The small town of Patna in the northwest suburbs of Valencia, Spain.
Valencia's Sports City is located in this beautiful rural town, adjacent to the surrounding wealthy villa areas.
With three low training buildings, seven standard football fields, several small football fields and scattered fields, everyone from Valencia's first team to the youth echelon gathered in this sports city for training.
At this moment, Valencia head coach Benitez was sitting in the office of the first team training building, watching the game video on TV attentively. The pictures were all about a player No. 36.
Sudong from Sporting Lisbon!
Benitez watched with great concentration, as if he was immersed in the game. He didn't even notice that several of his right-hand assistants came to the office and sat down next to him.
Anyone who knows him well knows that this is the real Benitez.
He was always like this, not obsessed, but constantly thinking and deducing various possibilities.
It wasn't until the video finished playing that Benitez sighed with contentment and noticed the arrival of his assistants.
"coming."
Benitez glanced at his assistants and motioned for them to look at a player report submitted by the club's scouts. He leaned back and rubbed his aching eyes.
"Su Dong, 18 years old, currently ranks first in the Portuguese Super League's scorer list and is also tied for first in the assists list."
As soon as Benitez finished speaking, the chief assistant coach Paco Yesterdam was a little surprised, "Only eighteen years old?"
"Yeah." Benitez replied firmly.
"It's not easy." Yesterdam praised.
The Portuguese Super League has indeed not been very good in recent years. It is relatively low in the European rankings, so that their champion teams cannot directly enter the Champions League group stage, but are forced to play in the peripheral qualifiers.
To be honest, this is no longer the second-rate European league, it is even close to the third-rate.
Of course, this year, it seems that the Portuguese Super League teams are quite successful in the UEFA Cup. Defending champions Sporting Lisbon, Porto and Boavista, who failed to qualify for the Champions League group stage, have all made it to the top 16 of the UEFA Cup.
Obviously, the Portuguese Super League team also knows that if they don't gain more European points, they may lose their qualification for the third round of UEFA Champions League qualifying, and the situation will be even worse by then.
And Su Dong is a player from the defending champion Sporting Lisbon.
"This kid has attracted a lot of attention recently," scout Eduardo Macia said.
Benitez looked at the chief scout, "Have you known him?"
Marcia nodded, "I have watched the video several times and I feel it is pretty good. He is very distinctive. He is 1.95 meters tall and has good physical confrontation. But the main reason is that he is very fast and has very superb skills with his feet. This makes him
His characteristics are very comprehensive, a bit like Ajax’s Swedish center Zlatan Ibrahimovic.”
Ibrahimovic is recognized as one of the talented rookies in European football. Being compared with him is also an affirmation of Sudong's ability and potential.
"Some say he looks like Batistuta, some say he looks like Kluivert, and now you say he looks like Ibrahimovic..."
As he spoke, Benitez had a slight smile on his lips.
He didn't like laughing very much, but he really thought this was funny.
"None of these people have his speed and explosiveness." Benitez made his judgment.
Marcia thought for a while and nodded.
Batistuta, Kluivert, and rookie Zlatan Ibrahimovic are not fast players, but Sudong's speed and explosive power are very fast.
This is very interesting.
…
Valencia was somewhat lucky to win La Liga last season.
Their own strength is not that strong, nor is their performance very good. It is more because of problems with competitors such as Real Madrid, Deportivo La Coruna and Barcelona, which led to the Bat Legion finally winning the championship.
Even behind the championship, Valencia's own problems were clearly exposed, that is, offense.
As the La Liga champion, Valencia only scored 47 goals, tied for seventh in La Liga. This is definitely a bad performance. If it weren't for the team's strong defense, this championship would not have been won at all.
Therefore, Benitez’s focus this season is to strengthen the team’s offense. He has successively tried centers such as Carew, Mista, Sanchez, and Salva. He also defeated Basel 6-2 in the Champions League.
He scored 11 goals in three rounds and scored 10 goals in four league rounds. This is a wonderful performance.
But soon, Valencia's offense fell into trouble again.
There is no problem with defense, and there is no problem with midfield organization. There are slight problems in the frontcourt and wings, but the most serious problem is with the center.
Although Carew, Mista, Sanchez and Salva are all superior in strength and have outstanding advantages, their shortcomings are also obvious.
The center forward Benitez wants is one who can contain the defense, can cover both wings, can drop back to cover the midfield, and at the same time be able to attack from the back row. It is best to have a strong ability to seize opportunities in front of the goal.
.
But these characteristics are actually very contradictory.
For example, dropping back to meet the midfielder and then attacking, this requires speed.
But fast players often find it difficult to suppress the opponent's defense because they are thin and not good at strength confrontation.
There are centers that are fast and strong, but they are often rough and cannot cooperate well with wide players such as Vicente. Some even have poor ability to seize opportunities in front of the goal.
Benitez has heard comments more than once about his excessive demands on centers. He is not static, but is constantly adjusting his tactics to adapt to the characteristics of several centers on the team.
Until he saw Su Dong.
"The young marshal from Porto is also very interested in him. You two have very similar tastes." Yesterdam smiled.
Benitez and Mourinho have met, not only as opponents, but also in some UEFA coaching exchange activities. After all, they are both newly promoted young coaches, and the two are somewhat tit for tat.
"This is the future center template." Benitez said with great certainty.
"That would be troublesome." Marcia rubbed his hands and said with a wry smile.
Benitez was stunned and looked at his right-hand man.
"As far as I know, at least half of the four major league teams are staring at him now. Some can't wait to test him, some are waiting for the opportunity, and some are ready to pick up the slack at any time. Frankly speaking, we don't have much advantage, and This summer, we don’t have much transfer budget.”
This summer is the presidential election year in Valencia, and the two major candidates are currently working hard to build momentum.
One said he wanted to bring in Trezeguet, another threatened to bring in Ruud van Nistelrooy; one said he wanted to bring back Mendieta, and the other said he wanted to buy the talented Spanish winger Joaquin...
But no one can give a specific number. How much transfer budget does the team have this summer?
Ever since Real Madrid's chairman, with Figo, defeated Sanz and was elected chairman, the presidential elections of various Spanish clubs have never lacked stars, and Valencia's two candidates have been much inferior in comparison.
"Eduardo." Benitez looked at the chief scout, "Find a time and go to Lisbon to see for yourself and understand his situation. It is best to observe one or two games to see if he is as good as the reports and videos. Like in."
Reports are unreliable, and game video highlights may not be reliable, so in many cases, clubs still have to watch them live when selecting players.
"Okay, I'll get ready." Marcia agreed.
"And Quaresma." Benitez thought of it on the spur of the moment.
Marcia smiled bitterly, it was really a big problem.
Needless to say, Sudong is very popular now, Quaresma is equally popular. It is said that Barcelona is chasing him the most fiercely, and they want to bring the new Figo to the Nou Camp.
Although there is a precedent of Simao's defeat, who dares to say that Quaresma will not succeed in Barcelona?
…………
…………
Two days later, Alcocheti, Lisbon.
After the team finished training, Su Dong and others still stayed to practice additionally on their own.
This has become their daily routine.
Training with the team, everyone is together, so it is difficult for Su Dong to have time to train his weaknesses and deficiencies in a targeted manner. Only during extra training can he arrange some training items that he needs.
By the time the extra training was over, dusk was approaching.
Everyone dragged their tired bodies back to the dressing room, and Su Dong went to take a shower first.
Halfway through washing, Tonito suddenly rushed in and shouted excitedly to Su Dong: "Su, guess who I just bumped into?"
After saying that, the kid ran out like crazy.
Su Dong, who was covered in foam and was so frightened that he covered his key parts, looked confused and almost cursed, "You have encountered a ghost, are you so excited?"
"Guess who I just met?" Tonito's voice came in from outside.
Seeing him like that, everyone asked curiously, but in the end, this guy actually pretended to be mysterious and secretive.
It wasn't until Su Dong came out wrapped in a bath towel that he walked to the head coach's position and coughed twice, as if something big was about to be announced.
"I see Eduardo Macia!"
Everyone was stunned.
Who is this?
Tonito was very embarrassed. After he finished speaking, instead of the surprise and comments he had expected, he was silenced.
I don’t know anyone, so embarrassing!
"Eduardo Macia, don't you all know him?" Tonito was very depressed about these ignorant guys.
"Tell me directly, who is it?" Ronnie laughed out loud.
"Valencia's chief scout and Rafael Benitez's right-hand man."
Only then did everyone realize.
"But what does this have to do with you?" Pepe was very surprised.
"Valencia, Benitez, Macia..." Tonito found that these guys' minds were really slow. He could only click on these keywords, and finally patted his chest.
Didn't say, there is still me.
Everyone doesn't know that this kid is devoted to Benitez and brags all day long. When Benitez coached Tenerife, he almost bought him back. Now that he sees Masia, he is probably thinking, Benitez.
Si finally didn't forget him and thought of him again.
This is somewhat like the feeling of a kept mistress expecting a man to spend the night.
"You should give up, they have Aimaar." Ronnie pointed at Tonito angrily and said.
Tonyto didn't care and said with a smile: "I can be Aimar's substitute."
It seems that not only can he do it, but he is also very willing to do it.
