All Soccer Abilities Are Now Mine!

<020. Frog Out of the Well (4)>

Casemiro and Douglas were both weary at first but quickly changed their demeanour.

“Hey, our team might go up the league rankings!”

“Yeah, we might.”

“Really? He’s really that good?”

“Yeah… He kind of just plays but somehow he scores a lot. Weirdly.”

As Douglas said this, the boys gave out mixed reactions.

There were boys who regarded him as competition and others who welcomed him as the team’s ranking was not at its best.

‘Our team is, right now, 7th in the weekly league.’

San Paolo U13 league – where Brazil’s tradition and strong players all collide.

The U13 only had a weekly league. Compared to their past record of 7 wins, San Paolo was not at its best right now.

This lapse was because of the weak offence.

Carlos, who held the baton controlling the U13, needed a saviour. That was Ho Yung. There was no other reason that he would take a child so young into the U13.

It was relieving that Ho Yung grew 10cm in the last four months.

‘I think I’m around 145cm now.’

He decided to measure that later at the gym and focus on training for now.

Beep!

8 am.

Director Carlos gathered the players into one spot. He aimed to reevaluate their training, as new players had joined the team.

Ho Yung listened to the briefing with an excited mindset.

‘What are we going to do? Tactics training?’

He was bursting with curiosity.

He had been dying to find out what the origin of samba soccer, Brazil, would offer for him in training.

Finally, Carlos spoke.

“After getting ready, only do basic training until the afternoon.”

“Yes.”

There were stretching and injury prevention training. His first training didn’t pan out as he had imagined.

Beep! Beep!

Training was carried out to the beat of the whistle. This was because of Carlos’ belief that if the foundation isn’t perfect, tactical training had no purpose.

‘There’s nothing too special.’

Soccer had no special tricks.

It was true that your foundation determined your future in soccer.

‘Although, the atmosphere is definitely different today.’

The method was to give players more freedom and remove pressure. That was the Brazilian education method.

Just because they had freedom didn’t mean they were neglected.

They learnt tactics and skills for dealing with limited space, paired up to train, trained in teams, et cetera., the program was definitely made of a variety of training.

It actually felt more like playing than training.

‘It’s a lot more fun than I expected…’

Ho Yung was feeling interested. However, there was the problem of not being able to keep up with training.

‘Hah… This is difficult.’

This was a step up from the foundation he had learnt so far.

Being his first time, he was bound to make mistakes and the rest of the team was busy laughing at every one of them.

“Hey, look at him pass.”

“Hahaha!”

The basic passing skills, he had learnt at the academy. But he had never encountered passing skills in specific situations.

‘It gets harder the more I learn…’

Even a soccer prodigy couldn’t pick up these skills in one day. The coach’s focused, one-on-one training was crucial.

“Ho Yung, you can’t just kick to pass. You have to find the centre of your body and get in perfect position. This is especially the case where you lose body balance. You tend to put your weight to the back whenever the situation becomes pressuring or space becomes limited. That makes your pass unstable and you’ll miss the timing to pass.”

“When’s the right timing?”

“When the opponent can safely receive the ball.”

“How do I know that?”

“That can’t be taught in words. That’s why, practice.”

“Ah. Yes.”

He replied but he couldn’t understand what that meant.

But he had the skill of soccer prodigy and he worked his way up here. So, there was only one right answer.

‘Practice is the only way to survive!’

1 pm. Carlos received the training report from the coaches.

“He has clear strengths but his foundation is much weaker in comparison.”

It was an honest, clear judgement about Ho Yung Wu.

The coach spoke.

“The biggest problem is stamina. In his own age group, it is outstanding but it’s not of the level where he can compete in a league. It might be better to transfer him to the U11 team.”

“No, the standards are too low there. We have to support him while not overworking him. Playing creates interest but hardship leads to growth.”

The so-called God of soccer, Maradona, debuted at age 16 with his tiny physique in a professional team.

This was only possible because he kicked the ball with players of high standards earlier in his life.

Carlos was not going to take his time growing Ho Yung.

“He’s only learnt soccer for 6 months. Not 6 years, 6 months.”

“Yes. Compared to his training, he is incredible. You can see he has talent.”

“Of course.”

Carlos was one of the greatest talent-discoverers and a master of raising players. He saw talent in Ho Yung.

“All we need to do is give him time. If he’s able to, he will catch up and follow us soon enough.”

Just like anything else, to learn anything at all, you needed time.

All Ho Yung needed was some time and effort.

Since that day, Ho Yung tried and tried. He trained and focused, oftentimes forgetting that time even existed.

It was possible because he held onto the dream of being the world’s best soccer player. And because he had come back from the dead, he knew that there was no way to achieve his dream unless he put in the effort now.

On top of that, the U13 team had so many talented kids, so it helped with Ho Yung’s growth.

Right now, as long as he met the criteria, he could acquire satisfactory ball stopping (C) from Casemiro and soccer prodigy (B+) from Douglas.

Ho Yung had his eyes on one person.

[Douglas Costa]

Skills Possessed

Soccer prodigy (B+)

Legs faster than a Lamborghini (A)

Fluctuating between genius and fool (C+)

(A skill can be taken if the criteria are fulfilled.)

(Criteria 1: Train in a team together for 120 minutes)

(Criteria 2: Earn 20 points in team training by receiving Douglas Costa’s assist.)

He had already taken legs faster than a Lamborghini and upgraded it to A+, and he had no intention of ever taking ‘fluctuating between genius and fool’.

Then there’s only one left; soccer prodigy (B+)

What would happen if he took a skill he already has?

‘Let’s try it!’

Today was one of the 3 days of the week where they would undergo team training.

Even before starting, there was some friction.

“Hey, that’s my place. You can go down that way and be a shadow striker.”

Douglas wanted to be near the goal.

“No.”

Ho Yung shook his head.

In order to receive Douglas’s assist, he needed to be at the forefront.

“You can go down. I’ll score.”

“But you run slow. You’re good at kick and run, though, so why don’t you go down and deal with the opponent offence?”

“Me? Slow?’

“You don’t remember? When in that Shoot team, I could run faster than you.”

Douglas remembered clearly. Ho Yung’s kick and run was incredibly fast, but he was much slower at regular running than him.

Ho Yung began speaking.

“It’s been such a long time since I quit that. Do you want to have a race?”

“Ahaha! Mum always said that people should know their own abilities.”

“What? Fine, I’ll show you what she means!”

Thus ensued a 50m race with an unexpected outcome.

“Hah….”

Douglas won against Ho Yung but only by the skin of his teeth.

He really couldn’t understand Ho Yung’s abilities.

‘Why has he suddenly gotten faster?’

It wasn’t like this a mere 4 months ago.

‘How? Why? He’s as fast as me!’

Douglas couldn’t even imagine. That Ho Yung had stolen his ability and upgraded it too. If their physiques were the same, Ho Yung would have easily won.

“Ugh!”

Again, Douglas kicked the grass and spoke.

“Fine, you go up front. I’ll back you up.”

A clear defeat.

If their stamina and running speeds were the same, it only made sense to give the position to Ho Yung, who had better shooting skills.

“Hah. Should’ve done this at the beginning. Just pass! I’ll put in whatever you give me.”

Beginning that day, whenever there was a team training situation, Ho Yung received Douglas’ assists and steadily built up his score.

When he reached 20 points, 3 weeks of training had gone by.

[Select the ability you wish to take.]

Soccer prodigy (B+)

Fluctuating between genius and fool. (C+)

‘I’m… nervous.’

A weird feeling.

Half worried, half excited, he chose the former.

“Oh? Oh?”

[Soccer prodigy (B+ 2)↑]

[It takes 7 days to acquire this skill. You cannot acquire other skills for these 7 days.]

He succeeded in levelling up!