I Am Scouted by Real Madrid-Chapter 497 - 4: Night Meeting with the Madman
"It’s a bit cumbersome."
"Can the panel be simplified?"
Chen Zhong looked at the multitude of numbers, feeling a bit of a headache. At this moment, he couldn’t help but think of the FIFA series of soccer games, where each player has a data card.
As if responding to Chen Zhong’s thoughts, the data panel in front of him started to change, eventually generating a card similar to the player cards in the FIFA series, except that it lacked comprehensive positional attributes.
On the card, Chen Zhong was wearing a white Real Madrid jersey, with a captain’s armband on his arm, and behind him was the familiar Santiago Bernabeu Stadium, faintly visible with countless fans cheering enthusiastically.
Below were six data categories: Speed, Shooting, Passing, Dribbling, Defense, Body.
"79 Speed, 81 Shooting, 82 Passing, 76 Dribbling, 97 Defense, 93 Body."
Chen Zhong murmured to himself and then glanced at the smaller data. In terms of speed, Chen Zhong’s acceleration was quite slow, and when it came to shooting, apart from long shots and shot power, his other values were average. As for passing, his vision and arc gave him a high score, and finally, there were the defense stats.
In Chen Zhong’s defense data, his heading accuracy, defensive awareness, interception, and tackling were nearly maxed out, with only the interception data being somewhat lacking.
This was why, in the last season, Pellegrini wanted to fix Chen Zhong in a defensive midfielder position and let Alonso take on more of the organizing duties.
Because compared to Chen Zhong’s defense, his abilities in other areas were simply "worthless." But who knew that Chen Zhong learned so much from the "Milan Academy of Advanced Studies" last season?
Regarding body stats, Chen Zhong’s stamina scored just 80 points. Without the "Durability" badge, this would be a fatal shortcoming for him in matches.
As for various badges, besides "Anticipation," "Durability," and "Strength," he also learned some special badges from C. Ronaldo, Kaka, Pirlo, Inzaghi, and Beckham.
The most helpful among them must be Beckham’s Arc, which was a key factor that led to a qualitative change in Chen Zhong’s stats last season.
Every time the media outside touted him, Chen Zhong would look at his data panel, so he could have a clear understanding of himself, knowing that he still has a long way to go.
People often asked Chen Zhong why he trained so hard.
Chen Zhong always said, "Because I’m still far from my limit."
...
As time passed gradually, Real Madrid’s transfers proceeded methodically.
Pirlo left Real Madrid to join Juventus.
He was the second player to leave Real Madrid.
In return for Pirlo’s departure, Real Madrid welcomed the arrivals of Ricardo Carvalho, Angel Di Maria, Sami Khedira, and others.
Among them, Ricardo Carvalho and Angel Di Maria were players under Mendes’ management. Combined with Pepe, C. Ronaldo, and the team’s head coach Mourinho, along with a series of players chosen by Mourinho, a new force was slowly starting to form.
When this new group of players arrived at Sports City, Florentino stood by the window, calmly observing everything.
In the first phase of the Galaxy Battleship, Florentino aimed for Madrid to have more superstars. At that time, his policy of signing one superstar a year made a huge stir, enhancing Real Madrid’s commercial value and attention.
However, it also created two problems.
One was that Real Madrid, despite having superstars like Ronaldo, Zidane, and Figo, as well as local hero Raul, their luxurious lineup did not match their performance, which was less dazzling than their squad suggested.
This taught Florentino, upon his second tenure, an important lesson.
A team can only have one leader.
Besides the leader, other players must act as role players to serve this "head" or core.
Chen Zhong’s emergence seemed like a gift from heaven to him.
Handsome, tall, eloquent, with leadership qualities, strong spirit attributes, a local youth academy aura, and from the mysterious Eastern country, he carried all the buffs Florentino desired.
Moreover, Chen Zhong could somewhat help Real Madrid "weather" financial fair play.
During Real Madrid’s Galactic era, due to their dominance in stars, attention was focused on one club, which was not conducive to the professionalization and commercialization of Europe’s top five leagues, prompting UEFA to introduce financial fair play rules. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞
Within such rules and this new framework, undoubtedly, it added difficulty to Florentino’s player acquisitions.
At this time, Mendes appeared at the right moment.
Their collaboration had already begun in the first phase.
By 2009, the young players under Mendes gradually matured, and he became the world’s top agent at the time.
His most prized player was Manchester United’s star Cristiano Ronaldo.
Mendes seemed to be on the verge of starting an "era" at Real Madrid—a Mendes era, but Real Madrid had a "true king" sitting there.
