I Am Scouted by Real Madrid

Chapter 257: Chapter 8: New Arrivals! Cardozo Out, Ricardo Killed (Part 2)

In the end, Inzaghi still scored.

Although his teammates were well aware of Inzaghi’s tendencies, he still managed to linger on the most dangerous line each time. This time, Inzaghi positioned himself early, succeeded in beating the offside trap, stopped the ball with one touch, and quickly shot it past Dida, scoring the first goal for the reserve team.

The final score of this training match was 2:1, with Kaka and Ronaldinho each scoring a goal.

After the training match, Inzaghi, Pirlo, and Kaka walked over to Chen Zhong, chatting and laughing. This marked the beginning of Chen Zhong integrating into the Milan locker room. What surprised Chen Zhong the most, however, were the three consecutive special tasks that appeared.

[Special Task (1): Initial Understanding of Instinct.]

[Task Objective: Complete 1000 conscious offensive runs in official matches.]

[Task Reward: Upon completion, an Instinct (Bronze) Badge will be awarded, and Special Task (2) will be unlocked.]

[Special Task (1): Initial Mastery of the Surgical Knife.]

[Task Objective: Complete 1000 effective through passes.]

[Task Reward: Upon completion, a Through Pass (Bronze) Badge will be awarded, and Special Task (2) will be unlocked.]

[Special Task (1): Initial Mastery of Rush.]

[Task Objective: Imitate Kaka’s dribbling traits and accumulate over 100 kilometers of dribbling distance.]

[Task Reward: Upon completion, a Rush (Bronze) Badge will be awarded, and Special Task (2) will be unlocked.]

The appearance of these three special tasks indicated that Inzaghi, Pirlo, and Kaka approached him with good intentions, even with a teaching mindset. This made it easier for them to interact with Chen Zhong when they sensed his friendly attitude.

After all, not every young player is easy to approach, especially since Chen Zhong was previously considered the ”Crown Prince” of Real Madrid, and was only on a short-term loan for half a season.

They were prepared for this ”Crown Prince” to be difficult to approach, especially since Chen Zhong had trained alone for 15 days not long ago.

During the subsequent training, Chen Zhong witnessed Pirlo’s surgical through passes, Inzaghi’s incredible positional awareness, and Kaka’s unique combination of small quick steps and long strides for ball control.

In the training match, Chen Zhong also noticed Kaka’s unique dribbling skills.

His long strides combine speed with flair, making various turns and surges into the penalty area after half-turn dribbles, approaches that are very threatening.

His acceleration and evasive maneuvers from a standstill were impressively fast!

But Kaka didn’t just dribble aimlessly; he used a change of pace and rhythm, combining small quick steps with long strides, resembling Barcelona’s Messi in some ways.

In a match where Barcelona lined up to welcome Real Madrid last season, Chen Zhong faced Messi. However, at that time, Barcelona was out of form due to internal problems and issues with tactics.

Nonetheless, the dribbling style shown by Messi left a lasting impression on Chen Zhong.

In some respects, Messi and Kaka belong to the same category. Messi is quick with his footwork, has short legs, and a low center of gravity, allowing him to adjust to opponents’ movements promptly, always staying just a touch faster.

Kaka also combined smaller steps and longer strides to achieve this, using quick, small steps to assess defenders before exploiting space with a burst of long strides.

Especially during standstill acceleration and evasions.

Opponents knew what Kaka intended but still couldn’t stop him.

Among these three badges, what Chen Zhong most wanted to learn was Kaka’s Rush.

Unfortunately, meeting the requirements to master Kaka’s Rush badge might take two to three years. After all, it involves 100 kilometers of dribbling in matches, and typically a match involves about 10 kilometers of running, sometimes as low as 6 kilometers, though such cases are rare.

This running includes non-dribbling movements, whereas dribbling movements are often much less, and also depend on the player’s position and tactical focus. Kaka’s style involves specific dribbling techniques, like quick small steps combined with surging runs.

Inzaghi’s Instinct is also hard to master in the short term.

The only relatively easier skill to master is Pirlo’s Surgical Knife, as the 1000 effective through passes do not have to occur in official matches and can be worked on during training.

”So, the main goal now is to enhance my passing, both long and short, to at least reach a level of 75, which is below average for a professional player.”

At present, in terms of football skills, Chen Zhong excels in physical confrontations, balance, and jumping, but for other aspects, he’s just at a professional level, barely meeting the passing threshold of a professional player.

Although he had once improved to a level of 70 last season, it had declined due to other reasons.

While his overall potential is increasing, it’s essential to spend efforts where it matters most; better to excel in some key areas than to be mediocre across the board.

However, the following day, on January 19th, Chen Zhong received a call from a Real Madrid teammate while in Milan, informed that Calderon had resigned from his position as Real Madrid president, and Schuster was dismissed.

”Real Madrid has now fallen into chaos.”

These were the last words of his teammates, who clearly didn’t expect Calderon to resign; after all, just recently, Calderon had confidently declared, ”Only cowards resign, only cowards or those trying to conceal something choose to resign.”

But now!?

Not even a day later, and Calderon had resigned!

This caught Real Madrid off guard, plunging them into chaos.

Calderon’s term was supposed to last until 2010, and announcing his resignation without prior notice left Real Madrid completely unprepared!

The former Vice President of Real Madrid, Vicente Boluda, now the Vice President, will become the acting president of the club, assuming the responsibility of managing the club.

Mijatovic would temporarily remain at Real Madrid, but the club’s board already declared early elections. At the same time, a host of Spanish media relentlessly exposed Calderon’s scandals, detailing his misappropriation of public funds, exorbitant commissions, and fraudulent activities during member meetings.

Even Calderon’s recent attempts to restore trust by dismissing several close aides were met with media ridicule.

In his last-ditch efforts, Calderon’s call to bring Chen back and build a team around him was outright rejected by the media.

Considering Chen was loaned out specifically because of you, Calderon,

And now you’re saying this to us?

Abandoned by everyone, Calderon eventually chose to resign, unable to bear the pressure from within and outside the club.

In fact, news of Calderon’s intended resignation had already surfaced in Spanish media days earlier, but a few senior figures persuaded him to stay at the time, yet now he found no support.

Following Calderon’s resignation, Real Madrid fans dubbed him the ”worst club president in history,” with long-time club members saying they had never seen such a stingy president, and some Real Madrid players labeling Calderon as a ”usurper,” recalling that he only ranked third when accounting for postal votes.

Although the team won 2 championships in the past two seasons, Calderon failed to win over the fans. His inability to bring in the superstars he promised, like Kaka and C. Ronaldo, cost him his credibility. Calderon’s team-building efforts were also a major failure; in two years, he spent 300 million Euros, only to transform the squad from a team of superstars into an ordinary group, while the club’s appeal continued to decline.

The most direct indication was when Real Madrid fans began to yearn for Florentino, with some even calling for Florentino to return as Real Madrid president and rebuild the Galaxy Battleship.

However, Florentino has remained silent, refraining from any statements.

During the silence of Florentino, other candidates for the presidency emerged in abundance, yet they kept an eye on Florentino’s movements, knowing full well that if he decided to step in, they wouldn’t stand a chance.

After all, the people’s support is always clear.