U16

Heighway didn't say anything about it. Instead he said, "All right, you two keep training. Don't talk better than you do—let me see." Both nodded and continued. Heighway had spoken—how could they not train? Continue! With the foundation from just now, after starting over, Connor and Du An's coordination on the field was smooth. Their back-and-forth passes were clean. Du An's performance also confirmed Connor's praise; there was no sign that he was a complete beginner touching formal football training for the first time. Heighway couldn't help but marvel inwardly: this was genius! The starting point was many people's end point. Even though he was shaken inside, his face remained expressionless. "Pick up the pace." He suddenly spoke up, telling them to keep raising the training tempo. "Keep speeding up your passing; no pauses." After receiving the instruction, Connor immediately quickened his passing and receiving, a huge test of stamina and reaction speed. Connor thought Du An wouldn't be able to handle it. But Du An kept up! Before long, it was Connor who was gradually struggling; his passes had a slight error, and he had to make Du An run a few extra steps to collect the ball. Heighway frowned slightly. Connor saw this and panicked inside. After several years at Kirkby, was he really going to be outdone by a newcomer? So, when passing, Connor added a little spin with a bit of cunning. When Du An first received it, the ball flew away; he immediately ran a few extra steps to knock it back, thought for a moment, acted as if nothing had happened, and continued passing. But he had already begun observing Connor's movements. After several consecutive passing exchanges. Bang! Du An also sent a pass, and Connor clearly hadn't expected Du An to send him a spinning ball in return; he botched the trap, and the ball flew five meters away. Connor held out his hand to Du An, "Mine, mine." Then he hurried off to pick up the ball. This scene shocked Heighway all over again. He had seen through Connor's little scheme, which made him even more shocked. He had seen many prodigies. But none like Du An. Dalglish's recommendation had given Du An the chance to enter Kirkby, but this short morning's training performance was enough to keep Du An at Kirkby, making him the child most worthy of Heighway's dedicated cultivation at the base. Time slowly passed. The half-hour high-intensity special training ended. When training was called off, Connor bent over with hands on knees, gasping for air. He had wanted to wear Du An down physically, but ended up wearing himself out instead. Connor had originally had some minor objections to Du An—after all, who had ever seen a newcomer jump straight to u16? He had worked his way up level by level. But now, that had all vanished. Instead, he felt as though he'd been dealt a blow. Could years of training really not compare to one day? Was the gap between people really that huge? Du An's breathing was still steady. Tired, but not that tired. After resting a bit, Connor said spontaneously, "Good God, you're an absolute monster! Your stamina is insane! Are you really only thirteen?" At that moment, Du An was still constantly pondering the feeling of the passing and receiving just now. A sense of satisfaction like never before welled up in his heart. Unlike the unchanging routine of school, football training gave him pure positive feedback. He could see his own improvement! He suddenly realized that he really seemed to like this sport, rather than simply wanting to make money from playing football. Hearing Connor's words, Du An gave a simple explanation: "I've been running ever since I was little." Hearing that, Connor couldn't help but give him a thumbs-up. Completely convinced. Heighway glanced at the time; it was nearly eleven. "Today's training ends here." He turned to Connor and arranged, "Take Du An to meet his u16 teammates, and find an unused locker in the locker room for him. For now he'll train separately, no need to rush him into the youth team, but eventually he has to train with the squad. Let everyone get familiar with each other first, so that when they train together later, they won't be strangers." Connor nodded immediately. "Right away, coach!" Heighway turned and left. The two of them tidied up the training equipment by the field and walked side by side toward another u16 youth team training ground. But seeing that the u16s had already finished training, they simply headed to the locker room. On the way, Connor still couldn't hide his excitement, saying with a smile, "Later, when your teammates see your ability, they'll be completely shocked. You're really amazing." Du An shrugged lightly. "Maybe." Chatting, Connor suddenly remembered something and asked curiously, "By the way, you attend Bishop John Catholic School, which has an official youth academy partnership with Liverpool. There are summer and winter camp selections every year, and many teammates got into Kirkby through school activities. You're so good—why didn't you come for a trial earlier?" Du An explained briefly: "My grandma didn't let me play football before. Now she doesn't object, so I came." Then, Du An asked in return: "What about you? Did you start playing and training early?" Speaking of his own experience, Connor talked animatedly: "I started playing at Rainford Rangers club in St Helens when I was very young. Later, in a youth match, a Liverpool scout spotted me, and I came over. I've been training here ever since." The two walked and chatted, quickly becoming familiar. Their teenage natures were completely undisguised. Connor laid out all his embarrassing stories too. "...Haha, when I was ten, I secretly kissed the twelve-year-old sister next door. I don't know where she is now. I hope she remembers me. After all, that was my first kiss. If she doesn't remember me, that would be pathetic." Du An laughed heartily. "Then your life is very rich. My life is rather lacking. Besides school, most of my time was spent fighting." That immediately stunned Connor. His face was full of disbelief: "Good God, you're really completely unlike us." He looked Du An up and down curiously, then suddenly remembered something and hurriedly asked: "By the way, you're Chinese, right? So you know kung fu like Bruce Lee? TV says all Chinese people know kung fu!" He made a couple of gestures. Du An shook his head. "I was picked up by my grandma, so I don't actually know. I've never learned kung fu. When I fight, I just use my fists." Connor immediately got interested, raised his hand and made a couple of clumsy boxing moves, asking with a smile: "Is that right?" The two looked at each other and burst out laughing together. Soon, passing through the corridor of the training area, Connor led Du An and pushed open the door to the u16 youth team locker room. Du An frowned. That smell... A mixed odor of all kinds of scents hit them in the face, and Du An almost gagged. The locker room was even more chaotic; Du An instinctively frowned. Football boots of all colors were everywhere on the floor, shin guards of various lengths were carelessly tossed aside, and backpacks and training socks were equally scattered—utterly messy at a glance. Some were wiping their wet hair haphazardly with dry towels; others clustered in twos and threes, quietly grousing about teammates who had made mistakes and lost the ball in the practice match... When they pushed the door open, nobody reacted much. But when someone saw Du An, they smiled: "Hehehe, is this the new guy Heighway was talking about?" Heighway had mentioned during training that a new player was coming to the team. But nobody knew the specifics. All kinds of curious gazes turned toward Du An, not a few of them appraising. Du An had seen plenty of such looks. White locals made up over ninety percent of Liverpool; in the entire region's youth football system, almost everyone was a local white teenager. Of course, Liverpool had a mature Chinatown, so the players weren't surprised by Asian faces. What truly surprised them was that Asian faces were far too rare in professional youth football. Youth football had always been the domain of white and black players. There were very few Asian players. An Asian teenager who could enter Liverpool's Kirkby youth academy, and even make it to the u16 youth team, was unprecedented. The atmosphere in the locker room turned subtle. Connor sensed the change and immediately stepped forward, introducing him openly to everyone: "Lads, let me introduce you. This is Du An Scott." After his voice fell, Connor deliberately paused for two seconds, with an exaggerated expression: "I must tell you something seriously. Listen carefully. Before today, when Du An stepped into Kirkby and trained with Coach Heighway, he had never received any formal football training—not once. A complete beginner!" The moment these words landed, the u16 players sizing up Du An had astonishment written all over their faces. Incredible! What did it mean to have never played football, never received youth academy training? How could he possibly drop straight into Liverpool's u16 youth team? After all, every one of them had scraped and struggled in youth clubs since childhood, gone through countless rounds of screening and elimination, and only with great difficulty squeezed into Kirkby and moved up to u16. A complete beginner, yet he dropped straight into their youth team. This went beyond everyone's comprehension. Gazes full of doubt once again turned toward Du An.