Ground football: Ronaldo thought I was going to assist him

Chelsea spent €16 million to acquire Frank Lampard, a promising young midfielder in the Premier League, who had been sought after by numerous top clubs, from West Ham United.

The Blues thus assembled a team with a very good lineup and overall strength.

This includes Marcel Desailly, the French national team's defensive stalwart; Hasselbaink, the Premier League Golden Boot winner; Zola, the Italian diminutive striker; Roberto Di Matteo; Albert Ferrer; and John Terry, a member of Sporting Lisbon's treble-winning team.

However, no one expected that the departures of Quaresma, Viana, and Terry would be the only players to leave Sporting Lisbon this summer.

Since then, Sporting Lisbon has not sold any more players.

Instead, they embarked on a series of incomprehensible player recruitment activities from all over the country.

It's even more outrageous than last summer.

"A record-breaking signing! Sporting Lisbon acquires Nice attacking midfielder Patrice Evra for €2 million!"

"What a sucker! Patrick Evra, an unremarkable versatile midfielder, is actually worth no more than 500,000 euros!"

Is Sporting Lisbon spending money recklessly? It's unclear what role Evra can play in Sporting Lisbon's squad.

Quaresma's successor? Evra's highlights from the past year are hardly impressive!

Honestly, let alone others, even Evra himself doesn't quite understand whether Sporting Lisbon made a mistake in buying him.

When Evra answered Triguera's call, Triguera's first words were: "Evra, first of all, I have to be honest with you, you will not be a starter for the team."

"But the team will have two regular lineups this season, and you are my starting left-back in the second regular lineup."

Evra: "Um... Mr. Triguera, did you buy the wrong player with the same name? I started out as a left winger, and later switched to attacking midfielder, so I know a little bit about the midfield and forward positions."

"But left-back... I've never played that position."

A laugh came from the other end of the phone: "That's you! You can start giving it a try next season. Many players have shone brightly in positions they've never played before. So, are you interested?"

How could Evra dare say he wasn't interested?

This is Sporting Lisbon!

Portuguese league champions!

Newly crowned triple champions!

They've secured a Champions League spot this year!

Evra even wished the new season would come sooner, so that when he played in the Champions League, he would notify all his relatives and friends in advance, especially his other twenty-three siblings, so that they could watch it on TV.

Evra, this time he's going to make a name for himself!

Shortly after Evra's transfer was completed, Serbian Super League champions Red Star Belgrade officially announced that their young player Nemanja Vidic had joined Sporting Lisbon for a record-breaking league transfer fee of two million euros.

This exorbitant price is a positive term, and it's different from the exorbitant price the media used to describe Evra.

Given Sporting Lisbon's keen eye for young players, and the fact that Vidic is clearly there to fill the void left by Terry's departure, people have begun to study Vidic.

This study found that he really was a promising talent.

Last year, he was loaned to Spartak Subotica in the second tier of Yugoslavia, where he scored six goals in 27 games, making full use of his 1.91-meter height advantage.

This player is similar to Cristanvar, the tall center-back Barcelona signed this season.

However, because Vidic plays outside of major leagues, it is difficult to determine the specific level of his defensive ability.

Of course, at this moment, no one would think that a player who plays in a lower-level league could become one of the world's best center-backs in the future.

At least for Barcelona fans, how can a two-million-dollar low-end product be compared to our seventeen-million-dollar high-end product?

You don't deserve it, you know that?

Some Barcelona fans even said on social media that if they face Sporting Lisbon again this season, and Sporting Lisbon dares to use a mediocre center-back like Vidic, Barcelona will crush Sporting Lisbon!

Upon disembarking from the plane, Duncan, who had already led the Portugal U16 team to Trinidad and Tobago, immediately expressed his regret: "Barcelona first needs to win the Champions League qualifiers."

"Otherwise, Barcelona might have to compete for the UEFA Cup again."

Barcelona fans were so angry they nearly vomited blood.

This is a mockery of their fourth-place finish in La Liga last season.

Barcelona fans, lacking anything to mock Deng Kai, have been searching everywhere.

And they actually found it.

Diario Sport: "Not every reserve team player's value multiplied by ten equals that of a first-team star! Sporting Lisbon has bought Maicon Douglas Cicenando from Cruzeiro in the Brazilian Serie A for two million euros!"

Mundo Deportivo: "Sporting Lisbon can't afford Giovanni for 20 million euros, but what is Cissenando for 2 million euros?"

Some media outlets even interviewed Giovanni, who had just joined Barcelona, ​​and he said: "I don't know Cicenando. I was already in the first team when he joined Cruzeiro's reserve team, so I don't know him."

Giovanni was lying; in fact, he had heard the name.

Rumors are circulating in the team that there's a very fast right-back in the reserve team.

Giovanni's absolute speed is not fast, and he knows this is one of his weaknesses, so he often avoids mentioning anything related to speed.

In response to Barcelona's taunts, Portuguese media outlet Record quoted Deng Kai's reply: "What Cisenando? His name is Maicon, remember that name!"

Maicon was very excited after seeing the report.

He also hopes that one day he can give such a domineering reply to the Catalans.

Based on what Mr. Triguera said to Maicon in a previous phone call, Maicon expressed his longing for his sporting career in Lisbon.

"Maicon, you will be our first choice for right-back in our 4-3-3 formation. Your speed, stamina, physical strength, and crossing ability are all excellent. Unlike Evra, who is just a decoration on the left, you will be the engine of our attack on the right!"

Evra: ? ? ?

……

Sometimes, the two sides with a deep-seated hatred actually only have a small conflict, and it is the constant instigation of others that causes things to escalate to an uncontrollable point.

That's the nature of the terrible relationship between Duncan, or rather Sporting Lisbon and Barcelona.

Take these two recent controversies, for example. Other media outlets insisted on comparing and linking Sporting Lisbon's Vidic and Maicon with Barcelona's hugely expensive Cristanvar and Giovanni.

If your four million is equivalent to their thirty-seven million, do you think Barcelona would be happy?

Deng Kai: Cough cough, you can't say it like that. It's not equal to, it's greater than.

I like playing football on the ground: Ronaldo thought I was going to assist him.