Midfielder

The weather in Lisbon is always so mild. This is the benefit of being close to the ocean. The clean and warm sea breeze can blow on your body. You will never be afraid that the air in Lisbon is filled with too much heat, although the afternoon sun will still feel a little burning.

The pace of life in this seaside city always seems a bit lazy. It is impossible for it to be as busy as New York or other big cities. The lush green in the city provides people with too much pure air and shade. It always makes people want to set up a lounge chair under the shade of the trees in such a sunny afternoon, then stretch their bodies hard and fall asleep.

It can be said that Lisbon's natural and comfortable leisure environment exists for enjoying life. This is definitely a standard place to raise lazy people. As long as you don't have too many desires, this will be a place where you can live comfortably. Of course, the premise is that you must be able to get their social welfare, otherwise, you still have to work to earn living expenses. However, not everyone is used to living on only a few hundred euros a month. People still have desires in many cases.

Jorge Mendes is very clear that he still has a strong desire for the world. He is the kind of person who knows what he should do in this world. So he will never waste every minute to enjoy the laziness of the afternoon. He knows that since the day he gave up a stable job, he has no right to be lazy.

He must run for every business of his own. He has to live. Being busy is a different kind of enjoyment for people like him.

However, Jorge Mendes likes the feeling of driving in the afternoon sun. The sea breeze blowing on his face always makes people feel very refreshed, and the business that is likely to be successfully concluded makes him feel very relaxed.

Puma Training Academy in Alcochete, on the outskirts of Lisbon, is Jorge Mendes' destination. As a football agent who has been working in the industry for three or four years, he is still just a novice in this industry.

Not many people know his name in Portugal or even Lisbon, but he is very confident that his name will be resounding in the football circle of this country. The agent industry will take him as a benchmark, and he will definitely become the most influential football agent in this country.

However, at this stage, he can only rely on helping some second-rate players transfer to earn remuneration, and there is still a gap between reality and ideal. As a football agent, everyone wants to have big names under his command, but in fact, the big names have already been taken.

Those great stars of the golden generation of Portugal have long been divided up by the big agents in the football circle. Those latecomers who want to stand out from this circle can only rely on luck or their own eyes to discover the next Figo.

And Jorge Mendes has now targeted a little guy. He believes that it is his own Luis Figo. Maybe in a few years, he will have the opportunity to stand in front of the executive chairman of those great clubs and sell the football superstars he signed.

When those big agents are targeting those famous stars, Jorge Mendes now just wants to find the next piece of gold from the pile of young people. He who has played football knows that there are few geniuses like Maradona.

But Portugal has never lacked young guys with outstanding skills. Those little guys who are eager to become famous will be the future of the football world.

Superstar? In the history of football, there are too many forgotten superstars. When you are old, what can you leave in the world of football? Maybe only a shadow. Only later people are the eternal driving force to rule the world of football. What Jorge Mendes has to do now is to explore the future, where there are too many opportunities waiting for him.

But the most important issue now is that Jorge Mendes must ask for permission from the stubborn old man in the Puma Training Academy, because he picked that little guy out of the crowd after careful selection, but now he obviously has to be managed by that old man.

The godfather of the youth army of Sporting Lisbon, who once brought out Futre and Figo, is not so easy to deal with. Jorge Mendes must find a good way to deal with this stubborn old man, otherwise, he will never sign that little guy.

The only good news is that the old man and Jorge Mendes have a good personal relationship, so Jorge has the opportunity to get in touch with the group of little guys that the old man is training now. He will aim at the kid who can become his future bargaining chip earlier than others, hoping that his efforts in the previous stage will not be in vain, and that the kid's family can accept the signing conditions he offers.

This is a gamble on the future. Jorge Mendes hopes that he can win, and he also hopes that the kid can be a winner.

In the afternoon sun, Jorge Mendes is not the only one running for his future. There will never be a moment of enjoyment in the Puma training academy in Alcochete, on the outskirts of Lisbon.

It always seems so busy here. This is where the best group of kids in Portuguese football gather. In order to win the opportunity to play in a professional team, they must train hard here, otherwise they may only be eliminated from the team.

This place has cultivated too many great stars who represent the highest honor of Portuguese football. Perhaps these little guys are fantasizing that they can become the symbol of honor of this country one day. They also hope to follow the footsteps of those great stars and create their own glory.

However, they must first ensure that they can successfully enter the professional team, otherwise, all fantasies are empty talk.

So now they have to train hard here under the scorching sun on their heads. Even if they want to stop and take a breath, it is now a luxury. They can only run around the field. Boring physical training is always the most hated, but it cannot be avoided.

No team is willing to arrange boring physical training during the hottest period of the day, but Sporting Lisbon does not follow this rule. These little guys have been running here for a long time, but they can only persist in sweating because this is a punishment for them.

Yes, these dozens of little guys running on the track are being punished, and the one standing next to them with a stopwatch and yelling is their coach Aurelio Pereira, an old man who has worked in the youth training camp of Sporting Lisbon for more than 30 years and is also the godfather of the youth army here. He is using this method equivalent to corporal punishment to teach these little guys in front of him, because he feels very unhappy now.

Few things will make this devout Catholic in his 60s feel unhappy, and he himself rarely gets angry, but now Aurelio Pereira looks at these little guys running with sweat on their heads, and then looks at the scoreboard next to the venue that records yesterday's game. He doesn't want to put down the stopwatch in his hand, because the eye-catching score on the damn scoreboard not far away has made him feel that his blood vessels will burst at any time.

"Chris! Stop being lazy! You are almost at the end of the team! If you don't want to run ten laps, hurry to the front of the team, otherwise, you will run here until dark today! Don't doubt that I am scaring you! Do you hear me!!!"

Aurelio Pereira shouted loudly to a guy in the team. He was the captain of the Sporting Lisbon youth team and the most talented kid among the players he is currently coaching.

But this is the work he is most satisfied with now. Yesterday, he led the Sporting Lisbon youth team to a 5:5 tie with the opponent in a friendly match with other teams. Yes, that kid scored five goals by himself, but they failed to win the game.

The defense line of the entire Lisbon youth team was like a pile of loose sand in the game. They were also scored five goals by others. You know, these little bastards represent the future of Sporting Lisbon! They almost lost the game on their own territory!

Aurelio Perreira can only punish these little guys in such a simple and somewhat rough way now, because they played like a pile of shit in this game!

Their opponent is not the equally powerful Benfica youth team, nor is it an adult team from the Portuguese Super League. The opponent is also a youth team, and it is also a small team with no reputation, the Setubal Youth Team, a weak team whose adult team is at the bottom of the Portuguese Super League.

But it was such a team that stabbed the Sporting Lisbon Youth Team five times in front of Aurelio Perreira. Aurelio Perreira didn't know how many years it had been since the team he taught had been scored five goals by the opponent.

Even in the competition with the adult team, his youth team had never been so embarrassed, but yesterday, on this field that he was most familiar with, the old man witnessed everything that happened in the game with his own eyes.

They led 3:1 in the first half, and in the second half, the unknown Setubal Youth Team scored four goals in a row, and every goal made Aurelio Perreira speechless.

He was even embarrassed to shake hands with the opponent's coach after the game. The four goals in the second half were like a big mouth, all slapped on the face of the godfather of the Lisbon youth army. For the first time, Aurelio Pereira felt embarrassed. The group of proud children he taught were pressed on the grass of the stadium and kicked hard by a group of guys who looked like country bumpkins.

Even though more than ten hours had passed since the end of the game, Aurelio Pereira still couldn't forget everything that happened during the game, especially the black-haired kid in the opponent's lineup, the kid who was substituted in more than 30 minutes in the second half.

It was the black-haired kid who directed all the goals after he came on the court. He didn't shoot or score, but the very thin kid used four knife-like straight passes to completely penetrate the defense of Sporting Lisbon.

Even at this moment, Aurelio Pereira could still feel the moment when the kid passed the ball. He saw with his own eyes that black and white ghost spirit passing through the back line of Sporting Lisbon Youth Team. That scene was a thrilling feeling, and he still remembers it vividly. What did that pass look like? It was like a thin sharp knife that could cut open a cow's bone, exuding a terrifying sharpness.

When Aurelio Pereira saw the black-haired kid's first fatal pass, the old man seemed to see a guy who once made Sporting Lisbon's supporters heartbroken, once again appearing on the grass of the stadium.

The guy who led the midfield in the mortal enemy Benfica a few years ago seemed to be back again. The black-haired kid, like him, tore through the back line of Sporting Lisbon with ghostly passes, which were deadly, accurate and just right.

But the black-haired kid looked younger and more aggressive. After he came on the court, he overshadowed everyone else, including Chris. The defenders of Sporting Lisbon had almost regarded him as a devil. Aurelio Pereira didn't know if God was causing trouble for Sporting Lisbon again. He hoped not, but who knew?

Although this was just a youth team match, winning or losing did not actually involve the interests of any team, and Sporting Lisbon could not blame their meritorious coach for such a draw.

This was just a simple friendly match in the eyes of everyone, but the result was not satisfactory, especially for the old man Aurelio Pereira. He could not forgive the mistakes made by these little guys on the field, including his own mistakes.

They all underestimated the visiting opponent. This is football. It will punish those arrogant people directly. Aurelio Pereira tasted the bitter fruit. His whole mouth feels bitter until now, but he feels that the depressing things may be behind.

Because he saw Carlos, the general manager of Sporting Lisbon, walking towards him with a frown. As long as that guy appears here, there will definitely be nothing good. Aurelio Pereira looked at the guy's face and understood that he did not bring any surprises. God knows what bad news he brought this time.

This slightly hot afternoon, for Sporting Lisbon, everyone is suffering. . .

All this is because of a black-haired kid. . . This is an unlucky day, and the youth team of Sporting Lisbon has become a victim.

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