The reason why football is the world's number one sport is largely because the requirements for talent in football are relatively not as high as other sports. Even players with average talent still have a chance to get ahead. For example, the protagonist of this article, Fonte (also written as Wundt), his deeds are quite representative:
José Miguel da Rocha Fonte was born on December 22, 1983 in Penafier, Porto District, Portugal. He has a passion for football, playing on the streets since he was a child, and has joined the Sporting Lisbon Academy which has produced many star players.
During his training at Sporting Lisbon's youth academy, Fonte met many young talents in the true sense of the word. For example, Ronaldo when he was a teenager was Fonte's junior brother. During a training session, Fonte defended Ronaldo head-on, but was easily eliminated by Ronaldo by picking the ball. After a while, Ronaldo faced Fonte's defense again, and Ronaldo still planned to get rid of Fonte by picking the ball. This made Fonte extremely annoyed, and simply slapped Ronaldo in the face, and warned Ronaldo: "You can't do this." If you do this again, then I will beat you." ”
Why did Fonte dare to slap Ronaldo? Mainly because Ronaldo was still a rookie at that time, far from the status of today's quacks. That year, Ronaldo was 15 years old and really not famous, and Fonte was 17 years old. According to the party Fonte's own words, he did not dare to do this now...
To be honest, it's not a shame to be able to prevent 15-year-old Ronaldo. Fonte's real problem is that the gap between his talent and young talents such as Ronaldo is too obvious. A few years later, Cristiano Ronaldo has already moved to Manchester United at a high price, and Fonte has not yet been promoted to the first team of Sporting Lisbon.
With no hope in sight at Sporting Lisbon, Fonte had to switch doors and look for opportunities at his club. He first went to a club called Salgueiros and was soon dismissed from his contract. Then put on the shirt of the Fairgailash team, and also failed to make a name for himself.
If this happens to other players, I am afraid that I will end my career long ago. Fortunately, Fonte's will is strong enough. He didn't give up and moved to Setúbal in search of opportunities. This time, he finally succeeded, becoming the team's main central defender and was invited by Portugal's veteran club Benfica.
Unfortunately, Benfica's introduction of Fonte does not mean that Benfica will reuse Fonte. Not to mention playing the main team, even the main rotation of the team is not discussed. It didn't take long for Fonte to be loaned out by his new owner. As for the loan recipients, they are all Paco Ferreira, Amadora Star, and Crystal Palace and other mid-range and downstream teams.
As for Fonte's performance during his loan spell, it can only be described in words, he even staged an own goal version of an alternative goal... This directly led to the fact that when Fonte's contract with Benfica expired, Benfica was unwilling to provide a contract extension at all.
Fortunately, Crystal Palace, which had previously rented Fonte, was willing to continue to give Fonte a chance. In this way, Fonte became a member of the Crystal Palace team as a free agent. However, it must be noted here that Crystal Palace was still fighting in the Championship at this time. Even in the Championship, Crystal Palace at this stage is not a strong team, and the requirements for new signings are not high.
If it is the script of the chosen son, the next plot should be: with the help of such and such a player, Crystal Palace successfully upgraded - but Fonte has never been the chosen son, he did not help his owner upgrade, but he did not degrade Crystal Palace.
But before Crystal Palace was relegated, Fonte was demoted first. In the winter window of the 2009–10 season, Fonte left Crystal Palace and moved to Southampton, who were in League One at the time. Fortunately, Southampton did well next. In the 2012-13 season, he returned to the Premier League.
At this time, Fonte, seeing that he is about to be 30 years old, is not easy to appear in the Premier League for the first time in his career. However, he obviously did not adapt to the intensity of the Premier League in the first place, and the performance was called a bad performance. Under Fonte, Southampton lost eight of their first 10 rounds.
If this trend continues, it is only a matter of time before Southampton abandons Fonte. Fortunately, the team changed coaches before Southampton gave up Fonte. Southampton's new manager was Pochettino, who was not famous at the time.
It was under Pochettino's leadership that Southampton changed drastically, and Fonte's individual performance improved significantly. Southampton were relegated in 2012-13 before finishing 8th in the Premier League in 2013-14.
The 8th ranked team in the Premier League is almost the middle table team of the Premier League. The defensive core of such a team naturally qualifies for the Portuguese national team. In November 2014, when he had not yet celebrated his 31st birthday, technically 30-year-old Fonte, finally ushered in his debut in the Portuguese national team, and finally could support President Luo, who was in full swing at the time.
From slapping Ronaldo at the age of 17 to assisting the president at the age of 30, Fonte has come this way, which is quite difficult. The Portuguese national team at this stage coincides with a special stage of the change of the back line. So Fonte didn't have much effort to become an important rotation for Portugal at the back. For example, in the 2016 European Championship, Fonte got a lot of playing time and contributed to Portugal's victory.
Fonte's good performance during the European Championship made him, who was over thirty years old at the time, and attracted the attention of many giants. Manchester United, for example, has reported its intention to bring in Fonte. It's a pity that the Southampton lion opened its mouth and scared Manchester United away.
Ironically, Southampton will open their mouths when facing Manchester United. But in the face of those middle and lower club trading requests, the asking price is much more reasonable. In the winter window of the 2016-17 season, Fonte became a member of West Ham United for a transfer fee of 9.2 million euros.
However, Fonte's time at West Ham United was not good. It didn't take long for his new club to make the decision to purge Fonte, selling the Portuguese defender to Dalian.
In Fonte's debut for the Dalian team, he tasted the taste of swallowing 8 bullets, which was called a sad reminder. The limited number of foreign aid players in the Chinese Super League makes it difficult for Fonte, as a central defender, to compete with other central midfield foreign aides. This directly led to the fact that Fonte's days with Dalian were unfortunately reduced to a regular on the bench of the Chinese Super League. The number of appearances he has made in the Chinese Super League is a measly 7...
It is inconceivable that such a regular on the Chinese Super League bench can still become a regular in Portugal. In the 2018 World Cup, Fonte played all the matches in which the team participated as Portugal's main defender. As for his individual performance, it can be seen from the early exit of the Portuguese team.
Not long after the World Cup, there was news that Dalian had terminated his contract with Fonte. And Fonte's next home this time is the Lille team. He had a good time with this team, and when Ronaldo was caught up in transfer rumors, Fonte even texted to invite Ronaldo to play in Lille...