Protect the Youngest -2
“That, I think it must be very hard.”
“Huh? What is?”
“Being the captain.”
“Why is that?”
“No, it’s just that… the seniors don’t seem like they’d be easy to control…”
“Ah— hahaha!”
When I spoke carefully, Biraghi, the captain of our team, burst into hearty laughter.
After finishing simple stretching, it was a brief rest before entering the main training.
Perhaps the captain, Biraghi, thought I looked pitiful suffering at the hands of the seniors; he said he’d buy me a drink and brought me to where the vending machine was.
Biraghi took a cool sip of an ion drink, wiped his mouth, and said:
“Well, you’re not wrong. Being captain of this team isn’t something just anyone can do.”
“I really think so. Amazing…”
“That’s why I’m not doing a good job either.”
“…Huh?”
Biraghi shook his head side to side as if even thinking about it disgusted him.
“You must have already noticed, but there’s not a single normal person here. They’re all missing a screw or two. I didn’t used to look this old. I became like this after just one year of becoming captain.”
“…”
As I listened with a serious face, the captain smirked.
“Just think of everyone except me as crazy bastards. But don’t worry too much. No matter how they look, they’re all serious about football. They play pranks on you because they want to get close quickly, so just understand it as that. They don’t mean any harm.”
“Yes…”
“Just work hard at football. Only football.”
“I’ll take it to heart.”
Looking at the captain smiling benevolently, I nodded. Well, according to him he wasn’t doing a good job as captain, but to me, Captain Biraghi was exactly the image of a “captain” I had in mind.
He trained hard leading by example, and as now, he took good care of me, the youngest.
He was also the only one who stopped the other seniors when they played pranks.
If it weren’t for the captain, I might be on a plane right now. Not a real plane, but, you know, that airplane dad gives you when you’re little.
Saying I look like a nephew or something…
Earlier, they told me to pick just one of them as the ugliest, and I was at a loss, but the captain secretly signaled me to pick himself, so I barely got through it.
“Anyway, if anyone gives you a hard time, tell me right away.”
“Yes, Captain.”
“Now, let’s go.”
Following behind the captain, I headed back to the training ground. As we approached it, loud laughter began to ring out.
Wondering what was going on, the seniors were up to their strange antics again.
They were pulling down each other’s pants and running away.
Giggling and laughing.
Is this…… the first team?
“Sigh.”
Seeing that sight, the captain sighed.
Of course it wouldn’t be easy being captain with players like that.
The captain’s shoulders slumped, and I wondered if I should give him a massage, but he shook his head and spoke.
“Always be on guard against yourself. Don’t get tainted by those crazy bastards. A team needs at least one normal person, after all.”
Having said that, the captain suddenly started running toward the seniors.
“It’s time for sun-drying! Doing fun things without me, are you or aren’t you!”
“….”
Watching the captain’s back like that, I couldn’t find anything to say. No matter what… I must never become like that….
*
“Good, good! Faster! Faster!”
The captain’s words were certainly true.
Everyone might normally seem like they have a screw loose, but they were all serious about football.
The seniors who had been playing pranks like elementary school students just during break time became completely different people once training started.
They all shed their playfulness and laughter entirely, focusing on training.
“Hey, Jian!”
“Jan, here!”
“To the side! Give it to Ri!”
What was particularly impressive was that once training started, the seniors didn’t call me maknae or brat.
Whether it was Jian, Jan, or Ri.
They just called us by name.
The coach had said several times that on the field, there was no such thing as maknae or whatever, that we were all equal players.
Perhaps they called us by name in that sense.
Until last week, they had called me maknae even during training. Now that I had become a real first-team member, I felt like I received equal treatment, at least on the field.
However, the important thing was that it wasn’t necessarily all good.
“Overcome it! Overcome it!”
Since everyone was on equal footing on the field, the seniors didn’t go easy on me or treat me like the youngest.
For example, when I had the ball and was attacking, or competing for the second ball.
The seniors went in for physical contests without holding back.
So I lost my balance and fell several times, and lost out in contests and gave up the ball.
“Whew.”
The truth was, not all the seniors were bigger than me.
There were seniors smaller than me, and seniors as skinny as me.
But even those seniors were hard to beat in physical contests.
How should I put it?
It felt like physical contests weren’t just about size or strength, but rather a skill in themselves.
I lacked that know-how.
“Hah…!”
Not wanting to show a discouraged appearance, and feeling a bit of stubbornness.
I threw myself in roughly in my own way.
Well, until my youth days, I tended to avoid physical contact, so I could have avoided it if I wanted.
But from now on, there would be situations where I couldn’t avoid it.
I gritted my teeth and tried to be aggressive.
Of course, it wasn’t easy, and by the time of the brief break, I was almost exhausted.
“Ughhh…”
“Hey, the maknae’s gonna die. Someone give him CPR.”
“Who bullied the brat? Was it you?”
“You treated him the roughest.”
Trying to lie down and rest for a moment, the surroundings quickly became noisy. I didn’t know why, but the seniors gathered around me and started taking their break.
It was an airtight pressure, even more so than during training.
“Take it easy, you guys. He’s the maknae after all.”
“I tried to take it easy. But what can I do if I can’t stop him when I take it easy?”
“If the maknae gets hurt, you’ll be kicked out of the team?”
“Then first of all, I won’t let you off. I’ll beat up anyone who hurts the maknae.”
…Sigh. I can’t even lie down comfortably.
Forcing myself up, I sat and caught my breath.
Then, suddenly curious, I asked Lucas Torreira, who was sitting next to me resting.
“Um, do you have any know-how or tricks?”
“Huh? What kind of know-how?”
“Physical contests. I don’t really know how to beat players bigger and rougher than me. I was wondering how you overcome them…”
Torreira, from Uruguay, is quite small.
He says he’s 171 cm, but his profile lists him at 168 cm tall.
Moreover, he’s not particularly thick-bodied, so he doesn’t look strong on the outside.
But Torreira’s position is defensive midfielder. The defensive midfielder is a position that must not fear rough play throughout the match.
I wondered how he could endure there with such a physique.
“That is…”
Torreira suddenly made a gun shape with his hand and put it to his head, then answered in English full of Spanish accent.
“I’m from the ghetto.”
“…What’s a ghetto?”
“I was born and raised where everything is real. Streets overflowing with gangs, where if you’re not rough, you become prey. That’s my hometown. Having grown up in such a place, I couldn’t help but become a tough guy. Kill or be killed. You know?”
“Mmm…”
Ah, right.
The captain said it. That there was no normal person here.
As I was thinking I’d asked for no reason while looking at Torreira pointing the gun muzzle at me, the surrounding seniors burst into laughter and said:
“Stop talking nonsense, man. You’re a rich kid.”
“A guy who grew up eating meals made by a housekeeper.”
“Didn’t you call me crying before because you thought there were mafia at a restaurant?”
“Wh-what nonsense! I’m from the ghetto! Real shit!”
Torreira, who had been resisting by aiming the gun here and there at the seniors’ fact-checking, soon shook his head as if giving up and spoke to me.
“I should be honest. Actually, I’m not good at physical contests either. How am I supposed to compete physically with big players? There’s a limit to that.”
“Huh… but you’re an incontrista. Don’t you have to do a lot of physical contests?”
“A lot. That’s why I mostly just fall over. Maybe because I’m small, referees tend to take my side a lot.”
“Ah…”
“It means overpowering your opponent with strength isn’t the only way to win a physical contest. Players like us need to know how to be clever. Then there are plenty of ways to win.”
This time the other seniors nodded seriously too. Torreira continued.
“Maknae, do you know a player named David Silva?”
“Well… I know the name, but not exactly.”
“Wow, has the era come when the generation that doesn’t know David Silva is in the first team? When I was at Arsenal…”
I somewhat abruptly began receiving a lecture about who David Silva was.
David Silva was, according to Torreira, one of the most shocking players when he played in England.
He played the ball so well, too well.
He said he’d never seen a player who played the ball smarter than him.
“Silva is only 170 cm tall too. But even those rough Premier League defenders couldn’t stop Silva. Couldn’t stop him at all.”
He too had a skinny, small frame, but big players couldn’t stop him either.
It was because he basically handled the ball well, moved one step faster than others, and had quick judgment.
“In the end, physical contests aren’t the only way, maknae.”
“Huh?”
“When I first faced you in training, I got a similar feeling. For a moment, I felt like David Silva was right before my eyes.”
“What? What…”
As I was flustered, Torreira spoke seriously.
“I’m being serious. I can see that level of talent in you. So I don’t think you need to worry about other things. Just with your strengths alone, you can reach the top. You’re even bigger than Silva, right? You could become an even better player.”
I listened carefully to the senior’s words.
I thought the praise was still excessive, but I felt that Torreira’s words were worth taking seriously.
As I was lost in thought for a moment, nodding, other seniors spoke one by one.
“Yeah, maknae. Leave the dirty work to the seniors, and you do what only you can do.”
“Look at all these mugs here. These are guys born to do rough work.”
“We’ll protect you, so don’t think about doing anything rough, maknae. Just play the ball prettily.”
The seniors laughing heh-heh-heh.
It was definitely scary at first, but perhaps I was getting used to it now.
Looking at those seniors, I felt reassured.
*
“Hmm…”
Coach Vincenzo, who had been watching the resumed training after the break, stroked his chin.
Then soon nodded.
‘The boy’s greatest strength is that he’s smart yet humble.’
Coach Vincenzo suddenly recalled what Coach Tony had said.
He was looking at I Jian.
Tat-tat-!
I Jian, who had been spinning around in a narrow space, escaped with the ball.
It was a situation where he was pressed by two defenders near the touchline, but he cleverly overcame the crisis with a smart dribble.
In fact, until just before the break, I Jian had been trying plays that were unusually uncharacteristic of him today.
Whether he wanted to show the spirit of a newcomer, or whether he thought he had to do that much to survive in the first team.
He seemed to be trying to engage in physical contests a bit more aggressively than usual.
Well, of course, that could be seen as a good attitude.
Professional matches are much rougher than youth matches, and you only get better at physical contests by doing them, so as long as he didn’t get hurt, it was good to try them aggressively.
However, in doing so, the strengths unique to him felt a bit less visible. Like taking the difficult road while an easy one was available.
There were times when he lost the ball a bit easily, which was unlike him.
But now was different.
As if he had realized something himself, he had changed his style in that short time and was breaking through obstacles.
“Good! Good!”
See.
The guys who had been more or less stopping him earlier couldn’t stop him at all now.
I Jian was weaving through the first-team seniors all by himself.
‘Humility that can acknowledge one’s own weaknesses. Smartness that knows how to utilize one’s strengths.’
That type of player develops quickly.
Really smart players often step up even during matches.
I Jian did exactly that.
“Hmm…”
Coach Vincenzo stroked his chin once more.
This weekend, Fiorentina’s league Round 10 opponent is UC Sampdoria.
Sampdoria is a team in the lower ranks, but their defense boasting strong physicality is quite tricky.
Thanks to that matchup, Sampdoria was an opponent expected to struggle if I Jian weren’t there.
However, Coach Vincenzo had been reluctant to send out I Jian if possible.
He had thought that the physically strong Sampdoria might be too much for the inexperienced I Jian.
But seeing his current form, his mind was starting to change.
As mentioned, a type like I Jian develops quickly.
Even playing the same single match, he gains more experience points and grows than others.
That’s why it’s better to play him in matches as much as possible.
“Ooh, good!”
So Coach Vincenzo found it hard to resist the temptation. He wanted to see the boy dominate Serie A even a day sooner.
If he continued like this, it surely wouldn’t take long.
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