"It's okay, I'm fine. I just think football shouldn't be played like this. We're not life-and-death enemies." Matthäus felt much better after seeing so many people speaking up for him, so he didn't continue arguing with Ibrahimović.
Only then did Ibrahimović come back to his senses.
He was furious!
But he didn't dare let it out because everyone was currently standing on Matthäus's side.
The grievance made Ibrahimović's eyes turn red.
Had the Swedish genius ever been treated like this before?
It felt terrible.
Damn it.
After Matthäus was comforted, Kai turned back to Ibrahimović and said, "Matthäus is old after all. If the intensity is too high, he can get injured easily. We have to understand that."
Ibrahimović was still unhappy and muttered, "But Jardel plays like that too. Why didn't you stare at him and yell at him? Do you think I'm some soft target? Hmph!"
Good lord.
The moment Matthäus left, Ibrahimović suddenly dared to talk tough.
Someone had just cursed him to his face, yet he hadn't dared say a word.
Kai smiled and said nothing more.
But honestly, the more someone cares about something, the more it reveals them.
Ibrahimović cared a lot about being treated like a weak target by others, which showed that sometimes he liked picking weaker targets himself when dealing with people.
This was different from the more mature Ibrahimović of the future.
It seemed that personalities really could change.
"Hm?" When Kai turned around, he noticed that Jardel had just turned away.
At that distance and angle, Jardel shouldn't have heard Ibrahimović's words just now, right?
That meant…
More than ten minutes later, Kai confirmed that Jardel really had heard Ibrahimović say, "Why didn't you yell at Jardel too?"
Because during a corner-kick battle, Jardel directly smashed an elbow into Ibrahimović.
Ibrahimović curled up in pain inside the penalty area, and in the end, tears flowed out uncontrollably.
Half from the pain.
Half from the frustration.
Nothing had gone right for him today.
It even made him start doubting his future at Sporting Lisbon.
After all, he was the most expensive signing!
"What? Can't take it anymore?" Jardel emphasized the word "star" with heavy sarcasm. "The club spent three million on you. At your age, I wasn't worth even a fraction of that. So shouldn't you perform better than me?"
The two were already competitors to begin with, and Ibrahimović had still talked shit about him behind his back, hoping Matthäus would teach him a lesson.
If Jardel didn't teach him a lesson himself, then who would?
Even before the elbow, Jardel had already taken advantage of several opportunities to body Ibrahimović during collisions.
Ibrahimović had been knocked around badly, partly because of Jardel's naturally intense style of play.
Honestly, it was already impressive that Jardel hadn't dropped back to defend during the match. He had practically withdrawn from the attacking third.
"Say that again!" Ibrahimović rolled over, ready to throw a karate move.
But Jardel reacted faster and directly knocked Ibrahimović back down before he could stand up properly. "I can say it as many times as I want. Don't think you're some big shot just because of your transfer fee! Kid, you still have a lot to learn!"
After speaking, Jardel also glanced at Quaresma.
The two had some friction after losing at the end of last season. This wasn't mocking Quaresma's transfer value, but rather implying that Quaresma's actual fighting ability wasn't very strong.
Ibrahimović's ribs still hurt, and he couldn't stabilize himself. After Jardel shoved him over, he rolled twice on the ground, looking extremely miserable.
"What happened? Are you alright?"
Matthäus had been standing on the sidelines chatting with Triguera and Maxa about tactical matters, so the coaches hadn't seen what happened. Triguera only noticed the training match had stopped and came over to ask.
The players found it hard to say anything in front of Jardel.
In the end, the matter was brushed aside.
The atmosphere during this joint training session had become pretty tense.
Actually, Ibrahimović hadn't meant that he wanted Matthäus to scold Jardel too. He just felt Matthäus was being unfair. Why should veterans get angry at young newcomers whenever they wanted?
But no matter who he used as the comparison target, that person wouldn't be happy hearing those words.
To put it bluntly, Ibrahimović still needed to study the art of speaking and learn how to communicate properly.
…
That evening, Ibrahimović was packing his things.
It was already an hour after the end of training, but there were still people on the training ground.
Cristiano Ronaldo and Pepe were still battling one-on-one.
Barzagli, Fonte, and Drogba were also practicing headers. Two competed in the air while the other delivered crosses.
The most shocking thing was that the team's chief assistant coach, Maxa, still hadn't left. He was even serving the players personally, bringing them food and drinks, recording valuable data for them, and so on.
No wonder he had such a good reputation in the Portuguese coaching world. Every player who worked with him praised him endlessly.
There was definitely a reason for it.
"Heading back so early?" Kai suddenly appeared beside Ibrahimović out of nowhere.
"Yeah." Ibrahimović didn't say much. He picked up his bag and prepared to leave.
"Want to stay and train a little more together?" Kai looked at Ibrahimović's back. "Relax. We're the kind of opponents who can go all out against each other. You don't have to hold back so much when playing with us."
Ibrahimović stopped walking. "I don't want to talk about this right now."
Kai nodded. "I know. But next time, could you maybe not mention being educated by Matthäus because you didn't know how to read the room?"
Ibrahimović walked over speechlessly. "You really have a talent for making people want to dribble past you on the pitch."
"Then let's give it a try." Kai walked toward the field.
Soon, Ibrahimović followed him.
The other players weren't surprised by Ibrahimović joining them.
The important thing was whether someone could persist.
Additional training generally had two purposes.
Fix weaknesses and refine strengths.
By observing the content of a player's extra training, you could understand that player's characteristics, while also seeing the direction they hoped to develop in the future.
For example, Barzagli hadn't been converted to center-back for very long. He focused heavily on the basics of defending. The intensity wasn't high, and the drills were boring.
His goal was to turn those fundamentals into muscle memory so he wouldn't make stupid mistakes during matches.
Except for a few players with attention deficit problems, most players who constantly made low-level mistakes simply had attitude problems.
In other words, they were sloppy.
To put it bluntly, they just hadn't practiced enough.
Once you practiced enough, mistakes became much harder to make.
Drogba constantly sought physical confrontations while practicing various finishing techniques inside the box.
It seemed he understood his role very clearly and was deliberately strengthening his hold-up ability, while maintaining his threat in the penalty area and improving his finishing.
You could say he was applying the right medicine, although maybe not the perfect one.
For example, Drogba was obviously overlooking the difficulty of even receiving the ball inside the box. Rather than focusing purely on penalty-area finishing, he should also practice turning shots and long-range strikes.
As for Cristiano Ronaldo… forget it. He was currently obsessed with competing against Pepe and had recently been grinding one-on-one dribbling nonstop.
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