"The Benfica team is a rare dual-core side. Their midfielders João Vieira and Rúben Amorim both contribute heavily on both ends of the pitch. Their holding midfielder is Fernando Alexandre. This player's defensive ability is extremely tough… Lourenço, what are you laughing at? Stand up!"
Trigueira was a little angry. These U15 players were quite sensible on the pitch—otherwise, they would have been dismissed long ago. But when it came to listening to lectures, thinking, and learning tactics, they had huge problems.
Basically, Kai was the only one in the room who truly understood what Trigueira meant, and he would actively explain it to Cristiano Ronaldo sitting next to him.
Anyone willing could listen to Trigueira and Kai's analysis. Those who didn't want to listen just stood there in a daze.
Kai looked at Lourenço, who had stood up awkwardly, and could already feel the heavy inertia of history.
Apart from match results, he hadn't really changed anything about this U15 team so far.
Including Ronaldo—the one most influenced by him. At this age, Ronaldo was already tearing everyone apart. Kai could only slightly change part of Ronaldo's growth environment, mainly his brother Hugo.
Lourenço was almost the most promising player on this team besides Ronaldo, in a sense—because he was the only one in this group who would later play international football.
But not for Portugal.
Because he was never able to break into the Portuguese national team, Lourenço became an Angolan citizen in 2011 and played for Angola.
This once again proved the shortcomings of Sporting Lisbon's youth system at this stage.
When their current youth players grew up, many of them couldn't even make it into a Portuguese national team that was already at its lowest ebb after the Golden Generation.
Benfica and Porto, just next door, were already far ahead of Sporting Lisbon in producing internationals.
Of course, among this group, there were still quite a few players with the potential to enter Portuguese youth national teams.
This also confirmed Trigueira's assessment of the "learning ability" of the players in front of him.
These players were considered outstanding when young, but as they aged, their inability to continue learning caused them to fall behind.
Including Lourenço—his future market value would peak at around four million euros, while most of the others would only reach one or two million.
Ronaldo was truly the only one who could break free from this environment.
Back in class, Lourenço stood up and answered Trigueira's question:
"There's an Alexander the Great on the other side, and we have a Caesar. I think Caesar is better."
Pfft!
This completely off-topic answer made the players burst into laughter.
Trigueira waved his hand, speechless.
Enough talking.
Talking any more would be like beating a dead horse.
After explaining so many tactical movements and positioning details, why were they suddenly talking about history?
Kai felt nothing about it.
These teammates were already relatively honest kids.
In England, young players from rich clubs were already hanging out in nightclubs at this age—some even had kids by now.
"Mr. Trigueira," Kai chased after him. "I want to talk to you about Ronaldo's position in the next match."
Trigueira stopped.
"I think your analysis just now was correct. Benfica is extremely dangerous. Their overall strength is much higher than ours, and tactically…" Kai coughed lightly, not feeling comfortable criticizing Marques's coaching level directly.
"I knew you wouldn't disappoint me! You're the smartest kid I've ever coached!" Trigueira's mood instantly improved. "Say whatever you want—speak freely!"
For a coach, as long as even one student listens carefully, the class isn't wasted.
His expectations for Kai were even higher than the club's expectations for Ronaldo.
"Cristiano Ronaldo's speed is his greatest weapon—it makes him almost invincible in this league," Kai said. "But I know João Pereira, who will face him next game, very well. He's also fast."
"On top of that, Benfica's three-man midfield all have strong defensive abilities."
"If they focus their defense on Ronaldo, it will be hard for him to perform."
"And if Ronaldo can't play well, we're almost certain to lose."
"So I think we can consider adjusting Ronaldo's position to center forward."
Trigueira frowned.
"Center?"
Why didn't Ronaldo play as a center when he was young?
Was it because he couldn't?
No.
It was because it would be a waste.
These days, many black shops already had their own "packaging routines."
In the future, the routine would be inflating stats—making goals and assists look ridiculous.
But in recent years, the trick was to cultivate speed merchants.
As long as a player was fast, stick him on the wing and let him sprint. Whoever ran looked like a superstar.
Weak physicality, poor ball control, average shooting, inaccurate passing, weak heading, bad vision—all of it could be covered up.
If you added a decent curve shot on top of speed, it was rock solid.
Simão Sabrosa and Ricardo Quaresma were products of this system.
With a bit of packaging, even a fifteen-million-euro transfer was possible.
Last year, Betis bought Denílson for a record fee. This year, Lazio signed Christian Vieri for a similarly shocking price. Those were the biggest transfers of the era.
Fifteen million was already superstar money.
Ronaldo had speed—he was born to be packaged.
But if he played as a center, whether or not he had the qualities of a target man, he wouldn't be able to sprint freely.
Without space to run, his speed advantage couldn't be showcased.
And the center-forward role was always heavily defended. Ronaldo wouldn't be able to terrorize defenses like he did on the wing.
The defensive intensity in the middle was completely different, and the visual impact would be much weaker.
So Trigueira couldn't understand Kai's proposal.
"My passing can already directly tear apart most defenses," Kai said confidently. "And Ronaldo and I have enough chemistry for him to receive my passes cleanly."
"The closer he is to goal, the greater the threat of both my pass and his shot."
"If he stays on the wing, my passing advantage is theoretically reduced."
"Although Benfica's center-back Miguel Veloso comes from a football family and is very capable, his height limits him. He's neither stronger nor taller than Ronaldo."
"Against a center-back like that, Ronaldo is fully capable of playing as a striker."
Kai continued persuading Trigueira.
But during subsequent training, new problems emerged.
The team's original striker, Lourenço, couldn't adapt to playing as a left winger and looked extremely awkward.
Without Lourenço's presence as a pivot in the middle, the midfield and forward lines began losing structure, and many familiar tactics stopped flowing.
This proved that Ronaldo wasn't yet suitable for that position either.
In the end, Marques had no choice but to restore the original setup to face the strongest team in the league this season—Benfica.
Normally, Marques might take risks.
But not this time.
Because with support from all sides, this match between Sporting Lisbon and Benfica had become the most watched U15 match in Europe.
Benfica U15 — the opening shot in mobilizing momentum for the first team's title charge.
Sporting Lisbon U15 — fresh off a massive victory over the highly favored Feyenoord.
Countless scouts and fans came to see Chris, who had defeated Van Persie, and Kai, whom Van Persie claimed was not inferior to the Dutch midfield twins.
November 30.
Lisbon.
Estádio da Luz.
The match was about to begin.
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