Sports Medicine Master System-Chapter 86 - 75: To Europe, Josep Guardiola

The experience for [Sports Psychology] maxed out, and I even received a Bronze Level treatment effect.

Things like the heart-to-heart talk I had with Hardaway all add to my Sports Psychology experience.

I also talked with J Kidd and the others the day before yesterday, which really earned me a lot of experience points. Before I knew it, the bar was full.

And I was lucky enough to get a treatment effect right away.

The question is, how does a psychological treatment effect work? ’Does it make my conversations more persuasive? Or more convincing?’

He went back to the training facility, watched them finish practice, and maxed out his rehabilitation experience. Then, Chen Yu held a meeting with Nelson and the others to inform them about his upcoming business trip.

Chen Yu had originally planned to start adjusting the training regimens.

Using the Eye of All-Seeing to observe their physical conditions, combined with his [Sports Training] knowledge, Chen Yu could create more detailed training plans tailored to each player’s body.

But now that he had to go on a sudden business trip, he could only postpone it.

Nelson and the others didn’t object. They were more than enough to handle daily training.

After arranging the work for the upcoming week, Chen Yu went to the hospital to make arrangements for Hardaway.

His only job right now was to lie obediently in his hospital bed and wait for his cartilage to grow back. There wasn’t much else to do.

With everything settled, Chen Yu finally boarded a plane to Europe.

His first stop was Paris.

Blanchini had wanted to invite Chen Yu to stay in Paris for a day to do some sightseeing.

Chen Yu refused.

He had a pile of things to do and didn’t have the time.

So, after arriving in Paris, Chen Yu planned to rest briefly before immediately catching a connecting flight to the Pyrenees.

But the Pyrenees wasn’t his final destination.

Ronaldo was currently in a coastal city called Kableton, in the Landes Province of Southern France.

There was a European Sports Rehabilitation Center there, and that’s where Ronaldo was convalescing.

So, after arriving in the Pyrenees, he would still need to take a car to Kableton.

After quite an ordeal, Chen Yu finally met Blanchini at a hotel in downtown Kableton.

As one of Europe’s top agents, the Italian Blanchini carried himself like a powerful magnate who pulled all the strings.

And in fact, he was. He represented over a hundred players.

Before he came, Chen Yu had looked up some news about him and Ronaldo.

He had actually only become Ronaldo’s agent later on.

Ronaldo’s agents since his time in Brazil had been two men, Alexandre Martins and Naldo Pita.

The two of them had discovered Ronaldo and brought him to Europe. 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

However, the media often complained that the pair were money-grubbers who forced Ronaldo to make transfers and so on.

And the one giving them ideas from behind the scenes was Blanchini.

But Chen Yu didn’t care. First, he had to make it clear who was asking for whose help.

That day, Blanchini treated Chen Yu to a fine meal at a luxurious local restaurant.

They had authentic French cuisine.

After the meal, Chen Yu’s only thought was that the fish was quite good. ’But I still don’t get why people eat snails.’

The next day, the group drove to the rehabilitation center located in the suburbs.

It was situated in the middle of a vast forest. According to Blanchini, the center was enormous, and many players from all over Europe came here to recuperate.

The car traveled down a gravel road and arrived at the main building of the center.

It was a complex of low-rise, three-story buildings. Behind it, to the west and not far off, was the beach, dotted with many scattered houses.

The players who came to recuperate usually stayed in those houses.

According to Blanchini, Ronaldo’s wife, Milanee, had also come over with their child and was staying there.

In terms of environment alone, it was quite nice, shaded by green trees and close to the sea.

The climate, however, was not ideal.

This place was on the West Coast of France and had a temperate maritime climate—warm and rainy.

The temperature was fine, but the main issue was the rain.

From Chen Yu’s perspective, a humid climate wasn’t really suitable for an athlete’s recovery, which was one of the reasons he wanted to build his clinic in Phoenix.

The director of the rehabilitation center, Pierre Dusolier, received them.

He was a senior surgeon, not young, somewhere in his sixties.

’Many of the French people I’ve met in the United States seem to be like this,’ Chen Yu thought. ’Eloquent, but not very reliable.’

He didn’t look down on Chen Yu for his youth. On the contrary, he saw it as an advantage, saying things like "the future of the world belongs to the young."

He also brought up medical standards, saying the United States had surpassed others to become the country with the best healthcare in the world. He mentioned that he knew of many patients who had gone to the United States for treatment.

They toured the entire rehabilitation center as they chatted.

The center was built in 1991, so it was getting on in years. As Chen Yu toured the facility, he found that the hardware was decent, but the rehabilitation methods were somewhat outdated—or perhaps, traditional.

By "traditional," he meant they were based on experience.

Experience in training and post-injury recovery accumulated over a long history in sports.

In the United States, however, the developed sports industry and rapid medical advancements had led to a focus on combining experience with science.

For example, using various scientific instruments to monitor the rehabilitation process.

In this regard, Europe was still lagging behind.

’But I can’t really judge what’s better or worse,’ Chen Yu thought. ’After all, I’m using ancient medical techniques from China myself.’

Walking through the back of the center led them to the players’ residences, which were arranged in an appealing, scattered layout, like a small town.

They continued deeper into the complex and soon arrived at a two-story building with white exterior walls and a fairly large yard.

Just as they were about to enter, a young man walked out.

He was wearing a tracksuit and had a full head of short, thick hair, a beard, strong brows, and large eyes. He was quite handsome.

He saw Chen Yu and his two companions and proactively greeted them.

He spoke in Spanish.

Blanchini smiled and greeted him back in Spanish.

Thanks to Lexi, Chen Yu could actually understand a little Spanish, things like "hello" and "good day."

He gave Chen Yu a slight nod and then slowly walked away.

Seeing Chen Yu’s lack of reaction, Blanchini asked, puzzled, "Chen, you don’t recognize him?"

Chen Yu shook his head.

’He’s probably a player,’ Chen Yu thought, ’but soccer has almost no market in the United States, so I don’t know many soccer stars.’

He only knew about stars like Ronaldo, who had won World Player of the Year.

Blanchini didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. "His name is Josep Guardiola. He was a teammate of Ronaldo’s. He’s a star player for Barça."

When he finished and saw Chen Yu still looked completely blank, he realized he had wasted his breath.

He couldn’t help but complain to himself, ’Just how barren is the soccer scene in the United States?’

"Guardiola?"

Chen Yu muttered the name and turned his head to glance at him again. The man hadn’t gone far.

His gaze fell on the man’s ankle. "He has an injury to the ligaments in his left ankle, doesn’t he?"

Pierre, standing beside them, was startled. "Chen, how did you know?"

Guardiola had twisted his ankle during training at the end of August last year. He had torn a ligament and undergone surgery to repair it. It had been less than five months, and he was still in recovery.

Chen Yu shrugged. How else would he know? He saw it.

’But now that I think about it,’ he mused, ’this entire rehabilitation center is full of my potential clients.’