After the European Youth Championship, players who were injured during the match—such as José Fonte, Cristiano Ronaldo, and Kai—underwent more comprehensive medical examinations at the hospital.
The idea had actually been proposed by Kai.
The examination process took quite a long time and was very systematic.
Kai especially insisted on adding a detailed heart examination, which left many people confused.
Could it be… that he had a heart problem?
"…No problem? That shouldn't be possible!" Kai stared at the medical report in his hands, looking completely baffled. "I clearly remember… this isn't scientific."
Standing beside him, Cristiano Ronaldo clenched his fists.
"What? The fact that I'm perfectly healthy surprises you that much?"
"How badly do you want me to be diagnosed with some terminal illness?"
"When you face a footballer better than you, is the only thing you can do curse him behind his back?"
Yes.
The report Kai was holding was Ronaldo's medical report.
"Uh… well…" Kai smiled faintly.
"The footballer who's supposedly worse than me… are you talking about Cristiano Ronaldo, the guy who had worse attacking statistics than me in this European Youth Championship and won two fewer personal awards?"
Ronaldo snapped.
He was ready to throw hands.
The two of them argued for a while until Ronaldo's family arrived.
"Alright, I'm leaving. See you in a month and a half." Ronaldo waved at Kai, ready to head out.
His vacation was finally about to begin.
"Don't just mess around," Kai said seriously. "You're at the age where your football skills should improve rapidly. You should still keep training during the holidays."
But then Kai turned around and said to Ronaldo's mother:
"Don't let him train too much either."
"Take him out, let him relax, go for walks."
"This season has been extremely intense for us."
"Pressure can motivate people—but too much pressure can crush them."
Ronaldo's mother was deeply touched by Kai's concern and warmly invited him to visit their home.
However, Kai politely declined.
This summer, his parents planned to take him back to China to visit relatives and friends.
After working abroad for so many years, Mr. and Mrs. Deng could count on one hand the number of times they had gone home.
Even though they had been sending plenty of money back, the long journey made frequent visits difficult.
More importantly, they had rarely had long holidays before.
But things were different now.
They had both resigned from their old jobs and were no longer working as porters.
Instead, the warehouse where Kai stored his signed football collection was now managed by the two elders.
Their main job was maintaining and organizing the collection.
Which, to be honest, basically meant…
there wasn't much work to do at all.
After watching Ronaldo and his family leave, Kai frowned.
To be honest, Ronaldo's heart issue should have appeared around this year or the next.
That was why Kai insisted everyone go to the hospital for detailed examinations—to deal with the problem in advance.
But unexpectedly, Ronaldo's medical report showed no issues at all.
Kai even consulted a medical professor from the University of Lisbon.
The professor explained that some diseases show no signs before they occur.
No clinical symptoms.
No structural abnormalities in the body.
They simply appear suddenly.
Such conditions are extremely difficult to predict or prevent.
Only after the symptoms appear can doctors prescribe the proper treatment.
Fortunately, sudden attacks of this type of condition are usually not fatal or serious.
That explanation finally allowed Kai to relax.
Beep. Beep. Beep.
Kai's phone rang.
"Hello? Sister Yunzhu…"
"Oh, I'm fine. Completely healthy."
"Actually, perfect timing. I'll be returning to China in two days."
"Why don't you contact the club first, and when I arrive we can check the situation together…"
"…Alright. We'll do the interview then."
Kai stayed in China for half a month.
During that time, besides occasionally calling Anne Hathaway, he mainly dealt with the transfer issues of several young football players.
The situation with Feng Xiaoting was already settled.
He came from a sports family, and his parents had a clear training plan for him.
That was actually a good thing.
To be honest, there was nothing wrong with Feng Xiaoting's development path in China.
His real problem came later—after the World Youth Championship, when he failed to find the right direction in time.
He was like a piece of fine jade.
But if jade isn't polished at the right moment, its final quality will naturally be lower.
So for Feng Xiaoting, moving to Europe could wait.
But for several other players…
that wasn't the case.
Those players came from ordinary families, without the advantages of a sports background.
They might look like top talents now.
But in the future?
At best they might end up working some grey administrative job in a state-owned company, occasionally accompanying leaders to play football in corporate entertainment matches.
Look at Kerry in the China Construction football system tournaments.
He was stronger than ordinary people.
But compared to professional players?
The gap was enormous.
And compared to stars in Europe's top five leagues?
It was like comparing a sparrow to an eagle.
Kai personally contacted several players.
Yu Shihao, Hao Junmin, Shao Jiayi, and others had also heard about Kai's achievements.
They knew that Kai had already won two championships this year.
When Kai returned to Tongliao after the season, his parents were incredibly proud.
They even gave him the best white horse from the family's pasture.
They also prepared a set of traditional riding clothes decorated with silver ornaments.
In their region, that kind of traditional clothing couldn't simply be bought with money.
You had to achieve something first.
Otherwise you wouldn't even dare wear it.
It was said that Kai's former school in Tongliao had already listed him as an outstanding alumnus.
The school even introduced new regulations for its football field—returning the pitch to students who wanted to play football and encouraging football activities in physical education classes.
Kai was only fifteen or sixteen.
Yet look at what he had already achieved.
Everyone has regional influence.
And what about Yu Shihao, Hao Junmin, Shao Jiayi, and the others?
Of course they were impressed.
The first person to eat the crab had already made money.
It wasn't too late for them to follow.
Not to mention that when Kai met them, he gave them signed footballs, signed jerseys, and signed posters.
Signed by legends such as:
Eusébio
Luís Figo
Zinedine Zidane
Pep Guardiola
David Beckham
Paul Scholes
If they went to Portugal, they might even meet these players in person.
Not at some fan event.
But in real life.
Who could possibly resist that?
"Mom… I want to go to Portugal to play football."
"My grades are just average anyway. Even if I get a regular degree later, I'll probably earn only two or three thousand yuan a month."
"Do you know how much Kai earned in just half a year of playing football?"
"Converted to our currency, it's tens of thousands of yuan!"
"And players like Kai—young stars who've won many individual awards—can earn hundreds of thousands in prize money alone."
"Not to mention sponsorship deals."
"I heard Adidas is planning to sign him. The signing bonus alone might be one million yuan!"
"I'm not going there just for the money, Mom and Dad…"
"But if I can pursue my football dream and earn good money at the same time, why shouldn't we give it a try?"
This first wave of discussions between the young players and their families caused ripples in many households.
But it still wasn't quite enough.
The final push came from Kai again.
He asked Sporting CP to negotiate with a high-quality public school in Portugal for the youth players.
In fact, many clubs already had similar arrangements.
They just never promoted them heavily because they didn't think it mattered.
But Kai knew exactly what Chinese parents worried about most.
Education.
Education.
And still… education.
So Kai took this policy and asked Jiang Yunzhu to explain it carefully to the parents.
The effect was immediate.
"This is one of the best public schools in Portugal."
"The education quality is recognized internationally."
"Many wealthy families send their children abroad early just to access schools like this."
"This isn't to say Chinese education is bad."
"In fact, there are plenty of terrible schools overseas too."
"But the school arranged by Sporting Lisbon is genuinely high-quality."
"I heard that even the children of the richest man in that province study there."
"And later, students can apply directly to universities across Europe."
"It's much easier than trying to enter a top university in China."
"And the universities you get into will still be world-famous institutions."
"Even if they're not elite universities…"
"You'll still graduate as an international student."
At that time, overseas 'wild universities' hadn't yet been widely exposed as scams.
Studying abroad still sounded extremely attractive.
Even twenty years later, although degrees from some overseas schools had lost value, the experience of studying abroad was still considered a strong advantage.
At the very least…
it proved that your family had money.
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