Chapter 309: Struggle Pen and Brazilian Team
Although Su Dong showed great enthusiasm for Ronaldinho and Deco, and gave high praise to Puyol and Xavi, in fact, he deliberately kept a distance from both sides.
This is not because he is not sociable, but a decision made after discussing with Mendes.
Su Dong admires Ronaldinho and Deco's football skills very much. There is no doubt that both of them are outstanding stars on the court, but outside the court, Ronaldinho and Deco are not easy to deal with and are both very fun to play with.
There is no need to talk about Ronaldinho. As a Brazilian, coupled with his personality, he is playful by nature. Even in Barcelona, he often appeared in nightclubs and even sponsored a band of three sisters in Brazil.
When Ronaldo held his birthday party, he invited them to perform.
Deco may look dull, but actually, he is very good at playing.
Ronnie's ex-girlfriend Jordana once said that Deco was famous in Porto's nightclub. He was young, rich and famous. Men like him were the favorites of all the women in the nightclub, and many women took the initiative to throw themselves into his arms.
Deco broke up with his childhood sweetheart because he cheated on her with a mistress.
Su Dong was not interested in knowing about his teammates' private lives, nor did he intend to get involved. He felt that he should maintain self-discipline and work hard to maintain everything he had worked hard to get, rather than squandering it.
So, whether it is Ronaldinho or Deco, they can be good friends, but it is difficult for them to become close friends.
Puyol and Xavi are another case.
As local youth training in Catalonia, both of them have a strong local flavor and often participate in local activities, which Su Dong stays away from.
He just came to play football, to improve himself, to use the Barcelona platform to improve his career, there is no need to participate in such things, what is the purpose? Because of this, when Su Dong was choosing a house, he deliberately stayed away from the city of Barcelona.
He took the advice of Messi's father Jorge and looked for properties in the areas around Gava and Castelldefels.
This area is thirty kilometers away from the city center and is composed of enclosed villa communities halfway up the mountain. It allows Su Dong to stay away from too many disturbances during training and competitions, and it also suits his preference for a quiet lifestyle.
Ronaldinho introduced a luxury house next to his house to Su Dong. The rent was not expensive, about 10,000 euros a month, but Su Dong did not choose to be Ronaldinho's neighbor. Instead, he tactfully expressed that he really didn't like that house.
Su Dong just refused, but was rented by Deco the next moment.
But Su Dong didn't go too far away. He chose a detached villa in the same community, higher up on the mountainside.
It covers an area of more than 3,000 square meters, with a private garden of more than 2,000 square meters. It is a two-story modern architectural style villa with an open-air swimming pool. While swimming, you can overlook the Mediterranean Sea at the foot of the mountain.
The only drawback was that the owner of the house did not allow Su Dong to renovate the basement and private garden during the lease period.
With no other options, Su Dong could only spend a lot of money and buy the house directly.
It cost him 1.5 million euros in total, and including the cost of renovation and conversion, the budget came to 2 million euros.
For Su Dong, who just received a signing fee of 1.5 million euros and whose annual salary after tax reaches 5 million euros, this expense is completely affordable.
With this house, Su Dong's private team will have an office space.
This is also a major feature of Sudong.
From Sporting Lisbon to Valencia, and now to Barcelona, Sudong has always been the only person in the team who has a private coaching team. Even when he negotiated with Barcelona, he included the private coaching team in the negotiation scope.
It’s not that he doesn’t trust Barcelona’s coaching staff, but that he cooperates better with his private team.
…
These days, Messi has been following Su Dong around, like a little follower.
Especially since he arrived in Barcelona, his father Jorge has taken on the job of a part-time driver.
Standing on the balcony of the detached villa that Su Dong had just bought, with its back against the mountains, there was no villa higher than this one behind him, and in front of him he could overlook the entire Castelldefels, the Mediterranean Sea and the beach in the distance, and he could even seem to hear the laughter coming from the beach.
"What a great place!" Messi exclaimed with envy.
"Then work harder and try to buy a house here in the near future!" Su Dong encouraged.
Messi smiled shyly. He wanted to do it very much, but the distance was too far and he didn't dare to think too much about it.
"I've already talked to the team, and they've all agreed to help you customize a body-strengthening plan. You must strictly follow the diet prescribed by Dr. Lacasco and the training plan formulated by Nuno Cruz and his team. I believe that you will definitely be able to reach a higher level in no time!"
Messi couldn't stop nodding and looked at Su Dong with great gratitude, "Thank you, Su!"
"Why are you so polite?" Su Dong smiled and stretched out his hand, touching Messi's head. This has become a habit.
"If you really want to thank me, please pass the ball and give me more assists when you get to the first team!"
"Don't worry, no matter in training or in the game, I will definitely help you score more goals!" Messi promised.
He is not a person who does not know how to be grateful. On the contrary, he is quite grateful. That is why when others left Barcelona, he chose to stay because he was grateful for Barcelona's investment in him over the years.
Now, Su Dong is helping him so unremittingly, Messi is very grateful, and secretly promises in his heart that in the future he will follow Su Dong's lead no matter what, help him score more goals and repay his help.
Su Dong smiled and didn't take it to heart.
The gap between him and Messi today is too huge, just like the gap between him and David Silva when they were in Valencia.
Strictly speaking, there is no competition between them at all.
This made the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe's aid more simple and genuine, and they only helped because of their good relationship with each other.
Whether it was David Silva in the past or Messi now, they can all feel this, and their feelings towards Su Dong will become more sincere.
The most touching thing is the help without any interests involved! …………
…………
Barcelona's training camp this summer is located in Peralada, about two hours' drive from Barcelona.
This is a small village located in Figueres, Girona Province, northeast of Barcelona. It is most famous for its red wine and music festivals. In April this year, after the Chinese team lost 0-6 to Barcelona in the warm-up match, they lived here and set off for France from here.
In last season's King's Cup, Barcelona also came to Peralada to play a game and were very satisfied with the environment and life here. Therefore, Rijkaard and the club unanimously decided to hold the summer training camp in this small village.
The advantage of doing this is that you can avoid external disturbances to the greatest extent possible and focus on training and preparation.
Su Dong still brought his own personal coaching team into the camp. Since they had received the news earlier, no one in Barcelona was surprised. After all, this was a team that Su Dong formed with his own money.
After the previous experience with Sporting Lisbon and Valencia, Nuno Cruz and others already knew clearly how to cooperate with the professional coaching team, and they connected with Rijkaard's chief assistant coach Ten Cate early on.
Compared with Benítez's Valencia, Rijkaard's training intensity is actually not that high. The pre-season training is mainly focused on physical reserves and status adjustments. Obviously, it is also somewhat accommodating to the stars in the team and those international players participating in national team competitions.
This also made Su Dong realize one thing, that the more powerful the team is, the rarer it is to have extra training.
Every player is very professional. They come to training on time and leave after the training is over.
This was the case even during pre-season training in Peralada.
On the contrary, Su Dong's hard-working pen is simply an outlier in the eyes of the Barcelona stars who seem to be on a leisurely vacation.
Not only Su Dong was surprised, Nuno Cruz and others were also puzzled. Could it be that the stars of the top teams did not need to train hard? But on second thought, which player who could join the top teams was not extremely strong and talented?
The most important thing for such players is to maintain their competitive state without having to think about working hard to improve.
To use a phrase from the domestic Internet: If these talented players still work so hard, how can others survive? As for others, Su Dong can't do anything about it. Anyway, he still maintains his own style and does extra training after training every day, because Rijkaard's training volume is not enough for him to even get half full.
Messi was the only one in the team who accompanied Su Dong in extra training, while everyone else went to work and left on time.
In Peralada, Ronaldinho brought together the Brazilian F4 of the Barcelona team, namely Deco, Sylvinho, Belletti, and Thiago Motta who was born in Barcelona's youth training camp.
The Brazilian F4 is closely united around Ronaldinho, giving full play to the Brazilians' happy and positive character, advocating freedom and unrestrainedness, making the daily training within the team very active, and life after training is also quite happy.
This atmosphere also infected everyone in the team, and Ronaldinho's status in the locker room also rose.
Due to the retirement and departure of two old captains Cocu and Luis Enrique, the team held a captain election vote during the training camp in Peralada.
This is also Barcelona's consistent tradition. Puyol was selected as captain in this way, and this time he was still elected with a unanimous vote.
In the subsequent vice-captain election, Ronaldinho and Xavi received the same number of votes, which was somewhat surprising.
But in the end, head coach Rijkaard cast his precious vote for Ronaldinho and appointed Xavi as the third captain.
As new players, several youth team players including Su Dong and Messi obtained Rijkaard's permission in advance and did not need to participate in the vote.
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
