Chapter 91: Teenager

As time entered April, Kaka's talent purchasing plan encountered the most powerful obstacle - their city rivals, Santos.

Santos and Sao Paulo were the two best performing teams in the state this year. Not only had they rarely lost, but they had also won by big margins. Not only had they both reached the finals of the Rio-São Paulo Championship, they were now also in the finals of the State League A. They met on a narrow road in the final. 

Due to a friendly match with Iceland, Kaka, Ceni and others missed the first leg between the two sides, and Sao Paulo, who were missing many key players, suffered a 1-3 loss at Santos' home stadium.

That game was the most intense in the championship in the past five years. During the match, players from both teams clashed many times, with many receiving yellow cards.

Robinho and Diego, the two young players in Santos' team, had grown into the core of the squad. Santos' breakthrough this year was inseparable from their outstanding performance. Sao Paulo's core members were also young, in their early twenties.

The players from both teams met in the tunnel. Life is wonderful. In less than a year, the three young men who were once at the beach had not only become pillars of their respective teams but also nationally renowned young idols.

Falcao and Robinho had been friends since childhood. Although they were now on opposing sides, their friendship remained strong. On the eve of the match, they were still laughing and joking like old friends, while Kaka greeted Diego.

Many people are called Diego, but in the early years of the new century, there was only one Diego who impressed people the most in the football world - the one Kaka was looking at, the future King of Bremen.

Friends of friends are not necessarily friends. The two teams were currently at odds. While polite on the surface, Kaka and Diego would still have to fight fiercely on the pitch.

The players from both sides entered the field as the fans' cheers rushed into everyone's eardrums like a tsunami. Although the Santos players were pretending to be calm, their movements seemed very stiff and unnatural. Their home stadium only had over 20,000 seats, while Morumbi had more than 50,000, a difference of more than double.

The various noisy voices suddenly became unified the moment Kaka appeared.

"...Fruits can be made into wine

Mix sugar and cocoa

Can be made into chocolate

This is where Kaka began to grow

Kaka oh, kaka oh

Magical Kaka..."

The "Song of Kaka".

Not to mention the Santos players, even the Sao Paulo players were envious of this treatment.

Perhaps his high-profile appearance attracted too much hatred. After the game started, Santos' defensive players closely marked Kaka.

In the past, Sao Paulo's offense struggled when Kaka was restricted. However, in this game, Kaka did not seem to be playing the core midfield role. Instead, he was more of a shadow striker.

"Alvarez played a little trick. Kaka was in a very advanced position, and it was Falcao who really organized the attack. This was his first time in this role, but it seemed to work well..."

It can be said that since Kaka's return, the fates of two people had been most affected.

One was Alvarez. This head coach, who was kicked out by Sao Paulo due to poor performance after only leading Kaka for half a season, was now prosperous and one of the most popular coaches in Brazil.

The other was Falcao.

Although this Pele of indoor football cannot be said to have successfully transformed, he had at least begun to adapt to the new environment.

He and Kaka complemented each other. One had excellent physical condition, could run and shoot suddenly, and was very fierce when he rushed forward. However, his technique was not delicate enough and gave people a rough feeling. The other was the opposite – his technique of handling the ball statically was very strong, but his ability to push forward was very weak, and shooting and the like could easily give people a soft feeling.

This complementarity caught Santos off guard.

Less than ten minutes into the game, Falcao and Kaka took advantage of their tacit understanding to strike Santos hard.

Lugano stole the ball and quickly passed it across the wing. Renaldo ran with the ball for more than ten meters before passing to Ricardinho. Ricardinho kicked the ball to Falcao, who cleverly got rid of his marker and gave the ball to Kaka at the edge of the penalty area.

Kaka originally wanted to pass the ball into the penalty area, but Fabiano was too closely marked, so he could only pass the ball back and move backwards.

Falcao took a few steps forward and knocked the ball back to him.

They were playing a game, constantly playing one-two with quick movements, turning Santos' defense into a mess.

Fabiano also ran out, but he did not join the passing game between the two. Instead, he used a large number of off-the-ball movements to involve Santos' defenders, creating space for Kaka and Falcao to continue moving forward.

Just when everyone was wondering how long they could play this boring game, Kaka suddenly ran into the penalty area, and Falcao, who was pretending to pass the ball, stepped on it and pulled it, using a cheeky Marseille spin to get past the Santos player, then with a flick of his ankle, a sharp through ball directly penetrated the two defensive players and rolled towards the penalty area.

Kaka ran away from the defender and pushed the ball lightly with his right foot.

The ball passed through the goalkeeper's legs and rolled into the net behind him.

1-0.

Kaka raised his hands high, slapped Falcao hard, and was quickly overwhelmed by his teammates who rushed over.

The fans gave them warm applause, and they couldn't help but talk about the goal just now.

"He's in now? How did he get in?"

"It was passed in, right?"

"That assist was very sharp. When did Falcao become so good?"

"Why do the two of them work so well together?"

"Kaka and Falcao penetrated Santos' entire defense. They used street football to break through the opponent's defense. Many fans know that Falcao is from futsal, but they may not know that Kaka is also an indoor football enthusiast, and Robinho in the Santos team also has experience in street football..."

Falcao was very excited, feeling a sense of satisfaction that he had finally gained something after his hard work. This made him a little too excited. After the game started again, he immediately staged a good show of beating three people in a row, but he was not satisfied yet, wanted to continue beating the fourth, but the ball was cleanly tackled away by the guy he had just beaten.

Falcao was indignant and wanted to argue with the referee, but the referee ignored him. Seeing that Santos had started a counterattack, he quickly chased after them.

The football came to Diego's feet. He didn't stop much and directly found Robinho with a long pass.

Robinho dribbled the ball along the wing and met Reynaldo on the left side of the penalty area. 

He flicked the ball and kept feinting above the football with both feet.

The Cycling Boy was online.

(End of chapter)