After a flurry of activity...
The group of university students were all lying on the turf, one after another.
Pickup fields have an unwritten rule.
The stronger person always gets the right to use the field. This strength can be in skill, or it can be in fists.
Unfortunately for them, Tendou was strong in both.
This group of university students couldn't beat him at soccer, and they couldn't beat him in a fight either. In no time at all, they were all taken down by Tendou.
"Anyone else?" Tendou rested one foot on the ball, his gaze sweeping over everyone. Not a single person spoke up. A high school student had managed to intimidate a group of university students to the point where they didn't dare breathe too loudly.
"Good. It seems we've reached a consensus."
Who reached a consensus with you!
A guy with a bruised and swollen face quickly moved away from Tendou's half of the field. Being beaten up like this by a high school student was already humiliating enough. If it happened again, it would be even more humiliating!
Seeing that the matter was settled, Tendou began his own training.
His main abilities were: Dismantle, Cleave, Monster, Six Eyes, and Domain Expansion. The latter three were innate talents, while the technical skills were really just "Dismantle" and "Cleave." He didn't have many skills, but they had helped him defeat one enemy after another. They were also extremely versatile, and now he wanted to integrate his abilities into football.
"Dismantle!"
BAM!
Tendou started by unleashing a powerful shot. The soccer ball lifted off the ground and slammed into the net like a cannonball.
"What was the ball speed?"
Shooting is a technical skill; it's not just about purely kicking the ball towards the goal. To breach a goal that is only 2.44 meters high and 7.32 meters wide, players throughout history have created many kinds of imaginative shots.
For example, Gareth Bale's strange "butterfly ball." A ball kicked by him would wobble from side to side in the air, like a butterfly spreading its wings, making it extremely deceptive and impossible for the goalkeeper to judge.
But Tendou, he liked to blast the goal with heavy artillery! That kind of raw, violent aesthetic fascinated him.
"It reached 132 km/h!" the short-tailed cat provided the precise number.
A ball speed of 132 km/h, at his age, was definitely a monster among monsters. One must know that the "cannon-shooter" Roberto Carlos, at the 2002 World Cup, only managed a 149 km/h shot from a free kick. And that shot by Carlos is the highest recorded speed for a free kick in World Cup history.
Fans even joked that whenever Carlos took a free kick, the goalkeeper had only two choices: either lose the goal or lose his life. This showed just how terrifying Carlos's heavy artillery was.
For Tendou to be able to hit such a speed at his age was almost unique.
Of course, this wasn't the real world after all; it was a world of supernatural soccer. Even though a long time had passed, Tendou still remembered a certain scene from the manga. The prodigy Julian Loki, mentioned earlier, could run so fast that he could actually catch up to an explosive shot kicked by an opponent. That kind of explosive power and speed was completely on a beastly level.
"Cat, toss the ball to me."
"Got it."
With no one to assist him, Tendou could only have the short-tailed cat help him train.
The university students not far away soon witnessed a magical scene. A short-tailed cat was constantly running on the field, picking up the ball time and time again, then kicking off with its two feet to send the ball towards Tendou.
And Tendou, that high school student, was constantly sprinting on the field, blasting every ball that came his way into the goal. Long shots, power shots, volleys, low-driven shots... all sorts of shots.
Tendou continuously tried and adapted. His shooting motion was extremely fast, and the speed of the ball he kicked was also extremely fast. Often, people would only see him preparing to shoot, and in the blink of an eye, the ball would already be crashing against the net.
"I've got a decent grasp on it. Next, let's try dribbling."
Tendou rested a foot on the ball, using his powerful mind to run a simulation without any physical objects. The next second, he quickly pushed the ball out, weaving left and right on the field.
The process wasn't smooth; he crashed into the simulated obstacles several times.
"It seems my feel for the ball isn't as good as Maradona's."
Hearing this, the short-tailed cat gave him a very human-like look. This guy really had the nerve, wanting to compare his feel for the ball with Maradona's.
You have to know, the second-generation "King of Football," Maradona, his feel for the ball was the best in history. There was no one else. Maradona's innate, absolute feel for the ball allowed him to do all sorts of things on the field that you couldn't even imagine. His two legs were born to play football.
In the era before Tendou transmigrated, the value of just one of his legs could reach 100 million euros. And even if you wanted to buy it, you couldn't!
Other players juggled with a soccer ball; Maradona juggled with a tennis ball, or even an orange. For Tendou to dare compare himself to him was simply shameless.
"Instead of that innate feel for the ball, I suggest you work on your left foot first," the short-tailed cat advised.
Tendou was not naturally two-footed. His left foot was far less agile than his right. With all his strength, Tendou could blast a shot at 130+ km/h with his right foot, but his left foot could only manage 110+, a difference of a full 20 km/h. And that was just for shooting; when it came to dribbling, the disparity would be even greater.
"That's true. Let's continue."
Tendou had one good quality: once he entered training mode, he could always give it 100% focus, which often made his training sessions doubly effective. The short-tailed cat had noticed this characteristic long ago and quickly formulated a training plan for him.
There weren't many ways to practice one's weaker foot; it was just the usual few things. Stretching exercises to make the muscles more relaxed. Strengthening exercises targeting the weaker muscle groups. This could involve using sandbags and other methods for muscle reinforcement. Then there was balance training and gait training.
Just as Tendou was in the middle of his intense, targeted practice, another uninvited guest arrived at the field.
The newcomer was around 180cm tall, about the same age as the university students next door, around 18 years old. He had adzuki-bean-colored hair and turquoise eyes, and his expression seemed somewhat cold.
He was Itoshi Sae.
"No matter how much time passes, the football here is still just as ugly."
Itoshi Sae looked at the university students competing on the field, his eyes filled with disappointment. He had once been like these people, happily playing football on a field, dreaming of one day becoming the world's best striker. Later, his outstanding talent was recognized, and he got the opportunity to go abroad to Spain. Now, he had even become a key player in the youth academy of the "REAL" club.
"REAL" has multiple meanings in Spanish, but if you narrow it down to football clubs, it starts with that name. In other words, the current Itoshi Sae was a youth academy member of a La Liga football club, one of the top five leagues.
(The manga doesn't explicitly state it, only giving the letters "REAL." There are several teams in La Liga that start with "Real," such as Real Madrid, Real Betis, Real Sociedad... However, judging by the manga author's intention, Itoshi Sae is probably in Real Madrid's youth academy.)
...
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