After celebrating his eighteenth birthday, Zhou Yi continued to train in the U19 team.

Even if he hadn't been promoted to the U19 team by Ricken due to his outstanding performance in a single match, he would have been there anyway, because he was already eighteen years old, no longer a seventeen-year-old player, and naturally couldn't stay in the U17 team.

Following Wang Le's suggestion, Zhou Yi now had a higher proportion of meat in his meals, of course, no pork, only beef.

In addition, Zhou Yi had to eat protein powder after strength training to increase muscle mass.

Strength training was easier for Zhou Yi than physical training; at least he wouldn't be exhausted like a dead dog every day.

Strength training wasn't about draining people; that could actually lead to injuries. Scientific training was about controlling the amount of training, so that the muscles were adequately stimulated, but not excessively.

Of course, since the current focus of training was on strength, Zhou Yi had to rely on himself for physical training.

Every morning, Zhou Yi would get up very early and go to a park near Mark's house to do his physical training.

He would constantly change the speed and rhythm of his running to simulate the situations he encountered in games.

Anaerobic and aerobic exercises were alternated.

In the German mornings, the cold air was compressed through his nose and inhaled into his lungs, then converted into energy, which was transported by the blood to all parts of his body, allowing the fast and slow muscles to continuously contract and release, allowing the body to break down the lactic acid produced during this process.

In each breathing cycle, Zhou Yi imagined that his body was undergoing subtle but real changes.

But perhaps this was not an illusion… because Zhou Yi really felt that his physical fitness was much better than when he was filming the reality show.

※※※

In addition to strength training and physical training, the most important training for Zhou Yi in the U19 team was still the normal training with the team.

During training, the most unexpected thing for Jebara was that Zhou Yi acted as if he had been in this team for a long time.

Generally speaking, new players will have some maladaptive behaviors after arriving in a new environment.

The most obvious of these is the lack of tacit understanding with teammates during training.

For example, this happened to Mark Wagner. In offensive routine training, he and his new teammates often failed to cooperate well.

But this kind of thing did not happen to Zhou Yi.

From the first training session, he seemed to belong to this team, like a fish in water.

During training, he and his new teammates had no tacit understanding problems at all, and cooperated very smoothly. Because he was an attacking midfielder, he needed to organize the offense, and if he was not familiar with his teammates, there was no way to "organize."

Several times, Jebara couldn't help but want to ask Zhou Yi if he had played for this team before.

But he also knew that it was impossible. Peter Jebara had been the head coach of Dortmund U19 since 2007, and he had never seen this Chinese kid.

So why did Zhou Yi behave like this?

After Zhou Yi came to the U19 team, Ricken was still very concerned about him, and would come back from time to time to inquire about Zhou Yi's training situation, so Jebara told Ricken what he had observed.

He originally thought that Ricken would also be very surprised—anyway, he himself was very surprised.

Who would have thought that after listening to his words, Ricken just nodded: "Oh, yes, he does have this ability."

"Aren't you surprised, Lars?"

"I've already been surprised, Peter." Ricken laughed. "The U17 coach Sasha told me about this once. At that time, my reaction was the same as yours."

"He was in U17... was he like this too?" Jebara was even more surprised to hear Ricken say this.

"Sasha told me that Zhou Yi was as skilled in his first training session in U17 as if he had been training with this team for a year. He felt incredible at the time, but he didn't know why. To be honest, I don't know why either. So I understand it as 'talent'." Ricken spread his hands and shrugged. "There are always people and things in this world that we cannot understand, and geniuses are like this."

Jebara accepted Ricken's explanation, because he couldn't think of a reason either.

Moreover, from his observations in training, Zhou Yi was indeed a very talented player.

In ordinary training, you may not be able to see it.

But once you enter the team's offensive training, it becomes very obvious.

Zhou Yi's grasp of the situation on the court is second to none. Looking at his passing targets and route selection, one cannot help but suspect that Zhou Yi is playing football in the sky.

Jebara no longer doubted that Zhou Yi had the ability to play for his team.

Perhaps physically, he was not up to standard, but in terms of football awareness alone, he had surpassed many older players in the U19 team.

※※※

There was an intra-squad training match in the middle of the week. The entire U19 team was divided into red and blue teams to play a twenty-minute ten-on-ten match. This match will determine who can play in the weekend's U19 league.

But in reality, Jebara already had a good idea of ​​most of the starting lineup.

Just some minor adjustments in some positions.

The more important role of this training match is to allow the players to maintain their game state and feel, and at the same time check whether there are any flaws in the tactical arrangement.

In this game, Zhou Yi and Mark were arranged on the same team, while Götze and Schneider were on the other team.

This arrangement excited Mark and Zhou Yi.

"Perform well in the game, be sure to pull Schneider out of the starting lineup!" Before taking the field, Zhou Yi lowered his voice to cheer Mark up.

"Don't worry, Zhou Yi!" Mark also seemed confident.

Although his performance in training was not as good as Zhou Yi's, Mark was not worried, because Zhou Yi was on the same team as him.

We are the golden partners, as long as we are together, there is nothing to be afraid of!

※※※

After the game started, Zhou Yi quickly took over the task of organizing the Blue team's offense. Of course, this was also emphasized by coach Jebara before the game—the offensive organization on the Blue team's side should be handed over to Zhou Yi to test Zhou Yi's performance.

Although Zhou Yi cooperated very well with everyone, his cooperation with Mark was more than just tacit understanding.

If you want to say it, it should be "telepathy."

Zhou Yi also consciously chose to pass the ball to Mark first when approaching the penalty area and the goal.

Of course, Mark lived up to his expectations.

He scored two goals in the first half.

Because it was a scrimmage, there was no halftime break. The two sides switched venues and fought again. Mark scored another goal and completed a hat trick.

On the other hand, Schneider, the forward on the Red team, had only scored one goal so far.

It goes without saying who performed better.

Whether it was Zhou Yi's control over the Blue team, his tacit understanding with Mark that surpassed ordinary teammates, or Mark's three goals, Peter Jebara on the sidelines saw them clearly.

After Mark completed his hat trick, Jebara made personnel adjustments. He had some players from the Red and Blue teams swap, with Zhou Yi going to the Red team and Götze coming to the Blue team.

The game continued, but Mark's performance was not as amazing as when he was on the same team as Zhou Yi, or rather... a little confused.

Until the end of the game, Mark was unable to score, and his number of goals was finally fixed at three.

But even so, Mark scored one more goal than Schneider.

Schneider scored another goal after the personnel adjustment, and finally scored two goals, but he still lost to Mark in terms of goals scored.

※※※

When the game was over, Zhou Yi, still wearing a red vest, went to find Mark, who was wearing a blue vest, and high-fived him to celebrate.

"Well done, Mark!" Zhou Yi said, patting Mark on the shoulder. "A hat trick!"

"Hehe!" Mark also smiled happily.

"Okay, I think based on your performance, the starting lineup should be guaranteed!" Zhou Yi continued to encourage Mark.

"Starting lineup!" Mark's eyes lit up when he heard this word.

"When the official game comes, continue to maintain this performance, and that guy Schneider will never want to turn over from the bench again!"

Mark nodded vigorously, and he had already begun to look forward to his bright future as the starting main player in the U19 team.

But he was thinking a bit far ahead, not the next game, but the more distant future.

He would score goals in the U19 continuously and start to attract the attention of the first team.

Then he would be transferred to the first team to train with the team by Mr. Klopp, the coach of the first team, and perform well in the intra-team training matches, replicating his performance in the U19.

In a certain official game of the first team, he would enter the match roster.

Then, at the last moment of the game, he would be ordered to take the field in a critical situation, come off the bench, and together with Zhou Yi… turn the tide and reverse the score for the team to win the final victory!

When the game was over, reporters would flock to him, and his image would begin to appear in newspapers and on television. His dad would hear his name on the radio while driving...

Then, on a sunny morning, he would be notified by the club to come to the headquarters and officially sign a professional contract with the club!

His future… was bright!

Thinking of this, Mark was so excited that saliva was about to flow out of his mouth...