Four days after the multi-million-euro showdown, Sporting Lisbon U15 welcomed their final match of the regional league.
They narrowly defeated their rivals, Real Athletic Club, 3–1, held onto second place in the standings, and secured direct qualification for the North and South Division in the second half of the season.
Ronaldo continued his hot form in this game and scored twice.
His goal tally rose to 31, leaving him far ahead of everyone else.
Kai provided one assist, bringing his personal stats to nine goals and fourteen assists, ranking first in assists.
Then the entire European football world entered the winter break.
During the break, perhaps the biggest news for European fans was that Zinedine Zidane won the 1998 FIFA World Player of the Year award for his outstanding World Cup performance.
He became another superstar after Ronaldo to win both the Ballon d'Or and World Footballer of the Year in the same year.
But for Chinese fans, the biggest headline of the winter break was…
The Wahaha Team charging into European football!
5–3 against Schalke 04!
3–1 over Frankfurt!
2–0 against PSV Eindhoven!
1–1 draw with Sampdoria!
Narrow 4–3 win over Everton!
1–0 against Crystal Palace!
This team had achieved an impressive record across Europe!
And the final stop of their European tour was Lisbon!
…
"Hello, Mr. Triguera. I'll be looking after you for the next few days. You're the first European club executive to help us, and we'll always remember it."
Lin Tao, senior executive of Sports Weekly, came in person this time.
Accompanying him were the head coach and team leader of the Wahaha Team.
But what puzzled Lin Tao was why Triguera had brought Kai along to such a meeting between high-level officials.
Was it because Kai was Chinese?
Triguera shook his head.
"What you should thank isn't me, but Kai. He pushed hard to make this happen."
Lin Tao froze. He hadn't expected that.
He looked at the young Kai and said, "Thank you, Kai."
"It's what I should do."
His calm answer made everyone laugh.
"This kid talks like an adult."
"Yeah, small guy, but steady as hell."
Afterward, both sides briefly discussed the upcoming training sessions and friendly matches. Unlike other teams, the Wahaha Team would train at Sporting Lisbon for a week before the game.
This was the most important part of their European tour.
Sports Weekly planned to hype this heavily back home, hoping to spark new discussions and boost sales to compete with the Football newspaper.
After the serious talks ended, everyone started discussing dinner plans.
Triguera originally intended to decline, but when he heard the name of the restaurant, he immediately called the coaching staff.
"Brothers, let's go eat at a high-end place!"
Lin Tao had his own calculations.
With the fame from the "Battle of Ten Million Euros," Sporting Lisbon had become the hottest youth academy around.
Many people in China were calling for reform through youth development.
If Sporting Lisbon was willing to share their experience, Chinese football might actually have hope.
And Triguera was the ace coach of their academy.
Getting close to him meant getting close to half of Sporting Lisbon.
For this dinner, Triguera brought the coaching staff, Maxa, Kai, and Ronaldo.
On Lin Tao's side, two standout Wahaha players also joined — Yu Shihao and Wu Xudong.
Kai's head was full of question marks.
What the hell?
In this kind of situation, shouldn't you bring your captain or strongest player?
Maybe Triguera would spot some talent and give them a chance to start an overseas career.
Shouldn't it be Gao Lin and Hao Junmin coming instead?
Kai signaled Maxa to ask.
Maxa quickly understood.
"Mr. Lin, are you hiding your real trump cards?" Maxa asked.
Lin Tao immediately replied, afraid they'd look down on his squad.
"Don't worry. These two are the best players on our team."
"Yu Shihao scored six goals on this tour and is our top scorer. Even our main striker Gao Lin couldn't match him. Once he runs, nobody can stop him."
"And Wu Xudong is the fastest player on the team. Even though he's a right back, he's more dangerous than our winger Hao Junmin."
Kai felt like he was hallucinating.
Gao Lin and Hao Junmin weren't the best players?
Seriously?
Two random guys better than future national team players?
Then no wonder Chinese football keeps getting cut down at the roots.
Kai went over to greet them.
Both boys were surprised that Kai spoke fluent Chinese.
After chatting for a while, Kai finally understood why Lin Tao chose them.
Because of their age, they fit U15 best.
During that period, many players in the sports system altered their age, hometown, even nationality.
If you didn't change it yourself, the coach would change it for you.
Everyone was doing it.
So why had the Wahaha Team done so well in Europe?
Because most opponents were fourteen, with very few fifteen-year-olds. Even Everton's forward Rooney was only thirteen.
And Wahaha's players?
Some were actually sixteen or seventeen.
At this age, one extra year of development is huge.
It can be the difference between average and genius.
Triguera was a youth training expert.
Bringing overage players here was basically asking to get exposed.
…
The next day, on the training ground, Kai immediately noticed something fishy.
The Wahaha Team's physicality completely crushed Sporting Lisbon U15.
What difference was there between Zhao Peng and an adult?
Wasn't this just bullying kids?
Kai's parents were from Sichuan. They loved Cantonese songs and Northeastern comedy sketches.
They started multilingual education for him early, so Kai spoke Mandarin, Sichuan dialect, Cantonese, Northeastern dialect, Portuguese, Spanish, and English fluently.
Later, he studied French, German, Italian, and Russian as electives during his twelve years of schooling in Portugal.
So socially, Kai was a beast.
He communicated with the Wahaha players even more smoothly than they communicated among themselves.
He quickly became familiar with everyone.
Even the Wahaha coaching staff noticed him.
They looked at Kai's stats and felt confused.
Ronaldo's numbers were insanely strong.
Yu Shihao and Gao Lin were clearly inferior.
But Kai?
His numbers weren't outstanding either.
So why was he called Football Caesar?
Why was he labeled Portugal's future midfield core?
Or was it that any mainland player who trained in Portugal would reach this level?
Sometimes, being too nice and too easygoing makes people stop respecting you.
Especially in your own field.
Recently, the Wahaha coaching staff kept talking about Kai behind his back.
They often questioned why Sporting Lisbon let Sergio leave.
In their eyes, Sergio's physical stats, technical skills, and training performance were all better than Kai's.
Did Triguera mess up?
Maybe this "gold medal youth coach" wasn't that impressive after all.
Through this constant doubt, these domestic coaches seemed to regain confidence… fooling themselves in the process.
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