Chapter 97: King of Sao Paulo State

The league champion contributes ten honor points, the best player five honor points, and the top scorer five honor points. 

Including the previous seventy points, Kaka now has a total of ninety honor points.

Due to fewer participating teams in this year's state league, it ends earlier than the Rio-São Paulo State Championship, but not much earlier. The championship will also conclude its final showdown a week later.

According to the nature of football in this region, this final will, of course, also be played over two rounds, home and away. It seems that some of these messy competition systems will be slowly reformed later and become an ordinary points ranking system.

Based on last year's experience, the winner of the Rio-São Paulo Championship only had five honor points, and Kaka didn't score many goals in this tournament. He was five fewer than Fabiano and won the top scorer. There is not much hope, but he can look forward to being the best player.

If he can win the Rio-São Paulo State Championship and be elected as the best player, with the reward for the best player being five honor points, then 100 honor points will be enough.

After winning the championship, Alvarez gave the players three days off, which happened to coincide with Kaka's 20th birthday.

Kaka called his friends to his home for some fun and showed up at the training ground again the next day.

Along with him were Falcao and Deegan. The three did not perform any high-intensity training but simply practiced some small skills in ball control. Then Kaka and Falcao took turns to play, thoroughly outplaying Deegan. Once, and when he was about to do it a second time, Silva walked over leisurely.

Kaka signaled the two of them to continue, then came to Silva and said, "What's wrong?"

With a smile on his lips, Silva said: "My friends in Spain have received some news, and Brazil is probably preparing relevant reports. I think you will be very interested."

"Spain? What does Spain have to do with me? Real Madrid or Brazil...it can't be Dejaminha, right?" Kaka was confused at first but then he realized it.

"That's right."

"What's wrong with Dejaminha?" Falcao and Digan also came over.

A few people simply sat on the grass and listened to Silva's story about the past.

Dejaminha has outstanding skills and rich experience and is more likely to catch the last train to South Korea than Kaka, but he is free and loose, has a hot temper, and is disobedient to discipline. He is an absolute thorn in the side.

Sure enough, something happened to Dejaminha at the critical moment when Scolari was formulating the World Cup roster.

In a team training match, because he was dissatisfied with the penalty kick decision of assistant coach Melo who was a guest referee, he stepped forward to prevent his teammates from taking free kicks. Every time his teammates put the ball back at the penalty spot, he kicked the ball away and repeated this repeatedly. Six times later, head coach Javier had to intervene.

But Dejaminha was so awesome that he ran straight into the head coach... I imagined him headbutting someone like Materazzi.

The matter is not over yet, there will be all kinds of disobedience and all kinds of curses. In short, it is very exciting, and the whole process is witnessed and recorded by fans and reporters.

"So Deja Minha's World Cup is over?" Kaka stretched his legs, put the ball on his feet and bounced it gently.

"You know Scolari's style. I think you can be ready to go to Asia... By the way, can you be more excited?"

"The teacher said that you must be kind and do not base your happiness on the pain of others."

"I know it too, but I can't help it. Look, so do the two of them."

"That means you are not kind enough. When you look at me, you feel sorry for Dejaminha."

"...You are really the kindest person I have ever met."

The World Cup will not start until May, and Kaka still has two important games to play before that.

The final of the Rio-Sao Paulo Championship, the famous solemn derby, Sao Paulo VS Corinthians.

Another difficult opponent.

On April 26, 2002, Sao Paulo challenged Corinthians away to begin the first leg of the Rio-Sao Paulo Championship final.

In the eyes of Kaka, Corinthians is just a difficult opponent, but in the eyes of Corinthians, Sao Paulo is the devil who stands in the way.

Today, the devil came to the Itagueira Stadium.

Corinthians are called the champions of champions because they specialize in winning the state league championships in various states, but today when they faced the Sao Paulo team, the champion of Sao Paulo state, at home, this champion of champions withered.

Last year's Sao Paulo State League final was between Corinthians and Sao Paulo. Sao Paulo relied on Kaka's last-minute goal to win a thrilling victory, but today, Sao Paulo showed a stronger overall strength than its opponent from the beginning.

Eleven minutes into the game, Fabiano opened the scoring for the team.

This goal has nothing to do with Kaka. It is entirely Falcao's personal performance. He performed a series of steals, breakthroughs and assists on the wing, and has gradually been able to transform his demeanor on the five-a-side court into his demeanor on the green field.

And this was just the beginning. In the 20th minute of the game, Kaka instigated the midfielder, Aluca dribbled the ball from the wing, and passed the ball to Fabiano. Fabiano grabbed the shot and was saved by the goalkeeper. Falcao's follow-up shot scored his second goal for Sao Paulo.

In the 30th minute of the game, there was a fierce conflict between the two sides. The referee decisively took out his cards and sent off one player from each side. Corinthians took advantage of a free kick to tie the score at 2:1.

But just five minutes later, Sao Paulo responded in almost the same way.

Kaka was tackled while dribbling the ball in the middle. The referee awarded a direct free kick from the edge of the penalty area. Kaka went off the court for treatment, and Cheney took the penalty kick and scored.

In the 39th minute of the game, Kaka returned to the court and used a long-distance curve ball to turn the score into 4:1.

It was a nearly crushing game, but it was only in the first half. In the second half, the two sides still played very enthusiastically, but they always missed the goal strangely, and the defensive players made more and more moves. Alvarez substituted Kaka in the sixtieth minute.

In the end, Sao Paulo left with a three-goal lead.

Three days later, fighting broke out again at Morumbi Stadium.

Saint Paul did not go on the defensive just because they were ahead by a large margin. Instead, they used all their best and showed a posture of killing everything.

Kaka assisted Fabiano to score a lightning goal just after the opening. His long pass from the wing bypassed Corinthians' entire defense and accurately hit Fabiano's head, helping the team to make the total score 5:1.

Sao Paulo stepped onto the podium with half a foot.

Corinthians did not sit still and launched a fierce counterattack. Sao Paulo was once suppressed in their own half, and finally the opponent scored a goal in a chaotic battle in the penalty area.

5:2.

In the second half, the game changed sides and the two teams did not make any adjustments to their lineups. Kaka and Fabiano once again became the brightest stars in the game.

In the 53rd minute, Kaka assisted Fabiano to score with a free kick;

In the 61st minute, Kaka once again ran a long distance and then provided an assist for Fabiano. The two once again completed hat tricks, but one was an assist hat trick and the other was a goal hat trick.

Although Corinthians performed tenaciously and also scored two goals in the second half, turning the final into a goal battle, they still unfortunately lost with a score of 7:4.

Sao Paulo successfully defended its title.

Fabiano won the title of top scorer, and Kaka was awarded the title of best player.

Life is like a dream.

Alvarez never expected that a rookie who had to be urgently transferred from the youth team to cope with the Rio-São Paulo Championship would become the well-deserved king of this event in just one year.

With two championships in half a year, Kaka once again repaid the love of Sao Paulo fans with his undisputed performance.

Of course, for him, the greatest reward comes from another, more mysterious realm.

Rio-São Paulo State Championship Champion, five honor points; best player of the tournament, five honor points.

Natural ball feel.

(End of this chapter)