"On June 1, 1998, the Portuguese Football Association held the Portuguese Diamond Generation Invitational Tournament in order to ease the pain of failing to qualify for the World Cup for twelve consecutive years."
"It aims to discover talented domestic players aged 12–15, emulate the current Portuguese Golden Generation, and light up the future of Portuguese football."
"This event has received strong support from Portuguese Primeira Liga giants such as Sporting Lisbon, Porto, and Benfica."
"The organizers invited Portuguese football legend 'Black Panther' Eusébio, as well as Portugal's new king, Barcelona's core player and one of the few foreign captains, Luís Figo, as youth sponsors."
"They will form their own teams and hold a peak showdown at the Alvalade Stadium in Lisbon, the capital of Portugal."
"So far, the Figo team has invited talents from the youth academies of major clubs, such as Hugo Almeida, Bruno Alves, Miguel Veloso, Rúben Amorim, and others."
"The most eye-catching one is Cristiano Ronaldo from Madeira! Three years ago, he shined in the Portuguese Golden Boy Cup and was awarded the tournament's top scorer."
"There is news that Cristiano will officially transfer to Sporting Lisbon this summer!"
"The Panthers are composed of Sporting Lisbon youth academy centre-back José Fonte and Portimonense youth midfielder João Moutinho..."
Benfica first-team assistant coach Trigueira shook his head while listening to the news on TV.
This game is destined to be a one-sided affair.
People nowadays are far too forgetful.
Too few quality players choose to join the Panthers.
The real geniuses are actually in the Figo team.
Because today's young people love Figo more.
Perhaps in more than ten years, new fans will not even know that there was once a legendary star named Eusébio.
It seems like it was only three years ago. Who still remembers Kai, the one who beat Cristiano Ronaldo to win the Golden Boy Cup Best Player award?
Beep, beep, beep!
Trigueira's phone rang.
He put down the wine glass in his hand and pressed the speaker button."What's wrong, Pereira? Has the schedule changed for the day after tomorrow?"
Pereira was the head of player recruitment at Sporting Lisbon.
The day after tomorrow, they would attend the "Diamond Generation Invitational Tournament" with the club chairman and watch the match live.
But the voice coming through the phone was not Pereira's.
It was a childish voice.
"Coach… I want to play football!"
Silence fell on both ends of the line.
In just a moment, Trigueira knew who was on the other end of the call.
Kai!
He finally called!
He was finally willing to continue playing football!
Three years ago, in order to celebrate the Portuguese national team qualifying for the European Championship, the Portuguese Football Association held the Golden Boy Cup.
The tournament's best defensive player, José Fonte, performed brilliantly, but in the semifinals he ran into the Madeira Nacional youth team led by a young Cristiano Ronaldo and was eliminated.
After the match, Fonte received an invitation from the Sporting Lisbon youth academy.
Cristiano Ronaldo, the tournament's top scorer and Golden Boot winner, scored twice in the semifinals, single-handedly leading his team to the final, and then scored twice again in the final.
After the match, Ronaldo received a grand invitation from Sporting Lisbon.
However, for safety reasons, Ronaldo's parents hoped that he would only move to Lisbon after he was older. Therefore, Ronaldo did not officially join the Sporting Lisbon youth academy at the time, but he began using Sporting Lisbon's training program early and carried the Sporting Lisbon label.
.
But Ronaldo's team finished as runners-up.
The championship belonged to another little-known team.
In that match, Ronaldo scored twice.
But the opposing team's midfielder, Kai, cut through the crowd and delivered a hat trick of assists. He led the team to a 3–2 victory and took away the championship trophy!
Kai was also awarded the tournament's Best Player for his outstanding performance.
After the match, the youth academies of the three major Portuguese Primeira Liga clubs all sent invitations to Kai.
But Kai rejected them all.
Just as the Portuguese Primeira Liga clubs were left confused, a reporter broke the news that Barcelona had also sent Kai a youth academy invitation.
Because on the day of the Golden Boy Cup final, football legend "The Flying Dutchman" Johan Cruyff, who was Barcelona's head coach at the time, was present.
He went there for Figo's transfer, but did not expect that this trip would not only take Figo away from Sporting Lisbon, but also allow him to discover a promising midfield talent.
Cruyff personally instructed Barcelona's youth department to sign Kai.
This was Barcelona!
Who could say no?
Yet Kai refused!
Once the news broke, most of the football world knew about it.
It is said that this incident also became another crack between Cruyff and Barcelona's management, indirectly leading to Cruyff's dismissal a year later.
After Barcelona's move, many clubs sent Kai trial invitations with a "why not try" mentality, even if they had never actually seen him play.
These included Barcelona's bitter rivals Real Madrid, Premier League giants Manchester United and Arsenal, Bundesliga powerhouse Bayern Munich, and Serie A's three giants Juventus, AC Milan, and Inter Milan…
But without exception, Kai refused them all.
Some people believed Kai was waiting to raise his price, but in the end he vanished completely.
Because the word "Kai" appears in his name, some media mockingly dubbed him the "Football Caesar."
German football emperor Franz Beckenbauer is also known as "Der Kaiser," but the media obviously did not mean that Kai was the next Beckenbauer.
They were comparing him to Carlos Kaiser, the biggest fraud in Brazilian football during the 1980s—someone with no real ability or talent, nothing more than a name.
Carlos Kaiser spent more than twenty years in Brazilian football without playing a single official match, yet was always regarded as a superstar.
And Kai's refusal of all invitations and trials, turning himself into a so-called peerless genius, looked eerily similar to Carlos Kaiser.
"Really? Are you sure you want to play football, instead of continuing your sports data analysis studies at the University of Lisbon?" Trigueira was the only person who had kept track of Kai's situation over the past three years.
He was someone who accepted fate and believed more than anyone that Kai would break through and even become a superstar.
He would never forget their last conversation, when he tried to persuade Kai to join Sporting Lisbon.
"Son, I'm not asking you to join Sporting Lisbon, but you should at least choose one among Manchester United, Arsenal, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, or Juventus! If you don't play football, it will be a loss for you—and a loss for world football.
A loss to the altar of football itself!"
"Coach, I can play football, but not now. Right now, I have more important things to do."
"Kai, think about it again. Your technical characteristics would give you a brilliant future at Barcelona! How about I help you contact Mr. Cruyff?"
"Thank you, Mr. Trigueira, but there's really no need. When I decide to play football, you'll be the first person I come to."
After that, Kai withdrew from the football academy and returned to Portugal's twelve-year compulsory education system.
In just three years, he completed all twelve years of compulsory education.
And he achieved outstanding results in the national exams of the eleventh and twelfth grades.
Finally, this year, he was admitted early into the Sports Data Analysis program at the School of Information and Technology, University of Lisbon—the best university in Portugal.
Yet such a top student actually said that he wanted to play football.
This was just as incomprehensible as Kai's decision to abandon football and return to school three years ago.
Trigueira could fully understand how the president of the University of Lisbon must be feeling at this moment.
Nothing like this had ever happened before.
There was only mutual sympathy.
A genius's thinking will never be understood by ordinary people.
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