Chapter 125 I'm attracted to you!
As Christmas approaches, the bustling Alcocheti becomes deserted.
The team welcomed the Christmas holiday, and many players also had round-trip air ticket subsidies, so they all went home to celebrate the New Year.
Ronnie, for example, returned to Madeira yesterday evening.
Although Jose Semedo did not receive any subsidies, his family was in Setubal, very close to Lisbon, so he went back.
Sudong and Pepe politely declined Ronnie's invitation and chose to stay in Lisbon.
Albertini returned to Milan, but Andre Cruz did not return to Brazil, but chose to stay at home with his wife and children.
Professional players travel around for games all year round, and often have to train for one or two months, so they have very little time to spend with their families.
Although the team was on holiday and the teammates and friends who trained with him on weekdays had all gone home, Su Dong still came to Alcochete with Pepe every day for training. Without Tonito as a free driver, they could only take a taxi.
They were not the only ones who practiced extra during the holidays.
Quaresma also comes to Alcochete every day. He and his family live in downtown Lisbon. After seeing Sudon and Pepe take a taxi to Alcochete, the talented Portuguese winger who drove there by himself offered to pick them up.
At first there were only three of them, but by the afternoon, there were two more.
They are all players from the Sporting Lisbon youth team. One of them is called Nani, a winger who also has Cape Verdean ancestry. He has just turned sixteen years old. He is quite familiar with Ronnie and has chatted with Su Dong several times.
After turning sixteen in November, he was officially transferred to the second team and will train with the first team during the winter training break and the second half of the season. This is also a reward for young players who have performed well in the youth training camp at Sporting Lisbon.
There is also a player named Joao Moutinho, a midfielder whose characteristics are a bit like Ugo Viana who went to England. He is good at midfield organization and passing, and his defense is also okay, so he is hailed as the successor to Ugo Viana.
This is a very interesting part of the football world.
Ugo Viana is still a rookie himself, but he already has a successor at Sporting Lisbon.
Moutinho's playing characteristics and style are basically inherited from Rui Costa to Hugo Viana.
There is also Nani. At first, some people said that he looked like Quaresma, but later everyone said that he was very similar to Ronaldo, both in terms of bloodline and playing characteristics, so he was given the title of Ronaldo's successor.
However, so far, there has been no successor to Su Dong in the youth team.
It is worth mentioning that a good friend of Su Dong and Ronnie in the youth team, central defender Jose Fonte will also be officially transferred to the first team after the winter break, because Boloni is not very satisfied with the performance of the current central defenders of the first team.
Jose Fonte is a very capable central defender and Su Dong believes he will perform well in the first team.
…
When a few people get together to train, it actually means you help me and I help you.
In addition to some regular training, Su Dong focused on strengthening the header competition for crosses from the wing.
Pepe will be in close defense, Quaresma and Nani will be responsible for the ball from the two wings, and Sudong and Pepe will compete for the landing point.
The reason for practicing this set of skills is that Su Dong finally chose Klose's [Aerial Overlord] under the fierce temptation of Maradona's [God's Left Foot]. He feels that his most urgent task now is to improve his header.
As a center forward, scoring goals is what he needs to consider most.
On the training ground, the two wings kept passing the ball, and Su Dong and Pepe in the penalty area kept judging where the ball would land and kept competing for the header.
In this repetitive training, Su Dong gradually integrated and mastered Klose's "Aerial Dominance", constantly improved his ability to predict the landing point of the ball, and strived to improve his heading strength as soon as possible.
The first game of the second half of the winter break is against Mourinho's Porto.
Sporting Lisbon is now far behind Porto in the standings. If they want to make a comeback in the second half, they must win this strong dialogue.
…………
…………
When Su Dong and others were training hard on the training ground, two Spaniards came to the sidelines.
One of them was someone Su Dong was familiar with, the Spanish scout Garcia.
The two stood on the sidelines, looking at the teenagers on the court who were practicing extra during the holidays, and couldn't help feeling a little surprised.
“No wonder Sporting Lisbon’s youth training camp has produced so many talented people in recent years. The football atmosphere is really good.”
Garcia laughed and said, "See? That's Quaresma."
Following Garcia's gesture, the middle-aged Spaniard easily recognized Quaresma.
Perhaps it was because of his preconceived impression, he felt that this Portuguese genius was really great, whether it was stopping the ball or crossing the ball, he was very good, and more importantly, he was still very young.
The other dark-skinned boy seemed much more rash, especially when handling the ball. His technical movements were not stable enough. He especially liked to stop suddenly and dunk the ball before suddenly passing the ball.
But the problem is that the quality of this cross is still very low.
"He should be an African-American player, with a good physique and good speed. His skills are a bit like street football, very casual, not stable enough, and the quality of his crosses is not high... Hey!"
The middle-aged Spanish man was slightly surprised.
On the field, the quality of Nani's cross was indeed not high, but Su Dong, who was responsible for the middle, reacted quickly. He immediately determined the landing point of the ball, and took position before Pepe and headed the ball.
This caught the attention of middle-aged Spanish people.
“This kid…”
After noticing this, middle-aged Spanish people began to subconsciously pay attention to the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.
He found that this training session focused on training Su Dong's ability to receive crosses, and his predictions of the ball's path were always accurate and his reaction time was short. Although this was just training and did not represent his performance in the game, if he could do this in training, he would definitely not be too bad in the game.
"Interesting, is he the Su Dong you mentioned?" the Spaniard asked with a smile.
Garcia nodded with a smile.
Su Dong really stood out from the crowd. With his height, skin color and hair color, he was recognized at first sight in the crowd.
"He has played well this season. He should have attracted the attention of many European teams, right?" the middle-aged Spanish man asked with a smile.
Garcia nodded. "Yes, there are indeed many teams paying attention to him, including giants like Manchester United, Arsenal, Inter Milan and Juventus, but there is a serious problem."
"What?"
"He has never played for the national team. It will be difficult for him to go to the Premier League. In other leagues, he will take up a non-European quota."
The Spanish middle-aged man suddenly realized.
It is very troublesome to get a work permit for a Premier League team. If you don't play for the national team, you must show enough strength and performance to get a work permit. Otherwise, how can you convince the Premier League team to work hard for you? Especially for giants like Manchester United and Arsenal, it is not easy to get them to fight for a work permit for a young player. For example, Ferguson couldn't get Kaka, a talented teenager who participated in the World Cup for the Brazilian national team, for him.
As for non-European places, this is also a very troublesome matter.
For the teams in the four major leagues, especially the top teams, the quota for non-European foreign players is very strict. Every team has restrictions on foreign players. Who would be willing to use a precious foreign player quota for an 18-year-old player?
For many teams, they would rather spend more money to buy an EU player than waste a foreign aid quota, because those are valuable resources reserved for the most cutting-edge stars.
Of course, there are also some teams that don’t care about non-European status because they have more than they can use up their foreign player quota.
"His agent Mendes has been very popular recently. He has signed the agency rights of many Portuguese Super League teams such as Porto, Benfica and Sporting Lisbon. Su Dong is one of the players that Mendes values most, and he has been running around and contacting teams."
After listening to Garcia's words, the middle-aged Spanish man nodded heavily.
"It's really not easy. Watching him train, it's really surprising and exciting that he can have such speed and skills with his body."
Garcia felt even happier after hearing this.
He was a famous Spanish midfielder in the 1980s. Before Mendieta, he was the main right winger of Valencia. He also had quite good connections in Spain and a very sharp vision.
If he is optimistic about Sudong, it proves that Sudong is definitely not bad.
…
As the two were talking, the training on the court came to a temporary halt.
Garcia called Su Dong over loudly.
When Su Dong and his group went to the Bernabeu to watch the game, it was thanks to Garcia that they got tickets and were taken to visit the Real Madrid locker room, so Su Dong and Garcia had a pretty good relationship.
"Why are you here? You didn't even tell me in advance." Su Dong was a little surprised.
Having troubled Garcia last time, I must do my best to play the role of host this time.
"Something urgent happened, so I came to talk to Aurelio." Garcia explained with a smile.
He didn't say what it was, but if you think about it, you can guess that it's probably related to the players.
Garcia is a scout, but more than just a scout. There are many areas where he can cooperate with Sporting Lisbon.
"Let's have dinner together after we're done talking?" Su Dong suggested.
"No, we have to hurry back to Madrid. Maybe next time."
Su Dong felt very regretful. He didn't like owing favors to others, and always felt that he had to treat them to a meal to feel at ease.
"Oh, by the way, let me introduce you, this is the famous Valencia player, Javier Subiratz."
Now Su Dong was even more certain that Garcia's coming here must have something to do with the players.
"Hello, Javier."
"Hello, Sue."
"Which player of our team did you take a fancy to when you came here this time?" Su Dong asked tentatively in a joking tone.
He is actually still a bit gossipy.
Subiraz glanced at Garcia and was quite interested in this curious boy. He laughed and said, "I'm attracted to you!"
"Ah?" Su Dong was slightly stunned.
"But unfortunately..." Subiraci changed the subject, "I am not working for any team now, so..."
Su Dong smiled bitterly. He found that Subirats seemed to be joking with him.
(End of this chapter)
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