Yes, there should have been a gap between him and Deng Kai, after all, he was comprehensively stronger than Deng Kai, with gaps everywhere.
Deng Kai: Is our understanding of "comprehensive" really that different?
But what Ronaldo couldn't accept was that now Deng Kai had actually surpassed him in one aspect.
And that was... physical confrontation!
If you made Deng Kai collide directly with Ronaldo, the nearly six-foot-tall Ronaldo would definitely not be inferior to Deng Kai.
But under the same pressure of adult players, Deng Kai performed noticeably better than Ronaldo.
The role of confrontation abilities played an extremely large part in Deng Kai's last maneuver of the game, the Marseille Turn while holding off a player.
If it were Ronaldo, the likelihood is that the contact would have distorted his move, turning the Marseille into a mess, not to mention the precise shot that followed.
Where did these changes come from?
They came from training.
What kind of training?