Beast King Costa

Chapter 233 Santos' Recognition
The next morning, the Shandong team's bus arrived at the door of the hotel where Benfica was staying. After waiting for Benfica and his party to finish their breakfast, they drove Benfica to the temporary training ground arranged by the club to prepare for tomorrow's friendly match.

"Unfortunately, the seafood here is still a little worse than that in Qingdao."

When Moreto ate the shrimp pasta, he couldn't help but feel emotional: "I really have endless aftertaste for the food in Qingdao a few days ago."

"It's okay, the taste is not bad."

It didn't matter to Diego, anyway, he hurriedly finished his meal, and he had to inspect Yang Xu's trial training with Fernando Santos later.

Diego shrugged helplessly and said, "After all, Jinan is an inland city, so there must not be as many fresh seafood as Qingdao."

For ingredients, especially seafood, there are differences in various cities in China, and Diego is not surprised.

The later Diego was born in a seaside city, but he lived in the inland area. When he was a child, he tasted all kinds of seafood that came directly from the seaside, and when he went to the inland area to eat the so-called "seafood feast" , it is inevitable that there is a look of disgust on his face-is this f*cking, is it really seafood? !Why is there a sour smell that has been frozen for a long time?
Or the same sentence: no comparison, no harm.

"Don't worry about chatting, everyone, hurry up. Start early after breakfast. Today we will practice the formation for tomorrow's game."

Coach Fernando Santos still attaches great importance to tomorrow's friendly match and said that he had finished his breakfast early and urged the young people who were still chatting and wondering what to eat.

Perhaps Fernando Santos can feel that the management of Shandong Luneng Club attaches great importance to this friendly match?
Therefore, the old coach also hopes to play a wonderful game with the opponent, so that both sides can gain something in this game.

At about 9 o'clock in the morning, the Benfica team boarded the bus to the training ground.

I have to say that the arrangement of Shandong Luneng Club is really considerate. This elegant training ground is only about 10 minutes away from the hotel where Benfica stayed, so there is no need to waste too much time on the road.

When the Benfica team arrived at the training ground, the staff of the Shandong team had already prepared the training equipment needed by Benfica and placed them on the sidelines.

Even the Shandong team arranged for seven staff members to stay at the training ground to assist Benfica in today's training.

Not only that, but Yang Xu's agent has brought the rising star from the Liaozu youth training to the training ground in Jinan and started doing warm-up activities, waiting for the Benfica group to arrive.

"Oh???"

Fernando Santos was slightly surprised: "Yang came so early. One hour earlier than the agreed time."

Diego also hurriedly said: "Yes. It can be seen that Yang Xu is very concerned about this trial training."

"That's a good attitude."

After Fernando Santos arranged for his coaching team to start today's training session with other players, he took Diego to the direction where Yang Xu and his agent were.

Seeing Diego and Fernando Santos walking in their direction, Yang Xu's manager hurried up to greet him, and said in fairly standard English: "Hello, coach Santos! I'm Yang Xu's manager. "

Obviously, Yang Xu's agent had done his homework. Before Fernando Santos introduced himself, he recognized that this was the Benfica head coach Santos who came to Yang Xu's trial training today.

Fernando Santos "Hello, you guys are early."

After Diego translated, Yang Xu's manager was also surprised that Diego, a foreigner, could speak such fluent Chinese.

However, Diego has explained it to different people many times in the past few days, so he doesn't bother to explain it to Yang Xu's manager right now.

Ever since, Yang Xu's agent had a direct discussion with Fernando Santos.

"Today's trial training for Yang is only the first trial training. We will make an objective evaluation of Yang's basic skills before deciding whether to invite Yang to Portugal for a comprehensive trial training. After passing the second trial training, We will sign Young directly and enter the echelon of Benfica."

"echelon???"

Yang Xu's agent seemed a little dissatisfied: "Isn't it the first team? Coach Santos, Yang Xu has great potential. He can directly play in the rotation of Benfica's first team."

Fernando Santos was also too lazy to explain too much, he said with a smile: "Whether Yang can directly enter the first team, let's wait for the trial training."

"Understand understanding..."

Yang Xu's manager realized that his petty emotions had been seen through, so he smiled awkwardly and yelled at Yang Xu who was doing warm-up activities: "Xu, come here and say hello to Coach Santos."

"coming."

Diego looked at Yang Xu, the main striker of the national football team in later generations, with interest.

At this age, Yang Xu still looks very young. After all, he is not yet 20 years old and has not played in the first team of Liaozu. At this moment, he maintains the curiosity that he should have in his youth about various things.

"Hello, Coach Santos, I'm Yang Xu! Playing as a striker! I hope you can give me some advice."

Yang Xu's English is obviously still at the beginner's level, and the grammar is still very Chinese, but Diego probably understood what Yang Xu meant, and immediately helped him translate it into Portuguese.

According to Fernando Santos, Diego repeated the meaning of his words to Yang Xu: "Yang, I am very glad to meet you! Next, you will accept a series of trial training, are you ready?"

"Ah! I'm ready!"

Yang Xu hurriedly nodded like a chicken pecking rice.

Like Yu Dabao, he was very curious about Diego, a foreigner who is very fluent in Chinese, but he did not have Yu Dabao's outgoing personality, so he immediately struck up a conversation with Diego.

I saw Yang Xu nervously returned to the court, and his manager still said to him seriously: "Xu, do a good job! Play less with your feet and use your best header Show it to coach Santos. They European teams like high center forwards like you."

Yang Xu quickly responded, "I know Uncle Wang."

Diego was speechless for a moment.

What does it mean to play less with your feet?

Can a player without footwork gain a foothold in a top European team?
What's more, Benfica is still a Portuguese Super League giant team positioned as a frequent visitor in the UEFA Champions League group stage.A high center forward who has no footwork and can only hit headers can hardly even enter the Benfica echelon, let alone the first team.

To Diego's relief, Yang Xu did not really follow his agent's request, giving up his footwork and only showing off his header skills.

Under the watchful eyes of Fernando Santos and his coaching staff, Yang Xu was quite daring to make moves, and he played all kinds of footwork with proficiency.

This really caught Diego's eyes.

Later generations of Diego's impression of Yang Xu, the Zhengyin center of the national team, is that he has a good header.

Diego underestimated Yang Xu's footwork, combination of man and ball, and field reading ability.

According to the evaluation criteria of the Benfica youth team, Yang Xu's confidence, footwork, awareness, and reading ability at this time are all enough to play in the main rotation of the U19 echelon.

Of course, Yang Xu also has a fatal flaw - physical resistance!
The members of Fernando Santos' coaching staff are still a little dissatisfied with Yang Xu's physical confrontation ability-Yang Xu's physical condition can only be called average, and he seems a little afraid of confrontation, and seems a little afraid of getting hurt?
On this issue, Fernando Santos' coaching staff asked Yang Xu's agent.

Yang Xu's agent was very greasy, and he smiled and said perfunctorily: "Yang Xu is a little nervous to accept the trial training of a foreign club for the first time. Besides, there will be a match for the national youth team to play, so he must protect him well." Say it yourself. Besides, the child is still growing, so it won't be too late to pay attention to confrontation after the body is formed, right?"

"understand."

Benfica's coaches didn't ask Yang Xu's agent too much.

After all, it can be heard from his answer that this greasy middle-aged man is completely blind, and he doesn't know how he got the football agent's license.

Diego vaguely heard the members of Fernando Santos' coaching staff communicate with him about their views on the results of Yang Xu's trial training.

"Fear of confrontation is a mentality problem, which will limit a player's upper limit."

"This player has good potential, but his body is too thin. He lacks confrontation in the center position and can't hold the ball."

"Obviously, Yang is aware of his lack of confrontation ability, so he has been avoiding physical contact with defensive players."

"To play the center position, you still need to have the physical quality of Diego, otherwise you can become the fulcrum of the team's frontcourt."

"Perhaps it can be trained in other positions! For example, winger and full-back. At least this player's speed is not bad, but the quality of crossing is terrible. It takes a lot of time to train."

……

Hearing the coaches boasting about his physical fitness, Diego was overjoyed.

It can be seen that the members of Fernando Santos' coaching staff still quite recognize themselves.

However, Diego was also worried about Yang Xu's prospects.

Obviously, Fernando Santos’s team’s evaluation of Yang Xu is far worse than Yu Dabao’s—although they think Yu Dabao’s inexperience, poor reading ability, and high ceiling are not high enough, but they recognize Yu Dabao’s attitude on the court and his courage to confront style.

As a professional player, the most taboo thing is the fear of confrontation!

If he is afraid of confrontation for fear of injury on the court, then even if this player has sky-high talent, it will be difficult to realize more than half of it.

A truly outstanding player needs to be able to show technical movements to the fullest despite intense physical confrontation.

More and more African players are gaining a foothold in the European arena. It is not that the footwork and skills of African players have made great progress in recent years, but because of their style of daring to fight hard and seek physical confrontation with their opponents. Found a place in the European professional league.

Perhaps the footwork of African players is far inferior to that of European and South American players, but their physical fitness and daring style of confrontation are among the best in world football.

On the tactical board of most coaches, the African defensive gate and the African defensive backbone have become an indispensable part.

In Jose Mourinho's Chelsea, Makelele and Essien are just such representatives of African players.

(PS: Makelele was originally from Congo (Kinshasa), and then immigrated to France with his family, and joined the French nationality to play for the French national team.)
The members of the coaching staff basically gave unfavorable comments, but Fernando Santos just listened and observed quietly, still retaining his own point of view.

After about an hour passed, Fernando Santos finally ended Yang Xu's trial training.

Seeing that Fernando Santos was still thinking about something, Diego tentatively asked: "Coach Santos, what do you think of the results of Yang Xu's trial training?"

To Diego's surprise, coach Santos actually recognized Yang Xu's talent in the trial training.

"I think it's pretty good. Young can be a good player."

"Uh……"

Immediately, all members of Fernando Santos' coaching staff were stunned.

None of them expected that Fernando Santos actually held the completely opposite point of view.

But after all, Santos is the head coach, and his opinion is the most important.

After Santos agreed with Yang Xu's trial training, the members of his coaching staff all kept silent and stopped mentioning Yang Xu's shortcomings.

"Yang's footwork and aerial control are quite good, basically reaching the level required by Benfica for young people. It is just that his body needs to be stronger and his playing needs to be more aggressive. If he can improve these two aspects, he will break the current ceiling!"

Diego helped Fernando Santos relay his personal views, and added himself: "Come on! Don't be afraid of physical confrontation!"

For this, Yang Xu bowed to Santos very excitedly and thanked him: "Thank you Coach Santos! Then when can I go to Portugal to complete a comprehensive trial training?"

"Wait for the club to notify your agent!"

Diego smiled and said to Yang Xu: "Coach Santos quite recognizes your talent, maybe we will have a chance to be teammates in the future."

Yang Xu nodded excitedly: "Ah! I hope I can study abroad in Europe soon! I hope we can become teammates soon!"

Obviously, Yang Xu is very yearning for traveling in Europe.He also hopes to be able to play against various European giants like Yang Chen, the first Chinese striker in the five major leagues.

However, Diego never imagined that Yang Xu's manager racked his brains to win this trial training opportunity, not simply helping Yang Xu travel to Europe.

Just when Yang Xu was already imagining infinitely about his future in Europe, his manager showed a triumphant smile of "everything is under control" from the side.

The water here is very deep!
(End of this chapter)