Pfft.
It should be: "Thanks to my father, my mother… and Kai." Yeah, that format sounds right.
Across the entire European football world, except for Portuguese fans, almost no one doubts Spain or Guardiola.
But for Portuguese fans, it's hard to relate—because "Guardiola" has basically become a curse word for them, used to describe someone else's bad luck.
Is there a Guardiola in the Spanish national team?
In Portuguese slang, that basically translates to: "Spain is screwed!"
…
"Ding! You have won the match. This game is rated SS!"
"You received star drop ×2!"
"The Glory of Portugal's Golden Generation (2/5): The 'Golden Generation' is just a general term. Not every member will be remembered by the world. Some are destined to play supporting roles. Defensive Movement +1, Interception +2, Steal +2, Clearance +2, Block +2. Collect all glory for generous rewards!"
"Deco's Choice: As a Brazilian, Deco accepted naturalization by the Portuguese FA for his football dream, played for Portugal, and achieved great success. As a Chinese player, you will also face a choice at eighteen. No matter which side you choose, you can still trigger rewards from the unchosen side."
"Ding! Deco's Choice has pre-determined your affiliation. You have received the nationality selection reward."
"You have chosen Chinese nationality and obtained: Height Limit Unlock +20cm!"
"You have chosen Portuguese nationality and obtained: three random Physical Attribute Cap Unlocks (+5 each)!"
What the hell?
This works too?
Kai was stunned.
Height came rushing in like a goddamn tornado!
As for the "Glory of Portugal's Golden Generation," he basically ignored it.
That was probably dropped by Capucho—pretty useless.
Portugal's Golden Generation: Say that again???
But Deco really delivered. Kai didn't ask for that jersey for nothing.
Deco's story had been mentioned before—he's the most classic successful case of a naturalized player.
His drops might not mean much to others, but to Kai, they're absolutely insane.
So there are rewards tied to nationality choices!
Deco's Choice basically gave Kai two nationality-based buffs.
Best of both worlds—he got everything.
Kai received both effects.
The first was a height cap increase.
That means even though Kai is currently only 1.65 meters tall, his peak height can reach 1.85 meters in the future.
Don't worry about whether that's enough—it's more than enough.
Looking at football, most top midfielders are around 1.75 meters—players like Luka Modrić, Andrea Pirlo, Rafael van der Vaart, and Gheorghe Hagi.
Shorter ones like Xavi, Andrés Iniesta, and Wesley Sneijder are around 1.7 meters.
Taller ones like Kevin De Bruyne, Rui Costa, Frank Lampard, and Steven Gerrard are about 1.8 meters.
At 1.85 meters? Aside from Zinedine Zidane and Kaká, who else?
Even Cristiano Ronaldo's real height is around 1.83 to 1.85 meters, right?
Ronaldo, from now on you'll never see the swirl on top of my head again!
Of course, height doesn't grow overnight.
Kai's first growth phase has already passed.
The second major growth phase usually starts around eighteen.
It still has to follow natural biological laws.
Boys generally experience rapid height growth between fourteen and eighteen.
But it comes in stages.
If your first growth spurt happens at fourteen, the second one usually won't come until about three years later.
Kai had a big growth spurt last summer.
Even though his height cap has now been unlocked, realistically, reaching 1.8 meters will probably still take about two years.
Kai wasn't too concerned about that.
Over the next two years, even gaining another five centimeters to match Xavi would already be solid, right?
Being stuck at 1.6 meters is honestly not enough.
Lionel Messi: Ahem… I think it's perfectly fine.
Besides height, choosing Portuguese nationality also unlocked limits on overall physical attributes.
At that moment, Kai noticed red boxes appearing behind various physical stats.
Those numbers in the red boxes represented the upper limits of each attribute.
For example:
Kai's current speed is 71, but the cap is 80.
Acceleration is 73, cap 85.
Agility 77, cap 90.
Shot power 67, cap 85.
Jumping 63, cap 80.
Strength 64, cap 80.
Flexibility 76, cap 90.
Stamina 71, cap 85.
It's harsh—but it's real.
Technical skills can always improve with repetition.
If you can't break through for a while, it just means you've hit a bottleneck—you need more accumulation, not that improvement is impossible.
So-called "talent" or "epiphany" simply shortens the time needed to break through.
Even something like ball feel, which seems hard to change, can still improve with massive training.
But physical attributes are different.
There's a hard cap.
Once you reach it, improving even 0.01 seconds becomes incredibly difficult—sometimes impossible.
This has nothing to do with effort, or even height and weight.
It's pure biological talent.
Height and weight can influence your speed, strength, and flexibility in the short term—but they don't change the upper limits.
That's the magic of human biology.
Because of this, both football and basketball have a major misconception when predicting players—that smaller players and bigger players each have inherent advantages.
The argument is that smaller players are faster, more agile, and have better touch.
But in reality, bigger players have height and strength advantages—and with genetic optimization, they can eventually match or even surpass smaller players in speed and agility.
It sounds crazy, but it's already happening—with players like Kevin Durant, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Victor Wembanyama.
The ultimate future athlete? Taller, faster, stronger, more flexible, more skilled—with longer reach and better proportions.
The same applies to football.
The ideal future eleven will likely be taller players with balanced proportions—stronger, faster, and with elite ball control.
This is driven by genetic optimization through selective pairing, as well as the widespread influence of modern nutrition and hormones.
It's essentially breaking through the invisible limits of human physical potential.
Just like how Kai is breaking his limits through the system.
As for genetic optimization—there are books on that.
Children from wealthy families often have good looks and strong physiques. Beyond nutrition, their parents' choice of partners plays a huge role.
Over generations, this leads to significant genetic optimization.
After hundreds of years, that advantage becomes extremely obvious.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You can visit my Patreon page:
Patreon.com/PhoeniXcel
I upload 2 chapters daily on Patreon!
There are 230+ advanced chapters available for you to read.
Your support would be greatly appreciated.
📢 Check out my new Naruto fanfic!
[Marvel: Living the Laid-Back Life]