Chapter 21: Youth Champions League and Portugal U15 League (With additional updates)

Compared to Ronaldo's effective training, Deng Kai's effort on the training ground looked much uglier.

Once he picked up speed dribbling, the ball was easily lost.

Facing an uneven pitch, he didn't even have the chance to recover the ball.

In passing and shooting drills, once the distance increased, he struggled.

His performance in training was among the worst within the youth squad.

However, what surprised Maxa was the significant improvement in Deng Kai's performance.

After half a month of training, although he was still at the bottom of the youth squad, he had caught up in all areas and no longer had an insurmountable gap with the rest of the team.

If things continued like this, perhaps in two months he could achieve a mid-tier level within the squad.

Keep in mind, this was the U15s we're talking about.

And Deng Kai had just celebrated his thirteenth birthday.

During the youth training phase, a two-year age difference was as vast as the sky.

The U15 national team won the U13 World Cup!

Apart from a very few exceptions like Lukaku, who are significantly larger in size and thus can break through the age barriers, even a great player like Ronaldo had to wait until sixteen or seventeen years old when his body was relatively well-developed before his strength skyrocketed.

Speaking of physical development, Maxa became worried again.

According to the current data, not only was Deng Kai's physical development relatively slow, but his potential also seemed to be limited.

Yet Trigella kept insisting that Deng Kai be considered a key trainee, something Maxa really couldn't understand.

Even if Deng Kai did make a name for himself in the U15 squad, or even dominated the field.

But by the time he was sixteen or seventeen, would other clubs be interested?

If he couldn't develop into a top player, that would be one thing; but if he did, there was a good chance he'd end up as a midfield maestro who could only dominate in youth leagues.

How many club resources would this waste?

And how many fans would it leave wringing their hands in frustration?

This type of hopeless training should never have existed in the first place.

Of course, Maxa didn't dare say these things to Trigella.

Although he didn't know precisely how much Trigella was betting on Deng Kai, it was certainly a lot.

Meanwhile, Deng Kai and Ronaldo ran with the ball from home to the training ground every morning, and back home from the training ground every evening, as if their energy never ran out.

Sometimes Ronaldo was exhausted.

But Deng Kai, not tired at all, would still forcibly make Ronaldo "wake the fuck up and get hyped."

Ronaldo, who hated to lose, how could he accept that a shorter person was more enduring than him?

The two tortured each other and finally welcomed the start of the Portugal U15 league!

...

The structure of the Portugal U15 league is different from the familiar top-tier league formats; it is divided into three phases.

The first phase is the regional competition, with the whole of Portugal divided into five regions, each with ten teams, playing a round-robin series of games, or eighteen matches.

After the season, the top two teams in each group advance directly, making a total of ten teams.

The third and fourth place teams in each group enter a playoff round, after fierce competition, two winners emerge to advance, joining the previously qualified ten teams, and are then randomly assigned into the next round of North-South regional competitions.

The teams play a round-robin within their respective zones, a total of ten matches.

The top two teams from there move on to the final champions' competition—four teams in total.

The four teams continue an internal round-robin, comprising six matches in total.

The team with the highest points becomes the champion of that year's U15 league.

The advantage of this format is that for strong teams, there is an ample number of matches.

For weaker teams, there's no need to get stuck in the mire of matches; it's better to end their season early and focus on improving their skills through training.

However, this format also has its controversies, mainly the absence of a single knockout match determining winners, relying solely on points to distinguish team standings.

Supporters of this structure believe that it protects the psychology of underage players: they are still young and don't need to experience the strain of knockout matches prematurely, which could leave lasting mental scars.

The main goal at this stage is training, not the pursuit of honor.

Opponents argue that this system is not conducive to the development of players as they transition into professional sports.

Sooner or later they have to adapt; if the goal is to play professionally, they should experience these trials as early as possible.

From the choice of Portugal's U15 league format, it is evident that the former has garnered more support.

However, in recent years, UEFA has been pushing for the introduction of a knockout format in youth leagues to foster football development.

To this end, they have proposed the "European Youth League" initiative.

Which means… the Youth Champions League!

After several meetings and discussions, the "U15 European Youth League" was officially established this year.

The competition format is a complete replica of the Champions League, aiming to turn this event into the Champions League for youth training players in Europe!

Once the news was confirmed, it sparked a fervent response across Europe.

Everyone knows that the most commercially valuable basketball competition is the NBA!

But the basketball contest that is most popular with the locals is the NCAA!

Is this because the NCAA has a higher level of play?

Obviously not.

It's because the NCAA allows the greatest number of basketball enthusiasts to engage and participate.

Liking the NBA is an individual's choice.

But liking the NCAA is a matter for a family, a clan, a school, a community, a region.

In the culturally-rich football environment of Europe, the Youth Champions League holds a similar significance, as ninety-five percent of youth players won't make it to European competition in the future.

Even most of them won't work in the football industry at all.

Nonetheless, the clubs themselves might not support this course of action.

Because the Youth Champions League's revenue is limited.

But frequent matches are destined to increase the clubs' spending on their youth teams.

Moreover, the clubs only consider honors for the first team; whether the youth team wins awards is not important, as long as it provides reserves for the first team.

Under such conflict, not many clubs are willing to participate in the Youth Champions League.

Ultimately, with UEFA's efforts, they found twenty-six clubs willing to engage in the Youth Champions League, and whose youth training levels met the requirements of the competition.

Among them was Lisbon Sporting!

If this year's event is successful, UEFA will consider launching higher-level competitions, drawing more public attention, like the "U17 European Youth League" and so on.

Therefore, this year's U15 Lisbon Sporting has a very tight schedule.

However, Maxa, who just took over the U15 team, was not an outstanding "head coach."

On August 18th, the U15 Lisbon Sporting faced their first round of the league.

Deng Kai and Ronaldo started together.

But Deng Kai's performance was not satisfactory.

Inaccurate long passes.

Poor physical confrontation.

Not fast enough.

No ability to contest high balls.

All these shortcomings were laid bare in the first match.

This was a proper match, not an intra-squad training game.

Naturally, everyone would target your weakest link.

In the 40th minute, Maxa was forced to substitute Deng Kai off.

The situation for Lisbon Sporting started to improve.

Finally, relying on Ronaldo's brace, Lisbon Sporting defeated Aves 4-2 away, taking away three points.

On August 24th, for the second round of the league, the U15 Lisbon Sporting had their first home game.

This time, Deng Kai was substituted off in less than thirty minutes.

The team also lost with a score of 2-5 to the visiting Sacha Venice.

After the match, Lisbon's local football media Bola newspaper described Deng Kai's performance as disastrous.

And went on to say, "This is a performative signing, both Lisbon Sporting and Deng Kai are performers, each getting what they wanted. The victims are the fans of Lisbon Sporting, as well as those seven real youth trainees who were expelled from the academy because of Deng Kai's signing!"

These words directly exploded in Portugal's youth football circle!