The Young Lion

Cristiano Ronaldo is about to go far away, which has alarmed everyone in the San Antonio area. The adults of the neighbors are envious, feeling that Cristiano Ronaldo is going to England and going to England’s championship team to play. At the same time, he also rescued his family from the abyss of poverty.

Antonio's players and coaches also came to congratulate Ronaldo, especially Ronaldo's childhood football enlightenment mentor Sosa, privately communicated with Aldridge for a long time, and he unreservedly informed him of Ronaldo's understanding and growth suggestions. Aldridge.

For this, Aldridge was grateful and carefully wrote down every sentence that Sosa said. Ronaldo showed his talent for football when he was very young, but he also has obvious shortcomings. During his growth, he must Cut those shortcomings that are not conducive to his future.

After Aldrich paid the national team £200,000 in training fees, Ronaldo carried a travel bag and wore his mother to clean and iron his clothes. His eyes were reluctant but he stubbornly followed Audrey Qi left her hometown.

Although Ronaldo is Portuguese and speaks Portuguese, his Portuguese is not as formal as Aldridge, because he has a strong hometown accent, and Aldridge used to learn Portuguese to be the most formal in the past.

This may make him discriminated against, especially when he arrives in London to learn English and go to school. Anyway, as his mother Dolores said, he must learn to be independent!

After leaving his hometown, Ronaldo became silent and hardly said anything to Aldridge along the way. Until he came to the Millwall Club, Aldridge personally led him to visit the team's home court.

Although the Lion’s Cave Stadium looks narrow in the English arena, the capacity close to 20,000 is much larger than that of the national team’s 8500 at home. This opened C Ronaldo’s eyes and within four years of hearing Audridge say They will move into the new stadium, a world-class stadium that can accommodate more than 60,000 people, Ronaldo obviously became a little bit excited.

Then Aldridge took him on foot to the Leo Youth Training Base. Ronaldo carrying a big travel bag followed him. Many passers-by greeted Aldridge friendly when he saw Ronaldo. Relatives of Aldridge, they are all residents nearby, and are naturally Millwall fans.

Many people questioned Millwall's summer signing situation with anxiety, and Aldridge could only smile formally.

When Ronaldo stood in front of Leo Youth Training Base, he was completely stunned.

"This, this, this is bigger than the club looks!"

The youth training base occupies a large area, and in the summer it has undergone a new round of expansion, because Aldridge intends to start the training of the first team here this summer, but only the training field, there are more than twenty large and small, applicable For different training projects, it will be expanded in the future to prepare for more subordinate echelons.

The Leo Youth Training Base has a large facade and is full of style. The name of the Leo Youth Training Base and the Millwall team logo are carved on the wall next to the door.

The new season Premier League will open on August 8, the day after tomorrow is the day when the first team players return to the team, pre-season training will also kick off.

At this time, there was a hot scene in the training base. The members of the coaching staff at all levels stood on the sidelines. On the several courts in front of them, the youth team, the reserve team, and some first-line players who returned early. Play entertainment games.

When Aldrich came to the sidelines with C Ronaldo staring at the stadium, it was like giving a shot of stimulant to other young players, the first-team players were calm, a lot of players who did not play on the field came over Say hello to Aldridge.

"Boss, who is this kid?"

Ronaldinho ran over and stared at Ronaldo curiously, but he heard Ronaldo loudly: "I am not a child!"

He can understand English in general.

Aldridge found the staff and arranged for Ronaldo.

After Ronaldo stepped back three times to watch the stadium leave, Aldrich turned his head and asked Ronaldinho: "How is it? Is Egypt fun?"

Ronaldinho smiled: "Not bad. Did you watch me play?"

Aldridge smiled and shook his head.

Ronaldinho suddenly looked depressed, but he is the most dazzling figure who led the Brazil team to the World Youth Championship in the summer!

Aldridge patted his shoulder and said with a heavy heart: "Ronaldinho, you have to understand that the junior team championship is not equal to the youth team championship, nor is it equal to the national team championship."

Ronaldinho was speechless.

Trezeguet happened to be right next to him. He wore casual clothes today and returned to the team early, but he didn't plan to play. He also looked depressed: "But I really want a youth team champion."

Aldridge laughed.

In the World Youth Championships held in Malaysia in the summer, Trezeguet really went to the championship. The generation of the French 97 Youth Championships in France has a gold striker, Trezeguet, Henry and Anelka.

However, the strength of the forward alone is useless.

Argentine, Samoel, and fair-haired blonde Cambiasso, classical masters Riquelme, Aimar...

Even more depressing is England.

The striker has Irving, the midfielder has Lampard, Killen Dell, the defender has Ferdinand, Carragher and other Fleet Street players who are considered to be the leaders of the next generation of national teams to go to Malaysia, the goal is only one: championship.

It's a pity that it is contrary to wishes

The rookie Duff of the Millwall team also went to the World Youth Championships, and the performance was pretty good, which made people shine. This made Blackburn regret a little: I knew that I would wait for the World Youth Championship to end before I talked about the transfer.

It’s rare to see Najib smiling unsmilingly, and the other party came over and smiled at Aldridge: “You’re just here, the players you brought back from other countries are really good, but let’s also see what we have achieved in London Right."

Aldridge nodded with a smile.

Then a strange scene happened on the side of the training ground.

That scene is like the scene where family members meet the leader in The Godfather.

Aldridge stood still, and Najib, Jenson, and Benitez were lined up like old members of the family. They looked at the young men who came one after another with a look.

These young players are both nervous and excited, as if they set foot on the draft stage. They want to make a good impression on the head coach. If they can be directly selected into the first team, it will be the jackpot.

Nadji surprises Aldridge as soon as he comes up.

There are two young players who are not on Aldridge's summer signing list, but they took the initiative to come to Millwall for trial training, and they came from afar, from Australia.

Marco Bresciano and Tim Cahill.

The two came to Australia to join Millwall for training in the summer. Australia was originally a Commonwealth country. In addition, most Australians in the blood lineage are British. It is common for Australian players to develop in the UK, such as Millwall. Lucas Neal in the game, Kewell, the star of hope in Leeds RUF.

Aldridge shook hands with these young talents and gently encouraged them. Next, Adam went around in the summer. According to the information on the Aldridge signing list, the eight local players brought back for the team appeared one by one. In front of you.

Jermaine Jenas, Scott Parker, Michael Carrick, Paul Robinson, Darius Wasser, David Dunn, Francis Jeffers, Ledley King .

Under the operation of the Andrew brokerage company, several players from the Nordic side were also recommended for trial training, and finally two people were left: Brad Hengrande and Christian Paulson.

In addition, other local players came to the trial and left nearly 20 people. Although they are all unknown, Aldridge does not think that they have no future. Millwall in the transfer market in the summer, the first team only sold. Stam and Phillips, but many of the youth team’s non-team-focused players have received invitations from other teams. Those invitations are basically from the teams of the First Division and the Second Division. The transfer income of about 300,000 pounds came, and there are some people who are over 20 years old but have no ball to play. The club has prepared a coaching contract for them. Although it is impossible to be bright on the green field, but for their lives In other words, it can provide a stable work and life guarantee.

In this summer, Millwall not only expanded the Leo training base, but also rapidly expanded the youth army.

Looking at these exciting young guys, Aldrich knows that the youth team of nearly 100 people of all ages adds up to the first team in the future, but this situation does not make him embarrassed. Football is a competition In the cruel field, there are many young people in the youth team. Everyone influences each other and actively competes to help them grow better. Even if they don’t make it in Millwall in the end, they can transfer to other teams. The players are here Receiving better training, the club gets transfer income when they send them away, and it is a win-win situation for each other.

Aldridge and the coaches went to the conference room in the administrative building, and everyone began to divide the echelons at all levels carefully to determine the location of the echelon where some players were trained.

In addition to the first team, Millwall originally had reserves and youth teams.

The role of the reserve team is to improve and maintain the status of players who cannot enter the big list, and to recover from the recovery of the injured players. The staff turnover is very large and belongs to a temporary transfer team. Some players who are fighting for the main position are also preparing for a long time. The team's effectiveness, plus several resident players who accompany the "prince reading", basically the age group is in U23.

In the past three years, the youth team has participated in the U18 England Youth Super League. It does not matter if there are players older than 18 years, because the game allows three U19 players to join.

And this summer, the Millwall youth team expanded. The club must first establish a U21 team. There are also leagues at the U21 level. However, Millwall did not register before because the youth team players are too small, and the key players are not over 18 years old. of.

Further down, we must build a team of U16 and U14.

At the age of less than 14, Millwall also recruited some players. In addition to small players such as De Rossi and Cristiano Rodriguez imported from abroad, many local parents are willing to send their children to Millwall Receiving football training, but certainly not like De Rossi and C Ronaldo under the full management of the club, somewhat similar to "day students."

Aldridge also set up a U12 echelon. This echelon has some ticketing nature. Parents sending children here will basically relax the mentality of entertainment, so that children can find friends to play football together. Coaches usually look at it. Guide, if you find a good seedling, you can also directly recommend it to the upper echelon of the club to focus on.

In this way, Millwall had six echelons in addition to the first team.

The reserve team is played with the first-team league. It has 38 games throughout the season. Since the opponent is also a reserve team of the Premier League club, there will be at least a middle class in the league in the level, but the degree of fierceness is definitely not as good as the real league. .

The U21 Youth League is also played with the first team of the club, and the number of matches depends on how many clubs in the same level of the league register.

The U18 British Youth League is more formal, but it is divided into divisions. The first half of the league is played. After the regional championship is decided, the knockout round is entered. There is also the Youth FA Cup. The two are added together and there are at least 28 games in a season.

The lower echelon is mainly exercise. Occasionally, you can contact the friendly game on your own, or play with the community team. Of course, the list of personnel can be adjusted by yourself. If the 15-year-old player has sufficient level, he will directly play the U18 League. also.

Originally looking at the lineup of nearly a hundred people, but Aldridge and the coaches divided the players according to age, it seems that the various echelons are not bloated.