I Am Scouted by Real Madrid

Chapter 352: Chapter 31: This Is What Connections Are!

”I’m really looking forward to facing Chen again.”

”Last season he ran away, this time I hope he can face me like a man.”

Sergio Aguero, an Argentine, Maradona’s son-in-law, and the recipient of the 2007 European Golden Boy Award, joined Atletico Madrid in his first season and presented a perfect record with 50 matches, 27 goals, and 12 assists across various competitions.

In the summer transfer window of 2009, he became a hot prospect for major clubs. In his smooth-sailing football career, only against Chen Zhong did he suffer both physical and mental ”blows.”

Originally, last season he wanted to clear his shame, but Chen Zhong did not have the chance to play. Yet even without Chen Zhong on the pitch, they still failed to defeat Real Madrid.

This season, although Atletico Madrid has not performed well in the league, Aguero’s form has been excellent, especially in the Champions League. In the third qualifying round of the Champions League second leg, Aguero scored one and assisted twice, helping the team defeat Schalke 04 4-0 at home, advancing to the main stage of the Champions League.

Furthermore, in the first round of the Champions League group stage on September 16, Aguero scored twice, helping the team beat PSV Eindhoven 3-0 away.

Currently, after Abel Resino was dismissed after coaching Atletico Madrid for 7 rounds, new coach Enrique Sanchez Flores is steering the team back on track, steadily improving.

This new coach has had a brief connection with Chen Zhong, initially writing about Chen Zhong: ”A person who constantly improves himself and trains diligently.” The youth coach who gave this evaluation was Flores.

Flores was born into a football family, his father being Isidro, a famous player for Real Madrid in the 1960s.

At 19, he joined Valencia, and during his ten seasons with the ”Bat” team, Flores was always the main right-back, representing the team in 232 matches across various competitions, contributing 13 goals.

In the summer of 1994, Flores transferred to Real Madrid and, as the main right-back, won the La Liga Championship in the 1994-1995 season.

In the summer of 1996, after Capello took over as Real Madrid’s coach, Flores was inexplicably demoted to the second team. Hence, during the summer transfer window of that year, Flores transferred to Zaragoza.

Due to injury factors, Flores only played 9 times in La Liga in the 1996-1997 season.

After the season ended, 32-year-old Flores chose to retire.

After retiring, Flores first became a media commentator and then started a column in renowned newspapers like Marca and Daily Sports.

In 2001, he became a coach for the Real Madrid Youth Team until he left in the summer of 2004 to become Getafe’s head coach.

Meanwhile, Chen Zhong joined Real Madrid in March 2004.

A young player from Asia, from China, attracted a lot of attention at that time in Sports City. Coupled with his quick learning, he swiftly advanced levels and soon came under Flores’s guidance.

The two cooperated for nearly a month, and Chen Zhong’s feelings towards Flores were akin to feelings toward a coach during military training.

At first, when Flores left, there was some reluctance, but it was quickly consigned to a corner of memory.

With the experience accumulated from youth coaching, Flores led Getafe in his debut La Liga season to achieve a record of 12 wins, 11 draws, and 15 losses. For a lower mid-table team, whose primary goal was to avoid relegation, he did quite well.

This gradually opened doors for him in the football world, and in the summer of 2005, he received an invitation from his former club, Valencia.

Flores had no hesitations. In his first season coaching Valencia, he led the ”Bat” team to a record of 19 wins, 12 draws, and 7 losses in La Liga, helping the team secure third place in the league.

This made him famous, and he was even shortlisted for the reserve list of head coaches at Real Madrid.

After all, if considering his generation and his father’s, he was also considered one of Real Madrid’s own.

The performance of two teams over two seasons gave Valencia more trust in him. As Chen Zhong was making history in Real Madrid Youth, consistently advancing, Flores also had a grand display in the summer of 2006.

That summer, Valencia recruited Morientes, Joaquin, Del Orno, among other Spanish internationals, and Flores performed well, leading Valencia briefly to surpass Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid.

Trailing by only three points behind the joint leaders Barcelona and Sevilla, with only 12 rounds left, the three teams were undoubtedly in the championship race.

Unfortunately, in those final 12 rounds, Valencia only gathered 19 points, performing poorly in the race for the title.

Although Flores led the team to the Champions League quarter-finals, he also left Valencia at the end of the season.

After being unemployed for about ten months, Flores appeared again in the Portuguese Primeira Liga, becoming Benfica’s head coach. In the 2008-2009 season, consistent in using a three-forward tactic, he led Benfica to stabilize the Portuguese Cup during Real Madrid’s turmoil, and Flores became part of Real Madrid’s candidate list.