The Young Lion

Thanks for the reward from !

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Ronaldo is about to leave his hometown, which alarmed everyone in the San Antonio area. The adults in the neighborhood are envious, thinking that Ronaldo is going to England and playing for the championship team in England, which means that his life will be turned upside down At the same time, he rescued his family from the abyss of poverty.

The players and coaches of the Antonio team also came to congratulate Ronaldo, especially Sosa, Ronaldo's childhood football enlightenment mentor, who communicated with Aldrich in private for a long time, and informed him of his understanding of Ronaldo and his growth suggestions without reservation Aldridge.

For this, Aldridge was grateful and carefully wrote down every word Souza said. Ronaldo showed his football talent when he was very young, but he also had obvious shortcomings. Cut off those shortcomings that are not conducive to his future.

After Aldridge paid the national team a training fee of 200,000 pounds, Ronaldo put on his travel bag and wore the clothes his mother cleaned and ironed for him. Qi left his hometown.

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

This may make him discriminated against, especially since he has to learn English and go to school in London, anyway, as his mother Dolores said, he must learn to be independent!

After leaving his hometown, Ronaldo became taciturn, and hardly said anything to Aldridge along the way. Until after coming to the Millwall club. Aldridge personally led him to visit the team's home court.

Although the Lions Den Stadium is small in England. But the capacity of close to 20,000 is much larger than the 8,500 capacity of the national team's home court. In a world-class stadium with more than 60,000 people, Ronaldo obviously became a little excited.

Then Aldridge took him to the Leo youth training base on foot, and Ronaldo, who was carrying a large travel bag, followed him. Many passers-by greeted Aldridge friendly along the way and saw Ronaldo. I thought they were relatives of Aldridge, they were all nearby residents, and naturally they were also fans of Millwall.

Many people asked about the status of Millwall's summer signings with worried faces, and Aldridge could only laugh it off formulaically.

When Ronaldo stood at the gate of Leo's 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 it has undergone a new round of expansion in the summer, because Aldridge plans to move the training of the first team here starting this summer. Just the training field, there are more than 20 large and small. It is suitable for different training programs and will be expanded in the future to prepare for more subordinate echelons.

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

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

At this time, the training base was in full swing. Members of the coaching staff at all levels were mixed and standing on the sidelines. On the several courts in front of them, the youth team, the reserve team, and some first-team players who returned early were mixed together in a chaotic manner. Play recreational games.

When Aldridge came to the sidelines with Ronaldo, who was staring at the field intently, it was like giving other young players a shot of stimulant. The players of the first team were much calmer, and the players who were not playing on the field took the initiative to come over Say hello to Aldridge.

Boss, who is this kid?

Ronaldinho ran over and stared at Ronaldo curiously, but he heard Ronaldo shout: I'm not a child!

He can understand general English.

Aldridge recruited staff and arranged dormitories for Ronaldo.

After Ronaldo looked back at the stadium and left, Aldridge turned his head and asked Ronaldinho: How is it? Is Egypt fun?

Ronaldinho smiled and said, Not bad. Did you watch my game?

Aldridge smiled and shook his head.

Ronaldinho immediately looked depressed. He is the most dazzling figure who led the Brazilian team to the top of the World Junior Championships in the summer!

Aldridge patted him on the shoulder and said earnestly: Ronaldinho, you have to understand that the youth team championship is not equal to the youth team championship, let alone the national team championship.

Ronaldinho was speechless.

Trezeguet happened to be next to him. He was wearing casual clothes today and returned to the team early, but he had no plans to play football. He also said with a depressed face: But I really want a youth team champion.

Aldridge laughed.

In the World Youth Championships held in Malaysia in the summer, Trezeguet really went for the championship. The generation of France's 97 World Youth Championships has a golden striker, Trezeguet, Henry, Anelka.

However, it is useless to rely on the strength of the striker alone.

Argentina, Samoel, who can't stop the emergence of monsters in various positions, and Cambiasso with flowing blond hair, classical master Riquelme, Aimar...

Even more depressing is England.

The striker has Irving, the midfielder has Lampard, Kieren Dale, the defender has Ferdinand, Carragher and other players that Fleet Street believes are the leaders of the next generation of the national team. Players who go to Malaysia have only one goal: the championship.

Unfortunately, things backfired.

The rookie Duff in the Millwall team also went to the World Youth Championship, and his performance was not bad, which made people shine, which made Blackburn a little regretful: I knew that I would wait until the World Youth Championship was over before discussing the transfer.

It is rare to see the unsmiling Najib with a smile on his face. The other party came over and smiled at Aldrich: You came at the right time. The players you brought back from other countries are really good. However, let's also look at what we have gained in London. Bar.

Aldrich nodded with a smile.

Then a strange scene happened on the sidelines of the training field.

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

Aldrich stood still, Najib, Jensen. Benitez lined up next to him like an old member of the family. They inspected the lads coming one after another in front of them with scrutiny.

These young players are both nervous and excited. It's like stepping on the draft stage, trying to impress the head coach. If he can be directly selected into the first team, he will win the big prize.

Najib gave Aldrich a surprise as soon as he came up.

There are two young players who are not on Aldrich's summer signings 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 Millwall from Australia for trial training in the summer. Australia was originally a Commonwealth country. Coupled with the fact that most Australians are of British origin, it is common for Australian players to come to the UK to develop, such as Lucas Neal in Millwall and Kewell, the star of hope in Leeds United.

Aldridge shook hands with these young talents and encouraged them in a gentle tone. Next, Adam ran around in the summer according to the information on Aldridge's signing list, and the eight local players brought back for the team appeared one by one. in sight.

Jermaine Jenas

Scott Parker

Michael Carrick

Paul Robinson

Darius Vassell

David Dunn

Francis Jeffers

Ledley-King

Under the operation of Andrew's agency, several players from the Nordic side also came here for trial training, and finally two people remained.

Brad Hangeland

Christian Paulson

In addition to other local players who came to try out, there were nearly 20 people left. Although they are all unknown people, Aldridge doesn't think they have no future. In the summer of Millwall in the transfer market, the first team only sold Stam and Phillips, but many players in the youth team who were not the team's key training received invitations from other teams. Those invitations were basically They come from League One and League Two teams, which brought about 300,000 pounds in transfer income for the club, and there are some players who are over 20 years old but have no football to play. The club has prepared coaching contracts for them. , although it is impossible to make a big hit in the green field, but for their life, it can provide a stable job and life guarantee.

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

Looking at these high-spirited lads, Aldridge knows that there are nearly 100 youth teams in all age groups, and only a few will be able to play in the first team in the future, but this situation does not embarrass him. Football is a competition. In a cruel field, there are many good seedlings in the youth team. Everyone influences each other and actively competes, which will help them grow better. Even if they fail to make it to Millwall in the end, they can transfer to other teams. The players are here Receive better training, and the club will get transfer income when they send them away, which is a win-win situation for both sides.

Aldrich and the coaches went to the meeting room of the administration building, and everyone began to divide the echelons at all levels carefully and determine the echelon positions where some players received training.

In addition to the first team, Millwall originally had a reserve team and a youth team.

The role of the reserve team is to improve and maintain the state of the players who cannot enter the big list, and to restore the state of the players who have returned from injury. The turnover of personnel is very large, and it belongs to a temporary transfer team. Some players who are struggling for the main position are also in the reserve for a long time. The team plays, plus a few permanent players who accompany the prince to study, basically the age group is in u23.

The youth team in the past three years has participated in the English Football Youth Premier League for u18. It does not matter even if some players are over 18 years old, because the game allows three u19 players to join.

As for the expansion of the Millwall youth team this summer, the club must first establish a u21 team. There is also a league at the u21 level, but Millwall did not sign up to participate in it before, because the youth team players are too young, and the key players trained are not over 18 years old. of.

Further down, a team of u16 and u14 will also be established.

Millwall has also recruited some players under the age of 14. In addition to young players like De Rossi and Ronaldo that Aldridge imported from abroad, many local parents are willing to send their children to Millwall Accept football training, but it is certainly not like De Rossi and Ronaldo who accept all-round management of the club, somewhat similar to day students.

Aldrich also set up the u12 echelon. This echelon is a bit of a ticket. Parents send their children here to relax their minds for entertainment, so that the children can find friends to play football with. The coaches usually look at it , Guidance, if you find a good seed, you can also directly focus on the upper echelon of the club.

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

The reserve team is played with the first team in the league. There are 38 games in the whole season. Since the opponent is also the reserve team of the Premier League club, the level will be at least the middle level of the League One, but the intensity is definitely not as intense as the real points league. .

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

The U18 Premier League is more formal, but it is played in divisional regions. The first half of the league is played, and the regional champions are determined and entered into the knockout rounds. There is also the FA Youth Cup. Adding the two together, there are at least 28 games in a season.

The next echelon is mainly training, and occasionally you can contact friendly matches or play games with community teams. Of course, the roster can be adjusted by yourself. If the level of 15-year-old players is sufficient, they can directly play in the U18 Youth League. also.

Originally, the lineup of nearly a hundred people looked like a sea of ​​people, but after Aldrich and the coaches divided the players according to age, it seemed that each echelon was not necessarily so bloated. (to be continued..) ()