession, golf is Bale's true love.

Bale bought a large golf course at his home in Wales. When Bale was playing for Real Madrid, he felt that he had achieved success and fame, so he didn't train well. He confronted his coach in various ways and was excluded in the team. Bale spent a lot of time and energy on playing golf. It was because of playing golf that Bale's soleus muscle was always injured. He injured his soleus muscle 9 times in 4 years at Real Madrid.

It’s not that Bale is not strong enough or that the competition in La Liga is stronger than that in the Premier League. It’s just that Bale is too addicted to golf.

Golf seems like a leisure sport and is very relaxing to play, but when swinging the club, it requires explosive strength from muscles throughout the body.

The soleus muscle is distributed on the left and right calves. It refers to the flat calf muscle below the gastrocnemius muscle. It starts from the back of the upper end of the tibia and fibula. Because it looks like a solefish, it is named soleus muscle.

To put it simply, the soleus muscle is the muscle on the back of the calf, just above the calf. It belongs to the superficial layer of the muscle and is innervated by the tibial nerve. It is a muscle that is easily injured in football games.

The first time Bale was injured in Real Madrid, he injured his soleus muscle. Because of this injury, Bale got a month of rest. At first, Bale could still lie in bed obediently according to the doctor's instructions, but after lying down for a few days, Bale became itchy and went to play golf with the injury.

As a result, Bale's soleus muscle has never fully recovered.

Then came the second soleus injury, the second time off to play golf, the third soleus injury, the third time off to play golf, and so on until the ninth time.

Therefore, Bell also has a not-so-friendly nickname called "flounder farmer professional".

By the ninth time, Bale's relationship with Real Madrid had reached a completely irreconcilable state, and he was loaned back to Tottenham.

Of course, this is all later. At this time, Bale has just been transformed into a left midfielder/left winger by Ray, and Real Madrid has just started to pay attention to him. Real Madrid has not yet regarded him as Cristiano Ronaldo's successor.

In fact, when Real Madrid signed Bale, on the one hand, it was because Bale did have the ability to play as a main player in Real Madrid, and on the other hand, it was also out of consideration to suppress Ronaldo, who was at the peak of his popularity. Real Madrid wanted to let Ronaldo know that he was not irreplaceable.

But in fact, Bale can never be compared with Ronaldo.

Although Bale is extremely fast, has excellent dribbling skills, is good at crossing and cutting inside to shoot, and is good at forcing his way through opponents at high speed, to be honest, Bale is really a player whose fame is greater than his ability.

There are many players in the football world whose strength is greater than their fame, or whose strength is greater than their worth, but Bale's fame is greater than his strength, and his fame is greater than his worth.

It wasn't obvious when he was at Tottenham, but after joining Real Madrid, it became very obvious.

Although Bale has also had outstanding performances in key games, more often than not, Bale's performance cannot be said to be bad, but it is always a little short of that, which does not match his worth and treatment.

Real Madrid introduced Bale mainly to suppress Ronaldo's value through the young Bale, but in fact, at critical moments, Real Madrid can only rely on Ronaldo.

In the BBC era with Bale, Benzema and Ronaldo, Bale was once promoted to the core of the team, but was soon overtaken by Ronaldo, who is four years older than him. Ronaldo is still the most dazzling world superstar and is irreplaceable.

When Ronaldo left Real Madrid, Bale once said proudly that "that man is finally gone, and now the rest of us are more like a whole."

As a result, even though Ronaldo left Real Madrid, his afterglow was still the most dazzling figure in Real Madrid during that period.

However, Bale, who was officially recognized by Real Madrid as the successor to Cristiano Ronaldo, failed to live up to the banner of successor. Instead, he was undisciplined, did not participate in training, was addicted to golf every day, and even injured his soleus muscle repeatedly.

In terms of talent, Bale is definitely a genius and can even become a world-class superstar. However, Bale's willfulness and lack of self-discipline ruined the second half of his career.

So, there are many football geniuses in the world, but there are only a few true football superstars.

...(End of this chapter)