Chereads / Soccer: I have the attributes of Messi in his Prime / Chapter 16 - Chapter 16: The First Encounter with De Bruyne

Chapter 16 - Chapter 16: The First Encounter with De Bruyne

Time flew by, and in the blink of an eye, a month had passed.

At the end of June, the days leading up to the team's training camp were getting closer.

Werder Bremen's preseason training for the new season was scheduled to begin on July 3rd. Before that, players were gradually arriving from various places to join the team.

The first to arrive was undoubtedly Lin Quan himself, as he had been training alone at the base for over a month.

Through this period of training, he had fully adapted to various abilities of peak Messi.

In the future, when he used various techniques of Boss Messi, it wouldn't feel so awkward anymore.

Not only that, his height had increased by one centimeter, reaching 173 centimeters.

His weight had also increased from 65 kilograms to 67 kilograms.

The increase in height and weight made his previously somewhat slender figure appear stronger.

His ability to engage in physical confrontations had also improved, and his ball control had become stronger.

Swoosh! With a crisp sound, the football drew a wonderful arc, soaring high over the wall, then rapidly descended, sneaking into the top left corner of the goal.

On this day, he arrived at the training ground early, only to find someone had arrived even earlier than him.

It was a young player around six feet tall with golden hair.

The other party hadn't noticed Lin Quan's arrival and was still focused on shooting.

Lin Quan glanced from the sidelines and realized the other party was practicing free kicks.

However, rather than saying he was practicing, it looked more like he was venting his anger.

The way he kicked the ball seemed as if the football had wronged him.

However, despite kicking the ball with such force, the ball still accurately flew into the goal from the dead angle of the goalpost.

It had to be said, this guy's footwork was outstanding.

Seeing this, Lin Quan guessed the person's identity.

This should be Kevin De Bruyne, the player loaned from Chelsea.

Clap, clap, clap! Lin Quan applauded the other's splendid footwork.

Hearing the applause, De Bruyne stopped and glanced back at him.

Seeing Lin Quan wearing the same jersey as himself, he nodded at Lin Quan, as a form of greeting.

After exchanging greetings, he continued to focus on training without intending to chat with Lin Quan.

Lin Quan knew De Bruyne was a quiet and introverted player, so he didn't pay much attention to his behavior.

If he had seen De Bruyne enthusiastically come over to greet him, he might have suspected something was wrong with De Bruyne!

He had no intention of disturbing De Bruyne's training, so he went to the equipment room to get his training gear. After selecting a spot and setting up the training equipment, he started practicing alone.

After about half an hour of training, Lin Quan noticed that someone seemed to be watching him.

So, he glanced towards the sidelines and saw that De Bruyne had stopped training at some point and was standing on the sidelines, watching him practice.

Seeing Lin Quan looking at him, De Bruyne blushed and quickly turned his head away.

He felt like he had been caught doing something wrong and felt a bit embarrassed.

"Is there something wrong?"

Seeing this guy blush, Lin Quan couldn't help but stifle a laugh.

He had always heard that De Bruyne was shy, but he didn't expect him to be this shy.

"Uh, no, nothing!" De Bruyne said somewhat embarrassedly. It seemed like it took a lot of courage for him to say these words, as if he was struggling.

It wasn't easy for him to utter eight whole words!

Seeing that the other party didn't have anything to say, Lin Quan simply ignored him and continued his training.

However, when he resumed training, De Bruyne still stood on the sidelines and didn't leave.

So, Lin Quan had to stop again and repeat the question he had just asked.

"Are you sure everything's okay?"

De Bruyne couldn't say everything was fine, otherwise, he wouldn't be standing here without leaving.

"Hello, I'm Kevin De Bruyne. Nice to meet you. Are you practicing dribbling?"

Lin Quan walked over, extended his hand, and shook hands with De Bruyne in a friendly manner.

"Hello, I'm Lin Quan. As you can see, I'm indeed practicing dribbling skills. How about you? Are you interested in practicing together?"

De Bruyne played in the forward position, which required a certain amount of dribbling and dribbling skills. This was of great help to them in evading defenders and finding more suitable passing routes.

At 21 years old, De Bruyne's technical skills were not as delicate and refined as they would be in the future. His playing style was free and bold, with somewhat rough technique, which didn't quite meet Chelsea's requirements.

As a result, unable to find a place at Chelsea, he was forced to be loaned out and came to the Bundesliga for training.

Bundesliga clubs, especially ordinary ones, didn't excel in marketing, and the club's income wasn't high.

Although it had one of the top football markets in Europe, it wasn't as commercially developed as the Premier League and La Liga.

To control costs, salary expenditures for Bundesliga's mid to lower-tier teams were generally not high, and they were also more conservative in transfers.

This provided opportunities for young players to find their own stage here.

For De Bruyne, playing in the Bundesliga was definitely better than sitting on the bench at Chelsea.

After experiencing the pain of joining a powerhouse and then being expelled, De Bruyne became increasingly dissatisfied with his own abilities.

He eagerly hoped to improve his strength as soon as possible and prove his abilities on the field.

So that those bastards at Chelsea could see that it wasn't because he lacked ability, but because Chelsea didn't give him a chance.

Therefore, facing Lin Quan's invitation, he gladly accepted.

Lin Quan didn't know De Bruyne's thoughts. He invited the other to train together simply because he wanted a training partner to further familiarize himself with Messi's various dribbling techniques in actual confrontation.

So the two of them enthusiastically began their practice.

"Shall I go first, or do you want to?"

Lin Quan held the ball, smiling at De Bruyne.

Seeing the football at Lin Quan's feet, De Bruyne slightly lowered his center of gravity, positioning himself in front of the core area of the penalty arc, ready to defend.

De Bruyne's defensive ability wasn't particularly outstanding, but he knew the basic defensive techniques.

However, when defending against an attacking player one-on-one, they were in a passive position, with the attacking side having at least two breakthrough options.

Therefore, they could only choose to block the most threatening route and force the opponent to go to the other side.

De Bruyne chose to block the inside, leaving the outside to Lin Quan, which was the choice of most defenders when facing a breakthrough on the wing.

De Bruyne's idea was to give Lin Quan the opportunity to overtake on the wing, but when the opponent made a vertical breakthrough, he would disrupt his rhythm and pace with physical confrontation.

This strategy was fine, but the problem was, Lin Quan wasn't going to cooperate obediently.

He observed De Bruyne's footwork as he moved with the ball vertically.

De Bruyne's center of gravity remained on his back foot, and he was prepared to retreat.

Suddenly, Lin Quan made a forward lean, as if he was going to dribble forward, and De Bruyne, seeing the change in his opponent's center of gravity, immediately stepped back.

As a result, Lin Quan suddenly pulled the ball to the right side, and with a simple body movement, he successfully dribbled past De Bruyne.

De Bruyne stood still, stunned. This way of dribbling was too simple, as simple as eating and drinking.

But the problem was, with such a simple method from the opponent, why did he feel like a wooden stake being bypassed? (End of Chapter)